Rock Stars

‘City Boy’ - a Literature Review

Women are Rocking the Boat

Corporate Psychos

World’s Hottest Economists

TheEcunomist

year 21, issue 2

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In this Issue4 Newsfeed5 Snapshots: Company Day 20116 From the Editor7 From the Board8 Review: City Boy

10 The Discussion & Lecture Committee11 Sex, Drugs & Economics13 Corporate Psychos15 Women are Rocking the Boat16 World’s Hottest Economists: Glorifying Nerds18 Rockstar Economists20 The Costs and Benefits of Fame23 ECU’92 is recruiting: Board members ‘12-’13!

24 Snapshots: REBO Party Wild Wild West25 Snapshots: Crowdfunding Lecture by the DLC26 The Study Trip Committee

27 ECU’92 Lustrum Programm

Several times a year, The Ecunomist is published in a circulation of 1,500 for the members, patrons, Ecunomen and external contacts of ECU’92.

Willem Isbrucker | Jana Rautenberg | Ronja Röttger | Christina Schenten | Leila Maria Scott | Kai Strohmeyer | Dea Tusha | Gidde van der Ven | Miles Hilton

Study Association ECU’92 Kriekenpitplein 18, Room 1.21

3584EC Utrecht T 030-2539680

www.ecu92.nlinfo@ecu92.nl

Printed by Drukkerij Hakker van Rooijen

News FeedPhat TaxesNew economic research shows that levying a ‘Fat Tax’ on the producers rather than the consumers is more successful in lowering caloric intake. @John-Beghin @HelenJensen

Age distribution – an aging indicator Cognitive function may be a better indicator of the im-pact of aging on an economy than age-distribution, with chronological age imposing less of a social and economic burden if the population is “functionally” younger, ac-cording to a study published by @VegardSkirbekk

Back to the grind The job market for college graduates has settled and appears braced for slow but steady growth (hiring is expected to increase a modest 4 percent), #Michi-ganStateUniversity

Traditional social networks fueled Twitter’s spread MIT re-searchers who studied the growth of newly hatched Twitter say the site’s growth relied primarily on media attention and traditional social networks based on geographic proximity and socioeconomic similarity. In other words, at least during its early years, birds of a feather flocked -- and tweeted -- together.

Upside of a Downed EconomyAt least you still have your health, right? Actually, you probably do. Researchers have found that, historically, western societies were healthier during economic downturns than they were dur-ing periods of prosperity. #UniversityofMichigan

Company Day 2011

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From the BoardFrom the Editor

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Probably a lot of you are think-ing: What does a board member of ECU’92 do all week long? And may-be in particular the Coordinator of Educational Affairs...

Then I have good news, because below, I will give you an overview of one of my most recent weeks at ECU’92!

MondayThis particular Monday starts with a meeting with the Master and Alumni Committee to discuss the upcoming cabaret in March. Af-terwards, I had a meeting with the Board Undergraduate School. At the same time, a taster day for upcom-ing freshmen was going on. And then, like every Monday afternoon, we have our board meeting where we discuss all current affairs. And at night: the weekly D.O.M!

TuesdayOn Tuesday, two meetings were planned, one of the book foundation ECU and the first interview for the introduction committee took place.

WednesdayThis day started with a meeting to discuss the Bachelor information day in March, followed by more in-terviews for committees. In the af-ternoon, there was a gathering with

USE about a career activity. In the evening, an information meeting was planned about the study trip to Moscow and in the evening, we went to a party of another study as-sociation in the Havana!

ThursdayThursday was in light of prepara-tions for the education debate in February. And more committee in-terviews took place.

FridayFriday morning, a meeting with the Discussion and Lecture Committee was planned. The rest of the day was used for preparations for the coming book sale.

As you probably have noticed, a board year at ECU’92 means that you are busy with a lot of different types of activities; which makes it a lot of fun! And of course you can make time available for other social activities at night! So there is never a dull moment ;)

Marloes HeddemaCoordinator Educational Affairs

Dear professors, board members, and fellow students,

We are all in a predicament. Whether we like it or not, Economics is the most well represented science in the public eye. It’s inseparable from poli-tics, omnipresent in our news, and inescapable in everyday conversation, more so now than ever. If any science is to be considered a ‘Rockstar’, eco-nomics is Mick Jagger, that is, unless you agree with Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson in that “Economics has never been a science - and it is even less now than a few years ago.”

In this year’s sophomore issue, we confront this interesting take on our discipline with articles ranging from a more literal interpretation of our Rockstar theme, to a more philosophical approach. Noteworthy inclusions are the consequences the prominence of certain economic academics and their influential opinions, addressed in “Rockstar Economics” by Christina Schenten (p.18), as well as a look at psychopaths occupying prominent po-sitions in Kai Strohmeyer’s “Corporate Psychopaths” (p.13)

A review of acclaimed author Geraint Anderson’s new book ‘City Boy’ (p.8) grazes our pages as well as a look back at two of the arguable the most influential economists of all time in a throwback edition of the World’s Hot-test Economists. (p.16). Take a look back and relive the memories of one of the biggest events of the year with full color photos of the Rebo party (p.24).

In the end, the ubiquitous, controversial, and all to often contradictory role that economics plays in all of our lives should act as motivation in a drive for a more complete understanding of the economic environment we live in, regardless of previously held conceptions of truth. It is that quest for knowledge that renders our study a science, and in the words of John Kenneth Galbraith “In economics, it is a far, far wiser thing to be right than to be consistent”.

Willem Isbrucker, Editor in Chief

I never had much interest in books that go by the name of ‘Freakonom-ics’ or other bestsellers such as ‘Fooled by randomness’ because they only echo my daily thoughts about what we read in our course books and discussions in tutorials. Maybe it’s just Me, but I prefer read-ing a ‘story’ about doing business, than a book that renders a pile of short summaries about some theo-ries of economics and mathematics when I can read and perfectly un-derstand them even more precisely in a good old course book. If you like a collection of entertaining, prac-tically useful and educating short stories, you should read ‘Lords of Finance’ by Liaquat Ahamed who assigns the world of finance and its triumphant and sorrowful decision makers a more human character than commonly perceived.

On an even more personal dimen-sion than ‘Lords of Finance’, one of my favorite books, ‘City Boy’, is a vi-brantly entertaining and philosoph-ical book about the life of Geraint Anderson, the author himself, in the square mile of ‘beer and loath-ing’, the City of London. We are more than aware that investment banking is a profession that is very suitable for the more ruthless, testosterone driven men, but how does it actually

feel like to work with these people? Anderson portrays two contrasting worlds, but one of them outweighed the other.

His story begins on a hung-over Monday morning. The previous night had been a rough one; he drank a ridiculous amount of Ab-sinth in a drinking competition with his mates. Further to the det-riment of his company, he had or-dered the coke dealer three times to the party that night. “I look like a smackhead”, said the about to be-come high-ranked greedy ruthless investment banker to himself. That morning a Scottishpower power plant had exploded and while coke was still rushing through his veins and membranes, he had to quickly decide what was going to happen to the stock price. His answer as analyst for the utilities sector to his colleagues was: “This is only a four- or five-pence event”. A few minutes later, Steve was on the screens of his bank in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid. Before he could even repeat his evaluation, blood shot out of his nose. Steve ran to the toilets while hundreds of traders jeered and the stock price fell more than four or five pence. It was the day that he cost his bank 1.2 million pounds. Anderson now dreads the

City Boy:Reviewby Miles Hilton

fact that he was not fired on this oc-casion; because of it he had become such a greedy egoistic asshole.

After having worked for 15 years as an investment banker, he pub-lished this highly educative and hilarious book. It is, as Anderson would describe, a revolt against the business. This is of course to be ex-pected from a man who used to have a ponytail, three hoop earrings and a “preposterous bum-fluff” goatee. Af-ter his graduation he had spent five years selling Asian trinkets (bought in Delhi) in European street mar-kets. His fantasy was to learn karate and Spanish and become a worldly traveler whom undergraduate girls would fall at the feet of. He had gone into the business with the expecta-tion of a short but very successful career. Which of course got delayed because he got used to entertaining people and giving them the impres-sion that he is their friend and beat-ing others in some analyst rankings.

By revealing his stories first in a London Newspa-per and later in his own book, he has brought colleagues and friends to shame. More pain-ful is the fact that he was still employed while writing the anonymous “City

Boy” column in the London Paper.

The book tells a story of a man who is not in need of Ferraris and champagne, but a man who loves to outcompete others and accumulate vast amounts of capital in short time to pay for all the joints and booze to be found on some islands in the In-dian Ocean. In the words of Ander-son: “…competitiveness is endemic in the City and ... it is the product of inadequacy.”

The book teaches that it is not wealth in absolute terms, but it is the feeling that you can buy any-thing, be it a car, the opinion of peo-ple or a woman’s heart that makes you wake up before sunrise and listen to a bunch of wannabe alpha males every day. ■

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Sex, Drugs & Rock´n´roll.Everyone knows this lifestyle,

coined by famous rock stars and the press. Besides, somehow this dark and self-destroying lifestyle has great impact on people. Musicians who live this kind of life are well-known, have many groupies and earn a lot of money. It seems as if they would just enjoy parties, fame and music. This lifestyle or at least the image of it arouses the desire for adventures in people, especially the youth, who want to be differ-ent from their parental generation. But is it still a real lifestyle or has it become a marketing strategy of big music enterprises?

In the 1950s it was a lifestyle. In this time, bohemianism was very popular, thus an unconventional lifestyle, rebellious manners, free love and voluntary poverty. The youth wanted to be different, they wanted to stand out from the crowd and live their lives as distinct indi-viduals. In this context, a lot of alco-hol and drugs were consumed. The early representatives of the idea of “sex, drugs and rock´n´roll” were probably Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.

Jimi Hendrix was born in Novem-ber 1942 in Seattle and was said to be the ultimate guitar player, a legend of the electric guitar and of

experimental sound. By 1967, he lived in London, had created the Jimi Hendrix Experience with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell in ad-dition to his first big success with his first single “Hey Joe”. Hendrix rapidly gained a lot of success and fame as a consequence that he be-came a huge rock star. In 1969 he performed at Woodstock. Moreover, he used a lot of psychedelic drugs, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and drank large amounts of alcohol. When he drank, he became jealous and aggressive, and damag-ing a hotel room was not unusual. In September 1970, Hendrix died at the age of 27 due to drugs—em-bodying the idea of “sex, drugs and rock´n´roll”.

Jim Morrison, the lead singer and lyricist of “The Doors” was born in December 1943. He founded the rock band “The Doors” in 1965 and they became famous in 1967. With increasing fame, Morrison devel-oped a heavy drinking and drug problem, so that he started to be late for concerts and recordings. His death in July 1971 in Paris, at the age of 27, was caused by a heroin overdose. Morrison lived the bohe-mian lifestyle that was combined with great success and money—a dangerous mixture, which made him lose control.

Sex, Drugs & EconomicsAs a committee consisting of only new members, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the discussion and lecture committee. Our task is pretty straightforward, we organ-ise lectures. This might not sound very appealing to an association full of constant hangover and tired students subject to a very busy so-cial agenda. But on the rare occa-sion that on the day our next lecture is planned (15 May) you can drag yourself out of the pub you might be surprised how fulfilling one of our lectures can be. In the last lecture we had a young successful entre-

preneur as one of our speakers, per-sonally he really managed to inspire me with how much he had achieved while still in his mid-twenties. I am sure that I was not the only one leaving that evening full of ambi-tion and ideas for the future. Even the real die-hard alcoholics did not have an excuse to skip a lecture since we provided everyone with a free drink. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our chairman but I have complete faith in our commit-tee that even without her we can top our next lecture, so I hope to see you there! ■

The Discussion & Lecture Committeeby Ronja Röttger

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Corporate PsychosWanted: Charming and Confident Manager.Are you charming? Are you confi-dent? Are you as well narcissistic, manipulative, lack conscience and empathy for others? You could one day become a Corporate Psycho-path by applying for such a job offer!

What is that, a Corporate Psycho-path? Is it a manager like American Psycho character Patrick Bateman with his violent, blood-thirsty fanta-sies? A quote by Dick Fuld referring to short-sellers seems to confirm the idea that CEOs and other big bosses may indeed have such thoughts: “I want to reach in, rip out their heart and eat it before they die.” Psycho-paths can be violent and indeed show criminal behaviour, but reality is of course less dramatic. In fact, an estimated 1% of the population can be described as psychopaths, who can be roughly defined as manipula-tive egocentrics who lack empathy and conscience.

Now take the position of a CEO: It offers a lot of money, prestige and power and is thus more attractive to psychos than to non-psychos. Com-monsense suggests that charming and manipulative people succeed more in climbing to higher posi-tions, so that one can expect more than 1% of big bosses to be psycho-

paths. Evidence suggests that more psychopaths can be found at the the top of corporate hierarchy than at the bottom.

Boddy defines corporate psycho-paths as “managers with no con-science who are willing to lie and are able to present a charming fa-çade in order to gain managerial promotion via a ruthlessly opportu-nistic and manipulative approach to career advancement” (2005)—basi-cally such a manager is a “psycho-path who works and operates in the organisational area“(2011).

It doesn’t require extensive thought to spot the threat Corporate Psychos pose to society. In high po-sitions, they are able to shape cor-porate policy; away from corporate social responsibility towards solely serving own interests. Dynamic structures of today’s short-lived corporate world often make it com-plex to trace misconduct back to those who are responsible and serve as a big incentive to misbehave and manage a firm myopically to harvest rewards before the position is per-sonal past. Not to forget that a lack of conscience makes corruption and fraud much easier, at that.

Boddy suggests further research on “the personalities and moral rea-soning aptitudes of the leaders of the

by Kai Strohmeyer

Another legend, also known as “The Queen of Rock´n´Roll” or “The Queen of psychedelic soul”, was Ja-nis Joplin. Born in January 1943, Joplin grew up starting to attract at-tention due to rebellious and uncon-ventional mannerisms. She was a singer songwriter but also a dancer and painter. She started recording songs in 1962 with friends, such as Jorma Kaukonen, the Jefferson Air-plane guitarist.

Joplin performed with the Kozmic Blues Band at Woodstock in 1969 as well as Hendrix, but in contrast, she was totally drunk and on drugs when she hit the stage after a long waiting time in the backstage area.

Joplin died at the age of 27 in Oc-tober 1970 due to a heroin over-dose that was combined with alco-hol. Her death was coupled with the death of Jimi Hendrix who died 16 days earlier.

Hendrix, Morrison and Joplin founded the myth of “Club 27” be-cause they all died at the age of 27. This was the most significant point for the whole idea of “sex, drugs and rock´n´roll”: Live fast and die young. The three became legends for an unconventional life that they sacri-ficed for their music, combined with a parallel increasing use of drugs, alcohol and casual sex affairs. Their music, their lives and the myth of the “Club 27” shrouds them in im-

mortality that still influences so-ciety and thus consumers. People bought their LPs and CDs, started to dress like their idols and wanted to stand out from the crowd. The man-agers of theses rock stars released “best of” CDs, knowing their deaths would increase sales.

Once “sex, drugs, rock´n´roll” was a lifestyle that gained suc-cess, it appealed to the youth and made money over time, but the days of the fame of bohemianism are over. Guns´n´Roses sum it per-fectly up in their song “Sex, Drugs & Rock´n´Roll”: “Whatever happened to sex drugs n’ rock n’ roll? Now we just have AIDS, crack and techno.”

Nowadays “sex, drugs and rock´n´roll” appeals to the desire for an unbounded life, it reminds people of the old days of Hendrix, Morrison and Joplin as well as another fa-mous member of the “Club 27”, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and lyricist of the grunge band “Nirvana” who died in April 1994—also at the age of 27. These rock stars made their passion for music popular, they are legends and role models. Although the bohemian lifestyle is not accept-ed in our societies anymore, it still has a lot of influence on the modern music culture that continues to gen-erate capital for the music industry. Thus, one could say, today there is rather: “Sex, drugs & economics”. ■

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financial institutions that are most associated with the Global Financial Crisis. Simultaneous research into the brain chemistry and connectiv-ity of these people may prove to be highly enlightening in helping to es-tablish the nature and extent of their psychopathy” (2011). As good as it sounds, I personally find that above all, it sounds utopian that CEOs who are approached by researchers as potential psychopaths who are pos-sibly partly responsible for the crisis would agree to have MRI conducted. It seems more realistic to me to ap-point psychologists who are able to recognize psychopathic traits, so that they can support personnel managers and boards when deci-sions about employment are made.

Research about Corporate Psy-

chopaths is still quite young. For a good overview, I recommend the papers “The Implications of Corpo-rate Psychopaths for Business And Society: An Initial Examination And A Call To Arms” (Boddy, 2005) and “The Corporate Psychopaths The-ory of the Global Financial Crisis“ (Boddy, 2011). Until research has proceeded: Watch out, there could be psycho fellow students. Especial-ly the study of Economics can be a tempting steppingstone into a rock-star life of a CEO celeb… ■

Women are Rocking the Boat by Jana Rautenberg

As we are talking about Econom-ics being the Rockstar Science, for many of you future economists it should not be a problem nam-ing at least one famous economist. But even for people not that famil-iar with the theory driven world of economics the name of Adam Smith (1723 -1790) usually rings a bell.

This fact already sets economics apart from other science.

Simply pose the question: „Can you name a popular biologist or mathematician?“ to somebody on the street and not everyone would be able to give a satisfying answer.

Sadly there is still a gender imbal-ance concerning not only scientists in general, but also in particular in economics. If you would take a look at previous economists who had an impact on society or are mentioned in the news then mostly male names come up. Also the respectable list of Nobel Prize winners comprised until three years ago exclusively men. This is a rather impressive quote, since this prestigious price is awarded since 1969. Elinor Ostrom (1933)

is the first woman in 2009 who received the Nobel Price in Econom-ic Science.

Why does it take forty years for a female Nobel laureates in Econom-ics to be announced? Where there simply no women capable of receiv-ing this price?

This is highly debatable.

There are more women than men graduating from all levels of higher education. Female students out-number male students at Universi-ties by far.

Only recently is has been found that in the United States for the first time in history more women were awarded with a doctoral de-gree than men in the academic year 2008-2009 (Report from the Coun-cil of Graduate Schools, located in Washington). This reflects the on-going change in the structure of gender division trough all levels of society. However there is another area, which is clearly dominated by a male majority: Leading positions in firms and the corresponding higher salary. It is still the exception rather than the rule that there is a woman on the top leading a firm and earn-ing a corresponding salary to a male worker holding the same position. Nevertheless it is a positive; even though slow change as gender dif-ferences converge over time. ■

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World’s Hottest EconomistsGlorifying NerdsIn an issue dedicated to economics as a ‘rockstar science’, the newest installment of the World’s Hottest Economists would seem to be lack-ing if the names Friedman and Keynes weren’t spelled out on the page. While any number of economists over the years have had the honor of being touted most influential economist in the world, few, if any, have done so do the degree and duration as these two men.

Recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Friedman stood out amongst other economists and scholars and is best known for his theo-retical and empirical research work in consumption analysis, monetary his-tory and theory for demonstrating the complexity of stabilization policy. Advi-sor to the Republican of Republicans, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, his po-litical philosophy propagated virtues of a free market economic system and he had great influence on the research agenda. Although often contrasted to Keynes, he was originally a Keynesian supporter of the New Deal. The Econo-mist called him “the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century…possibly of all of it.”

Milton Friedman

by Willem Isbrucker

John Maynard Keynes changed the world of economics. Keynes is the cre-ator and initiator of the utilization of fiscal and monetary measures that are used to bring down the crisis situations brought about by economic recessions and depressions. His thoughts and theo-ries are followed and referred to even today by economists and economy stu-dents and his ideas have been adopted by many political figures to bring posi-tive changes in economic stability in na-tions around the world. Some of the no-table Keynesian economics adopters are Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Capitalist nations and countries taking up the cause of social liberalism have strictly followed Keynes’ economic path to build their nations. The much influential Keynesian economics have made way into several economic poli-cies of governments and many regard him as the founding father of modern macroeconomics. ■

John Maynard Keynes

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Rockstar Economistsby Christina Schenten

Smith and Keynes, Hayek and Friedman - Names anyone who has ever opened a book on introductory economics knows. Well-known and (more or less) celebrated scientists in their field of expertise, they can actually be considered economists with rockstar-status (leaving the throwing-TVs-out-of-hotel-win-dows part of the rockstar business aside). The theories created by them and other economists have shaped and still shape the world we live in today.

The question is: How does the society benefit from this influence? Does it benefit at all? The task of an

economist should be to learn from the economy in the past, to analyze the economy today, and to find so-lutions to solve today’s economic problems in the future. Yet, despite the vast amount of economists working and researching all over the world, we are currently stuck in a debt-crisis of unprecedented dimensions, threatening the entire global economic and financial sys-tem.

Why did no one see the danger coming from the massive hous-ing bubble in the USA? Even a ca-sual look into historical economics books would have revealed that a housing bubble can lead to severe financial and balance-sheet prob-lems. The few economists who did see what was coming in one way or another were not heard: They were laughed at by the mainstream “rock-star” economists who lost touch with what was really happening, focusing on abstract models while losing sight of the basics learned in course of history.

Paul Krugman, a contemporary rock-star economist himself, criti-cizes his own profession harshly: “We’ve entered a Dark Age of mac-roeconomics, in which much of the profession has lost its former knowl-edge, just as barbarian Europe had

lost the knowledge of the Greeks and Romans”, quoted from his ar-ticle in Eastern Economic Journal in 2011. He is shocked by the “com-plete ignorance of almost 80 years of macroeconomic analysis” many economists, even the well-known and celebrated ones, revealed in face of the crisis in 2008.

Obviously, there is never the one way to pull the economy out of a slump. That is exactly why many opinions need to be heard before deciding for one or the other policy option. An example: While unem-ployment is huge and economic growth is slow, the US government decided to focus on decreasing debt, thus reducing spending.

Now in basically any textbook for Economic Undergraduates it can be read that in order to stimulate the economy, which presumably is the US government’s goal, it should in-crease rather than decrease spend-ing. During the debate leading to the decision to decrease debt, the names Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, authors of the bestsell-ing book “This Time It’s Different”, were heard frequently. Based on their research they suggest that a GDP-to-debt ratio above 90% slows growth, so debt needs to be reduced to increase growth. However, coun-tries such as Greece who were pre-scribed by the IMF to reduce their deficits are now facing even higher deficits and a weaker economy. The

question is whether the seemingly reasonable arguments of Reinhart and Rogoff were taken too much for granted; giving them a “rockstar status” that is not being questioned sufficiently.

Apart from the classic econo-mists, there are also other persons whose actions have a big impact on the economy. Best example: Billion-aire Warren Buffett, rather a rock-star investor than a rockstar econ-omist, but at least as influential. When Warren Buffett sells stocks of a certain company, the probabil-ity that thousands of investors will draw level is very high. This basi-cally gives this one man the power to seal the fate of a company by giv-ing them a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. Being such an influential role model for millions definitely gives Warren Buffet a rockstar status and with it a responsibility that should not be underestimated.

It is inevitable that some econo-mists are celebrated like rockstars, who are praised for their findings and whose word is basically taken as law. This is not even a bad thing: Of course there are a lot of brilliant heads who need to be heard, and whose achievements deserve a lot of respect. However, bear in mind that to be heard a loud voice is re-quired – and sometimes it is very easy to confound a possibly flawed but noisily announced theory with actual scientific achievement. ■

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The Costs and Benefits of Fame by Dea Tusha

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It is quite common for rockstars (or any other compound noun, con-taining the word star) to be highly associated with celebrity and fame. Everyone familiar with the Nickel-back song “Rockstar” would most probably agree with that. Even those who haven’t had the chance to listen to the song, by simply pay-ing minimal attention to tabloids and the like, would reach the same conclusion. In the highly publicized world of today, celebrity has taken new dimensions, and the solid cur-tain between the stars and the pub-lic, has fallen (or at times has even been carelessly torn to pieces with the diligent help of the papparazzi).

There is a certain fascination to-wards fame, an intruiging force that draws people closer to its source. One can find at least two reason-able explanations for this mysteri-ous phenomenon. The first is quite material, and it would be widely ap-preciated by us economists as a ra-tional motive. Yes indeed, the “root of all evil”, money! People will go to great length to make ends meet by the end of the month: some will work in factories, some will sell goods they make, and some will sell their image. It is a rather profitable business, and the revenues are very

rewarding (to say the least). The salaries of relatively famous movie stars, who have not necessarily be-come famous for their acting skills, but who are certainly on the hot spot, are inconceivable to the aver-age taxpayer (not to mention the ridiculous amounts of money they receive for selling newspapers ex-clusive photos of their newly born babies etc).

On the other hand, why wouldn’t a film production company be will-ing to pay large sums of money to starr a celebrity? More often that not, they are the main reason why mediocre clichés become success-ful box office hits (this is not based on personal taste and opinions, but rather on thorough research of crit-ics’ reviews on several romantic comedies, action movies etcetera; for more accurate information, visit rottentomatoes.com). Isn’t it also the case that people will be espe-cially interested to buy the new al-bum of some famous songwriter, if they believe it to be inspired by one of the latest dramas in the author’s life? More celebrity, more inside peaks into the private lives of the most beloved and admired idols, more interest in their work and more money donated to the indus-

try. Simple as that. The second reason is a more ab-

stract one, rather vague and hard to percept without entering the troubled, complicated areas of the human conscience and subcon-science. While some people simply love what they do for a living and are willing to bare the consequen-tial fame that comes with it, even if they do not desire it; others are attention lovers. Having the world revolve around you cannot be all that bad, or else why would we have all those celebritites posing for photos, giving interviews, post-ing comments on social networks and blogs, and most importantly participating in “reality shows”? So far, so good. Being famous sounds great and we’d all run for it as soon as we’d get the chance (how hard it is to get the chance is an entirely other subject, which would require a few more pages. It will hopefully suffice to say that the combination includes talent, beauty, charisma, connections and a certain X factor, which remains unknown to all of us (un)fortunate enough to never have crossed to that other side).

But as always, even this particu-larly shiny, glimmering coin has its other darker side, or as we like to call them in our professional jargon, the costs! Such fame, power and admiration comes to the expense of an almost inexistent private life (actually it is a matter of degree,

depending mainly on how dramat-ic your life is, how much you pay your bodyguards, and – don’t laugh now- your ninja skills, to be able to swiftly avoid the omnipresent pap-parazzi). Hats on top of their heads, black glasses, random clothes are the most common among the means VIPs use to escape those cameras behind the bushes, popping wher-ever and whenever (especially when you least expect it). Life becomes harder when the media frenzy sur-rounds more than the stars them-selves. All of a sudden, relatives, loved ones, people who never actu-ally had a say in this, become part of the avalanche, as it goes on and on, waiting to crash hard and make se-rious damage. But do these famous people have an actual right to com-plain at all? Entering the business certainly does not mean that you are selling your soul to the devil, but you’re evidently entering an unar-ticulated contract with the public and those who make it their job to keep the public up-to-date. At least, this is the main defensive argument in all the law suits against newspa-pers or journalists, for crimes rang-ing from libel to physical assaults towards the stars.

Indeed, everyone who has de-cided to be part of this industry has considered that there will be some psychological pressure exerted (what job comes without it?). More grevious damage, however, gives

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the celebrities the right to shout out loud that this is not what they signed up for. It is said that at the moment of her death, Princess Di-ana was trying to escape some very determined papparazzi, who were merely trying to catch their golden opportunity. And as if “profession-al” followers weren’t enough, what about the crazy fans? Stalkers, con men, random women who claim to be bearing the child of some big star are having the high time of their ac-tivities nowadays. The internet is a never-ending source of informa-tion, it leaves no room for mystery. The days when the stars had the control and could keep things to themselves are long gone. Depend-ing on the memory skills of both parts, it is even possible that some fans will know about the lives of

their idols in more detail than the VIP-s themselves. Sure, it is all right when all they do is praise your awe-someness, but let us not forget that this is not always the case. Teasing, reproaching or even starting virtual or real life campaigns against some-one famous, may make one’s life a living hell. In other cases, like that of John Lennon, the price you have to pay for disappointing some fans may even be your life…

So I guess it comes down to the good, old golden rules: you will only keep doing this job as long as the costs do not surpass the benefits. How hard is it to calculate these costs and benefits? I believe that would make a great research ques-tion for some behavioural econom-ics student willing to write a paper… Food for thought! ■

Do you want to gain working ex-perience within a students envi-ronment? Are you that person that always thinks about how policy should be made? Do you want to get a real good practice with financial accounting or are you that business man that is good at networking? ECU’92 offers you the opportunity to have the greatest experience of your students life by doing a board year! ECU’92 has a full-time board, which means you will have office hours between 9 am and 4 pm. You will get a board scholarship of the UU in compensation for the effort you put into the organisation of

events for the economic students at USE like carreer events, parties and much more!

ECU’92 offers the following posi-tions:• Chairman• Secretary• Treasurer• Internal Affairs• External Affairs• Educational Affairs

For more information, please attend the board information evening on the 16th of February, 7.15 pm! ■

ECU’92 is recruiting: Board members ‘12-’13!

REBO Party @ Poema: Wild Wild West

organized by the DLC

An evening about

This awesome group exists of Mar-jon, Charlotte, Julius, Joost, Daan, Melissa, Matthijs and Jessica (from the board). We as a group are re-sponsible to organize a trip that every student of ECU’92 has always dreamed. We wondered: Where would today’s Economics student be interested in? Probably going out till the early morning and visit plac-es where they learn how to make their money in the future. So in a nutshell, having great parties and do something useful as well.

As every committee member has a great expertise in these two fields, finding somewhere interesting to go to wasn’t that difficult. We chose for

a great nightlife in a different cul-ture accompanied by a lot of shots of Russian Vodka. Yes you’re right, Moscow it is!

In a city which has the highest percentage of millionaires in the world, our potential millionaires will learn the real deal. Our com-mittee is already into the Russian lifestyle, plans to organize Vodka tasting events are popping up in our agendas.

So after this trip we will probably be remembered as the committee that got everyone nearly an alcohol-ic addict, but at least we had a fun time and that’s what it’s all about in the end! ■

The Study Trip Committee

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