Booms, busts and a bottom?

Boom, Bust, Repeat (NYT book review): For the past two decades, Michael Lewis, the most charming and one of the shrewdest guides to America’s raucous money culture, has displayed a knack for being at the right place at the right time. He was a young trader on the Salomon Brothers bond desk during the 1987 crash; [...]

Lessons from India and China

Talking Business How India Avoided a Crisis (NYT): “What has taken a number of us by surprise is the lack of adequate supervision and regulation,” Rana Kapoor was saying the other day. “This was despite the fact that Enron had happened and you passed Sarbanes-Oxley. We don’t understand it. Maybe it’s because we sit in a more [...]

Emerging markets undervalued, analysts say, but ignore oil

Emerging Market Stocks to Outperform, Garner Says: Chart of Day (Bloomberg): Emerging-market stocks are a better buy than those of more developed regions because their economies will rebound more quickly from the global slowdown, according to Jonathan Garner, a strategist at Morgan Stanley.
Since October, emerging stocks have begun to close the gap on developed-market stocks, a [...]

Emerging-market stock allocation lowest since 2001, survey (Dow Jones): Global fund managers slashed their allocation to emerging-markets equities in December to their lowest levels since 2001, according to Merrill Lynch’s latest fund-manager survey.
Emerging-market stocks reach six-week high on Fed rate cut, oil (Bloomberg): Emerging-market stocks rose to a six- week high on speculation that near-zero interest [...]

The Treasury Department urged China to allow its currency to appreciate and estimated global growth will slow in the first half of 2009 in a report to Congress released Wednesday.
The biannual report on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies describes the currency policies and exchange situations in 19 individual counties plus the Euro countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council Counties.
The report calls on China [...]

Russia’s Debt Rating Cut by S&P on Outflows, Reserves (Bloomberg): Russia’s long-term debt rating was lowered for the first time in nine years by Standard & Poor’s, which cited capital outflows and the “rapid depletion” of the foreign currency reserves.
Brazil Real Falls as Inflation, Trade Reports Fuel Rate-Cut Bet (Bloomberg): Brazil’s real declined, extending a four-month slide, [...]

Look Homeward (The Economist): The “wall of money” argument is a hardy investment perennial. Back in the 1980s, it was the Japanese who would sweep in and push up stock markets. In recent years, sovereign-wealth funds have assumed the role of sugar daddies, with cash readily available to support asset prices.
SWFs will obviously grow a [...]

Asia Bond Collapse Spurs Borrowers to Repurchase Debt(Bloomberg) Asian companies are stepping up the pace of debt repurchases as prices fall to record lows.
India Cuts Interest Rates After Terrorist Attacks (Bloomberg) India’s central bank cut interest rates for the third time in less than two months after last week’s terror attacks shook investor confidence in [...]