How to turn your ipod touch into an iphone
Some neat invention from China. So far, Apple has not cried foul. China’s disassemble-reassemble imitations have been running wild – when will China innovate on its own?
Big move in currency market again
Fear of Fed’s another round of quantitative easing, Euro shot up to the highest level since April,
and Gold is reaching $1300 per ounce.
And Chinese Yuan is also gradually appreciating against USD, now at 6.70 Yuan per USD. Just one week ago, it was at 6.78.
China says “Trade your technology for our market”
China’s government is considering plans that could force foreign auto makers to hand over cutting-edge electric-vehicle technology to Chinese companies in exchange for access to the nation’s huge market…
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is preparing a 10-year plan aimed at turning China into “the world’s leader” in developing and producing battery-powered cars and hybrids, according to executives at four foreign car companies who are familiar with the ministry’s proposal.
The draft suggests that the government could compel foreign auto makers that want to produce electric vehicles in China to share critical technologies by requiring the companies to enter joint ventures in which they are limited to a minority stake.
The government figured out China’s market is too great for foreign auto makers to say “No”. It’s a trade off both parties understood: either losing some technology secrets to Chinese or completely being shut out of the market.
This is a strategic game. And Chinese look smart. The hope is that both parties still see there are mutual gains to be made.
But Chinese policy makers risk going too far. Asking foreign auto makers to give away too much of their tech secrets will generate perverse incentives: foreign auto makers may respond to this policy by only using the less advanced technology in China’s car manufacturing. “Yes, we are going to share with you technology, but only the old dated ones”.
China’s domestic consumers may also suffer – cars equipped with the best technology may become unavailable to domestic car buyers, or only available through imports, but at a much higher price.
US bond yields in historical perspective
Unprecedented low interest rates in modern US history:
(click to enlarge; source: St. Louis Fed)
Recession ended in June 2009
This is old news. Using the 4-week moving average of weekly unemployment claims, Jim Hamilton and Bob Gordon, among others, had predicted the end of recession more than a year ago.
This just came as a late confirmation. Nothing surprising here. Obviously, NBER this time did not put so much emphasis on employment, because the labor market is still terrible.
(source: WSJ)
US vs Japan: so far not much difference
Deflation watch continues. The following graph from Bank of Japan is the most damaging chart I’ve seen for a long while (hat tip to John Taylor and his blog).
US policy makers still have chance to revert the course. But so far, they just look all too similar.
(click to enlarge; source: Bank of Japan)
Freakonomics now in movie
One of the best books on economics and incentives, now is made into a movie.
Deflation watch
An update of US core CPI in three different measurements:
(click to enlarge; graph courtesy of calculatedrisk)
The trend is not comforting…