Folks,
Big doin's after Davos, it seems. Please, if anybody hears a spin being put on Davos, please post. Last night, Michael Bloomburg reported on Davos on Charlie Rose. It was quite a performance. Gotta buy a little tape recorder or something, it was hard to pin down what he was saying cause he flawlessly changed subjects in mid-sentence. Seemed very rehearsed, but maybe one just start speaking like this naturally after a long career as a Big Cigar. Basically, Bloomburg said:
Davos brought people together who usually wouldn't talk, and maybe it will change the world.
Rose asks his only question, questioning globalization. Bloomburg says yes, there were some proteste.rs, students, who are afraid to loosse their culture.
They spoke of the difference between the haves and have-nots, and the haves, have democracy, but the have-nots, for whatever reason, just don't want to change. They censor the press. They depend on exporting commodities, like Brazil, and with prices down, people starve. They have to blame something. Since socialism and communism have been totally discredited by countries like North Korea, and USSR, Capitalism, which won, is the only easy thing to blame for their problems.
Then there are some big ideas that are unstopable that are changing the world. 1) English is becoming the international language.(I kid you not) 2) Tech and the free-flow of info. 3) People thought that once they overthrew the old regimes, their lives would be like on Dallas. And now they see that it takes time and pain to get things right.
Then, somehow, he seged into self-interest. Said only America and maybe to a lesser extent a few European countries, have done things not in their own interest, that helped the world.
Then, again, with the self-interest, like the Japanese/ Sure, they'll do what they can to help an Asian recovery, but they'll do it in a way that supports Japanese interests. And maybe that's as it should be.
And, yes, a few people were worried about the global economy. But the people who....yada yada(the grown ups), left and right, have to rule from the center, and they are optimistic.
Places like Maylasia and Indonesia took the hit, went through hell, and now they've lost confidence.
That's all. Basically, everything is honky-dory. And everyone else thinks so too.
Sorry this is so jumbled. He was so slick, it was hard to catch it in one listen. It was very strange. Charlie just grinned.
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Panic in Taiwan as debt-stricken lawmaker flees to US TAIWAN'S financial malaise deepened as prominent legislator Liu Ping-wei flew with members of his family to the United States, after he bounced NT$126 million (HK$30 million) in cheques and depositors mounted a run on a family-owned bank. Mr Liu's arrival in Los Angeles, where he said he was seeking ``help'', helped drive the island's Weighted Index down 4 per cent to almost a three-year low on concerns about the finances of his family's Hai Shan Group of companies, which includes listed builder Advancetek Enterprise.
The index has fallen 14.1 per cent this year amid a spate of bounced checks and share trading defaults. Investors, often linked to the companies whose shares they bought, have defaulted on more than NT$6 billion in share trades in the past four months.
``What's happening with the Lius just made investors more nervous,'' said Fred Lin, who manages NT$3.2 billion for China Securities Investment Trust.
``They don't know how many more businesses are in trouble.''
Companies such as the Guang San Group, Hung Fu Group and New Magnitude Group all stumbled after the company or its directors borrowed too much and guaranteed those borrowings with stock and property.
The departure of Mr Liu, also a senior official of Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party, destroyed confidence in his business empire, whose debts are estimated at NT$5 billion to NT$6 billion.
The run on Bank of PanHsin, a small regional bank based in the Taipei suburb of Panchiao, started on Tuesday.
Many depositors were still crowding the bank yesterday. - Bloomberg
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