serge morrell

a night for human rights

2010-01-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had dinner with two extraordinary figures in human rights law, at a quaint french restaurant in midtown new york. Karinna Moskalenko, a world renowned human rights lawyer, who has defended the likes of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

For more than a decade, she has been arguing cases before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, to whose judgments Russia has been legally bound ever since it incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights in its 1993 Constitution.You can read her profile in the Journal.

She was in New York, giving a speech the next morning at the Council of Foreign Relations on the topic of international arbitration, moderated by Andrei Illarionov (Putin's former economic advisor, who has publicly discredited the Russian rule and now works for the Cato Institute in DC).

The other gentleman, Professor Roger Clark , is a scholar of international law and has traveled the world extensively teaching courses on human rights law. Originally from New Zeland, he has spent the last 30 years at Rutgers teaching and running. I found his story about his time teaching a course for a group of Chinese Justices on human rights law the most fascinating. The justices, diligently attended every class and did quite well on the exams, perhaps even better than some of the american students, but the question remains what they took away from the lectures.

Karinna, aside from her worldwide superstar status, is a very down to earth and very entertaining person. She had lots of stories from France and spoke with the waiters in French. There is lots happening in Strasbourg these days, at the European Court of Human Rights, and whenever Russia looses a human rights case, it always pays. So now with huge pending law suit against the Russian government, with potential payouts in the billions, much more attention is given to these cases.

deep springs class of 2009

2009-09-05T06:54:00.001-07:00

decisions, decisions

2009-02-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

So since I got back to penn, I've been doing lots of thinking about what i want to do with my life in the face of the financial crisis. Banks are still recruiting for internships on campus, but its kind of funny seeing the merrils and the citis come and recruit, while they are smeared on the front pages of the FT and WSJ.

Recently, I've gotten really involved in the Huntsman Investment Fund. I'm one of the PMs and head of the research committee. As part of my job i'm trying to figure out what is the best direction to head in these markets:

some thoughts:

Sovering wealth funds à now more focused on inward investments

By the way, why isn’t education tax deductible in the US (that would help my parents a lot)

US did well equity b/c of currency strength

Investing, you have ot stick w/ a discipline

Shipping – Baltic Dry Index b/c of China/India trade down 95%

Port infrastrure?

Underlying PE relative based on Trend EPS

Closed End funds trading at a 11% discount

Economic Recovery

Stimulus will kickstart, but will it work in the long term?

3 Rs

- Re-Capitalization

- Re-Nationalization

- Re-Regulation

3Ds

- Deleveraging

- Dis-inflation

- disgust

M&A

Cancelled deals

SGS/Intertekà largest inspection agency

Steel

- 70% of US Debt is owed by Emerging Markets: China, Korea,

Misconceptions regarding EMs

- Risk aversion

- Illiquidity/market clou

- EM as a commodity play erception

- Proxy for global trade

- Mis management of currency reserve

Recovery?

3 pretensions for recovery

- asset prices low enough, so that famous, large investors start buying: Buffet, Jim Rogers, Jeremy Grantham

- Inter bank lending thaw

- Credit markets CDS???

- Liquidity rising savings rate

- Asset value reflection

- Confidence restored

De leveraging à re investment

Perceived Value à Real Value

Financial Market Recovery à Economic Recovery

à Fundamental Analysis

Panic Decisions à Broader position

Defensive posture

Long term risk aversion

- capital flight

- swf back inward

- fixed vs. equite

Consumer alter lifestyle

To big to fail

last day in Moscow

2008-12-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

Always wanted to leave somewhere where I'd stay for quite some time with a little bang. Last night in Moscow was quite a parting gift. Alex and I had a couple meetings in the middle of the day with old friends, coworkers, relatives and then we agreed to meet up at 10 pm at Alex's room at the Ritz Carlton.

Alex got a hold of the room last August, when he was staying there with his girlfriend. The reason they stayed there in the first place because it just opened and the rates were half price. Also, Alex's gf's parents were on the board of the ritz so they got another special discount, making a room in the ritz on of the cheapest hotels in moscow in sumemr 07, i think they were paying about 300 bucks per night. However, the last night of their stay, Alex made a big scandal out of the fact that the airconditioning wasn't working so the mgmt was very apollogetic and offered a one night stay anytime of the year and so he took them up on their offer the last night we were in Mo

scow.

I invited Simon and Danya and Alex had some of his friends come over for some pre-gaming. Simon's friends that brought some alcohol lived

nearby so we headed over to their place later that night. When Simon first mentioned him, he told me he lived rig

ht under Samsung, I had no idea what he was referring to, but as you can see from the picture, it was quite an apt. Aparently it

belonged to Admiral Kuznetsov and our friend showed us a little secret pogreb, right under the window that looked out on red square(manezh to be exact). Anyhow, after some drinks and realizing that I had to be leaving to the airport in a couple of hours, I went out and caught a car to my place, where my bags weren't even packed yet.

Now I'm back to new york and after a 15 hour trip, with delays, annoying aeroflot service, a light that doesn't work and etc. Coming back to the airport was great, I chatted up with a guy at the passport control, which are allways so nice and got my bags and met my parents.

apt in st. pete

2008-12-17T14:27:00.000-08:00

apt in st. pete
I kinda miss it. The next time i'm in Piter, i'll point to the balcony across from Dom Knigi and try to convice i spent 2 months during the white nights in that apt, but noone will belive me. And the fact that there was a jacuzzi and a sauna in it, even less likely.

Nov 10 - Nov 15

2008-11-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

- Monday: presentation on Russia's Outward Investments and the effect of the finanical crisis on its development (had to stay up all night reading up on case studies and trying to understand why russians like to buy things abroad)

- Won 2 tickets for the American Dome Cinema: hopefully will go and see the new bond movie

- Tuesday: first meeting with Apollon Davidson

- Dacha Trip this weekend!

Fidel is Gone!!

2008-07-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

4th of July, 2008
Friday night, hungry for something to do, I went to see Andrew Roth and Hart at Fidel, the trash bar on Dumskaya. As the days in St. Pete are ticking away, I wanted to get as much out of the nightlife as I could.

Right after work, I went for a run in Marsovoe Polye with Dima, which was quite pleasant, but Dima started hurting again in his spleen so we had to go back earlier. That night we also switched out room. Moving out of my palace like room with a private jacuzzi and tv was painful, but the room i was moving to wasn't that bad either.

Although Dima agreed to go out with me to see our friends at Fidel's he ended up disappearing at the last minute and goiing MIA for the whole night. I think about 12 people tried to reach him that night, but to no avail.

I went straight to Fidel, meeting up with Tiffany on the way there. As we were entering Fidel, the racist bouncer recognized me and congratulated me on it being 4th of july. Not my favorite person to talk to, I felt espcially weirded out when I walked in with Tiffany.
Andrew and Hart pulled up shortly and we hit off pretty well. I had a white russian, which looked like milk, for which i got teased the entire night. Pretty soon after, I wanted to head out and see some other places, so we decided to hit up City Bar.

2007-10-16T18:25:00.001-07:00

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