January 22, 2013

Which Country Doesn’t Mind A Strong Currency…???


With the world drowning in debt, there is rarely a dull year in finance. 2012 will go down in history as the year when a politician, Shinzo Abe, campaigned specifically on the platform of weakening his voter’s currency. I’m not sure if that has ever happened before. Think about this for a second. You own Yen. You can use your Yen to buy all Read More
Categories: Comments On Events
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January 15, 2013

Sayounara To My Yen Short


All paper currencies are in bad shape. Some are worse off than others. In the race to the bottom, they will all win. We’ve now witnessed nearly a 10% drop in the Japanese Yen in a very short period of time. It was previously overvalued. It is still overvalued. The economic fundamentals of Japan are not good—however, currencies are political. I cannot imagine that Read More
Categories: Investments
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December 24, 2012

How Many Malls Does China Need?


Last month, I attended a property conference in Hong Kong for senior management of Asian property companies. The conference was mundane and dull, but there was one thing that never ceased to amaze me—panel after panel spoke about the same issue. In a 4th tier Chinese city, how do you differentiate your million square foot mall from the two dozen other ones that are scheduled Read More
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November 5, 2012

Not How It Was Supposed To Be….


Almost a quarter millennia ago, the founders of this country decided to break with the king and go their own separate way. Their gripes were many and varied. They didn’t like their sugar, playing cards or tea to be taxed. They grew sick of quartering British soldiers. In general, they grew frustrated with a cadre of blowhards in London who appeared indifferent to the Read More
Categories: Comments On Events
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October 26, 2012

Railroad Wars–19th Century Style


A few days ago, I was re-reading The First Tycoon by T. J. Stiles about Cornelius Vanderbilt and I happened upon one of my favorite anecdotes from all of 19th century finance. Rather than try to paraphrase, I will go with the original telling as written by T. J. Stiles. For those of you who have never read this book, it is highly recommended. …Vanderbilt Read More
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