I’ve said many times ‘China isn’t near half-way done’; but the paper I’m highlighting this week, from Justin Yifu Lin and Fan Zhang, both professors at Peking University, suggests I’m wrong. China may not even be near one-third done. They take a simple metric, China’s per capita GDP as a percentage of the same number […]
Category: Sunday Papers
The issue of higher education in China is one I have no push-back on to the view that it’s poor, globally not competitive and showing little signs of improvement. I’ll argue happily about the soundness of the financial system, the track record of the Chinese Communist Party or the long term value of infrastructure spending; […]
The authors of this paper are at pains to point out that nobody, themselves included, can give a categorical answer to the headline question. However Jingyi Jang and Kei-Mu Yi, in this recent paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, have a stab based in part on the Japanese and Korean experience. Bears will […]
In financial markets a not understood pattern of behavior is often dismissed as a product of other operators’ foolishness. Why do people like penny stocks? They’re naive. Why do people think stock splits increase the value of a company? They can’t do basic math. Why do people buy gold? They don’t understand asset valuation; and […]
A number of people have approached China’s GDP figures via the backdoor of coincident indicators, most notably Premier Li Keqiang. Partisan work has been done concluding official GDP numbers must be a multiple of reality but in the very brief (a merciful 3-pages) paper highlighted this week from Jun Nie of the Federal Reserve Bank […]
It’s been widely reported that large numbers of ‘evangelical’ Christians in the U.S. are supporters of a racist, misogynistic, self aggrandizing, bully running for the Republican Party’s nomination as their Presidential candidate. How do we explain this apparent conundrum? I wondered, as I’m sure many do, so started some digging… Studies going back as far […]
Notwithstanding the fact that some of the biggest corporate frauds in history have been perpetrated in the U.S., and that accounting irregularities come up with a proven frequency more in U.S. companies than elsewhere, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, on June 9th 2011, issued a warning to investors about (effectively) Chinese ‘reverse-merger’ companies (we […]
I had the privilege of meeting Lawrence ‘Larry’ Summers a little while ago (OK, me and a roomful of other investors). I was rocked; sometimes you just know you’re in the presence of genius. Ever since I’ve thought he’s worth paying attention to. Since the GFC he’s been on a crusade to try and get […]
Would you give money to a manager who said their strategy was to buy dull stocks? You probably should; but the conundrum here is that no manager will advertise such a strategy as they’ll raise little money if they do. There is now however clear and growing proof that it’s a very sound course of […]
Monetary policy is based (in part) on the theory that interest rates affect the level of savings and investment and produces a so-called ‘IS Curve’ (IS for Investment Savings). In theory this line should slope down from left to right on a chart where interest rates are the left hand side and GDP is along […]
A study published in 2014 reached the comforting conclusion, for QFII operators, that foreigners bested local managers when returns in the domestic A-share market were compared. The study though wasn’t especially rigorous relying on annual observations which, since we’ve only had QFII since 2003, was a very small data set. In the paper I’m highlighting […]
You’ve seen this image a lot in the last few months, or some version very similar. Bewildered (old or middle aged works best) retail investors with their heads in their hands. ‘What’ it seems to imply ‘were we thinking?!’. Or ‘I should have stuck to the ponies’ (which, BTW, you can’t in China). Yes folks, […]
You’ll need to print this out and read it carefully; but it’s worth the effort. In this 180-page tour de force Mr. Yi Wen of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ Research Division and Tsinghua University deconstructs the British and American Industrial Revolutions to see what this tells us about China and it’s prospects. […]
Why is the West, and America in particular, so disliked, by so many in the Middle East (ME)? Constant meddling since oil was first discovered in large quantities has a lot to do with it. [Giving China a rest this week as I think we’ve had rather enough of it of late!] Over the Christmas […]
A twofer today. Not so much papers, more pamphlets. The first, from the World Travel and Tourism Council, highlights how important to the Chinese economy tourism is. They estimate by 2025 3% of China’s workforce will be employed in the travel and tourism business and that it could account for 10% of GDP at that […]
The answer matters if you’re trying to predict how enthusiastically China will likely pursue alternative sources of energy and/or act to curb coal usage. In the paper highlighted this week, from Paul J. Burke of the Australian National University and Hua Liao of the Beijing Institute of Technology, they reach an encouraging conclusion. The price […]
China invests badly; and the situation is getting worse. With nearly 50% of GDP invested each year this is an unprecedented level compared to Japan or Korea at similar points of development who were rarely investing more than 40%. Calamity is the inevitable end-game as the system ultimately collapses under the debt burden associated with […]
Who doesn’t know* in Chinese culture the numbers six and eight are considered ‘good’ and the number four ‘bad’? Certainly not property buyers as this study of transaction details for a particularly warm spell in the Chengdu real estate market between 2004~2006 reveal. Particularly granular data is available for this period and Matthew Shum of […]
Here are some interesting statistics. How many US companies (up to 2010) combined the roles of CEO and Chairman; and how many Chinese companies (A-shares, to 2014) permitted the same duality? The answers are 54% and 26% respectively. So that’s good for investors in Chinese companies right? Not when you discover the China number has […]
No scary math for a change. Just a fireside chat of observation from Jijo George et al from the Department of Management Studies of Pondicherry University in Puducherry India on the never ending story of what it takes to shift product in the world’s second largest consumer market. Although the paper was posted at the […]