The Road To Long Finance

There are two enduring global issues – sustainability and finance. Z/Yen has been promoting the idea of Long Finance, building financial systems to last for centuries rather than seconds, for several years. We sponsored the Farsight Award for long-term investment research. This month the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation publishes Michael Mainelli and Bob Giffords’ “The Road To Long Finance: A Systems View of the Credit Scrunch”. Now & Z/Yen readers who wish to attend the launch on 17 July are most welcome to register. If this is too short notice for you, never fear; a copy of the publication will be available online soon.

For those who take a slightly longer-term view on attending events for such subject matter, Charles McCreevy, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services will continue the Long Finance debate with “Financial Crisis: Do We Need More Regulation?” when he opens the Gresham College season with a lecture and interview by Michael on the evening of 10 September in the Docklands. If you’re interested in attending, you can book tickets (free) online here.

My Green Word Is My Government Bond

The London Accord, in association with Z/Yen, has published two pieces on an interesting and simple idea, index-linked carbon bonds issued by governments. The Z/Yen team contend that the key item blocking clean tech investment is the risk of government inaction. In order to hedge that risk, investors could buy government bonds that paid more interest if governments failed to meet carbon emission, feed-in tariff or other carbon-related targets. The idea was presented at the World Bank Government Borrowers' Forum in Ljubljana in May by Dr Kevin Parker and we are now in discussion with several governments, central banks and debt offices. All online here.

Michael Metamorphoses Into A 1960’s San Francisco Rapper

After four years as Professor of Commerce, Michael had yet another chance to talk at Gresham College, thanks to the June 2009 City of London Festival, in what only Michael could possibly describe as a “funky gig”: Metamorphoses: The Terrible Beauty of Change.

Encompassing subjects such as Pan with his pipe, Niobe turning to stone and Narcissus great beauty, Michael was accompanied with musical interludes from Benjamin Britten’s “Six Metamorphoses After Ovid” from the acclaimed saxophonist, John Harle. Talking in both English and Latin (the later making Michael sound off like the Roman God of Commercial Sustainability) it was like a cross between 1960’s San Francisco Beatnik and 2000’s Professorial Rap. If this item has tweaked your curiosity, the performance is online here.

Next up – Ian Harris will sing extracts from The Road To Long Finance to the tune of The Long and Winding Road accompanied by Leo Fishman on the kazoo. Groovy.

………And Talking Of Intellectual Stuff

The Law Society Award winning Global Intellectual Property Index (GIPI) created by Z/Yen for leading law firm Taylor Wessing was published in May 2008. May 2009 saw the publication of GIPI 2.

GIPI provides a comprehensive assessment of how the intellectual property (IP) regimes of important jurisdictions compared with each other. Each is assessed in relation to obtaining, exploiting, enforcing and attacking the main types of IP rights. GIPI 2 includes a number of additions – there are now 24 jurisdictions covered.

GIPI 2 is led by the same six countries as led GIPI 1 but with a slight reordering below the UK which is still ranked 1st. Australia and the Netherlands are promoted to tier 1 and Poland falls to the bottom tier. Ratings across the board have tended to improve, indicating generally greater satisfaction with the IP regimes of most jurisdictions. A copy of the report is available here.

GIPI 2 follows the success of GIPI 1 in receiving extensive press coverage and the questionnaire is still online collecting responses for GIPI 3 – please participate here.

ExtZy Means Prizes

Many congratulations to Daniel Elser, our first winner of a major ExtZy prize. Without so much as breaking a sweat, Daniel cleared 3000 points in the game, which enabled him to claim a £300 Dixon’s voucher, good for a 32GB iPod Touch.

ExtZy is Z/Yen’s market of markets game. It’s free to play, it’s easy to play and it’s informative as well as fun. Read the one minute guide and then register from there.

Chill and be Z/Yen