In Korea…

“SEOUL, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Housing prices across South Korea will rise in 2010 for a sixth consecutive year and by the fastest pace in four years, an industry association research agency forecast on Wednesday.” (when do industry association representatives ever say anything else?) , “Kookmin Bank said on Monday housing prices rose for a seventh consecutive month in October from the previous month following a six-month decline.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/11/04/afx7082777.html

In Singapore…

“Demand for private homes has experienced “strong growth” and unchecked price gains may expose the property market to risks in the global economy, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in its Financial Stability Review today.”, “This comes after property prices rose 15.8% in the third quarter of this year, the most in 28 years, after dropping 25% in the previous four quarters.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqr8hthy9z5k&pos=5
http://www.propertywire.com/news/asia/soaring-property-price-fears-200911133672.html

In China…

“Chinese real estate figures out on Tuesday show investment in the sector was up 18.9 per cent in October, while property sales soared 48.4 per cent year-to-date.”, “This is further evidence that strong bank lending and easy liquidity conditions are creating an overheated property market.”
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/11/10/82486/more-on-that-overheating-chinese-property-market/

In Hong Kong…

“Statistics compiled by CB Richard Ellis, an estate agent, show that prices of high-end flats have risen by 40% since January, and are now just 13% below their 2008 pre-crisis peak. Some are once again priced at record levels.”
http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14816657

In Taiwan…

“Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — Taipei’s residential prices may rise 15 percent in 2010″ (That’s right – one random dude’s guess is apparently worthy of an entire news article at a major news agency)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayxWM98dXAjA&pos=7

“Wealthy Taiwanese eye luxury homes in the south”

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/asia/b-taiwan/2009/11/13/232610/Wealthy-Taiwanese.htm

Also repeated here in the Taipei Times (Thanks Michael).

In fact, the Taipei Times also adds this little nugget: “Taiwan joined Singapore, Hong Kong, India and China in moving to prevent excessive property-market swings, after falling interest rates drove prices higher.”

So… wait a minute… how long have Taiwanese rates been low? (Answer: a long time). And how long has it been known that low interest rates cause asset bubbles (Answer: a long time – 80 years, at least). So why wasn’t this rapidly put in place when prices were swinging UP, effectively stealing the future earnings of the youth of the country and handing them to the old? Oh wait, maybe I know… taxes are higher when property prices are higher… and taxes go lower when property prices go lower.

So who do Asian economists blame for these Asian bubbles?

“Fed May Cause Next Crisis, Hong Kong’s Tsang Suggests”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aU3AiTc_Q_vk

What a surprise.

“Where is the money going — it’s where the problem’s going to be: Asia,” Tsang said. “You can see asset prices going up, not only in Korea, in Taiwan, in Singapore and in Hong Kong, going up to levels that are incompatible or inconsistent with the economic fundamentals.”

Oh dear, poor little Asia. At least they’re making serious progress in placing the blame elsewhere – the next stage of the crisis hasn’t even happened yet and yet it’s clearly America’s fault.

Summary & My Opinion.

Asian housing propaganda (’houses always go up!!!’) is once again filling the newspapers. Meanwhile, local governments pour money into the economy, keep interest rates low, and fail to regulate their housing and asset markets properly.

Yet when this all goes wrong it will be America’s fault apparently.

Hmm. My view is that a lot of people who failed to learn a lesson in 2008 are going to get burned again. More banks went bust in the USA this year than in any previous year, and losses are continuing. While modest GDP growth has been achieved in some countries thanks to a huge stimulus spending program and low interest rates, there is no indication that the world is really out of crisis yet. So why are people once again paying record prices to buy little piles of bricks and wood? I have no idea. It seems crazy.

http://theregulatory.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/169/

Essentially, it asks: Why is the universe “human-suitable” in terms of the difficulty of understanding what’s going on out there? Really, what are the odds that the complexity of reality should be (more or less) comprehended by a small, squidgy piece of goo weighing a few kg?

The rather concerning answer that is put forward is: “What if it isn’t?”. In other words, what if the stuff we’re comprehending and measuring when we do physics is just a mere fragment of the ‘real’ reality – and in fact we lack the kind of thinking power that would be needed to ever deal with the ‘real thing’?

Now, my normal reaction to any kind of limit being needlessly imposed on the human ken is ‘poppycock’, but still, it’s an interesting read.

Another article I’d like to draw your attention is about some Malaysian Monks with an Ant Dilemma at the BBC. Worth a read – the final paragraph is genius.

Last of all, some interesting pictures from the New Horizons Pluto probe: The rings of Jupiter (I didn’t even know it had any!) and Volcanoes erupting on Io (one of Jupiter’s moons). Pretty unbelievable stuff.

The film “Hot Fuzz” is debuting currently in the UK. By the same people that produced “Shawn of the Dead”, and ‘Spaced’, this film could perhaps be described as a comedy about a top London cop being transferred to a rural village police force, but it’s probably more accurate just to say “Simon Pegg and chums d*cking around in police uniforms, being funny”. Trailers here. Already showing in the UK, but it doesn’t reach the rest of the world till April. Curses!

Finance: There’s gossip going round various respectable mailing lists about the price movement in Shanghai this week. The word on the street is that China’s government deliberately engineered the drop in Shanghai’s market, to try and prick the speculative bubble that is pointlessly sucking in all the free capital in the country. If so (and unlike 99% of what I read about markets, this actually seems like a sensible thing to do), there will probably be more hilarity to follow as Shanghai investors adjust to the idea of being regularly ninja-nutkicked by their own government as a form of therapy. Oh, and if you’re as much of a finance geek as I am, you’ll be delighted to know Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder newsletter is out and quite deservedly slagging off the efficient market hypothesis.

Fighters: The Taipei Times (& Michael Turton) report that America has decided to sell shiny new explody things to Taiwan to counter the large number of shiny new explody things lined up along the Fujian coastline of the PRC. Who knows – perhaps Taiwan’s invasion of the PRC is now merely weeks away from happening. China is responding by implanting electrodes into the brains of pigeons to control them remotely. Missiles, pigeons – where will this military escalation end?

Flat transistors: You’ll be reading a lot just now about some crazy new carbon based transistors that – just like every other idea you’ve ever heard – will revolutionise computing as we know it, for ever. Graphene is actually rather groovy and the story behind the research that went on over the last few years is kind of funny. Basically, Graphene shouldn’t exist. Nano-meter-thick sheets of material (such as the toilet paper found in British public toilets) tend to tear rather easily. Graphene is kind of wibbly shaped though, and not entirely flat, which provides it with structural integrity that makes it fantastically interesting and useful. It has some unusual properties that also allow it to be made into a fast, reliable and low-power transistor at sizes that would be completely unsuitable for Silicon chips. It is so thin, and uses so little power, that it can be easily stacked up into sheets. Electrons don’t seem to scatter in Graphene, so it makes electronic circuits run super fast. And when I say super-fast, I mean, electrons travel at speeds normally only found in the center of collapsed stars or at the beginning of the universe. Great stuff. The future is Graphene, I’m fairly sure.

Anyway, the amusing story. Graphene is just like a single layer of ‘Graphite’, the carbon molecule that your pencils are made from. Some researchers realised that to draw little tiny bits of graphite, you should make a really tiny pencil. They spent tens of millions of dollars developing this ‘nano-pencil’ that could be used – at great time and expense – to draw little areas of Graphene. Then, just as this huge research effort was finally starting to produce some results, some guys at Manchester Uni and Columbia Uni had an idea. They got some bog standard pencil graphite. Then, they stuck some sellotape on it and a thin layer of graphite came off. Then, they stuck other sellotape to the first bit, and an even thinner layer came off. Repeat as necessary till you have single layer Graphite on your sticky tape. Total cost: $0.30. LOL.

However this cheap production method is actually very important in other ways. Current computer processors are made from silicon crystals that are carefully grown at great time and expense, and represent the biggest part of the cost of a computer besides research and development. Sellotape and pencils on the other hand, are plentiful. Anyway, that’s all I’m going to say about Graphene for the moment.

Finally, Frikkin nutcases: “Canada’s ex-defense minister continues to call on governments worldwide to release their extra-terrestrial, UFO-derived technologies for the benefit of mankind. Film at 11.”

Michael Turton paid a visit, reminisced about old-style Taiwan, and indulged in some street-side KTV.

The Bushman pays a visit to a duck and seafood restaurant in Taoyuan.

Prince Roy shares a picture of a garden with zillions of statues of Chiang Kai Shek.

Some spontaenous Tai Chi at Taoyuan airport…

And if you were around on Valentine’s day, you’d have seen the area around the railway station become almost impassable to traffic or pedestrians, as several department stores simultaneously decided it would be a good idea to have a band play some thumping guitar choons… err… romantic music.

Girls, stay safe. There are five serial rapists on the loose in Northern Taiwan (including Taoyuan) and Kaohsiung city. This isn’t really ‘news’ as such, since they’ve apparently been on the go since 1997, but when you’re in a place as friendly and awesome as Taiwan, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that there are nutcases out there too.

A recent addition to the local population gets sick of city centre life, moves to the countryside, and explores the pottery of Yingge.

Mickie Cellow posts some images of Taoyuan’s new High Speed Rail terminal (HSR is a Japanese bullet train system connecting the North of Taiwan with the South, using 300 kmph trains). The terminal was apparently placed underground because it runs very close to the airport.