A comprehensive collection of scholarly, personal, and editorial articles relating to the growth and development of economic / political ties between China and South America-- with a focus on commodity rich countries in South America and commodity/energy markets.
Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural disasters. Show all posts
Local residents are trapped in floods in Heyuan city, south China's Guangdong province, June 27, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
Armed police transfer trapped residents in Heyuan city, south China's Guangdong province, June 27, 2008. Affected by Typhoon Fengshen, heavy rainfall hit Heyuan on Thursday and Friday, flooding some roads and houses. Over 2,000 local residents have been transferred to safe places by the armed police.(Xinhua Photo)
Reuters Video Footage - China Flooded by tropical storm
Moving back to previous topics and the video topic of the last few days, I return to food, and agricultural commodities. Food prices are rising. This video, displayed both above at times in the youtube provides videos explains the situation on a human level. It is form a news agency from New Zealand, and they explore the impact in the Philippines...
And I must say, I do not agree with everything in the below video or even the things the man, Carlos Mencia says on his tv show. However, in the wake of the food crisis, and having recently seen this video on TV, here is a clip offered by Comedy Central.com/videos
I don't mean to be crude and I warn readers under the age of 14 (personally decided age limit... officially I should say 17), to be warned there might be questionable footage in the video below, please exercise self control and do not watch it if you are underage.
Even the big guns of comedy central know there is a problem, it is ridiculous instead of action we see speculation on agricultural commodities and other foodstuffs. I can't admit it does not make me happy to see Peru, the country my mother was born and raised in, actually making money and growing from the sale of fish meal, but at the same time in today's day and age lets not make people go hungry. Maybe a humorous approach towards this topic will connect to some... Keep in mind the younger generations of the WORLD, grow up on these shows... so it might do some readers well to keep informed with the messages being conveyed to today's youth via media.
I will say on a side note I am slightly bias, and do like Carlos Mencia, if only everyone understood Spanish... and the latino culture, his jokes would make so much more sense. I must also thank Comedy Centralfor offering video of their highest rated shows on the video section of the homepage.
Peru-- LATAM fastest growing economy in 2007, just recently became the #1 global producer of silver, stands as the #2 producer of copper next to its neighbor Chile, and is the #6 producer of gold in the world. Peru in other is booming thanks to demand for copper, fish meal, and other commodities from Asia, and, second from countries and investors seeking to use metals like gold as a hedge vs inflation. This morning Peru's unhappy workers, currently in protest, due to the government failing to pass a resolution which puts ceilings on the level of profit sharing allowed. 28,000 miners from Peru's biggest mining union have postponed their strike in various mines until June 30-- many silver, copper, zing and gold (Dow newswire, accessed via Resource Investor). http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=43447
2) Asia plummets A string of disasters in what susposed to be a continued boom year for the Chinese economy have crippled and done a great deal of damage to the new emerging super power of the world. First with the worst snow storms in 60 years which hit Southern China earlier this year-- where most of the countries economic activity is conducted, then with the anti-china/pro-tibet protests which hit the world stage during their Olympic torch rally, and last--the recent horrendous earth quake that hit Sichuan province. China's exchanges where down almost 5% yesterday at night one point, however it did not lead to the crash of Feb/March 2007, when Chinese market corrections led the way in a short global correction in stock markets. It seems the financial systems of the world has priced in the downside of this years problems in China and general difficulties which will face Asia in the wake of rising food and energy costs.
3) All over the world countries are concerned about inflation. Worse, speculation on metals and other commodities isn't helping the $, still the most circulated currency on earth rally, which would ultimately be helpful to the global economy as a whole. Its scary to see fed officials from the US and even the EU coming out and making comments on inflation. What action will they take? What ramifications will it have? http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/bernankes-inflation-comments-push-futures-lower/ http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/10/markets/stockswatch/?postversion=2008061008 http://glickreport.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2008/06/10/intervene-already/
What to make of all of this? Well i'm going with the plan of finding a few equities I feel are not still over-valued and are in a good position to retain market position and keep earnings expectations due to their unique business and or market niche. Follow emerging markets and where they head-- as the olympics get underway I'm still confident Asia will have a rally, but if the general health of financial systems of the globe don't improve before then it will be a short lived rally. Follow the price of energy and forecasting the future of emerging markets and the general global macroeconomic health of the world economy will be easier to follow. Inflation in food stuffs is also key... Rising oil and energy prices may hurt everyone-- especially the poor, but when even food is sky rockets in price, the people of the emerging world will feel it extra hard, potentially leading to further slow downs and social instability in countries.
Captivated observer and active participant in the growing exchange between countries in the Americas and East Asia.
Exhilarated by the process of identifying and growing local and international business opportunities.
Committed towards expanding my reality and nurturing a network of like-minded individuals and organizations from across the globe. Including but never limited to -- entrepreneurs, creative talent, educators, students, innovators, investors and new media journalists.
Local residents are trapped in floods in Heyuan city, south China's Guangdong province, June 27, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
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