Peripheral signs of Chinese nervousness

That reliable source of geopolitical information, Stratfor, is reporting that the Chinese government recently formed a company called The Guoxin Asset Management Corporation.  It was capitalized with $680 million in funds.  That company, in turn, has just taken spent...

Economists say, “more banking rules, please”

Over the last several days the annual meeting of the American Economic Association has been taking place in my hometown of Denver.  A recurring theme is developing as presenter after presenter talks about their work.  That theme is that there needs to be more reform...

Facebook hubub worrisome

This week the investment world was all atwitter about a round of private financing done on behalf of Facebook.  The offering documents for the round of money raising for the company valued Facebook at over $50 billion.  Is this valuation reasonable?  And what does...

Investors are in a buying mood

Friday’s Wall Street Journal reported a very interesting thing, that corporations had sold $35 billion worth of bonds in the first week of the year.  Last year saw the biggest opening week since 1995.  So, in other words, investors are clearly in a buying mood....