Global Market Comments December 31, 2012 (SPECIAL CHINA ISSUE) Featured Trades: (FXI), (BIDU), (BYDDF), (CHA), (CHL) (iShares FTSE Xinhua China 25 Index ETF Wisdom Tree Dreyfus China Yuan Fund ETF iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund Baidu, Inc. BYD Co. Ltd. China Telecom Corp. China Mobile Ltd.

I normally avoid the diplomatic circuit, as the few non committal comments and soggy appetizers I get aren’t worth the investment of time. But I jumped at the chance to celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with San Francisco consul general Gao Zhansheng.   Happy Birthday China!   [...]

Global Market Comments December 28, 2012 Fiat Lux SPECIAL BATTERY ISSUE Featured Trades: (BYDDF), (SQM), (SNE), (GM), (XOM), (TSLA) BYD Co. Ltd. Sociedad Quimica Y Minera Sony Corp. General Motors Co. Exxon Mobil Corp. Tesla Motors Inc.

One hundred years from now, historians will probably date the beginning of the fall of the American Empire to 1986. That is the year President Ronald Reagan ordered Jimmy Carter’s solar panels torn down from the White House roof, and when Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping launched his secret “863” program to make his country a [...]

Every once in a while I run into a natural born trader, someone who crawls out of the crib quoting options spreads, price earnings multiples, and book values. His first spoken word was “Sell!” While other kids were practicing their ABC’s, Tim was pouring through prospectii. During his college years, Tim skipped classes and turned [...]

To the dozens of subscribers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the surrounding ships at sea, thank you for your service! I think it is very wise to use your free time to read my letter and learn about financial markets in preparation for an entry into the financial services when you muster out. Nobody is going [...]

These are indeed grim times. If you can’t make money selling Twinkies to Americans, then you better shut down, and fast. That was my conclusion on leaning that the venerable bakery company, Hostess, was liquidating in in the wake of failed union negotiations. I probably could not have made it through my Quantum Mechanics class [...]

The Middle Kingdom currently has 12 operational plants generating 12 gigawatts accounting for 2.3% of the country’s power. Another 23 are currently under construction. It plans to add ten a year for the next decade, taking them up to 70 Gigawatts by 2020, and a staggering 400 gigawatts by 2050. That’s nearly the total power [...]

Former stock trader, Yang Yanming, was recently executed by lethal injection for embezzling $9.52 million from Galaxy Securities during 1997 to 2003. The move was part of a broader effort by the Mandarins in Beijing to crack down on rampant corruption in the securities industry. Yanming never revealed where the money went, according to the [...]

The Western U.S. has found a new wrinkle in the housing collapse, where homeowners are desperately struggling to cut living costs to meet the next payments on their underwater houses. Raising horses can cost more than children, so Nevadans are turning them loose to join herds of wild mustangs, to dodge the $30,000 a year [...]

When I was growing up in Los Angles during the fifties, the most exciting day of the year was when my dad took me to buy a Christmas tree. With its semi-desert climate, Southern California offered pine trees that were scraggly at best. So the Southern Pacific Railroad made a big deal out of bringing [...]