Missing Immigrants: How Trump Can Sink US Housing

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 2/26/2017 03:59:00 PM
The American Dream: Immigrants not welcome by order of Donald Trump. A climate of fear has descended among recent immigrants to the United States. Amid fears that they may be soon be deported or otherwise discriminated against for some trumped-up reason--like being Muslim--many are becoming increasingly reluctant to become first-time homeowners. Insofar as a fairly significant share of these homeowners are immigrants, the US housing market may soon be experiencing the consequences of Trump's xenophobia and general misanthropy: President Donald Trump’s immigration policies threaten to crack a foundation of the American...
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Proton's End? (Malaysia's Failed Auto Nat'l Champion)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 2/22/2017 05:51:00 PM
It's time to let Proton go, Mahathir Mohamad. Proton is the archetypal "infant industry" that never grew up. The pet project of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Proton was intended to be a national champion automaker able to duke it out with foreign competition. The problem is, even behind various protections and subsidies, Proton has never really made the cut. Bouncing around from state to private ownership, one thing has been consistent: it has lots of money over the decades. It now appears that the end of the road nears for Proton as France's Peugeot Citroen and China's Geely are investigating buying...
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Calexit Lite: Silicon Valley Starts Packing for Vancouver

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 2/21/2017 02:04:00 PM
Where to head after Trump's Hicksville, USA invades Silicon Valley. Nearly everyone knows that California has leaned more Democratic in recent times, causing widespread bafflement there about Donald Trump's presidential election victory insofar as his opponent, Hillary Clinton, won the state by more than 4.2 million votes. Unsurprisingly, there is a renewed call for California to secede from the union. Not only is it fundamentally misaligned with Trump's misanthropic, misogynistic, and xenophobic vision, but it also is a net contributor to the finances of the United States of America. Hence the proposed referendum for California...
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Berlin Wall Redux: Asylum Seekers at US-Canada Border

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 2/19/2017 04:40:00 PM
Fleeing Trump's USA: Royal Canadian Mounted Police help Sudanese refugees reach a civilized nation. During the Cold War, the fulcrum upon which the world seemed to hinge was the Berlin Wall. It symbolized the division between socialist repression and democratic freedom insofar as those attempting to cross from East to West Germany literally risked their lives to escape tyranny. Nowadays, it seems a leading exponent of state-sponsored tyranny is the United States, now led by a racist-protectionist-isolationist who would like nothing more than detain, harass or deport people unlucky enough to have been born elsewhere. The...
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Without U(S): Canada, EU & Mantle of Global Leadership

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 2/16/2017 03:27:00 PM
Fancy that; some people still believe in liberal ideals like concluding free trade agreements. First off, against all odds, the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement [CETA] is as good as done after European parliamentary approval. In the face of Brexit and Donald "Build the Wall" Trump--killer of the Trans-Pacific Partnership--we have an honest-to-goodness free trade agreement being concluded. Remember those? If I recall correctly, they involve removing remaining barriers to international trade between two or more countries...by reducing tariffs, for instance. Just one trade deal and the Canadians and Europeans...
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'Trump ETF'? WisdomTree Global ex-Mexico Equity Index

♠ Posted by Emmanuel at 2/14/2017 05:42:00 PM
Santa Muerte: If you think Mexican stocks are good as dead, there's an ETF investing everywhere else. There's an exchange traded fund (ETF) for almost everything. Do you think cyber security is the next big thing? Invest in one of the ETFs which put money into cyber security firms. Do you want to invest in an ethical ETF? There are--count em!--32 of these socially responsible funds which don't put money into alcohol, tobacco, defense, and so forth. Think of any sort of investment objective preference or objective out there and there is probably an ETF out there for you. Now, the current US president is well-known...
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Can Singapore Land Saudi Aramco (Mother of All IPOs)?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 2/08/2017 05:59:00 PM
Make it big: Singapore competes for Saudi Aramco's $100B IPO listing. Us Southeast Asians have been closely following the possibility--however remote--of the Singapore Exchange [SGX] landing the biggest IPO of recent times. Saudi Aramco indicated a few months back that it intends to make a public listing. Aramco being the world's largest state-owned oil company, the sums involved will make your head spin with $$$ signs. Not one to pass up a once-in-a-generation opportunity, Singapore has been courting the Saudis assiduously: The island nation is studying proposals including inviting one of its state investment companies...
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Hey Trump, Japanese Buy Foreign Cars (Just Not US Ones)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 2/05/2017 12:17:00 PM
Japanese failing to buy hulking left-hand drive American gas guzzlers = protectionism according to the imbecile Trump. Close links between Japanese business and government are the stuff of legend. This week, Shinzo travels to the United States to press the interests of Japanese automobile manufacturers in the face of President Trump's reflexive protectionism. Remember, he's already made a previous visit to Trump Tower shortly after Trump's election victory. Perhaps sensing this was not enough, Japan Inc. has sent Abe Stateside again: Honda has expressed hopes that a visit to the US next week by Shinzo Abe, the Japanese...
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Did Trump Finish Off Asian Export-Led Development?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 2/03/2017 06:06:00 PM
Is it really a whole new world? If there's any such thing as a premature call, then it's probably to label Asian export-led development "dead" because of anticipated Trump-led US protectionism. As goes America, so goes the world, some think: When the US shuts its borders to trade, that's all she wrote. However, I would argue that saying that a process that's made any number of Asian countries immeasurably better off is over is way too early. To make a baseball analogy, we're only in the first inning of the Trump horror show. Consider the following: Trump hasn't even hit Asian countries with massive tariffs yet; Even if...
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Frankfurt or Dublin? Banks Flee Post-Brexit London

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 2/01/2017 02:45:00 PM
And they're off! London-based financial institutions have begun indicating jobs-at-risk from Brexit. The UK's self-inflicted wound called "Brexit" has not gone unnoticed by other European financial centers keen on picking up some banking-related employment and revenues. For the UK to dismember its largest industry just like that is senseless, and there is no shortage of those wanting to take advantage of the situation. With the loss of passporting rights allowing seamless trading with EU countries seemingly inevitable, the race for a new EU financial center to supplant London is on--preferably one that *actually* uses the...
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