Author: Serkadis

The Internet has been around for quite a while now but only recently has it gotten a wide enough spread and become accessible to enough people in developing countries that it is beginning to be a target for totalitarian regimes from Cuba to Italy. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is known for his increasingly strong grasp over the country… (read more)

Egypt Exploration Society

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Somehow Germany’s efficient Labour costs are hurting the rest of Europe, says the French finance minister:

CNBC:

“Clearly Germany has done an awfully good job in the last 10 years or so, improving competitiveness, putting very high pressure on its labour costs. When you look at unit labour costs to Germany, they have done a tremendous job in that respect. I’m not sure it is a sustainable model for the long term and for the whole of the group. Clearly we need better convergence.”

Thing is, such an argument might be remotely sound if Germany were a low-income country. But it isn’t, Germans enjoy a rather high standard of living and has high wages. Thus the fact that Germany can be cost competitive is a matter of efficiency. So we’re not sure what kind of Europe France’s finance minister envisions as the ideal. The German model would seem to be the solution, rather than the problem.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde Just Said There Is No Franco-German Aide For Greece…Right Now
• Germany Says It Welcomes Greek Austerity Plan But There Still Won’t Be A Bailout
• Now French CDS Are Soaring, And They Make For A Monster Buying Opportunity

AP News

This article focuses on the identification of the mummy in KV55 as Akhenaten and also looks at why Akhenaten was more important in ancient Egypt than Tutankhamun. Here’s an extract.

The discovery of Akhenaten’s remains lay to rest longtime speculation over his physical appearance. Royal statues of the time show an effeminate figure with womanly hips, elongated skull and fleshy lips – leading to speculation he suffered from any number of rare diseases that distorted his body.

But the mummy and DNA tests showed a normally shaped man without genetic conditions that might given him both masculine and feminine features.

“It ought to dampen down some of the more dramatic interpretations,” said Barry Kemp, who has been working on the Amarna excavations since 1977. “But people do love a good story.”

Jerome Rose, of the University of Arkansas, who has been working on the site with Kemp, said the discovery “makes our work at Amarna of greater interest.”

What the discovery does not resolve, however, is the mystery of how Akhenaten died. Unlike Tutankhamun’s well preserved mummy, which showed he suffered from congenital defects and malaria, Akhenaten’s remains are little more than bones with no soft tissues to provide clues to his death.

In fact, the difference in preservation between his skeleton and all the other royal mummies could have been due to his different religious beliefs or animosity by those burying him.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

At the end of last month, Kia released some renderings of the new 2011 Magentis sedan, known to us American folks as the Optima. Today, we get our first look at the new 2011 Kia Optima before its debut at the 2010 New York Auto Show.

“The next generation Optima possesses the power to surprise,” says Peter Schreyer, Kia’s Chief Design Officer. “It’s a car that people will simply not expect from Kia – and that’s exactly what we set out to achieve. The Optima embodies Kia’s confident new design direction. It’s a global car with individual appeal.”

Click here to price a 2010 Kia Sorento.

The 2011 Optima sedan gets Kia’s new tiger style family face and is longer, wider and lower than the current model. It carries a swooping coupe-like profile, which is enhanced by the chrome arc that flows from A to C pillar.

The 2011 Kia Optima will go on sale this fall. A hybrid variant is expected in early 2011.

2011 Kia Optima:

Press Release:

Next generation Kia Optima to showcase confident new design direction
World premiere to be held at 2010 New York Motor Show

(SEOUL) March 14, 2010 – The next generation Kia Optima (currently, also known as ‘Magentis’ in some markets) is set to make its world premiere next month at the 2010 New York International Auto Show.

The Optima exudes an athletic confidence from every angle and shutline – its raked roofline, the high and pronounced shoulder line of its sculpted flanks and its extended wheelbase are complemented by boldly flared wheelarches and a shallow glasshouse that create a saloon with a muscular and self-assured stance.

The striking visage of the Optima features a new interpretation of Kia’s bold ‘tiger’ family face that’s edged by piercing projector headlamps.

Longer, wider and lower than before, the Kia’s coupe-like profile is enhanced by the sweeping chrome arc that flows from A to C pillar, a distinctive design motif that visually lowers the car further still and enhances its cab-backwards proportions.

Spacious, and with class-leading levels of safety and luxury equipment, the Optima’s intelligently configured and driver-oriented cabin underlines this newfound poise and presence.

The Kia Motors press conference for the New York International Auto Show will take place on April 1, 2010 from 10:10-10:35 a.m. at the Kia Stand on Level 1 of the ‘Jacob Javits Center’ located between 34-39 Streets on 11th Avenue in New York City.

– By: Omar Rana

Digg has been around for several years now, but, recently, its importance has been veining in the face of nimble, new players like Twitter. However, it’s not going away anytime soon and it is now working on a big update and revamp of the site to bring it more up-to-date with its, mostly indirect, competitors. The changes go pretty deep, but, if successful, it may… (read more)

	Tesla: Roadster production will be increased, sales will continue into 2012 Whew.		Valmet presents their all-electric Eva concept Great, another awesome EV concept we wish were in production now.
	Try Voltex, a chemical cure for range anxiety Take two and calm down.	Other news: Report: Unintended acceleration Prius case gets twist involving debt, technology Report: Prokhorov’s upcoming hybrid vehicle due in 2012? [w/video] Pics Aplenty: TAG Heuer Tesla Roadster shows off

AutoblogGreen for 03.15.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

By Victor Sharpe

Vice President Joseph Biden was apoplectic in Jerusalem. Was it because of another Palestinian suicide atrocity against Israeli civilians, or that Mahmoud Abbas, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, had yet again announced that he would never accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state?

No, it was because those wicked Israelis announced preliminary tenders for planning and zoning permission to the Jerusalem Municipality for the construction of apartments in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo (Solomon’s Heights).

Building houses for young Jewish couples and families? Terrible! Shocking! How can such aggression be allowed to continue? Biden’s angst exposed the Kafkaesque and groveling acceptance by the Obama administration of Arab and Muslim demands that Jews not be permitted to live in the eastern suburbs of Jerusalem or, for that matter, anywhere in land once conquered by Muslim armies in the name of Allah – and for the Palestinian Arabs that ultimately includes every square inch of Israel.

No matter that Jewish patrimony precedes Islam itself and Muslim occupation by millennia. The Arabs, who call themselves Palestinians, demand that the world, and the United States in particular, ignore history. For them, as always, myths matter more than facts.

Obama’s Vice President, Joseph Biden, came to sweet talk Israeli leaders into thinking that President Obama would not countenance Iranian nuclear threats against the Jewish state. But the Biden visit to Israel, far from meeting its avowed goal of smoothing over the differences between the Obama administration and the Jewish state, left Jerusalem and Israelis more distrustful than ever of Obama’s intentions.

Of course, the same Obama administration has done little or nothing to stop the relentless drive by the mad mullahs of Iran to build nuclear bombs or the missiles to deliver them. Nor, in all reality, does this administration ever intend to use truly effective means to stop Ahmadinejad in his quest to unleash nuclear hell upon everyone in order to usher in the perceived Islamic messiah, the twelfth imam.

So now Israel, for daring to add one brick upon another, is excoriated in the national, international and state run medias as endangering the so-called “peace process.”

There was no mention by Biden of the ceaseless Arab aggression against the very existence of Israel or of the terror and destruction Israel has been forced to endure from the Palestinian Arabs. Instead, Biden tells Abbas, while embracing this unrepentant Holocaust denier, that these same Palestinian Arabs, despite all their violence “deserve a state.” Nor did he mention that it would be carved out of tiny Israel and created in the very biblical and ancestral Jewish heartland: Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). No mention either that Jews would be forbidden to reside in the new Arab state. Apartheid-Arab style.

Of course, Biden, clueless as ever, expressed displeasure at the decision by Israel to build houses in the East Jerusalem suburb, while failing to disclose that the land, as with other suburbs in “disputed” parts of East Jerusalem, was originally home to many Jews who were driven out in 1948 by the British-officered Jordanian Arab Legion.

This territory was finally liberated by Israel from its Jordanian Arab occupiers during the defensive June, 1967 Six Day War Israel was forced to fight, 19 years after the Jordanians had illegally annexed it.

In those 19 years from 1948, during which the Jordanians occupied the region, they never remotely considered it as anything but Jordanian. Certainly they never thought it belonged to another Arab people who later called themselves Palestinians. As it was, Jordan’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem, as well as of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), was recognized by only two countries: Britain and Pakistan.

But nevertheless, the Obama White House and the relentlessly anti-Israel State Department decided that they will echo the demands of the Palestinian Authority and call for Israel to stop building homes – not only in Judea and Samaria, but even within the very suburbs of Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reluctantly agreed to the Obama enforced freeze on home building for a 10 month period throughout biblical Jewish Judea and Samaria – but not in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Arab settlement building has continued unchecked and at a feverish pace without a murmur from President Obama. Double standards? To quote Sarah Palin: You betcha! It matters not to Obama or Biden that Jerusalem – east, west, north and south – has been described as the eternal city of the eternal people.

Rabbi J.H. Hertz, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, who spoke in 1918 at the thanksgiving service for the British liberation of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks, referred to the nearly 4,000 years of history that bound the Jews to every part of their spiritual and physical capital city and of their fate in defending it against its many would-be conquerors. He said:

“Like the Jew, this Holy City of Israel is deathless; fire and sword and all the engines of destruction have been hurled against it in vain. The Babylonians burnt it and deported its population; the Romans slew a million of its inhabitants, razed it to the ground, passed the ploughshare over it and strewed its furors with salt; Hadrian banished its very name from the lips of men, changed it to Aelia Capitolina and forbade any Jew from entering it on pain of death. Persians and Arabs, Barbarians and Crusaders and Turks took it and re-took it, ravaged it and burnt it; and yet, marvelous to relate, it ever rises from its ashes to renewed life and glory.”

Rabbi Hertz was talking on the very day on which, 2,080 years earlier, Judah Maccabee, the legendary Jewish hero, led his warriors against the Greek-Syrians to liberate the Holy City from its heathen occupiers, whereupon he entered the Temple and re-dedicated it to the glory of the One and Only God. Rabbi Hertz ended his speech by proclaiming the prophetic teaching of the Maccabean Festival, which we know as Hanukkah, in Zechariah, 4:6:

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.”

Now the Palestinian Arab mufti in Jerusalem denies that there ever were Jewish Temples in the Holy City or that Judah, Israel and Judea ever existed or that Jews even lived throughout the Land for millennia. In doing so, he also denies Christianity’s early history and theology. But, sadly, such fantasies are all too common for most members of the “religion of peace.” Even Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who is rapidly Islamizing once secular Turkey, has denied that the Tomb of the Jewish Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in Hebron and the Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem, are Jewish. Erdogan parrots the Islamic myths by calling them Muslim.

Now there is a government and a Prime Minister in Israel under assault by President Obama, who demands that Israel abandon parts of eternal Jerusalem and give it away to those who hate the Jewish people and who have set their face against accepting any Jewish independence or sovereignty in the Land of Israel.

It is instructive to dwell on what has been said by both Jews and non-Jews in the past about Jerusalem, for Jerusalem and Zion are interchangeable. Perhaps, Vice President Biden will come to understand that one can go back for such affirmation through the mists of time to the towering words in Isaiah 2:1 and Micah 4:2:

“For out of Zion shall come forth the Torah and the word of God from Jerusalem.”

These are just two of the 821 times that Jerusalem and Zion appear in the Jewish Bible: Jerusalem 667 times, and Zion 154 times. The words also appear in the Christian bible, though fewer times. They do not appear at all in Islam’s Koran.

According to the much-loved correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, the late Moshe Kohn:

“Jewish sources speak of the seventy names by which Jerusalem is referred to in the classical Jewish sources. These include Ariel/lion of God (Isaiah 29:1); Kirya Neemana/Faithful City (Isaiah 1:25); Ir Ha’emet/City of Truth (Zechariah 8:3); Klilat Yofi/Paragon of Beauty (Lamentations 2:15); Yefay Nof/ Beautiful Panorama (Psalms 48:3); and the ancient commentary of Rabbi Akiva in Sanhedrin 58a on 1 Chronicles 29:11 Hanetza/Eternity.

But what of now? The modern State of Israel endures a world willing, even anxious, to divide Jerusalem again – even as it still celebrates the reunification of Berlin – and force it to give away ancestral and biblical Jewish lands to an enemy led by a Holocaust-denier, Mahmoud Abbas, whose own Fatah organization, alongside Hamas, continues to gleefully take credit for murdering Jews.

Israeli leaders may yet, foolishly and tragically, permit Jerusalem to again be divided with barbed wire and pill boxes marking a new and hateful border, just as it was before 1967 when Jordanian Arab snipers made life a living hell for the Jewish residents, with ancient synagogues destroyed and Jewish gravestones on the Mount of Olives desecrated and used as latrines for the Arab Legion.

If Barack Hussein Obama has his way, and his Vice President continues to do his bidding, the ancestral Jewish homeland in Judea and Samaria will also be lost – not by the ravages of an enemy host, but, to its eternal shame, by an Israeli government acquiescing in its own national suicide; its borders reduced to a mere nine miles wide at its most populous region from the Mediterranean Sea to the foothills of the Judean mountain range – a border, which the late Israeli statesman, Abba Eban, once described as the “Auschwitz borders.”

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Victor Sharpe is a freelance writer and author of Volumes One and Two of Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish state.

Read more excellent articles from Family Security Matters

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Blundering Bureaucrats, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Israel, Jerusalem, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Middle East, Palestinian, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Spine Donor Politicians, Vice President Joe Biden Tagged: FSM (Family Security Matters), Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Building Program, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama Administration Policies, Obama Middle East Policy, Tony, Vice President Joe Biden

FoMoCo’s latest internal employee survey shows that morale and employee confidence in the company’s future has hit an all-time high. The survey conducted in December shows that 89 percent of employees have a positive outlook, compared to less than 55 percent in the middle of 2008.

“It’s a very positive reflection of employee confidence in Ford,” said spokeswoman Marcey Evans, who confirmed the authenticity of the report. “It reflects their confidence in our company and their confidence in our products.”

The survey also asked Ford employees if they were looking forward to their future at the company, and 85 percent said they were.

Ford gained 1.1. percentage points of market share last year in the United States, helping it earn more than $2.7 billion, its first annual profit since 2005.

Source: Detroit News

We’re not saying this is a guaranteed signal, but it’s definitely odd. Beijing trash production suddenly dropped in 2009, after growing along with the Chinese economy in previous years. Either Beijing just became far more environmentally-conscious or perhaps something is amiss when it comes to Chinese government data:

China Daily:

According to statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration, the city produced 6.72 million tons of domestic garbage in 2008 and the amount is growing by 8 percent a year. Although, to look on the bright side, last year witnessed a 0.5 percent fall in garbage generation compared with 2008. But, whichever way you look at it garbage is a growing problem, and one that is threatening to get out of control.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• See Traders Front-Run China Mobile’s Pudong Buy
• China’s Housing Bubble Is Inflating Faster Than Ever
• Exxon: Natural Gas Has A Huge Future In America As A Cleaner Energy Source

Google has been in damage-control mode ever since Buzz was launched and, especially the first week was hell for the developers. Things have quieted down a bit, but there are plenty to be fixed in Google Buzz, something they admit to themselves, so, now, we have a new wave of updates that should calm some of the remaining complaints.

“When you participate in a conversation in Google Buzz, we bring that post to your inbox so it’s easy to keep up with the discussion. But we’ve … (read more)

By the end of April Tim Geithner’s Treasury has to publish a semi-annual report that will either brand China as a currency manipulator or not.

Of course, everyone knows that China — like all countries — manipulates its currency, but these things are shrouded in theater and politics and nuanced language, but the upshot is that it would apparently be a big deal if the Treasury actually made such a call.

Well, leading figures in the US are going to put as much pressure on Geithner to do so as they can.

In a fresh editorial out today, Krugman says it’s time the US began “taking on China.” That’s actually the headline of the column.

What’s most interesting about the column isn’t his call for China to let the Yuan rise in value, that’s old, but his argument that the US has nothing to fear from China.

It’s true that if China dumped its U.S. assets the value of the dollar would fall against other major currencies, such as the euro. But that would be a good thing for the United States, since it would make our goods more competitive and reduce our trade deficit. On the other hand, it would be a bad thing for China, which would suffer large losses on its dollar holdings. In short, right now America has China over a barrel, not the other way around.

Bold and refreshing!

Meanwhile, while Krugman fights the intellectual battle in the media, NY Senator Chuck Schumer is prepared to go to take action in Congress. Word is that Schumer is set to introduce legislation that would go after China over manipulation, and it may resemble a bill he proposed in 2005 to slap huge tariffs on imports. That didn’t pass, but it sent a message.

Join the conversation about this story »

Mr. Marc Faber is pounding the table hard, warning that investors should get out of U.S. bonds:

1:30 ”I looked at several inflationary periods and the worst investment in an inflationary period where you print money and have large fiscal deficits are of course government bonds”

(Via Market Oracle:)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• OPEC Forced To Hike Oil Demand Forecasts Due To A Global Recovery Surprise
• China’s Housing Bubble Is Inflating Faster Than Ever
• Exxon: Natural Gas Has A Huge Future In America As A Cleaner Energy Source

There’s been plenty of coverage of Clay Shirky’s recent talk at SXSW where, among other things, he discussed the impact of Napster on our culture. As per usual with Shirky, he made a bunch of fantastic points, often presenting a perspective that is unique and makes you think. I just wanted to pick up on one point, however, because I’ve been hearing the following argument a lot lately: file sharing needs to be “stopped” because this widespread “illegality” is teaching kids to not have respect for the rule of law. Even Larry Lessig has been known to make this point. Yet, Shirky quickly debunks it in his talk:

In the Napster era, some attributed the ascent of pirated digital music to a supposedly criminal-minded nature among American youth. The argument didn’t work. “It coincided with the largest fall in the rate of crime in recorded history,” Shirky said.

People aren’t file sharing because they don’t respect the rule of law. They’re file sharing because that particular law doesn’t make any sense to them. The idea that people jumping on the file sharing bandwagon will start breaking other laws appears to have no empirical backing whatsoever.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Premier Wen Jiabao gave his annual press conference yesterday. These are closely watched because Wen so rarely makes public remarks.

Wen’s opening statement focused on US arms sales to Taiwan and China’s role in the Copenhagen talks. But the real action came in the question period, when Wen was asked about China’s currency policy. Unlike central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, when did not call the peg to the US dollar a “special” measure that will eventually end. Indeed, he seemed to go the opposite way.

“First of all, I do not think the renminbi is undervalued,” Wen said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We are opposed to countries pointing fingers at each other or taking strong measures to force other countries to appreciate their currencies.To do this is not beneficial to reform of the renminbi exchange-rate regime.”

The Journal goes on to quote Nicholas Lardy, a China scholar at the Petersen Institute for International Studies in Washington. “I don’t recall him ever explicitly saying the currency was not undervalued,” Lardy said.

Wen also blasted the US for pressuring China to appreciate its currency while continuing a monetary policy that seems certain to result in dollar depreciation.

“I can understand that some countries want to increase their share of exports,” Wen said. “What I don’t understand is the practice of depreciating one’s own currency and attempting to press other countries to appreciate their own currencies solely for the purpose of increasing one’s own exports,” he added. “This kind of practice I think is a kind of trade protectionism.”

Join the conversation about this story »

Yesterday was Pi Day, 3.14 celebrated by math nerds, and now Google, worldwide. Having been conspicuously missing from Google’s ever-growing repertoire of special-event doodles for years now, Google has finally relented and unleashed its inner nerd, not that it tried to hide it too hard in the past.

And, perhaps to make up for all the years it skipped, Goog… (read more)

Markets are currently more skewed with bets against the British pound than even when George Soros famously made a killing breaking the Bank of England:

Bloomberg:

Wagers on the pound weakening against the dollar outnumber futures that profit on a rise by eight times more than when George Soros made $1 billion betting against the currency in 1992, the year Prime Minister John Major’s Conservative government was forced to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Sterling fell 19 percent that year.

One wonders if Mr. Soros shorting the pound, again, as well.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• U.K. Dollar Stores Bullish On Poor Customers And Planning Gigantic Expansion
• Unicredit: ‘Great Britain Is The Next Country That Is Going To Be Pummelled By Investors’
• When The Spotlight Hits The British Pound, The Rout Will Be Ugly And Fast

Paris 26 Gigapixels [paris-26-gigapixels.com] is a stitching of 2,346 single photos showing a world-record breaking, very high-resolution panoramic view of the French capital (354,159×75,570 px). One can zoom in on famous monuments of the French capital, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Beaubourg and the Notre Dame de Paris.

See also Gigapixel Photography, Colossal Images, PhotoSynth, Obama’s Inauguration Photo and Chris Jordan Infographic Art.

(This guest post previously appeared at the author’s blog)

China has been and remains the strongest leg of the economic recovery.  While most other countries remain entangled in a weak recovery or no recovery at all, China’s economy appears to have surged back to its pre-crisis growth rates.  But as the old saying goes, if it seems too good to be true it probably is.

At the beginning of the year we described China as one of our “5 biggest risks” of 2010.  Last week we mentioned (see here) the risks in the Chinese economy appear to be mounting as property prices surge and inflation begins to rear its ugly head.  Well, it looks as though we’re not the only ones who are concerned about the sustainability of the Chinese economic recovery.  According to Westpac Bank in Australia the leading economic indicators in China are beginning to roll over:

“Back on the 11th Feb we noted ‘Chinese data set to slow, but not abruptly’. Four weeks later, we wonder whether a more apt title might have been ‘Chinese data set to slow, abruptly’. Obviously, the Chinese LEI and CEI are only available with a significant lag while our Chinese pulse is available real time, so one can debate how synchronous the charts are. However, at face value there seems to be a reasonable relationship between LEI/CEI and the pulse. That is when the LEI crosses over the CEI, we tend to see major shifts in Chinese data momentum. And we certainly have seen a sharp shift in data momentum. Back in November/December, our Chinese data pulse was running super white hot at 94%. Last week, our Chinese pulse hit 39% – the lowest since March 13 2009.”

And this isn’t just a China problem.  It appears to be an emerging market problem:

“Our Asian pulse is at its lowest since June of last year. Our emerging market pulse is at its lowest since July 2009. Our BRIC pulse is at its lowest since mid June 2009 and our global pulse sits at its lowest level since May of 2009. Bottom line, we are seeing a more broad based waning in data momentum.”

Obviously, Westpac is approaching this drastic change with caution:

“Early signs of softening in data momentum suggests we should be much more cautious about corrections in those markets that benefited late last, and early this year.”

But Westpac isn’t the only bank in Asia that is turning more cautious.  Guotai Junan securities, China’s second largest brokerage firm says the Shanghai Index could fall nearly 20% further as tightening fears increase in the coming months:

“China’s benchmark stock index may fall a further 17 percent to 2,500 in the first half as the government steps up measures to cool growth, according to Guotai Junan Securities Co., the nation’s second-largest brokerage.The Shanghai Composite Index, which has declined 9.1 percent this year, may extend losses on prospects for monetary tightening after consumer prices and fixed-asset investment climbed more than estimated, said Zhang Kun, a strategist at the Shanghai-based brokerage, in a telephone interview today.

“There’s more and more pressure on the government to do more to rein in growth,” said Zhang. “The market may bottom out in July or August and then start to rebound when the tightening is expected to ease.”

Despite being the strongest leg of the economic recovery, Chinese investors have turned remarkably cautious in recent months.  The Shanghai Index peaked in July of 2009 and has traded down ever since.  The index has declined 9.5% this year while U.S. investors have continued to run head first into stocks.  Interestingly though, the leading indicators in the U.S. are telling a similar story.  Friday’s reading from the ECRI continues to show a weakening recovery. Their leading indicator’s growth rate fell to a 31 week low.

While China’s economy begins to show some warning signs, U.S. investors have signaled the all clear and are having a virtual free-for-all on the riskiest of risk assets.  Curiously,   the Chinese appear to be approaching the economic environment with substantially more prudence than their U.S. counterparts (much like their spending habits) despite continuing signs of private sector balance sheet weakness in the United States (you’d think it was the other way around!).  China has proven to be a fairly consistent leading indicator over the last 18 months when it comes to the equity markets.  U.S. investors could be wise to take note.

Read more market commentary at The Pragmatic Capitalist >

Join the conversation about this story »