In China, the number 8 is a sign of luck, which is why they chose 8/8/08 to begin the Olympics in Beijing. It's supposed to be the luckiest day of the century.
Unfortunately, China has been hammered over the last several weeks and months with unlucky things like devastating earthquakes, terrible weather, tsunami warnings, a huge algae probelm in the ocean (caused by excessive pollution and human waste), air quality that resembles another planet, and pollution so bad that China has ordered many factories to be shut down for the last month. They are even shooting special cannisters into the atmosphere to attempt to clear the air. And certain athletes have been denied travel-visas due to their political points of view.
So China, all I can say is..... Good Luck!
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"OCCAM's Razor"
As an additional way to communicate with Clients of Occidental Asset Management, LLC, this blog is intended to crystallize information from the constant stream of data that is called "news", and to distill often conflicting information into the simplest components.
Qualified investors may learn more at http://occamllc.net
Qualified investors may learn more at http://occamllc.net
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1 comment:
Hey Chuck,
I've got to call you on this one. As you know I've been living in Hong Kong for the past year and travel to China almost on a weekly basis. While the problems you cite are real enough (punctuated most recently by the scandal of melamine being deliberately added to baby milk to hide its dilution, leading to several deaths and over 50,000 very sick children) there are also positive examples from China: Its open communcation of the Sichuan earthquake was in stark contrast to its previous reflex of cover-up, imposition of new labor laws designed to protect employees resulted in the shutting-down of thousands of "dirty" factories, major investment in green technologies in recognition of the environmental impact of its activities (eg. Buffet's acquisition of 10% of BYD) and a gradual opening of information access for its citizens are a few examples. China has a long way to go to be sure, but I personally see a lot to be optimistic about. I've made many friends in China and I find that the values of most of the people I meet are not so different to those of many Americans. We have to remember that China has a culture that's 5,000 years old. We may be able to learn something from them. In response to the question "What do you think of Western Civilization", a Chinese person replied, "It's too early to tell."
All the best,
Erhaan
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