More on Chinese growth....the key take away is that China is achieving this with a per capita income that's less than 1/3rd that of the U.S. per capital income. Less than 1/3rd! By the numbers... According to CIA Factbook: China’s per capita GDP is $3,619  (based on official exchange rate GDP vs GDP purchasing power parity) of  $4.81 trillion total GDP (2009 est.) According to CIA Factbook: United States per capita GDP is $46,513 (based on official exchange rate GDP vs GDP purchasing power parity) of  $14.43 trillion GDP (2009 est.)  When China achieves per capita GDP of… $8,000, the country’s GDP will be  $10.64 trillion $10,000, the country’s GDP will be  $13.30 … [Read more...]

Two years ago I delivered a presentation to a stunned Money Show crowd in which I projected that China would overtake Japan as the world's second largest economy within 2 years. Most economists were reluctant to speculate on five at the time. I also stated that the Red Dragon will overtake the U.S. as early as 2020. Now the former is official...and the latter is right on schedule. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/China-overtakes-Japan-as-No2-rb-1097741380.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode= Ignore this trend at your own financial peril. … [Read more...]

According to the NY Times, all 34,000 Goldman employees have been directed to clean up their language. The warning, by the way, was a verbal one which strikes me as somehow very ironic. Anyway...my guess is this is a public relations play aimed at removing anything that could give opposing lawyers or the investing public court of public opinion the idea that their traders are a bunch of notoriously foulmouthed punks out for their own interests at the expense of f-ing clients when the fit hits the shan. Wonder what the company is going to do about abbreviations? … [Read more...]