We are now in 2012 and there are plenty of talks in the mainstream media about a possible hand-landing for the Chinese economy. In today’s article, we shall not go too deep into the details. This article by Paul Krugman explains the mainstream thinking very well. Nevertheless, despite the mainstream speculation of a possible hard landing, the financial markets are still pencilling in a soft landing. This may change as more data is released to indicate otherwise.
We don’t dispute Paul Krugman’s thesis of why a hard landing is coming. In fact, as we read his articles, we find his argument familiar- in fact, they seem to come from Michael Pettis, a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. We read his articles regularly for insights, along with Patrick Chovanec’s. Even our favourite contrarian, Marc Faber is echoing warnings that while all eyes are looking at Europe’s problems, China may surprise on the downside.
No
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All around the globe, anxious markets are waiting to find out how the Greek crisis will play out. With every day, comes another media report of dire economic news – this something that didn’t happen or that something which did. It is now all rushing toward a March dénouement, when some €14.5 billion worth of Greek sovereign bonds are due to mature. It will either culminate with a bang or a bust, though quite a few economists are sure it will be the latter.
Right now, the negotiations between the Greek government and their private bondholders is at an impasse of sorts. Greece’s private creditors say they cannot “voluntarily” accept any additional losses even as they now consider taking losses of as much as 70%. Some economi
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Specialist lifestyle insurance provider Protect your bubble have snapped up two awards in the prestigious The Money Awards, in the Best Start Up and Best Use of Social Media categories.
The Money Awards were set up to recognise and celebrate businesses and individuals within the Finance industries, and Protect your bubble (who offer lifestyle insurance products such as gadget, life, travel and pet insurance etc) stood out from their competitors in these two categories.
The Judging Panel said: “What really separates Protect your bubble from their competition is how they aren’t afraid to try anything in order to promote name and brand awareness, while providing exceptional customer services and good value products.
“Within just three years they have grown exponentially, from being a start up to becoming a recognised brand name that has a year on year growth of 100%.”
Commenting on their use of social media, the Judges added: “Protect your bubble go above and beyond what most insurance companies do, providing personal, 24/7 support via their social media channels and they seize opportunities, with research and development being pivotal to their success. They real
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Maintaining the attempt to keep these pieces upbeat for a full week, today we are happy to announce that the level of unemployment in Germany has fallen to its lowest level in the nation’s modern history.
At the end of the Second World War, Churchill described the ideological schism between eastern and western Europe as an Iron Curtain which had fallen across the continent, dividing the capitalist, democratic west from the communist countries of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations. It took almost fifty years before the curtain was finally lifted and a seminal act in this process was the fall o the Berlin wall and subsequent re-unification of Germany which had been splintered into East and West Germany in the embers of the war.
West Germany was the poster boy of post war success, but the same could not be said of East Germany which had fared badly under communism. W
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It is widely believed that Germany’s fiscal position is the strongest in Europe and that it is the pillar of the Euro-zone.
Then something unexpected happened last week.
The German government could not borrow all the money it needed! Well, not at the currently low interest rates, at least. What if the financial market realizes that Germany’s fiscal position is actually worse than the United States? Kyle Bass, the manager of a hedge fund called Hayman Capital, who made millions by gambling against sub-prime mortgage bond market, explains…
Rebecca Whiffin from Ultimate MSD celebrated her 10th year in business with a fund raising event at the Innovation Centre in Rochester, Kent. It was great to see some familiar faces as well as meet some new and inspiring business people too – plus raise £350 for a very worthy cause Demelza House Hospice.
The event was hosted by Affinity Wealth Solutions Ltd and also celebrated a joint venture between Ultimate MSD and Ian Barratt Consulting.
There was a real mix of business people and some great new contacts were made. It
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Recently, we received an email from one of our readers:
Just wondering if you’d like to touch on possible investment ideas for hedging australian real estate?
I’ve had a look at puts on the banks before but the banks have mortgage insurance along with an implied guarentee from the gov so I was thinking that while their may be some correlation, it may not be as high as one would like when the chips are down.
As such any other possible hedging ideas would be appreciated, ideally it would have to be highly leveraged to act as a suitable hedge.
Looking at other places that suffered a debt/property collapse with a low housing supply may be a good place to start? (UK?)
Today, we will talk about this topic. We haven’t talked about Australian property for quite a long time. But you can read through our old archives and know where we stand on this topic. Also,
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The Roth IRA is an individual Retirement Account that allows investment of post tax income so that they can grow tax free, the page, roth-ira.org would tell you more about this. On the other hand a 401k allows investment of pretax income which can then grow tax deferred. The two have certain advantages over each other.
401k:
It emerged in early 80s as an alternative to pensions. It is open to all, irrespective of their income, but its characteristics make it more favorable to the higher income individuals. Read more…
If the Euro was a patient, there’d be a team of doctors dancing around its body with defibrillators in hand, earnestly trying to get a stable pulse out of its heart. In medical terms, the Euro is defibrillating; the heart is beating, but there is little useful output. The surgeons are not acting as a team and views on how best to treat the patient vary from lengthy bed rest through amputation of an infected extremity (Greece) to ripping the heart of the patient and trying an experimental organ.
Oddly enough, the patient (the Euro) has been doing better recently whilst those charged with its care prevaricate. The damage from the last chapter of sovereign debt jitters dropped the Euro from the 1.45 level against the US Dollar in late August, to 1.318 at the depths of the crisis earlier this month. Whilst the experts have dithered, the Euro has recovered to stand at 1.3828 as of yesterday. I
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