CRB Index Drops Most in 28 Years as Nickel, Natural Gas Tumble on Dollar Tumbling prices for natural gas, nickel and corn are turning July into the worst month in 28 years for the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Commodity Index.
U.S. Recession May Have Begun in Last Quarter of 2007.
The U.S. economy shrank at the [...]
From the monthly archives:
July 2008
Japan has half the population of the U.S. but it also has only one-third of the number of lawyers.
Many small Japanese towns have no lawyers whatsoever.
Sounds like a good problem to me.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this morning’s economic data. It stunk to high heaven. A few details:
- Q2 2008 Gross Domestic Product grew just 1.9%, below the average forecast for a 2.3% rise. Q1 2008 growth was revised down slightly to 0.9% from 1%. Moreover, Q4 2007 GDP was slashed to NEGATIVE 0.2% from [...]
Standard & Poor’s is taking the axe to its credit ratings for the major automobile manufacturers. GM, Ford Motor, and Chrysler were cut to B- from B. GM and Ford were removed from CreditWatch with negative implications as part of this move. A rating of B- is six steps below the investment grade threshold.
S&P [...]
Baskin Robbins has been operating in China (mainly Beijing) since 1993, but is now ready to aggressively expand.
There are currently 40 Baskin Robbins in China but it just signed a franchise deal with a Chinese partner to open an additional 100 stores.
Basking Robbins also operates stores in India, Japan, and Malaysia.
“China has a ravenous appetite for imported wood that knows no bounds.”
That is what the Canadian International Council said about China on the future of its timber industry.
Remember the #1 rule for making money in the next decade: “get long whatever China is buying.”
The National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC) said its macroeconomic early-warning index was 114.9, a ‘green light’ zone of economic prosperity.
The NBSC has five classifications for the economy in the macroeconomic early-warning index. With 100 as the ideal level, “red light” signifies the economy is overheated, “yellow” – somewhat hot, “green” – [...]
I said yesterday that I wasn’t interested in the China Distance Education (NYSE:DL) IPO.
Even after pricing at the low end of expectations, DL dropped by 5% on its first day of trading.
Despite earlier measures, the air pollution in Beijing remains bad.
That why the Chinese government unveiled additional emergency plans to clean up the air, including taking more cars off the roads and closing down 105 more electric, furniture, building material and chemical plants in Beijing. And halting all construction work.
The neighboring towns of [...]
Beginning in October, Taiwan will permit Chinese investors to invest in its stock market.
The total capitalization of the Taiwan stock market is around $25 billion so even a modest amount of Chinese money could send Taiwan stock soaring.
