Welcome to my Weblog and the guide to my site

Who am I?

Hello fellow bloggers and webmongers ... I bid you welcome to my blog entitled Alpha.Sources; my name is Claus Vistesen and I am 23 years old. I am a MSc/Graduate student at the Copenhagen Business School at the Applied Economics and Finance program. In the autumn/winter 2008 to early spring 2009 I am planning a stay at the HEC Lausanne in Switzerland where I can load up on some of the more finer arts of macroeconomics. I have been online blogging since September 2005 or thereabout and already I have realized how a serious online presence really can be an asset in terms of academic work and also on a personal relationship level.

In terms of topics on Alpha.Sources I deal with just about anything which graps my interest. Particularly macroeconomics and demographics and the interaction of these really have me going at the moment. In particular I am following the European and Japanese economy. However, in the end Alpha.Sources represents a way for me to conceptualize my thoughts and views on the surrounding world, so no boxes and boundaries can be set on the content. On that note I highly cherish the somewhat loose yet vivid community of econ-bloggers and others from whom I believe I have learned a lot. It is largely because of the interaction with these people and the subsequent sharing and creation of knowledge and views that I am still posting on Alpha.Sources.   

Apart from Alpha.Sources I also do postings on the group blogs Demography.Matters, Global.Economy.Matters(GEM), Japan Economy Watch (JEW) as well as I have had a guest-posting spell on A Fistful of Euros.

Guide to the site

There is really not much in it at the moment with Alpha.Sources and Beta.Sources representing the bulk of the site. The first thing to make clear is that Alpha.Sources remains the body of the site and thus my main blog. Beta.Sources has mainly been created as a place for me put up things such as working notes for papers and articles, lists of references, etc online in blog format. Beta.Sources will thus mainly work as a container for me to put up stuff I think should be online and accessible for my own convenience primarily. However, you are more than welcome to read what I put up and also comment on it. 

The section entitled student resources is primarily used as a container I use to store notes and articles with specific relation to my work at school and interaction with fellow students. Between January and July 2007 I ran a weblog in relation to my undergraduate thesis (Undergraduate Project) which basically served as a log of the literature, notes, thoughts, etc I did in the process of my bachelor project which was be handed in the 1st of June 2007. As of July 2007 this blog has been in hiatus. As for current projects I am working together with my friend and colleague Edward Hugh in preparing a slew of papers with respect to our main research agenda which seeks to explore the effects of demographics on the general macroeconomic environment. Moreover, my master's thesis which is moving ever closer by the day will also take up the baton on this topic.  

So that was basically it for now ... I encourage you to read and comment on Alpha.Sources. I am very liberal when it comes to comments and will only rarely delete and moderate comments unless of course they are obvious spam in which case they will be deleted. I do expect however that people behave and that flaming, pissing contests as well as hot temperdness are kept to a minimum. I will try to reply to all comments and e-mails transmitted through this site and if I don't, ping me again!

Best regards

Claus Vistesen

Last updated: 27/12-2007