Chinese-Pakistani Project Tries To Overcome Jihadists, Droughts And Doubts
April 10th, 2016
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, an interesting look at how developing the fishing town of Gwadar is part of Beijing’s broader plan to forge new East-West trade routes: A Pakistani brigade of 2,000 soldiers guards a small contingent of Chinese workers here from the threat of jihadists and separatists, reflecting the challenge of turning […]
Read more »Tuna and Gunships: How $850 Million In Bonds Went Bad In Mozambique
April 9th, 2016
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, an interesting look at a deal highlighting some of the hazards for investors looking for yield in some of the world’s riskiest markets: Mozambique is becoming a case study on the perils of rushing into markets at the edge of the world’s financial system. Global investors who in 2013 thought they […]
Read more »Use It or Lose It: China’s Grand Strategy
April 9th, 2016
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), an interesting look at China’s grand strategy: In 2010, Canada hosted the G7 finance ministers in Nunavut, the country’s frigid Arctic province that is home to a mere 30,000 Inuit people. Canada’s “Northern Strategy” for the Arctic was a centerpiece of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s tenure, resulting in a […]
Read more »Once a Bright Spot, Afghan Telecoms Face Unsustainable Losses
April 9th, 2016
Via the New York Times, a sobering look at the Afghan mobile phone sector: Men thread their way through this city’s traffic jams, hawking streamers of phone cards. Others stand behind crude wooden tables selling cheap Chinese-made mobile phones. Throngs of people navigate the sidewalks and streets with cellphones pressed to their ears. The boom […]
Read more »Sub Saharan Africa’s Brightest Spots For Doing Business
April 6th, 2016
Via EMIA, a look at Nigeria, Kenya, and Mauritius: Africa is viewed as a highly challenging environment to do business in. Despite this, however, Africa’s growing frontier markets have become increasingly significant to the world’s economy. Comprehensive economic reforms, improving business environments, effective political reforms and good governance have all promoted foreign investment and contributed […]
Read more »Africa’s Imploding Petrostates
April 4th, 2016
Via Foreign Policy, interesting observations on how the decrease in oil prices is setting off a dramatic shift in the economic balance of power on the African continent: Africa’s petrostates are crashing hard. A cool $115 in the summer of 2014, a barrel of Brent crude, the international pricing benchmark, now fetches below $40. And […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.