Thursday, October 23, 2008

Global interest rates in 2008

The following table of average rates is aimed at reflecting the movement of official policy rates during the economic cycle rather than actual borrowing costs. The following table of average rates is aimed at reflecting the movement of official policy rates during the economic cycle rather than actual borrowing costs. 2008 MONTH: END06..END07..01...02...03...04...05...06...07...08...09...10...11...12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ G7 AVG: 3.65 3.70 3.40 3.35 3.10 2.90 - - 2.95 - - - - - 11 AVG: 4.00 4.52 4.39 4.41 4.32 4.25 4.26 4.28 4.33 - 4.28 - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FED 5.25 4.25 3.0* - 2.25 2.0 - - - - - - - - BOJ 1) 0.25 0.50 - - - - - - - - - - - - ECB 3.50 4.00 - - - - - - 4.25 - - - - - BOE 5.00 5.50 - 5.25 - 5.0 - - - - - - - - BOC 4.25 4.25 4.0 - 3.5 3.0 - - - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SNB 2) 2.00 2.75 - - - - - - - - - - - - RBA 6.25 6.75 - 7.0 7.25 - - - - - 7.0 - - - RBNZ 7.25 8.25 - - - - - - 8.0 - 7.5 - - - RIKSBK 3.00 4.00 - 4.25 - - - - 4.5 - 4.75 - - - NORWAY 3.50 5.25 - - - 5.5 - 5.75 - - - - - - DENMARK 3.75 4.25 - - - - 4.35 - 4.6 - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NO. OF RATE CHANGES: 2007: 34 3 3 3 4 1 1 4 - 2 - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MONTH: END06..END07..01...02...03...04...05...06...07...08...09...10...11...12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EASTERN EUROPE: POLAND 4.00 5.00 5.25 5.5 5.75 - - 6.0 - - - - - - HUNG 8.00 7.50 - - 8.0 8.25 8.5 - - - - - - - CZECH 2.50 3.50 - 3.75 - - - - - 3.5 - - - - SLOVAK 4.75 4.25 - - - - - - - - - - - - RUSSIA 11.0 10.0 - 10.25 - 10.5 - 10.75 11.0 - - - - - UKRAINE 8.5 8.0 10.0 - - 12.0 - - - - - - - - ROMANIA 8.75 7.5 8.0 9.0 9.5 - 9.75 10.0 10.25 - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LATIN AMERICA: BRAZIL 18.00 11.25 - - - 11.75 - 12.25 13.0 - - - - - MEX 3) 7.0 7.5 - - - - - 7.75 8.0 8.25 - - - - CHILE 5.25 6.0 6.25 - - - - 6.75 7.25 7.75 8.25 - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ASIA KOREA 4.50 5.00 - - - - - - - 5.25 - - - - THAI 4) 5.00 3.25 - - - - - - 3.5 3.75 - - - - PHIL 7.50 5.25 5.0 - - - - 5.25 5.75 6.0 - - - - TAIWAN 2.75 3.375 - - 3.5 - - 3.625 - - - - - - INDS 9.75 8.00 - - - - 8.25 8.5 8.75 9.0 9.25 - - - INDIA 7.25 7.75 - - - - - 8.5+ 9.0 - - - - - CHINA 6.12 7.47 - - - - - - - - - - - - (For more Asian rates please double click on [ID:nASIAINT]) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA: SARB 9.0 11.0 - - - 11.5 - 12.0 - - - - - - ISRAEL 4.5 4.25 - 3.75 3.25 - 3.5 3.75 4.0 4.25 - - - - TURKEY 17.5 15.75 15.5 15.25 - - 15.75 16.25 16.75 - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MONTH:DEC06..DEC07..01...02...03...04...05...06...07...08...09...10...11...12 * Federal Reserve cut rates twice in January 2008 by 75 and 50 basis points respectively + Reserve Bank of India raised the repo rate twice in June 2008, to 8.0 percent on June 11 and 8.5 percent on June 24. * Federal Reserve cut rates twice in January 2008 by 75 and 50 basis points respectively + Reserve Bank of India raised the repo rate twice in June 2008, to 8.0 percent on June 11 and 8.5 percent on June 24.


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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Hand-held Portable Universal Cell Phones Jammer (2nd Gen)

You can create a dome area of about radius 8 to 10 meters to shield, and avoid to disturb by cell phone calls.


# Features: Hand-held Portable Universal Cell Phones Jammer
# Suggest to use: Conference room, Class room, Library, Court room, Cinema, Concert hall, etc.
# Operate continuously for 1.5 hours with full charged battery
# Operate Range: Radius 8-10 meters
# Dual miniature antenna
# Hand-held size: 5.8 x 11.8 x 2.2 cm

Blocked Frequency Systems:
# GSM850 Band: 869-894 MHz
# EGSM900: 925-960 MHz
# DCS1800: 1805-1880 MHz
# PCS1900: 1930-1990 MHz
# CDMA800: 869-894 MHz
# WCDMA/CDMA2000: 2110-2170 MHz
# PHS: 1895-1919 MHz
# DECT: 1880-1900 MHz

Package Included:
# 1 piece Hand-held Portable Universal Cell Phones Jammer
# 1 piece Universal Adaptor
# 1 piece Rechargeable Li-ion Battery


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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Country Performance (Aug 20, 2008)

MSCI IndexMTD3Mo.YTD1 Yr3 Yr10 Yr
BRAZIL-10,240%-26,060%-10,810%38,170%41,720%17,890%
RUSSIA-12,230%-31,780%-28,380%-5,030%19,990%28,380%
INDIA-0,040%-14,540%-37,940%-5,280%22,800%18,040%
CHINA-10,650%-20,130%-33,580%-8,760%25,860%8,930%


source: MSCI Barra Excel


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Monday, August 11, 2008

CNN vote


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JUSHENKO GOES CRAZY

As the Internet news agency korrespondent.ua informs, referring to confidential sources, tonight the President of Ukraine Victor Jushchenko is placed in psycho-neurologic clinic for restoration of psychological balance. The press-service of the president of Ukraine does not confirm, but also does not deny this fact. According to the edition, Jushenko has run into heavy depression after news about full clearing Republic South Ossetia of the Georgian armies and the message that the information on NATO landing in Poti has not proved to be true.


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Georgian units

While they may dress in uniforms similar to the US, and some of them have US weapons, they aren't even close to US troops. Of the Georgian units I've seen, only the Commandos had any disciple. The regular units had SERIOUS disciple problems. They stole any and everything they could get a hold of, including the radio and antenna mount off of the HMMWV the NCOIC of their MiTT was driving. When confronted, their commander claimed innocence until the NCOIC told them they would get nothing else from the US military until his equipment was returned. So it "magically" appeared that night.

In Kuwait, they were routinely caught steeling from other units, they broke into shipping containers to steel MREs, and uniforms, many of them got caught steeling form the PX, they set several structures on fire because they were smoking in no smoking areas, etc., etc. Until they can get their sh*t together, there's no way in hell they should be allowed into NATO.

"So you have had experience with Georgian units? interesting, thanks.
Contradicts the claims some people make about Georgian army being ready to take back Ossetia and Abkhazia because of some US aid."


As I said, the Commando battalion was very disciplined and well led, but they were still equipped with older soviet era weapons (And they did have quite few female hotties). As for the other units, I wouldn't trust them to run the fry station at McDonalds. Their officers were garbage, and hey had no NCOs to speak of. They seemed more interested in what they could beg, barrow or steal from the US. The only reason many of them were here was because they get a supplement to their pay from the US. Most of the officers seemed to out to fatten their own wallets on the backs of their troops.

They need to make clean sweep of the officer corps, actually form a NCO corps, and enforce discipline in the units (that doesn't mean you beat your soldiers, but lead by example). It's a little hard when your officers treat their troops like peasants. They'll never show them any respect, you can't lead by fear alone.

At a minimum, it'll take them five years to weed out the old guard, and start replacing them with a better trained officer corps. If they start now, it'll take five to ten years before they have a seasoned NCO corps within their enlisted ranks, and these guys will be the backbone of any force they field. Until they do, they need to stay as far away from NATO as possible. From what I've seen, if I were the Russians, I wouldn't be worrying about them starting a war, but I would be checking my pockets to see if I still had my wallet, or if the tires were still on my car in the morning.


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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Top Finance Blogs Ranked by Alexa

1 Seekingalpha.com TR: 2,734 (3,859 links from 683 blogs) A: 5,161
2 bigpicture.typepad.com/ TR: Unk A: 18,500
3 BloggingStocks.com TR: 595 (55,276 links from 1,558 blogs) A: 18,588
4 TheKirkReport.com TR: 114,529 (99 links from 32 blogs) A: 72,680
5 www.fatpitchfinancials.com/ TR: 18,407 (838 links from 177 blogs) A: 86,000
6 TraderMike.net TR: 6,891 (2,542 links from 377 blogs) A: 88,325
7 www.theessentialsoftrading.com/Blog TR: Unk A: 92,487
8 247wallst.blogspot.com TR: 19,067 (3,381 links from 170 blogs) A: 100,000
9 22dollars.com TR: 227,372 (82 links from 17 blogs) A: 123260
10 www.howardlindzon.com/ TR: Unk A: 151,800
11 valueinvestingnews.com/ TR: 114,529 (352 links from 32 blogs) A: 190,351
12 www.brettsteenbarger.com/weblog.htm TR:97,528 (328 lnks fm 37 blgs)A:193,425
13 investorgeeks.com/ TR: 27,742 (411 links from 118 blogs) A: 210,000
14 tickersense.typepad.com/ TR: 45,277 (563 links from 74 blogs) A: 223,322
15 BillCara.com TR: 15,637 (840 links from 201 blogs) A: 226,231
16 antandsons.com/wordonthestreet.html TR: 703,564 (10 links from 5 blogs)A:249,040
17 www.informationarbitrage.com. TR: 22,429 (452 links from 148 blogs) A: 249,136
18 Footnoted.org TR: 12,952 (792 links from 243 blogs) A: 250,000
19 jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 253,941
20 www.maddmoney.blogspot.com/ TR: 100,673 (62 links from 36 blogs) A: 254,062
21 blog.fallondpicks.com/ TR: 103,872 (147 links from 35 blogs) A: 258,565
22 Gannononinvesting.com TR: Unk A: 258,880
23 randomroger.blogspot.com/ TR: 24,590 (891 links from 133 blogs) A: 281,838
24 stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/ TR: 41,307 (2,342 links from 81 blogs) A: 283,368
25 www.nyquistcapital.com/ TR: 59,891 (224 links from 58 blogs) A: 294,395
26 Maoxian.com TR: 29,668 (442 links from 109 blogs) A: 295,000
27 equityinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/ TR:34,494 (839 links from 98 blogs)A:328324
28 www.alphatrends.blogspot.com/ TR: 27,202 (1,801 links from 122 blogs) A: 356,374
29 www.crossingwallstreet.com/links.html TR: Unk A: 358,805
30 www.uglychart.com/ TR: 30,559 (592 links from 109 blogs) A: 444,643
31 www.philstockworld.com TR: 122,861 (86 links from 30 blogs) A: 451,763
32 www.controlledgreed.com/ TR: 44,136 (499 links from 76 blogs) A: 477,099
33 valuediscipline.blogspot.com TR: 63,239 (134 links from 52 blogs) A: 551,821
34 www.underthecounter.net/ TR: 82,809 (153 links from 43 blogs) A: 565,367
35 billakanodoodahs.com TR: 54,399, (272 links from 63 blogs) A: 574,283
36 accountingobserver.com/blog/ TR: 53,230 (87 links from 61 blogs) A: 698,000
37 www.thestalwart.com/the_stalwart/ TR:52,070 (127 links from 64 blogs) A:698,107
38 peridotcapital.blogspot.com TR: 137,966 (75 links from 27 blogs) A: 878370
39 www.sinletter.com/ablog.aspx TR: 914,044 (5 links from 4 blogs) A: 910,657
40 moderngraham.com TR: 119,719 (1,166 links from 30 blogs) A: 1,061,000
41 theaveragejoeinvestor.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,147,942
42 The Ponderings of Woodrow TR:28,703 (345 lnks fm 116 bgs) A:1,227,227
43 www.31contracts.com/ TR: 436,634 (11 links from 9 blogs) A: 1,340,103
44 10qdetective.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,389,000
45 valuestockplus.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,435,000
46 StockCoach.Blogspot.com TR: 134,163 (200 links from 27 blogs) A: 1,500,000
47 pink-sheets.blogspot.com TR: 240,984 (50 links from 15 blogs) A: 1,700,000
48 ValueBlogReview.blogspot.com TR: 94,177 (142 links from 37 blogs) A: 1,755,680
49 mikesnewsletterinvesting.blogspot.com/ TR:101,288(109 lks fm 35 bgs)A:1,829,000
50 financeandinvestments.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,831,507
51 www.financialnirvana.com/ TR: 234,098 (667 links from 16 blogs) A: 1,941,724
52 themicrocapspeculator.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 2,100,000
53 theflyonthewallblog.blogspot.com/ TR:158,343 (77 links from 23 blogs)A:3,187,800
54 tradinggoddess.com/ TR: Unk A: 3,522,472
55 internetoutsider.typepad.com/ TR: Unk A: 4,359,555
56 filteringwallstreet.blogspot.com/ TR: 201,778 (62 links from 19 blogs) A: 4,364,470
57 paulstocks.blogspot.com/ TR: 936,918 (34 links from 4 blogs) A: 4613812
58 oneguysinvestments.com/ TR: 382,132 (12 links from 10 blogs) A: 4,880,000
59 Davidneubert.com TR: Unk A: 5,476,207
60 thetrendtrader.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 6,000,000



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