January 30, 2010 · 5 comments
in BRIC, China, G20, G8, GDP, India, OPEC, US debt, US dollar, capitalism, currencies, emerging markets, exchange rates, foreign investment, forex, gold, government, international economy, international stock market, market trends, oil, wealth, wealth protection, wealth transfer, world order, world reserve currency
With the phenomenal growth in sovereign wealth funds over the past thirty or so years – but especially in the last ten – it’s good to stop and take a look at where this new investment phenomenon is at today in 2010.
Here’s a list of the current top 10 sovereign wealth funds around the world.* [...]
January 25, 2010 · 5 comments
in Asia, China, G20, Latin America, US economy, capitalism, central banks, economics, economy, emerging markets, foreign investment, future, international economy, politics, preparedness, protectionism, reviews, wealth transfer, world order
As soon as I saw this title on the bookshelf, it caught my eye. Since I’ve been trying to curb my spending, I just skimmed it and put it back. Well, I returned a week later and decided to buy it after skimming it again.
I’m not finished with the book yet (although it’s just a [...]
January 11, 2010 · 7 comments
in BRIC, China, G20, OPEC, capitalism, commodities, currencies, emerging markets, environment, future, international economy, investing (general), market trends, stock exchanges, sustainability, theories, wealth transfer, wealthbuilding, world order
Have you ever thought about how investing will change over the next century? What will the investment landscape look like in 2110, or even in 2080?
I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about this specific question before. But it occurred to me when I heard an analyst from London talking about what [...]
Here’s a graph showing the amount of “excess” (beyond required amounts) reserves held by U.S. banks. It covers quite a span of time, but it’s the best-looking one I found showing the relevant data. The graph also gives just a bit of sense of the extent of the unprecedented nature of money-pumping going on at [...]
June 30, 2009 · 17 comments
in agriculture, business, capitalism, commodities, economy, films, health, infrastructure, nutrition, survival
NB: As you can imagine from watching a film like Food, Inc., it can be hard to separate the emotion and just report “calmly” on the plain facts presented by the film. Originally I wrote this the same day I saw it, but I’ve since gone back and edited it to try to tone down [...]
What if “They” (the Fed, central banks, hedge fund managers, I-bankers, etc.) knew all along how bad it was going to be and the last 6-8 months have been a careful, steady public letdown, slowly leaking the info out to the market so as to hopefully attenuate the crash rather than to let it all [...]
