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The new frugal and greener consumer

Trendwatching.com , an Amsterdam-based consumer trends analysing service, has included something called Econcierge in its outlook for 2009. This involves a new breed of less conspicuous consumers, straitened by the credit crisis or maybe feeling guilty for the wallops of cash that they made during the...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 12-19-2008
The big challenges

As delegates gather for this year's European Petrochemical Association meeting in the unreal world of Monaco (unrealf or 99.9 per cent recurring of us), I thought it was worth summarising some of the issues discussed on this blog over the last few months. We've dealt with: *Oil-price volatility...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-27-2008
History will repeat itself

It is September 2025 and the financial system has imploded due to the collapse in value of collaterised green obligations (CGOs). So how did we end up in this sorry state? Here is a guide to how the crisis developed: Governments (often sovereign wealth funds that had made a fortune from selling oil and...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-17-2008
Go on, stick your head in deeper

Apparently it's a fallacy - ostriches don't stick their heads in the sand. Investment bankers frequently do, though, especially all the greedy ones who only cared about their end-of-year bonuses when they new perfectly well that the credit crisis was on its way. I am sitting here sipping a beer...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-15-2008
Uncle Sam back from the dead?

A very interesting report by McKinsey (you can sign up free for their online newsletter which only takes a minute) expands on the theme of reverse globalisation which I talked about last week. The cost of shipping a standard 40-foot container has tripled since 2000 and labour cost increases have risen...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-10-2008
Sarah Palin gives Dow a plug

Dow Chemical got a plug for one of their famous old products today - from none other than Sarah Palin. On the basis that no publicity is bad publicity, this could be a short in the arm for the beleaguered polystyrene industry. In a withering, brilliant speech that highlighted what I've thought for...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-04-2008
Do you ever get that sinking feeling?

I am afraid I do when it comes to climate change and, as a result, don't always switch off lights when I leave rooms, don't always say no to unnecesssary plastic bags when I buy anything and will happily (and this could be the worst damage of all) jet anywhere in the world either for business...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-02-2008
Gustav points to a much bigger problem

The good news on the radio as I came into work this morning was that Hurricane Gustav had weakened in intensity with forecasts that it might make landfall in the US with wind speeds of less than had been earlier feared. But this is not the point. The point, as Jeffrey Rubin of CIBC World Capital Markets...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-01-2008
"Reports of my death......

are greatly exaggerated" wrote Mark Twain who twice had the misfortune (or perhaps good fortune, given that he was still breathing!) to read his obituary in newspapers. A full list of all those whose deaths were reported prematurely is included here in this A-Z of journalistic blunders from Wikipedia...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-29-2008
Want a place on the Board?

For us lesser mortals further down the slippery career pole, it is easy to stare up with envy and contempt at the CEOs of our own companies and other companies. Many us at times feel (myself included) that we could do a great deal better than our bosses. I plan to develop a CEO board game with online...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-13-2008

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