Launch promo for the Chinese edition of "L'Officiel." The subtitle reads "empire territory of contemporary art world."

The aspiration destroyed in the execution.

In "The Renminbi: The Political Economy of a Currency" in Foreign Policy magazine, 
(http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/07/the_renminbi_the_political_economy_of_a_currency?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full), Arthur Kroeber tells us not to worry about the RMB replacing the US dollar as a reserve currency, ambitions of the PBOC notwithstanding.

Yet the leap from that role to a major reserve currency is a very large one, and the prospect of the RMB becoming a reserve currency on the order of the euro — let alone replacing the dollar as the world’s dominant reserve currency — is remote. The reason is simple: To be a reserve currency, you need to have safe, liquid, low-risk assets for foreign investors to buy; these assets must trade on markets that are transparent, open to foreign investors, and free from manipulation.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Guo Meimei incident is nicely summarized at the conclusion  of "The Annotated Guo Meimei Interview" in The Hypermodern
(http://www.thehypermodern.com/2011/08/26/the-annotated-guo-meimei-interview/#.TldQFBl3fIE.twitter)

We shouldn’t worry about a country that has corruption, if that country has effective government institutions. But we should worry about a country where the biggest scandal involving an international charity was not revealed by the government, the judiciary, the media, or any other relevant organ, but by the careless words of a rich, spoiled girl.

China's problem is not corruption: corruption is the bane of nearly every society. What hampers China is weak institutions and a malfunctioning collective moral compass.

In a superb article in The Globe and Mail about "The roots of the Sino-Forest mystery" (http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTM4MDYyNTY%3D), the writers offer an interesting insight that applies to all business in China:

While the soft-spoken but gregarious Mr. Chan became Sino-Forest’s public face, helping to raise billions of dollars from Canadian and international investors, Mr. Poon, now 70, provided relationships or guanxi with government forestry officials, connections that in China are key to doing business.

Sino-Forest was started and operated by one partner with guanxi in China, one with international investors, and nobody with any idea how to run a profitable forestry products business.

Unfortunately, we see plenty of these kinds of companies in China. They tell a great story, and manage to convince otherwise unknowing investors that all you need in China is cash an guanxi, and you have a combination for success.

Even if that were once the case, it is no longer. If you are investing in a business in China, remember that the ability to raise cash and pull guanxi is the icing, not the cake. Without corporate leadership steeped in the operational challenges of the business, a company is either an outright fraud or roadkill. Either way, it is going to blow up in your face.

"It's only August 3rd. What do you mean 'summer's over?'"

China, America, and Copycat Economics - Rob Wheeler - Harvard Business Review
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/china_america_and_copy_cat_eco.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist082911&referral=00202

The real danger to American economic hegemony is not that China continues its current economic policies into the future. Instead, the greatest danger to America’s remaining at the apex of the global economy is that the future Chinese economic policy looks increasingly American.

(via Instapaper)

Amen. Fortunately for America and unfortunately for China, China is going the other way.

Nokia Crashing in China, Distributors Refusing Nokia Products | Penn-Olson
http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/08/15/nokia-crashing-in-china/

More concerning for Nokia is that many of its China distributors are no longer interested in selling its products and have refused to buy them. With plummeting sales numbers and domestic retailers jumping ship, it could be almost impossible for Nokia to make a comeback in China.

(via Instapaper)

Nokia's market advantage in China was what I call the cluster effect. The opinion leader of a group buys a brand. Slowly, everyone else does, too. There is subtle social pressure to conform, and if you have no strong opinion of your own, you go ahead and buy the same as everyone else.

For years, Nokia held those clusters. They have now lost the opinion leaders, and so sales are collapsing. All they have left is a shrinking group of fanboys.

Reasons I gave my son for why I worked out this morning despite a fever and aches:

1. Because I can
2. Because I want to watch HIS son graduate from college
3. Because  there is a difference between "I'm sick" being a reason and being an excuse

Almost needed an airboat to get to my lunch appointment today.

Give it up, GQ. You are a regional magazine now, and your region is shrinking even as the world is growing.

Five and a half years after purchasing my first digital SLR and taking up photography as a hobby, I'm finally starting to produce stuff that I'd be willing to hang on my own wall, even if somebody else wouldn't. I usually work in black-and-white, but this was just too much fun, and I got almost everything right.

Yes, it's derivative and unoriginal. No, I'm not ready for LACMA or the Guggenheim, but I am starting to grok photography as an art form.