Death Wish 6: Tsipras, Greek Financial Suicide Co-Pilot

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/30/2015 01:30:00 AM
Hitch a ride with the infantile Tsipras. Andreas Lubitz, the suicidal Germanwings co-pilot who crashed an Airbus A320 into the French Alps, has understandably gone down in infamy for his actions. Suicide is bad enough from the perspective of any number of major world religions, but taking another 149 lives with you is much, much worse. I was reminded of the Lubitz episode when Greece's amateur-grade pinko of a "leader," Alexis Tsipras, engaged in financial suicide that took the entire Greek nation to an unknown, likely morbid, fate. You see, like Lubitz practicing how to plunge a jetliner to its grave, Tsipras had premeditated...
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Investment Roadshow: 'Fight ISIS, Buy Kurdistan Bonds'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/29/2015 01:30:00 AM
Invest in the peshmerga, the brave fighters of ISIS--buy Kurdistan bonds. Among more adventurous "investments" I've covered in the recent past, Ukraine bonds are among the choice picks insofar as literally fighting anti-Western forces are concerned. With yields north of, oh, 50%, they are factoring in a substantial reduction in the value of these bonds as Ukraine's "government" is literally fighting for its life. But, here's some good news if you're having doubts about investing in Ukraine: Try some Kurdistan bonds.  I have portrayed the Kurds as the only real good guys in Iraq as they fend off ISIS, a rapacious...
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Corporate America Buys Fast Track Authority

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 6/27/2015 01:30:00 AM
 Fast-track's passage was more or less bought. We have come full circle on trade at the end of Barack Obama's second term as the American president. Campaign Mode Obama circa 2008 adopted some pretty nasty anti-trade rhetoric. As I noted so many years ago, this tactic is standard fare for Democratic candidates for president to gain the support of or at least silence staunchly isolationist elements in their party like labor unionists. Once they enter office, however, they ditch these patsies and reveal...their true pro-trade agenda. And so it's happened with the passage of fast-track authority. With no further votes...
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Will the Party 'Save' China's Imploding Stock Markets?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/26/2015 01:13:00 PM
Fried chicken...or fried rat? That's the real question about what's in Chinese stocks. There's been a silly controversy about a customer who found a rat-shaped piece in a KFC order. As it turned out, the piece was only rat-shaped but was wholly chicken meat. For some reason, this episode reminded me about the debate about corporate governance issues among PRC-listed firms: How much disclosure is being provided by these firms? Moreover, is Chinese-style accounting to be trusted? Explaining why he didn't invest in PRC-listed assets, famed investor Bill Gross called them the "mystery meat" of the financial world for this very...
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Will Obama Boycott (Now PRC-Owned) Waldorf-Astoria?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/25/2015 01:30:00 AM
Reds' listening devices under the bed at the now Chinese-owned New York Waldorf-Astoria? One of the best-known hotels in the world is the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Its fame stems from world leaders, celebrities, and movers and shakers in the world of business patronizing this venerable institution for decades. A source of its renown has been American presidents staying there whenever in the Big Apple. Like, for instance, while delivering addresses at the United Nations. If only these rooms could speak, they could tell us about persons who have shaped our world. Consider the presidential suite: The Waldorf Towers,...
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Trade Agreement-Signing Competition: US vs. China

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/24/2015 01:30:00 AM
US, China race to sign preferential trade deals...which exclude the other. With the WTO Doha Round safely written off--it's so stale that even the obituaries declaring it dead date to 2012--another "great game" has preoccupied the great (trading) powers. Aside from being the two largest economies in the world, the US and China are also its two largest traders in goods and services. Paying no heed to the notion of "trade diversion," both are racing to sign preferential trade agreements with any and all comers--except each other, that is. As it so happens, Laura He has an interesting description of this contest to ink PTAs...
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Climate Clash of Titans: Pope Francis vs. ExxonMobil

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/22/2015 01:30:00 AM
On climate change, oil and gas companies are pretty much in the same position nowadays that tobacco companies were in regard to smoking's adverse health effects during the Fifties. Just as cigarette makers denied any link between smoking and lung cancer, certain energy firms like to downplay that man-made climate change is occurring. Bloomberg has an interesting story regarding how Pope Francis' forthcoming visit to the United States is prompting Americans to sway them to their positions on social and, yes, environmental issues. Last week, Pope Francis of course released his long-awaited encyclical on mankind's responsibility...
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I [Heart] Comedy: Russia 'Rescuing' Greece; Other Idiocies

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/19/2015 02:44:00 PM
"Psst...Tsipras! I've got you covered if you really want to finish off Greece." I am utterly entertained by the idea that Russia can help bail out Greece. True, the so-called Greek "socialist" government full of Burberry scarf-wearing and Paris Match magazine-hogging amateurs threaten Western European powers by cottoning up to Vladimir Putin. Still, the idea of Greece becoming a Russian satellite is definitely among the more amusing Syriza rants including asking for WWII reparations from Germany and styling the IMF as a criminal organization. (Remind me to try that last one on people I borrow money from in the future.) Let's...
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Can Mrs. Clinton Fix US Via German-Style Apprenticeships?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/17/2015 03:57:00 PM
Apprenticeships for the jobless youth: after eight wasted years, it may at last be Clinton Part III. After engaging in a fair bit of America-bashing now and then, you may be surprised that I have a rather positive view of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Efforts to tar Bill Clinton before his first term made me to believe that he was a draft-dodging womanizer--which, actually, he is. But, guess what? On more substantive things--generating economic growth and putting the United States on a more internationalist path--it's very hard for me to fault Bill Clinton. By the same token, I think of Missus Clinton as an accomplished person...
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Ukraine vs. Franklin Templeton Investments, Round 77

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/16/2015 01:30:00 AM
A lot off the top, a lot off the side: Ukraine seeks to give its creditors a sizable haircut. The unprecedented example of IMF lending to a country in the midst of civil war demonstrates US influence even now at the institution. If you are on America's side, the IMF will find all sorts of loopholes for you...but even if it means screwing over US investment concerns? At the moment, Ukraine is in rather worse financial straits than Greece, which at least is not in any danger of dismemberment. Yet, there are two conflicting interests with regard to the American treatment of Ukraine. On one hand, it wishes to keep the (American-recognized)...
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Incarceration Nation: Invest in US Private Prisons?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/15/2015 12:24:00 PM
Their "customers" are all outfitted in Guantanamo orange. Care to invest? With interest rates set to rise in the United States, it is difficult for folks to figure out where to invest. Bonds tend to go down in price as interest rates rise. While stocks may be less averse to interest rate rises, making the cost of money dearer results in greater difficulty funding their purchase, and stocks also face headwinds as a result. Consider, then, a somewhat different investment that falls somewhere between bonds and stocks in real estate investment trusts (REITs). REITs provide their holders with income from real estate-related...
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Can You Spare a Quadrillion? Zimbabwean $'s End

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/12/2015 11:03:00 AM
Legal tender not acceptable anywhere; this reality is simply being formalized. It's the end of an era as Comrade Bob Mugabe's pipe dream of a currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, goes to the Great Printing Press in the Sky. For quite some time after its bout with hyperinflation, Zimbabwe has effectively been a [US] dollarized and [South African] rand-ized economy. With no faith left in the Zimbabwean dollar, most "real" transactions have been conducted with foreign exchange. To no one's real surprise, Zimbabwe's finance officials--surely a fun job, if there ever was one--have declared that they will soon discontinue the laughingstock...
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Why Greece Can't "Wawrinka" Its Creditors

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/11/2015 01:30:00 AM
Greece has no equivalent to Wawrinka's "Shorts of Doom." Over the weekend, I watched the 2015 men's final at the French Open pitting world #1 Novak Djokovic [Serbia] against world #8 Stan "The Man" Wawrinka [Suisse]. Like everyone else, I expected the Serbian great to trounce Wawrinka, but the latter had other things in mind. Looking ever-so-ridiculous in pink boxer shorts pictured above, Wawrinka's incredible serve and pinpoint backhand nevertheless gave the world's best player a lesson in grand slam tennis he will not soon forget. The prospect of losing a French Open for the third time--this time to some dork wearing...
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Hopeless America: Firms Spend On Buybacks, Not Capex

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 6/09/2015 01:30:00 AM
American firms don't dare invest in America...so why should you? There is no clearer sign that Americans don't believe in America than US corporations electing to give earnings back to shareholders or buy back stock than to invest those earnings. However, this pattern has been evident Stateside ever since the global financial crisis. Firms simply refuse to make outlays that may have once promised to increase output in the future. Why would firms decide to return money to shareholders or buy back stock instead of making productive investments? The only logical explanation is that the US economy has prospects poor enough...
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Space Geopolitics: Why ISS is Off-Limits to Chinese

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/08/2015 01:30:00 AM
Chinese, keep out! Aboard the (reds-free) "International" Space Station. In an age of specialization, there's an academic journal for everything. Did you know there's one entitled Space Policy? I've written something for Transport Policy, but I haven't reached the final frontier (yet). At any rate, I may be inspired to do so after reading this fascinating article in TIME concerning why the International Space Station (ISS) remains off-limits to Chinese astronauts (or taikonauts to use the Chinese term for these folks). Is it because of the perceived "rivalry" between the US and China? [T]he International Space Station...
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How Much Can the US Gain from Going Metric?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 6/05/2015 01:30:00 AM
Soak the rich? Eliminate ISIS? Hope? Change? Heck no...let's go metric! As a lover of fringe candidates, I gleefully note that former Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island) is running for the Democratic nomination. So it's not quite Dick Cheney running for the Communist Party of the USA nomination, but hey, it'll have to do in 2015. Most international readers are probably asking themselves, "Who is Lincoln Chafee?" Which, of course, is a fair observation insofar as he was not exactly the most international public official during his days in office. But, that may changing. Can you imagine a more quixotic platform to run...
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Era's End: Japanese Stop Making 'Galapagos Phones'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/04/2015 01:30:00 AM
Actually, the flip phone won't die in Japan, just the proprietary OS. The "Galapagos Syndrome" is the term coined to describe standards and technologies that have emerged only in Japan, not to spread to the rest of the world. This, of course, draws from the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador that have hosted wildlife not found in the rest of the world. The "Galapagos Syndrome" is a negative term denoting how Japan has, in recent years, become quite insular in developing consumer products. Whereas Japan was once an exporting powerhouse, some believe that it has become increasingly inward-looking. It's a downscaling of expectations:...
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American Hegemony in Sports: Blatter's a Goner

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/02/2015 07:16:00 PM
Making too many enemies in high places, Blatter was brought down. After a lot of huffing and puffing, it's finally come down to this: After Sepp Blatter's trusted lieutenant Jerome Valcke was reportedly embroiled in a $10M slush fund scandal, it was probably only a matter of time before prosecutors pinned Blatter down. As slippery as he's been. Blatter likely recognizes that the game was up. With so many powerful enemies--the US, UK, and the rest of Europe for starters--he would be implicated sooner or later. Rather than try to put out fires raging all across FIFA as this and that official is charged in addition to running...
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