Category Archives: Money

“60% of […] Chinese people with assets over 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) were either thinking about emigrating or taking steps to do so.”

This leaked out onto the Ruetres wire yesterday afternoon: 15:37 08Feb12 RTRS-HOLD-UPDATE 1-Lenovo Q3 net profit // slows for 3rd straight quarter (Adds quotes, details) * Q3 results up XX pct to hit record * Weak Europe demand, Thai floods … Continue reading →

The country that gave us bubbles in equities, jade, paintings, shares in paintings, table salt, fermented tea, fake French wine, 19th-century stamps and silver is now inflating a bubble in – hold your nose - dead-caterpillar fungus. The price of a pound of the fungus (which grows in the brain … Continue reading →

In the eighties, it was Aussie farmers. In 1998, it was Indonesian noodle makers. In 2008, it was Icelandic car-buyers and Chinese steelmakers. In 2010, it was Hungarian homeowners. In 2011-12, it’s Indian car-makers. Yep, foreign currency loan explosions are back. … Continue reading →

The buried lede in today’s news seems to be the rapid collapse of the Iranian rial. The official central bank peg is currently USDIRR 11,240, but the black-market rate has been slowly ticking higher for months – and in the last … Continue reading →

“…and then in October, it all suddenly… died.” The Aussie retail sector has been in dire straits lately. The economy is chugging along nicely – GDP growth is running in the mid-to-high 2s, inflation is in the mid-3s, and terms … Continue reading →

Unless you read the Straits Times (and my deepest sympathies if you do), Sunshine Empire might be the biggest ponzi scheme you’ve never heard of. Between 2003 and late 2007, the company took in more than $180 million from investors … Continue reading →

“The economy,” says Charlie Brooker in his year-in-review column for Vegan Socialist Daily, “is just a series of satirically huge numbers scrolling across the screen while a voiceover recites the words ‘brink … precipice … abyss … void … ‘ over … Continue reading →

Singapore has abruptly jacked up the buyer’s stamp duty on houses, in a desperate attempt to suppress skyrocketing residential prices: 10% on every house for all foreign buyers and companies; 3% for permanent residents buying a second or subsequent house; and 3% … Continue reading →