Taiwan and Indiana

About a month ago, our firm, The MEK Group, was privileged to co-host a private reception for ranking Taiwan diplomatic officials from Chicago with Barnes & Thornburg. Indianapolis is a sister city of Taiwan's capital, and Mayor Greg Ballard was kind enough to drop by.

What struck me again was the true international elements inherent in the city, which I once cheerfully abandoned in 1976 for a 20-year stint in agency and academic life in southern California.

Senior representatives from Lilly, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), CB Richard Ellis and other Indy based companies all easily conversed at length about major global trends and their impact on the Hoosier state. John Aplin, a notable senior venture capitalist, recounted his role in starting up the first MBA program in the 1980s in China when he was part of the Indiana University business faculty.

If you want to know how important Taiwan really is both to the United States and Indiana, run a Google search on the M1 and M2 U.S. money supply, and see how many good old American greenbacks reside in that little Asian nation.