Con-tango

Archived entries for Views

May 4, 2006
In Economy, Views
One comment

$900 billion in NPLs in China

Earnst & Young, the accounting firm, puts China’s non performing loans at an unexpected high level, $900 billion USD, surpassing their $875 billion USD reserve level.

FT update May 16: E & Y retracted the report

E&Y retracted the report, saying its estimate of bad debts for the
country’s big four state banks "cannot be supported and … is
factually erroneous".
(big snip)
In a statement issued with the retraction of its report, E&Y
resolved the conflict firmly in favour of its auditors, saying the
official figure was "computed on a regulatory and accounting standard
based on objective evidence of impairment". In a separate statement
yesterday, the accountant said the NPL report had erred by treating "unverified forecast data compiled by others as if it were historic
information".

Humm… an auditor feeling the pinch?

May 3, 2006
In Economy, Views
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China’s Labor Day

There were quite a few announcements on Labor Day in China, as a matter of fact, 42 laws and regulations came into effect.

May 1, 2006
In Views
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BRI Energy

I was fascinated by this technology.

It seems these guys are able to produce ethanol from any organic material –crops, waste… even old tires. It really sounds like Back to the Future stuff…

April 28, 2006
In Economy, Views
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In a much awaited move, the Chinese authorities managed to surprise the markets by
raising their interbank rate 27 basis points to cool their overheated 10.2 %
y/y growth in 06Q1. The usual centralized broadcast of orders to banks to
curtail specific loans was expected, maybe an increase in loan requirements or
even furthering land restrictions for real estate development; but not the free
market economic reign-in liquidity tool of raising rates.

April 18, 2006
In Views
3 comments

Ethanol is hot!!

A lot of things are hot these days; oil, gasoline, copper, gold, silver
(it’s been smoking), sugar… commodities in general.

But, issues from ethanol producers or distributors are red hot. Take a look
at PEIX, ANDE, XTHN… they’ve tripled since November, more or less. The bigger
players ADM and Cargill have also participated in a healthy appreciation of
their pps.