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Bolivian Gas
My guess is that most readers of this blog don’t have a whole lot invested in Bolivia. At least I hope not. The nationalization of its gas fields by the Morales government today is a sobering reminder that things can go wrong in emerging markets and when they do, they can be ugly. From WSJ [...]
Currency Confusion
Bloomberg’s wrap-up of last night’s Japan trading notes that exporters such as Canon and Sony fell as the yen strengthened vs. the dollar.
This seems perfectly reasonable. As Bloomberg explains:
A stronger yen makes Japanese exporters’ products less competitive and reduces the value of companies’ overseas earnings when converted back into local currency.
This is classic International Economics [...]
Dumb and Dumber
The Sunday Business section in today’s New York Times has a story on currency funds, which are getting a lot of attention these days along with general concern about the U.S. dollar.
The Franklin Templeton Hard Currency fund (ICPHX) is the oldest and largest of this species.
As the Times explains:
It [ICPHX] is generally designed to rise [...]
“Draft” Day
American football is slowly catching on overseas, especially in Europe. The NFL Draft, which is taking place today in New York, remains uniquely American. We are the only nation on earth that spends an entire weekend glued to the television watching 20-something kids talk on cell phones in what amounts to the world’s most popular [...]
Sony’s stumble
Sony took a beating overnight in Tokyo and its U.S.-listed shares are reflecting that today, down about 4% on disappointment with the company’s latest earnings report.
I could be wrong on this, but I still believe very strongly in the Sony turnaround story. It will not be easy, though, and it will take some time.
In some [...]
Chinese Lesson
In the current issue of Vanity Fair, Al Gore kicks off an essay on global warming by shining the spotlight on a classic linguistic blunder:
Clichés are, by definition, overused. But here is the rare exception–a certifiable cliché that warrants more exposure, because it carries meaning deeply relevant to the biggest challenge our civilization has ever [...]
Commodities for Dummies
I begin each morning looking at two screens. While one eye checks out CNBC, the other is on the computer, scanning all headlines related to companies I’m watching for the Forbes International Investment Report. The subject matter on these two screens is almost never the same.
Today, for example, I spent much of the early hours [...]
The “Gong” Show
A few Late Edition thoughts on today’s events at the White House. I spent most of the day configuring “The Terminator”, my new Dell desktop, so I was unable to provide much fresh commentary. I also had a few technical problems with the site, but thanks to my man Matt Rand I am back in [...]
Great Leap Backward
China’s steel industry group is apparently upset with a proposed iron ore price increase of 24% from Brazilian producer CVRD. The Brazilian company’s request was recently described by the China Iron and Steel Association as “inappropriate”, “not rational” and “unacceptable”.
Funny, I would use exactly those same words to describe the latest news that China’s General [...]
India 101
One country, three perspectives. India explained by a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a CEO and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. All required reading for anyone remotely interested in India.
Amartya Sen. The Argumentative Indian. (New York: FSG, 2005.)
The Guru’s Guru. It just doesn’t get much better than this. No hot stock tips in here, just BIG ideas on [...]
