What Church Should Catholic Climate Deniers Join?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/30/2015 01:30:00 AM
Marco Rubio, other American climate change deniers should bear the US flag at SSPX's get-togethers. The past two popes have been firmly ensconced in the green camp. That is not to say that there are any number of Catholic climate change deniers. Oftentimes two things go together: conservatism and climate change denial. I myself am of the "reluctant environmentalist" stripe: Sure I'd love to consume fossil fuels and throw away non-biodegradable petrochemical-based products with reckless abandon. However, as a reasonable person mindful of the impact of my way of life and how it affects others as well as future generations,...
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Should UK Kick Out--and HK Welcome--HSBC?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 4/29/2015 01:30:00 AM
Parting is such unsentimental indifference. Following up on the previous post on HSBC airing the possibility of leaving London for Hong Kong, various pundits have offered their opinions on who would benefit and who would lose out from this mooted move. After all, it is not everyday that the world's second-largest bank in terms of assets at a $2.723 trillion says it's upping sticks. HSBC shares listed in Hong Kong and London have jumped quite a bit in the expectation that more capital could be freed up by less onerous regulations in Hong Kong, but we'll have to see about that. In the meantime, ponder some comments. The...
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Yanis Varoufakis: Rise of the Econocomedian

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/28/2015 01:30:00 AM
The real Varoufakis needs to work on the pectoral definition, though. I have previously commented on the sartorial bankruptcy of Greece's leaders to complement their financial bankruptcy. Apparently, though, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis sets new standards in these respects. At the end of last week, the funkily-attired and attitudinally-challenged civil servant got a severe dressing down from his EU peers over his seemingly autistic approach to negotiations. As a "game theorist," he should have recognized the game the EU is playing since it holds all the cards: It's called Now I've Got You, You SOB - When Yanis Varoufakis...
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Leaving London: HSBC Returns to Hong Kong?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/27/2015 01:30:00 AM
The once and future home of HSBC? It may seem odd that the "Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation" or, more broadly, HSBC Holdings is headquartered in Canary Wharf, not in Hong Kong or Shanghai. However, the name does not suggest the place in the case of the British banking giant since it's been UK-based since 1993 after its purchase of Midland Bank and when there were doubts as to what the PRC would do after the 1997 takeover of Hong Kong. Most readers should be familiar with HSBC embroiling itself with nearly every financial scandal possible in recent years. A laundry list of fines have thus been levied on the bank,...
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Intervenzione: HK Monetary Authority Peg Defenders

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/24/2015 01:30:00 AM
These are the days defending the HKD peg. All manner of currency pegs are being assaulted nowadays by speculators. A few days back we discussed the Danish krone coming under sustained assault but the authorities there successfully defending its link to the euro. But, here in Asia, there's another peg that some are betting will not withstand an attack: the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar. Since 1983--a long time ago when Hong Kong was still a British colony--the monetary authority there pegged HKD 7.8 / USD 1. Having withstood the Asian financial crisis as other currencies in the region plummeted in value, Hong Kong has...
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Cold War II, Really: EU Sues Gazprom for Antitrust

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 4/23/2015 01:30:00 AM
Is it just me or is Schalke 04 having Gazprom as its sponsor similar to having an "I [HEART] SATAN'S WORKS" jersey?  I had rolled my eyes over the hyperbole about the current freeze in Russia-Western relations being "Cold War II"--until now, that is. Activist EU regulators have long been accused of being busybodies: first with the Microsoft case (which resulted in much ado about nothing) and now, interestingly enough, Microsoft prodding the EU to do something about Google's dominance in cell phone operating systems via Android and its bundling of various apps. To me it's an open-and-shut case of Microsoft's OS being...
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China's Enduring War on the Bourgeois Sport of Golf

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 4/22/2015 01:30:00 AM
Seen an apparatchik thereabouts? Call 1-888-JAIL-CORRUPT-OFFICIALS. It's good to know that some things never change: Despite China turning more capitalist than many Western nations in terms of the sheer rapaciousness tolerated and even encouraged by its leaders, there are unspeakable evils that remain...like, er, golf. Last year, an FT journalist Dan Washburn even wrote a well-regarded book on this very topic. By offering three vignettes on the grey area golfing entrepreneurs operate in, he provided fascinating insights into how the sport is still linked to vice despite the "anything goes" attitude that pervades Chinese...
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Denmark is Victorious Defending the Krone: IMF

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 4/21/2015 01:30:00 AM
Welcome to scenic--and financially secure--Denmark. I don't know what to make of this news for reasons I can briefly explain: The IMF has been among the international organizations at the forefront of liberalizing exchange rates. That is, changing the world's remaining fixed exchange rate regimes into floating ones has been part of its longstanding advocacy since flexible rates supposedly work better in adjusting to global economic conditions and in dealing with economic shocks. On a paper concerning exchange rates, IMF orthodox is pretty much summed up when the authors ask how, when and how fast countries should adopt...
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Pol Eco of Japan's Prisons Turned Nursing Homes

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/20/2015 01:30:00 AM
Elderly doing crime for prison's food, shelter, and--indeed--companionship. There's a heartbreaking story that's received much airtime in US media concerning the notes a third-grade teacher received after she asked her often underprivileged students to complete the phrase "I wish my teacher knew..." Not to be outdone, an arguably even sadder story appeared in Bloomberg (of all places) concerning the aging of Japanese society that had me reaching for the handkerchief. Having a keen research interest in dealing with aging societies--I have written a short commentary on the migration of health care workers to Japan that should...
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Latin Left Loses at Summit of the Americas

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 4/17/2015 01:30:00 AM
The only real question is: What took you guys so long? The first-time-ever participation of Cuba at the recently-concluded Summit of the Americas will probably be remembered for helping end insensibly prolonged Cold War mentalities and being a massive photo-op for Raul Castro and Barack Obama besides [see above picture]. That said, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tried his best to make it another America-bashing festival that it's usually been in years past. Not that he was alone: Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa foretold the imminent American invasion of Venezuela: “We were all very pleased to see the reconciliation...
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More PRC Zaniness: HK Market Cap Surpasses Japan's

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/16/2015 01:30:00 AM
Is Hong Kong now in thrall to China's stock market bubble? Let me reconstruct this bubble-tastic story for you that's transferred from China to Hong Kong now: With China's economic growth slowing down relatively speaking to 7% in Q1 2015 and exports down 15% year-on-year in March, you'd expect stock markets there to cool down, too. But no, PRC stock markets are hitting highs day after day nowadays as a mania is taking hold. The "bubble" term is being aptly deployed as unsophisticated PRC retail investors pile in amid a clear economic downturn: Chinese stocks and economic growth have long had little to do with each other....
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Vietnam's Casinos Welcome All (Except Vietnamese)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/15/2015 01:00:00 AM
Macau-Upon-Mekong: Champagne wishes and caviar dreams in Vietnam. As a longtime supporter of legalizing online gambling Stateside and a follower of the global industry, I am clearly not one of those who disavow the activity over dubious "moral" grounds. It's in human nature to take a wager, and who am I to stop others from doing so when I am not negatively affected? Pretty much the same logic has been adopted by governments all over the world: Why don't we legalize gambling and bolster government revenues in the process? It sounded like a perfectly good strategy--way back when there were still taboos in most places on gambling....
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Air India, From Losing Money to Pilot Fisticuffs

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 4/14/2015 01:30:00 AM
Captain said knock you out: aboard not-so-amazing Air India. Oh dear, these national carriers keep coming to our attention with their unprofitability and headline-grabbing incidents. After Malaysia Airlines and Lufthansa, we now have India's flag-bearer, Air India. Like the two others mentioned earlier, Air India is saddled with "legacy" costs being the flag carrier. Moreover, militant unions will oppose any sort of rationalization or, indeed, privatization. Still, plans were mooted late last year to do just that in the face of expected opposition from vested interests despite the money-losing airline hemorrhaging cash...
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Larry Summers, 'Gross Hypocrisy' and PRC's AIIB

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,,, at 4/13/2015 01:30:00 AM
Zzzzz...Barack yaps too much...will set things straight in WaPo...zzzzz... I am utterly perplexed by this recent, bizarre op-ed by former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in the Washington Post. In many respects, he embodies negative stereotypes others (justifiably) have of Americans in general: fat, loud, self-important--and crucial for this post--hypocritical. After all, this is the same guy who turned from grand architect of financial deregulation not only in the US but also worldwide using the American bully pulpit to financial regulator in the wake of the global financial crisis. Having played a part in bringing...
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