Courtesy of The Washington Post, a report on how China’s growing appetite for energy has led it into the messy politics and tensions of Sudan. As the article notes: At a restaurant along the River Nile offering crocodile and ostrich meat, officials of the world’s newest — and desperately destitute — nation hosted a lunch […]
Read more »Via Fortune, an interesting article on emerging markets: Today, essentially two global economies exist side by side. The U.S. and its advanced peers continue to struggle with high unemployment, idle capacity, depressed housing markets, and anemic growth. Credit remains tight in much of the developed world, despite historically low interest rates. Debt-laden European nations pose […]
Read more »Via WorldCrunch, a report on Russia’s increasing investment interest in Africa. As the article notes: “…The Soviet Union was once a major economic and political power in Africa. But when the empire fell, so did Moscow’s political and economic influence on the continent. Today, the region is growing, but is increasingly dominated by Chinese companies, […]
Read more »Two interesting articles on emerging and frontier markets. The first, via GuruFocus, takes a look at a new ETF focused on frontier markets: Every investor should allocate a portion of his or her portfolio to emerging markets. Most often, the phrase “emerging markets” calls to mind the BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China. But these […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on the Asian Development Bank’s interest in raising $1bn to expand a newly-completed stretch of railway in Afghanistan into a countrywide network to export iron ore and copper to global markets. As the article notes: “…Afghanistan is due to open the 75-km link between the northern city of […]
Read more »Via Early Warning, an interesting look at Kazakhstan: The above shows Kazakh oil production (red, left scale) and the ratio of Kazakh proved oil reserves to annual production (blue, right scale). Why do we care all of a sudden, you ask? Well: About 50 people fought police on Saturday in the town of Shetpe, 60 […]
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