Taoyuan Nights

The Economist talks about ‘underground’ Chinese banks. This opens the possibility that black market banking is allowing China’s economy to rage, even as the Chinese government tries to rein it back in.
More Asian economics over at toshou…

From the Taipei Times, July 31 2007:

New report paints mixed picture for housing market
By Jessie Ho and Amber Chung, Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007, Page 12
The housing market continued to boom in the second quarter as both the value and quantity of properties for sale increased, but whether the supply would be absorbed [...]

Here are some thoughts I’ve been musing over for many months, since I first arrived in this country.
Point 1: Old people are screwed. Can’t get a good return from the bank on their lifelong savings, because of low interest rates. Can’t effectively invest in assets like housing and stocks (prices are sky high, since people [...]

28179328 (match all the digits for the grand prize of $2 million NTD).
18220444 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits starting at the right hand side).
26888640 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits starting at the right hand side).
37661297 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits starting at the right hand side).

Ok, this is just for fun – stick with it, and you will see just how crazy the world of finance can seem.
1) Recently, a consortium of banks (Fortis, Santander, and RBS) offered £48 billion to buy ABN Amro.
2) According to the words of RBS’s CEO, Fred Goodwin: RBS has a 38% share of that [...]

Sometimes, when you’re talking about investing, you use the word ‘friction‘ to describe the costs that are associated with using stockmarkets. For example, if you’re investing in the US, Taiwan, or anywhere else, you must pay a stockbroker money to buy or sell shares, and move money and share ownership around on your behalf. Additionally, [...]

Two weeks ago, I was in the local branch of a major bank here in Taiwan. I had just finished changing some coins into notes, and was walking out of the bank.
As I did so, a woman in a very smart black suit (who had been standing near the door) walked over and asked [...]

Funny things are afoot. In the last month, and particularly the last few days, the value of US debt started dropping very sharply. You can see this on the Swaprates site I mentioned yesterday – look at the US extended rates. There is a significant change in financial press sentiment too – the FT are [...]

This is for those of you whose hearts don’t leap with joy at the mere thought of calculating the implied market expectations of future rates. Basically it’s an easy way to get access to market prices for future lending rates. In other words: what are the banks ‘betting’ that interest rates will be in the [...]

The Financial Times published an interesting story today, suggesting that China is imitating Taiwan in its stockmarket lunacy.
The anecdotes related in the FT article are quite remarkable; I wish I could have seen it in person.
“Having taken 25 years to reach 1,000 in late 1986, the Taiwan Stock Exchange rocketed to 12,495 by February [...]