While we have all been watching China for a decade or so, events affecting the pulp and paper have been happening with regularity in Europe. Of course, if you live in Europe, you already know this, however, for the rest of us scattered about the world, we may have been neglecting you.

Some of the particularly intriguing events and conditions are:

1. Your new source of energy—Russian natural gas
2. Friendliness of the new French government towards the United States
3. The euro—which has gone from laughingstock to being a very serious currency

Then of course, recently we have had the independence of Kosovo and the problems in Georgia. This all makes for a very interesting pot of tea, for sure.

Serendipitously to these events, I was introduced, by Tom Rodencal, to an extraordinary individual from Portugal, Jorge A. Vasconcellos e Sa, Ph.D. Jorge (he insists on my calling him this) possesses a unique perspective on many issues from business strategy to international economics to management issues.

Jorge has graciously agreed to serve as our European Editor here at PaperMoney. He will provide one article per month in the first issue of the month. We will leave it live on the website (globalpapermoney.com) all month and then it will be archived for your convenience.

So, join me in welcoming Dr. Jorge A. Vasconcellos e Sa to our team by reading his first article, found by clicking on “The View from Europe” in the left hand column.