Sinomics
Being a consumer in China is like being a laboratory mouse. The longer you stay the more sensitive you become to slight fluctuations in the prices of everyday goods, rent, or travel, and, before you know it, all you can do is debate the yo-yo that is the Chinese marketplace with anyone who’ll listen. The current bogeyman, inflation, which has pushed prices for almost everything worth buying in China—including simple commodities like rice, garlic, and apples—to levels beyond the reach of half the population, is not some freak of the market. It’s a glitch in the great, centrally-controlled Matrix of the CCP.
The Mystery of the Smuggled U.S. “Bearer” Bonds
There are few news reports these days that inspire confidence in the U.S. economy. Unemployment levels rose to a 26-year high of 9.5% in June and word of a second stimulus package (vehemently opposed by Obama) has investors balking at earnings projections and questioning whether we are in fact on the road to recovery. Amidst the worst recession since the Great Depression, a mind-boggling news story has emerged which poses questions pulled right from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel.
Red Hot Cold War
1997. Riots broke loose in the streets. Years of money streaming into the Thai economy had come to a sudden end—the baht had collapsed. The economic jolt would wipe billions out of the economy. The shockwave would rattle the surrounding economies in Southeast Asia. Billionaire investor George Soros would be held as a “Satan” by the local Thai population for what it believed was his role in bringing the crisis to a tipping point. Eventually, the disturbance to the region subsided and the economies began recovery, but the path to the next potential Cold War had begun.
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