The threat of global stagflation
Thierry Apoteker made a presentation at the Singapore Management University on September 19, 2008, on the threat of global stagflation in the context of the current financial crisis. He gave a not too pessimistic outlook while insisting on the transmission effects to developing countries.


Will American finance entrap the ECB?
This month, Jean-Pierre Patat looks at the Euro zone’s exceptionally poor economic results for the second quarter, and says these results exposed a diagnostic error, insofar as the central bank leaders assumed on many occasions that the area will be less affected than the US by the financial crisis. English French


The role of the Euro, and the US-EU monetary interdependence
Jean-Pierre Patat has been contracted to deliver regular briefings to the European Parliament on economic and monetary issues. His last contribution was devoted to the “International role of the euro”.

TAC economists “in the field” during past months
During the past few months, Thierry Apoteker (TAC’s managing director) has been almost constantly on the move, either in the context of different assignments with the European Commission (Jakarta, Kiev, Washington D.C.), or to discuss with customers and prospects (Tokyo, Singapore). Combined with other trips by TAC economists or advisors (Vietnam, the US, not to mention the European countries where we have our regular customers), this has allowed us to confront our analytical view of the current crisis and its transmission to emerging economies, with realities and local analyses.

We have also taken this opportunity to strengthen our marketing efforts in Asia, making Singapore our hub for regional expansion through a relationship established with a highly experienced consultant, Thomas Choong Email: thomas@waylion.com.

2008 - TAC in the media
TAC has had a good media exposure over the past few months. Thierry Apoteker was interviewed by Vikram Khanna from Singapore newspaper The Business Times, who featured our managing director in the prestigious Raffles Conversation series discussing the international financial crisis and the coming age of inflation. Both Thierry Apoteker and Sylvain Barthélémy (TAC’s research director) were quoted in the French business daily La Tribune, on the (absence of) decoupling between industrialized countries and the developing world and on the current financial crisis. Finally, an interview of Thierry Apoteker and Isabelle Legrand (a Senior Economist at TAC) was published in a business guide edited by Ubifrance, the French Agency for international business development, in which they describe and use the results of TAC’s methodology to assess emerging markets’ business potential for international companies.

Sofia PESCA has joined TAC as a project manager and developer
We are very pleased to welcome Sofia in our support team. Sofia PESCA followed Business and Languages studies at Rennes University. Prior to joining TAC, she worked as project administrator at the EHESP School of Public Health, and was in charge of international cooperation programmes with Latin America and Eastern European countries, a job that included backstopping activity for missions, logistics and tender preparation. Besides she teaches Spanish at ENSAI and SUPELEC, two French Grandes Ecoles.

Academic activities by TAC economists
The turning of the year is usually an intensive period of academic activities for many economists at TAC. Thierry Apoteker, Sylvain Barthélémy and Isabelle Legrand will deliver a comprehensive teaching seminar on country risk at the University of Rennes in December, and Thierry Apoteker will deliver another seminar at the HEC Business School in January 2009. Stéphane Colliac has arranged a comprehensive teaching workshop aiming to analyze and manage country risk at the Institute of Politic Studies in Toulouse, to be held in the final months of 2008. Stéphane has also presented a research work on the role of migrants and remittances in the development process at a Conference held in Bordeaux by a joint University-CNRS Research Group in October 2008 (programme). Stéphane will also present a paper co-authored with Thierry Apoteker and Angelo Djistera (who was an intern at TAC earlier this year) on “the fundamentals of the emerging process: growth, the exchange rate, and inflation” at an international conference, again in Bordeaux, in November 2008 (programme). Finally, Sylvain has been co-opted at the scientific committee of the forthcoming FFM conference (Forecasting Financial Market, a “must” on the agendas of all fundamental and applied researchers in quantitative modeling) scheduled in 2009 in Luxemburg.