I am visiting Haas this year and will be teaching 'European Financial
Markets' (BA 296-7, E 296-5) in the spring. Since this is a new course,
I thought I should draw it to your attention. The move to monetary union
(EMU) in Europe has created a newly integrated financial area comparable
to the US, with consequences that anyone doing business or advising
businesses in Europe needs to understand. Just consider:

'The dollar's supremacy has been challenged in the global debt markets.'
(FT, 6/14/99).  'The large funds have indulged in a frenzy of
cross-border buying...with the volume of paper launched by European
companies rising five-fold over 1998.' (FT 10/28/99)   '...a doubling of
European-based staff at Lehman Brothers, a 50% increase at SSB, and up
to 20% at other banks...follows Europe overtaking the US in M&A
activity...' (FT 10/25/99)

I shall address questions such as: How does the European Central Bank
differ from the Fed? Will the euro compete with the dollar as an
international currency? Can European capital markets challenge the US
for international portfolio managers and for non-European issuers? Will
Europe soon have serious venture capital and junk bond sectors? Will the
European banking sector experience a deep wave of cross-border
restructurings? Will there be a shift from domestic to cross-border M&A
in Europe - and will competition authorities try to restrain it? How
will the East European emerging markets fit into the picture?

If these issues interest you, I look forward to seeing you in January.

--
Richard Portes
Distinguished Global Visiting Professor
Haas School of Business
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley CA 94720-1900
Email: portes@haas.berkeley.edu
Tel. 1 510 642 8032
Fax 1 510 642 4700
(on leave from London Business School, 1999-2000)