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Contents contributed and discussions participated by theodor bolin

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theodor bolin

Asset markets: The danger of the bounce | The Economist - 1 views

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm

shared by theodor bolin on 12 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Another area where a bubble might be developing is in gold. Gold is an unlikely cause of euphoria, given that investors use it as a bolthole when they worry about inflation, currency depreciation or financial chaos. But the metal has seen a speculative peak before, most notably in 1980, when its price touched $835 an ounce, before losing two-thirds of its nominal value over the next 20 years. The main rationale for buying gold at the moment is that, in the face of the credit crunch, most governments would like to see their currencies depreciate to boost their exports. If paper money is being “debased”, that is bullish for gold, an asset that central banks cannot create more of and that is no one else’s liability. The gold bugs may be right. But the price has already quadrupled from its low and suffers from no real valuation constraints; it has no yield or earnings against which to measure it, so it is hard to say when it is “expensive”. Dylan Grice, an analyst at Société Générale, has mischievously suggested that, if the Bretton Woods system (under which the Fed was obliged to exchange its stock of dollars for gold with other central banks) were operating today, bullion would trade at $6,300 an ounce.
    • theodor bolin
      theodor bolin on 12 Jan 10
       
      With these highlighted paragraphs I would like to say how smart the guys who years ago predicted the gold price to increase to something close to the value it has today. In fact it has quadrupled! Some guys even came up with the smart idea of "gold vending machines". These machines were placed at airports were travellers could by 1 gram of gold since it was a good investment. Copy this link into your web browser and you will see a picture of a gold vending machine.
  • theodor bolin on 12 Jan 10
     
    Note that the writer of this article says that gold might be a new bubble which I dont really know if it is good or bad beacuse "bubbles" tend to burst after a couple of years right?
theodor bolin

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15016168 - 0 views

www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm

shared by theodor bolin on 12 Jan 10 - Cached
  • theodor bolin on 12 Jan 10
     
    I chose this article from The Economist because it is a very up-to-date aritcle and the problems it takes up are very debateable and much disputed today. This article is mostly about the economy in the UAE especially in Dubai, but I will focus more in this comment on the desicions being made by the undescribable wealthy oil sheiks who has a major influence on the leadership in the UAE and they are also affected by the financial crisis. as we know this area has developed extremely fast during the last years and and has rapidly grown economically, therefore, very many european banks have been pumping in money as investments for the future especially British banks. but when the financial crise came, most of the sheiks didn't do much to support the investments but instead kept their money while major projects for instance in the establishing of new massive office buildings stopped instantly. this led to a big weakening of banks that had invested in Dubai and also to a very affected UAE where some sheiks keep their money and let the less wealthy people support their country without any big support. Personally I think it is bad desicions made by some sheiks because european banks might lose confidence in investing in these areas in the future even if they are doing very well. And I don't know if it is morally right to do some of these things but I understand some countries are run differently.
theodor bolin

Too much flu vaccine? Shot push this week to tell - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2010011200263.html

shared by theodor bolin on 12 Jan 10 - Cached
  • This week will tell. Get ready for a huge flu-shot push as health officials try to rekindle interest in protection against this new influenza strain that, despite plummeting cases, still is threatening lives - even as they reassess just how much more vaccine needs to be shipped.
  • How much demand this week brings will put the U.S. at a critical juncture: When is it time to halt the bottling of vaccine, so that too many unused doses don't go to waste?
  • "The danger is in turning off the spigot before we really know what the winter flu season looks like, what the demand is," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the AP. "As long as there is demand, the good news is we will have a supply."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Flu vaccine is a balancing act. Every year the nation throws away millions of leftover shots.
    • theodor bolin
      theodor bolin on 12 Jan 10
       
      These highligted paragraphs show a great confusion in the US. officials and producers are dealing with the problems like if the government should order more in case of a third wave of swine flu or if they should wait with the orders in case people in the US would stop believe in the vaccine or a future wave, which would lead to a total waste of expensive doses. Some signs of that is that right now some drugstores have to put out advertisements of the vaccine. Just like kathleen Sebelius said: "As long as there is demand, the good news is we will have a supply". The question is only if the consumers can control the prices of the vaccine in the US just by not getting their shots now and instead wait for them to get closer to the expiry date. If so the US government is going to make huge losses.
theodor bolin

Indonesia's future: A golden opportunity | The Economist - 1 views

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm

shared by theodor bolin on 26 Nov 09 - Cached
    • theodor bolin
      theodor bolin on 26 Nov 09
       
      Since I have visited Indonesia about six times I am very facinated by the country itself and especially the economic system inthe country. I searched for an article of this type and was glad when I found this. This article is prooving the thoughts i have had about how Indonesia was going to react on the global crisis. If you go to Indonesia it is impossible to not notice the incredibly big infrastructure and all the fully loaded trucks that are heading for big cities and to the very big harbor in Jakarta from where cargo is shipped out to the rest of the world but also to other islands that belong to Indonesia. So when I first saw all this I thought that since the domestic market in Indonesia is as big as it is, then they must be able to tackle the crisis when it really hits. And I was right if you read the article. The GDP is expected to grow by more than 4% which is an increase by 1 percent unit this year. This prooves that a good and strong domestic market can help a country a lot when financial crises occurs instead of just being dependent of the ability to export to other countries. i believe that many countries have tried to support the local markets in it but not really succeeded. So asa conclusion we can say that having a strong domestic marketis good but at the same time becomes isolated fromthe rest of the world and it would not really work if all countries stopped exporting and importing goods but in this particular case it has been good for Indonesia and they still have a very big trade with other countries.
  • theodor bolin on 26 Nov 09
     
    Note that the figure of 1 percent unit increased is taken from another source and is not mentioned in this article.
theodor bolin

Botswana's impatient president: Diamonds are not for ever | The Economist - 2 views

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm

shared by theodor bolin on 16 Nov 09 - Cached
    • theodor bolin
      theodor bolin on 16 Nov 09
       
      This article "Diamonds are not forever" from The Economist is a proof of how demand and supply works. When the global economic crisis came the diamond market was heavily affected. Botswana still had a good supply of diamonds but when the demand dropped for diamonds many mines had to close. The annual output dropped by 40%. This resulted in a much lower profit for Botswana which is very critical for the country since diamonds have an important role in Botswana's economy.
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