From the monthly archives:
Inflation isn’t just a U.S. problem.
Inflation (especially for food) is also a problem in China. Consider this: McDonalds just raised prices on most of its
menu items yesterday.
It is also the second time this year that it has raised prices.
McDonalds isn’t the only company raising prices in China. KFC and Pizza Hut increased menu prices earlier [...]
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Goodyear thinks there is a mother lode of profits to be found in China and
Brazil.
“We anticipate capital investments totaling between $1 billion and $1.3 billion per year from 2008 to 2010,” said CEO
Robert Keegan.
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Here are a few
quotes from the President of Nissan Motors.
The rising prices of raw materials is the “single most important challenge facing the industry and facing
Nissan.”
“The size of the increase and the impact it has on cars is impossible to absorb. As an industry we have been
weakened by this culture of never increasing prices. [...]
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Here is a great
article that describes the intense pressure on Asian youths to excel academically.
While the article is about South Korea, the same picture happens all over Asia.
At 6:30 a.m, whistles pierced the dormitory as teachers strode down the hallways, shouting “Wake up!” Amid
cuckoo melodies and pop music, students climbed down from their beds [...]
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At least one country is serious about fighting inflation.
The Indian Central Bank raised
interest rates for the second time in two weeks. The Reserve Bank of India lifted the repurchase rate by 0.5 percentage
point to 8.5%, the biggest move since 2000, and adjusted the cash-reserve ratio by a similar margin to 8.75%
Why is our Fed being [...]
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Aetna is moving to
China!
Not exactly, but it is opening a “representative office” in Shanghai.
Cigna, UnitedHealth, and WellPoint already have offices in China and are hoping that China will help jump start their businesses.
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The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, predicts that global energy demand will grow
by 50% over the next two decades.
“Global energy demand grows despite the sustained high world oil prices that are project to persist over the long term.
Oil could cost as little as $113 a barrel or as much as [...]
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China became the second largest
consumer of oil in the world in 2003, but it has been the #3 importer of oil because of its abundant
oil discoveries in the South China Sea.
But even those rich deposits are not enough to keep up with China’s soaring demand. China has now passed Japan as the #2
importer of oil [...]
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Vietnam isn’t the only country with an inflation problem.
The Russian Federal State Statistics Service, Russian reported that producer prices jumped by 3.5% in May. That’s for
just one month!
On a year-over-year basis, wholesale inflation increased by 25.1%.
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It isn’t as bad as Vietnam or Russia, but inflation
in India is running at more than an 11% annualized rate.
Inflation is a truly a global problem.
Is your portfolio prepared for it?
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