India's Stock Market Outlook

During its October 10th, 2015 Asia Form, Barron's Isabella Zhong interviews Invesco's Paul Chan on what's ahead for India stocks, interest rates and the spending power of India's growing number of consumers.

Must One Be Bearish About China's Stocks and the Yuan?

Yuan Devaluation? Think Again. 10/10/2015 12:05AM Isabella Zhong asks Gavekal's Louis Gave talks about China's correction, what's ahead for the yuan, and why he likes Chinese airport stocks in this October 10th, 2015 video:

David versus Goliath: Bollywood's new challange

India has one of the world's fastest growing economies and its second largest population, a population projected to overtake China in the not too distant future. Bollywood's produces far more movies, though less revenue, than Hollywood and is known for its fantasy feeding extravaganzas. Now it is experiencing a new genre facilitated by the digital revolution.

Short films in India are attracting investors and established Bollywood players, spoiling audiences for choice. On October 6, 2015, the FT's Jyotsna Singh reported from Mumbai on how the explosion of digital access has fueled their popularity:

Property Rights Are Human Rights: Why and How Land Titles Matter to Indigenous People

Property Rights Are Human Rights: Why and How Land Titles Matter to Indigenous People

How the Interest Rate "Super Cycle" Pressures Insurance Comapnies: Allianz

Allianz is one of  the World's largest insurers.  Here Allianz's chief executive, Oliver Bäte, speaks with Alistair Gray, who covers insurance the FT, talks to  about ultra-low interest rates, asset bubbles, M&A activity and Pimco after the departure of Bill Gross in this September 27, 2015 View from the Top.  Do credit bubbles have to burst? Is the interest rate "super cycle" driving investors into foolishly risky investments and insurance companies into mergers they will regret?

David Stockman Has it Right: The Fed Stimulates Wsll Street Not Msin Street

David Stockman, supply sider and former budget director for the U.S. government explains the real deal to Yahoo finance:

How Not to Run Out of Money in Retirement

Jack Otter, the editor of Barron's Online, interviews Texas Tech University Professor, Personal Financial Planning, Michael Finke in this video.  They discuss a new breed of annuity and a new law, that offer a strategy to help retirees guarantee income in their later years:



Putting aside $125,000 from your tax protected retirement fund so that it is not subject to the mandatory withdrawal and guaranteeing an income at age 80 has attractions.

Five Things to Get the U.S. Economy Moving

King Coal Was a Merry Ole Soul, But No Longer: Natural Gas Now Is the #1 U.S. Electricity Generator

The June 24th Energy Information Agency (EIA) Electricity Monthly Update shows that in April Natural Gas was the number one U.S. source of electricity generated as measured by megawatts of output.  It moved ahead of coals in the standings by generating 31.46% of all electricity generated.

The technological revolution in the oil and gas industry has notched up another new first.  

Over the last few years, the U.S. exported more petroleum products than it imported for the first time in 52 years.  Then it became the world's largest petroleum exporter and finally the world's largest oil producer.

The technological revolution.  

Often the amazing technological revolution that has transformed both America's and the world's energy picture is referred to as the Shale Gas Revolution.  This is increasingly a misnomer.  The same innovations have been applied to the Mississippian Limestone formation here in Kansas and the Permian Basin in Texas, to mention but two examples.  The former has been producing oil since 1915, but the revolution has revitalized recovery from a field thought to be largely played out.  The Permian Basis was first developed in the 1930s.  The new techniques are recovering oil as deep as 10,000 feet from strata of various rock types.  The revolution combines computer technology that I can only describe as three dimensional GPS with engineering that allows horizontal drilling a mile or more sideways miles beneath the surface of the earth and with hydraulic fracturing, a technique first used here in Kansas 67 years ago.  Yet few say "high tech" when they talk about about oil and gas.

This could only have happened here in the U.S. where individuals own the mineral rights, where the rule of law still generally prevails, where independent petroleum companies flourish, and where immigration was once encouraged.

A sobering thought:  

If the various immigration laws of the last ninety five years had prevailed before 1920, the revolution's father, George Mitchell, would have been born in bankrupt Greece not Galveston and would not have studied geology at Texas A&M. The Economist put it well: "Few businesspeople have done as much to change the world as George Mitchell." 

What might not have been!