Saturday, June 12, 2010

On Soccernomics and Peace at Work

I´m back in the newsroom at TT, for a few weeks of work while dear A is stay-at-hom-dad - he´s one of the vikinga men who has it all, according to a lovely article the other day in New York Times :)
Working is on one level very peaceful. No one messes with my stuff, I get to go to the restroom alone and I only have to feed myself at lunch. It is also really stimulating and rather intense. I´ve written stories on Ship to Gaza, Swedish telecom, BP and the environmental disaster in the Mexican gulf, American politics, next years fashion trends, the upcoming royal wedding in Stockholm - and soccer. Everyone who knows me knows that I´m NOT a football fan. But when I was assigned to write about the economic effects of the World Soccer Cup and when I found the report Soccernomics 2010 that a senior economist at the Dutch bank ABN Amro had wrote, I thought it was rather fun. Not only had the bank through careful calculations figured out which country should win in order to benefit and balance the world economy (Germany). They had also - in a dry, academic paper-writing-way - calculated which country should win if we only listen to our hearts (Cameroon or Ghana whose inhabitants are least happy and among the poorest in the world). Fascinating that economists spend their time doing this - se my story in DN here.