Is Mitt Romney up to the challenge?
Is current Republican front-runner Mitt Romney up to the coming challenge? These videos are taken out from the recent Republican candidates debate at Dartmouth College.
-on another potential financial meltdown:
-on China:
China’s housing bubble at its extreme
Ordos, the little known prairie city in China’s inner-Mongolia autonomous region, now has become the extreme example of China’s housing bubble. Due to extreme housing speculations and land sale (mostly grassland), loads of local farmers became instant millionaires: its GDP per capita recently surpassed Hong Kong; people with assets of 1 million Yuan (or $150,000) are actually considered “poor”; in 2010, 90% sale of Land Rovers (the symbol for power and masculinity in Chinese taste) in mainland China found its buyers in Ordos…and imagine a cleaning lady driving a Toyota Land Cruiser to work?
I am shocked by this video news from SOHU (in Chinese):
You may also watch a similar Youtube video in English, but with less drama:
All this can’t be due to China’s fast economic growth. This is simply not sustainable. I see a classic asset bubble forming, reminiscent of many bubbles in history. It will burst eventually no matter what.
iPhone 4S review
Brandeis alum Mossberg at WSJ reviews the new iPhone 4S.
India got an inflation problem
The persistent high inflation reminds me of China in mid 1990s. The problem is India’s central bank is not fully committed – if you want the growth/inflation trade-off, then you often end up with high inflation and low growth; but if you are committed in fighting inflation, you will tend to have stable growth and low inflation.
Europe’s Lehman moment slowly arriving…
17 sovereign countries deeply divided, without unified fiscal authority, its banks with the world's highest leverage ratios – this is Europe. You are probably wondering why Europe's "Lehman moment" still hasn't arrived. Or it may have taken another form. Instead, we have seen a slow-motion leak of confidence and a steady drain on credibility that has extracted a large and growing toll on stock and bond prices and on the livelihoods of its citizens.
Michael Lewis: the moral breakdown
WSJ Interview of Michael Lewis. He shared his optimistic vs. pessimistic predictions about the world economy.