Thoughts on macro and Bucharest

I was struck with a few things so far. Americans are looked up to throughout Europe. Europeans love to talk about our presidential election (tight race between McCain and Obama so far in my informal poll). We are looked at as the case example of how to build an economy, permit and attract immigration, and have babies (low birth rates are prevalent throughout western Europe). We know much less about our partners in the world than they know about us (this is a huge imbalance). Europe is diverse and fractured; the US is more unified and vanilla.

The drive from Bucharest Airport to the hotel took one hour. I saw over 30 stray dogs (one eating a dead animal). I saw probably over 300 luxury vehicles. There was an IKEA. There was slums. There was McDonalds everywhere. The sidewalks were non existent to terrible. There are manufacturing plants and people working everywhere. There is poverty everywhere.

It is a country in transition from communism to capitalism. The magazine in my hotel room was titled "Only for the Rich"

I am excited to experience this city. It reminds me of rural China, or Beijing, poverty and capitalism. This is not Germany or Rome; this is the new world emerging...