FINAL MOVE -- GOTO---- chinasouthamerica.blogspot.com for future updates

Final decision has been made to operate this New and Analysis blog from its original URL. Please check for updates there.

http://chinasouthamerica.blogspot.com

Video -- Investing in Emerging Markets -- Bloomberg

Analysis and Discussion with Gordian Kemen of Barclays

Hints for configuring your long term portfolio -- from the Motley Fool

Excerpt -- This is where you buy growth -- Motley Fool

by Nate Weisshaar

Two thousand years ago, Rome ruled the known world. Two hundred years ago, China and India contributed nearly half of the world's wealth. In 1913, Argentina was the 10th richest country in the world. Change is, as they say, the only constant.

...

Making change work for you

Smart investors are positioning themselves to profit from the changes of the next several decades. Warren Buffett and Jim Rogers have both called this China's century. Mohamed El-Erian, former investment manager for Harvard's endowment and current co-CEO of PIMCO, suggests that investors hold two-thirds of their investments in assets outside the United States.

You'd be hard-pressed to find that much foreign exposure in most Americans' portfolios. Just a few years ago, most investment advisors felt that foreign stocks should make up around 20% of your portfolio at most. My, how things have changed.

-- Click here to access the full article from the Motley Fool

"Oversold" Markets -- Brazilian Companies "among the cheapest" reports UBS.

UBS, as reported by Bloomberg in this article (linked here) feels Brazilian companies are "among the cheapest," trading in emerging markets.  Check the article out for yourself, and also take a look at how pretty much every emerging market is being haled as being "over-sold," "or having "bottomed out."  

- China Equities: Bottoming out

- Commodities oversold

- The Euro (currency) is oversold

- Gold and Silver Extremely oversold

- Corn rises on speculation the crop is oversold

- Myriad of oversold stocks

- UK market undervalued

People are in a frenzy and investors should tread carefully in these emerging markets, choosing companies that have strong fundamentals on their balance sheet, not on a geo-political scale or when a short rally in global equities occurs.

The bottom line... the health of financial markets and the macro-global economy is just not looking all that nice.

Peru -- Set to achieve highest economic growth in the region in 2008/09 reports the IDB

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) data and reports show that Peru’s GDP growth expectations rose from 7.8 to 8.3% in 2008, which makes Peru according to IDB calculations the country with the higest growth in the region for 2008.

Second for 2009, the IDB estimates Peru's GDP growth will be around 7% in 2009. If this holds, Peru will also achieve the highest growth in the region in 2009, but as always time will have to tell. With the current volatility in the global economy things may well change, especially considering Peru's over-dependence on certain key exports like Copper and Gold -- both of which have serverely retracted in price as of recent.

IDB growth calculations for other economies in the region for 2008 where as follows:

Uraguay ... 6.8%
Bolivia ... 4.78%
Argentina ... 7.2%
Chile ... 3.9%
Mexico ... 2.63%
Brazil ... (2008 not yet available by IDB)

Lets go Peru! Now lets see if Peruvian leadership will be able to show and actually convince the millions of poor people around its territory this strong growth will eventually bring them a better life.

A life with opportunities and all the other "nice," things the Peruvian's who shop here enjoy-->

Larcomar, Miraflores - Lima, Peru

But which the millions of people who live here, severely lack -->

Pueblo Joven (shanty town) in Lima, Peru

Leaders of the BRIC Countries show signs of solidarity at the G-8 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan

China's foreign media is reporting Hu Jintao's participation in the G-8 summit this week as a milestone, calling it a "major diplomatic move which produces important achievements in many aspects for China."

Click here to access the full story from Xinhua-- China's State Media

Through the G8 outreach session in recent years, communications between the world's developed and developing countries have been conducted on key issues to coordinate stance and seek solutions to key issues, a move deemed conducive to the South-North cooperation and the settlement of global problems reports Xinhua.

It is interesting how China's state media describes Hu Jintao's presence at the G-8. Western press has been very critical as to why China, India and other emerging markets are not included in the some of the more important meetings which only the actual G-8 member countries can attend.

It is clear developing countries have gained some influence in the international arena. The global food crises, energy crises, climate change and other important issues can no longer be left to debate soely amongst the world's industrialized and wealthiest nations.

Described both in this upate and in my post yesterday, developing countries are increasingly forming their own strong connections with one another. The leaders of the BRIC countries; Brazil, Russia, India and China can be seen below expressing their solidarity at the end of the G-8 summit. These four emerging market giants want to make it clear that on certain issues they stand united and that when united their voice should not and can not be ignored.

After all, accounting for only the populations of the BRIC countries, these four nations represent roughly 2.7 billion people...

Chinese President Hu Jintao (2nd R), Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (2nd L), Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (1st L) and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (1st R) pose for a photo as they meet at Toyako in Hokkaido, north Japan, on July 9, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

Why are Latin American Economies Booming? -- Exerpt from Victoria Saddi's post on Latin America EconoMonitor

Why Are Latin Countries Booming? The Role of Good Policies

- Victoria Saddi - July 8, 2008

There are two alternative views about the future resilience of the recent strong economic performance of Latin American economies:

1. One approach is that Latin countries have implemented deep macro and financial reforms. According to this view, the recent boom is something permanent and less dependent on the US business cycles than before. Hence, if the US experiences a recession, Latin countries will be affected but their solid macro foundations tend to soften the impact of US slowdown;

2. The second approach is that global conditions and luck helped a lot in the recent EM performance and a correction will come. Fundamentals have improved but spreads have tightened excessively relative to economic fundamentals

Click here to read the rest of the article courtesy of Latin America Econo Monitor