Monday Prayers & Month End Markets Thoughts
When you read religion thrown into the headlines with politics, you know there could be trouble ahead.
China is finally acknowledging their moral decline and obsession with money culture. Enough for their President Xi Jin Ping to hope for their traditional faiths of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism to come to the rescue.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/29/us-china-politics-vacuum-idUSBRE98S0GS20130929
Enough of fake drugs, poisoned milk and dead pigs, I suppose. Not to mention the corruption as widespread corruption is reported in the South China Morning Post this morning. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1320892/chinese-inspectors-find-widespread-corruption-nationwide-check
I have often wondered why India does not face these problems to the degree that China does and over the years, have idly concluded that it is the issue of religion and the fear of heavenly recrimination.
The Italian Prime Minister, too, allegedly asked for a prayer for the country as it heads into an uncertain confidence vote later this week. This is before the German grand coalition is finalised.
Prayers are a slow but sure way of going to Heaven and given today’s Chinese PMI, it will be a long haul.
More bad news
* Tongyang Securities in Seoul Falls;Affiliate Filed for Court Receivership (STX Pan Ocean went bust mid year)
* OSX Says It’s Unaware of Move to File for Bankruptcy Protection
* Siemens CEO Kaeser Cuts 15,000 Jobs
Good news
Singaporean’s Are The Smartest In the World having the world’s highest average IQ, according to this website, although Mongolia is not far behind.
http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html
Trading
An exciting month end indeed with not many people thinking about it. I still go with my instinct that we will need to see some profits in some areas, like bonds, whilst equities have too much of a good run and can afford the correction.
The experts are all calling for an 11th hour cliff hanger deal tonight and that would be the happy Hollywood ending that we are used to.
I am still long VIX and Gold after last week which have performed favourably. Slightly loathe to let that go with the European uncertainty ahead.
USDJPY is a buy for now, with Abe and his sales tax coming up shortly. If the debt ceiling is resolved in time, 100 would be a sure bet.
Sitting on cash i.e. USD would still be the astute choice for an equity market correction coming up.
I guess the IQ list was compiled by a Singaporean, because their biggest competitor in passing IQ test terms would be Hong Kong and Hong Kong isn’t in the list (conveniently absorbed into China of course). Here is a recent list that does have Hong Kong included:
http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-lowest-average-iq/
Oh dear, Singapore at just 103 according to statisticsbrain, stupider than HK where the average is 107!
But what is striking is they are both city states and what determines average IQ is more about urbanisation. If you want to put Singapore and HK properly into context then you need IQ listed by city, not country. But the results are not that flattering by the way…London, New York, Boston, Paris, Tokyo….lots of smart people in those cities and I bet they know all about squeezing the last drop out of an IQ test…even without their young becoming slaves to extra tuition. Equatorial Guinea or Angola…geuss they won’t have had as much practice.
Please don’t break Singaporean mothers’ hearts.
They are the smartest, brightest and best we got. 12 year olds who can expound on the processes that go on within the cells’ mitochondria. Almost freakish but alas, not my own child who can only tell me that I should not be buying USDJPY at this level.
Yes. Sample size is important which throws doubt on the lack of detail provided on that particular study.
But to the credit of both studies, South Korea and Japan are at least consistent.