WSJ: Signs Multiply That Sentiment Is Too Upbeat. Surveys of Retail Investors, Advisers, Point to Froth

   According to the Wall Street Journal, for those worried that irrational exuberance is back,Twitter's Inc. hyped initial public offering provides yet another bit of anecdotal evidence.
More quantifiable measures of investors' mood going into the end of 2013 may support that view, too. A particularly worrisome one is the Investors Intelligence gauge of adviser sentiment. Its last reading showed that 55.2% of respondents were bullish and just 15.6% bearish, tying the highest difference between the two this year. The last time the gap was bigger was April 8, 2011, which preceded the sharpest stock-market correction of the current bull market.

Another signal of froth comes from a weekly survey of retail investors by the American Association of Individual Investors, which has been tracking sentiment since 1987. Though it is volatile, a four-week average of the difference between bullish and bearish respondents is the highest since February and near the upper end of the historical range since 1987.

China's (Small) Margin for Error

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,the latest October economic data show growth has stabilized since a spring slump.But 

Beijing Is in a Tight Spot for Managing Economy

Industrial production accelerated to 10.3% year on year. Retail sales remained solid. Exports grew 5.6% with a noticeable pickup to the U.S. and Europe, China's most important customers.
The latest October economic data show growth has stabilized since a spring slump. Industrial 
production accelerated to 10.3% year on year. Retail sales remained solid. Exports grew 5.6% with a noticeable pickup to the U.S. and Europe, China's most important customers.
Inflation is again on the scene,with consumer prices up 3.2% in October compared with the year earlier, the fastest rate since February and inching toward the government's full-year target of 3.5%. Vegetable prices, an important component of China's inflation basket, surged. Property prices remain bubbly.

To prevent inflation from becoming sticky, Beijing will need to keep credit scarce. The inflow of funds from a trade surplus that more than doubled in October to $31.1 billion compared with September signals the central bank has more excess liquidity to soak up. It may also mean continued currency appreciation.

China's economy is operating in a narrow comfort zone.

 Premier Li Keqiang said last month "China needs 7.2% growth to achieve the government's target of creating 10 million urban jobs a year". While some quibble with the precision of Mr. Li's figure, anything much lower than that and party officials worry the masses may get restless.

"On the upside, it appears China's economy can't grow much faster than the third quarter's 7.8% year-over-year pace without inflation rising. Let prices get loose, and again policy makers have to worry about social discontent".

WSJ: Current Account Surplus Masks Japan's Trade Woes

    The Wall Street Journal reports,"the current account, the broadest measure of Japan's trade with the rest of the world, came to a surplus of ¥587.3 billion in September, up 14% from the year-before month, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed Monday. That was better than what the market had expected: a surplus of ¥430 billion".
The result was helped in part by smaller increases in import volumes in September than in the preceding months, and by a sharp increase in dividend payments by overseas subsidiaries of Japanese companies. But once these and other seasonal peculiarities are taken into account, the balance actually came to a deficit of ¥125.2 billion, the largest ever deficit since the current data series began in 1996.
Japan's current account surplus has been on a declining trend in recent years. Relative to the nation's gross domestic product, it has dropped from around 5% in 2007 to only 1% in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund. The main contributing factor is rising commodity prices as more emerging economies industrialized. The situation has also been exacerbated by Japan's increased consumption of fossil fuels in the last couple of years, due to the shutdown of nuclear power plants following the March 2011 nuclear disaster.

The sharp weakening of the yen, sparked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy of aggressive monetary easing, has prompted some Japanese companies to repatriate reserved profits at foreign subsidiaries back to Japan, in what is seen as a window-dressing move. Such transactions have boosted the nation's income balance—thus the current account—in recent months, including March and September. But these are only one-off developments that won't permanently improve the balance.

"The more important issue is that the weak yen hasn't boosted Japan's export volumes," Mr. Shiono said economist with Credit Suisse in Tokyo, explaining why Japan's current account balance remains on a deteriorating trend.

Harvard scientists develop a transistor that learns

In a development that may enable a wholly new approach to artificial intelligence, researchers at Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have invented a type of transistor that can learn in ways similar to a neural synapse. Called a synaptic transistor, the new device self-optimizes its properties for the functions it has carried out in the past.

One of the more remarkable features of the human brain is it gets better at whatever it does. While your first day on an assembly line may be full of fumbling and confusion, in a week or two you will find yourself seemingly on autopilot, performing the set of required tasks without much mental effort. After a few months, you will respond automatically when a part comes through damaged or improperly oriented. Plasticity is the name for the brain's ability to change its own structure through thought and activity.

Most of this plasticity results from changes in the 100 trillion or so synapses, or interconnections, between brain cells. One of the ways through which sets of behaviors are reinforced, or learned, is called spike-timing dependent plasticity, or STDP.

Often summed up by the aphorism "Cells that fire together, wire together", when neuron A repeatedly sends a signal across a synapse that causes neuron B to fire, the synapse will strengthen, in effect making that decision easier to make in the future.

The synaptic transistor could mark the beginning of a new kind of artificial intelligence: one embedded not in smart algorithms but in the very architecture of a computer. In principle, a system integrating millions of tiny synaptic transistors and neuron terminals could take parallel computing into a new era of ultra-efficient high performance.

"This kind of proof-of-concept demonstration carries that work into the 'applied' world," says research team leader Professor Shriram Ramanathan, "where you can really translate these exotic electronic properties into compelling, state-of-the-art devices." Hopefully those SOTA devices can someday be assembled into SOTA learning machines.

Source:  Gizmag

China aviation market: CAAC scraps floor price for tickets to boost air travel

China scrapped a rule that requires local airlines to keep a price floor for domestic tickets. The move comes in a bid to boost air travel demand within China. The Civil Aviation Administration says it will also consider adding a budget airline terminal to a planned second airport in the southern outskirts of Beijing.

Many Chinese airlines are feeling the pinch due to fiercer competition from cheaper high speed train tickets that have dampened air travel demand in the world’s most-populous market. Chinese Mainland airlines previously had to set fares not higher than 1.25 times and not lower than 60 percent of a base price.

Source: CCTV

Thailand: rescue workers struggle to reach ravaged towns in central Philippines

 Rescue workers struggled to reach ravaged towns and villages in the central Philippines on Monday as they tried to deliver aid to survivors of a powerful typhoon that killed an estimated 10,000 people and displaced more than 600,000.

The United Nations said some survivors had no food, water or medicine. Relief operations were hampered because roads, airports and bridges had been destroyed or were covered in wreckage, it said.

Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of structures in its path as it tore through Leyte province on Friday, said police chief superintendent Elmer Soria. After weakening, the storm headed west towards Vietnam.President Benigno Aquino, facing one of the biggest challenges of his three-year rule, deployed soldiers to the devastated city of Tacloban to quell looting and said he might impose martial law or a state of emergency to ensure security.

Source: Reuters

China Investment Corporation to buy west-London Office Development from Blackstone

China Investment Corporation is set to buy Chiswick Park, a west-London office development, from U.S. private equity group Blackstone for about 800 million pounds, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The talks are at an advanced stage and a deal could be finalised before end of November, the FT said.

If successful, the deal would be the second acquisition by CIC in the UK property market after it bought Deutsche Bank's City of London headquarters last year, the newspaper added.

Real estate has been the chief driver of Blackstone's financial success and it has moved aggressively to sell or take public its real estate assets. Brixmor Property Group Inc, the shopping centre operator owned by Blackstone, raised $825 million (515.4 million pounds) its initial public offering last month.

Source: Reuters

Temasek, Hopu buy $213 million stake in Chinese dairy maker

Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings TEM.UL and China-focused private equity firm Hopu were among five investors buying a $213 million stake in Yashili International Holdings Ltd , after parent China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd  sold down shares to meet Hong Kong listing requirements.

Temasek, through one of its Mauritius subsidiaries, Hopu and three individual investors agreed to buy 471.13 million shares of Yashili from Mengniu for HK$3.50 each, putting the total deal at HK$1.65 billion ($213 million), the dairy companies said in a securities filing on Monday.

Mengniu offered $1.6 billion in June for all of Yashili, but it received offers for 89.82 percent of Yashili's stock. That fell just short of a 90 percent threshold that would have enabled Mengniu to make a "compulsory acquisition" of the remaining shares and delist Yashili from the exchange.

Source: Reuters

South Korea air force asks for stealthier jets

South Korea's air force has asked for enhanced stealth capability for fighter jets set to be purchased, a government source briefed on the matter said on Monday, further bolstering the chances of Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) winning the tender with its F-35s.

In September, South Korea's government bowed to public pressure and voted down a bid by Boeing (BA.N) to supply 60 warplanes, saying it would restart the multi-billion tender process to get a more advanced, radar-evading fighter.

At the time, only Boeing's bid had come within budget.

Source: Reuters

Asian Shares rise away from a four-week low

Asian shares edged away from a four-week low on Monday, while the dollar rose against the euro and yen as a surprise surge in U.S. jobs growth signalled the world's largest economy was on a firmer footing.

U.S. employers took on 204,000 new employees last month, almost twice the number forecast by analysts and defying expectations that the partial U.S. government shutdown would hamper job growth.

The strong data raised the prospect the Federal Reserve may soon decide to start winding down its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying programme.

But Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and two other top policymakers suggested continued support for the U.S. central bank's massive stimulus campaign.

Adding to the positive sentiment, China's factory output and investment data pointed to signs of stabilisation in the economy, though annual inflation climbed to an eight-month high in October, fuelling market worries about policy tightening.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1 percent after shedding 1 percent on Friday to a four-week low.

Australian shares firmed after the robust Chinese data, reflecting the countries' strong trade. The S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.4 percent, while the Australian dollar stabilised at $0.9373, having fallen 0.8 percent in the previous session.

Source: Reuters

Facebook Inc director sold 1/3 of its stake in Facebook

Facebook  Inc director Marc Andreessen's venture-capital firm sold a third of its stake in the world's No. 1 online social network, according to a recent regulatory filing.

Andreessen Horowitz sold 2.28 million shares on November 6 at about $49 to $50 a share, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. It still holds 4.57 million shares in Facebook.

Source: Reuters

The Western- Backed Syrian opposition agrees to partcipate international peace talks in Geneva

The Western-backed Syriann opposition agreed to participate in international peace talks in Geneva, the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement early on Monday.

The statement, translated from Arabic, outlined conditions that must be met before the talks, which aim to end Syria's two-and-a-half year civil war, by creating a transitional governing body.

There must be a guarantee that relief agencies would be allowed access to besieged areas, the release of political prisoners and any political conference should result in a political transition, the statement said.

Following some opposition to the Geneva process from rebel fighters, the statement said that a committee had been assigned to continue talks with revolution forces inside and outside Syria to explain its stance on "Geneva 2," as the talks are referred to in diplomatic circles.

The Syrian National Coalition reached the consensus decision after two days of discussions.

"All we can do is hope is that these (Geneva) talks will end with the departure of Bashar al-Assad," said Adib Shishakly, a member of the coalition.

Source: Reuters

Thailand becomes China's second-biggest tourist destination

The number of Chinese visitors to Thailand in the first nine months of 2013 more than doubled year on year, making it the second-biggest tourist destination country for Chinese, latest data has showed.

Over 3.24 million journeys were made from China to Thailand, up 107.7 percent year on year, Xinhua learned on Sunday.

In Jan.-March, a period containing China's Spring Festival holiday, the number of Chinese visitors to Thailand was 93 percent more than in the same period of 2012. Experts predicted the figure will surpass four million by the end of this year.

"If the two countries can simplify visa procedures in the near future, we will see another surge in tourism," said Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration.

Chinese tourists are choosing Thailand because of its low prices, proximity to China, easy visa procedure and more airline choices, added Guo Dongjie, vice president of Ctrip, China's biggest online tour operator.

Source: Xinhua

Neurocam Wearable Camera Reads Your Mind & Records What You Like

The Neurocam wearable camera remembers every nice thing you see while wearing it, even if you forget about it later. It “knows” what you like because an integral brainwave sensor monitors the wearer's emotions: if you like the look of something, your Neurocam will record & save a 5-second clip for posterity .
 is the latest project from Japan's Neurowear, the company that previously gave us innovative brainwave-controlled fashion accessories including Neocomini cat ears and the fluffy (and slightly silly)Shippo wearable wagging tail . With Neurocam, however, Neurowear has moved into an area less frivolous and more practical – clunky headset notwithstanding.

That clunkiness is mainly due to the presence of a user-supplied smartphone that clips onto the Neurocam's right side, resting just above the wearer's ear. The rest of the device consists of a Neurosky Mind Wave Mobile and a newly developed custom brainwave sensor linked to the latest BMD chip. - 
So, how does Neurocam work? The key is a unique analytics algorithm software program specially developed by Professor Mitsukura of Keio University and adapted for the forthcoming Neurocam by Neurowear's in-house research team. After receiving brainwave data from the Neurocam sensor mounted on the device's left side, the software assigns sensitivity values reflecting the wearer's "interest" and "like" of what they're viewing

These values are then quantified on a scale of 0 to 100, and when the interest value exceeds 60 the smartphone's camera automatically records and saves 5-second GIF file clips of the viewed scenes. The files are then timestamped with the location noted.

Unlike Necomimi and Shippo, Neurowear's product planners see Neurocam as a stepping stone to more powerful, less obtrusive wearable brainwave-operated cameras that will offer vastly more functions. For example, the company is currently refining "manual mode" and automatic "effect function" software for a possible Neurocam v2.0 sometime in the future. 

These features will enable emotion tagging on the recorded scene clips and, even more exciting, will automatically overlay filters and visual effects based on the wearer's emotions... sort of like looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, but after the fact. 

Source:  Inventorspot

China calls for Strategic, Comprehensive China-Russia-India Cooperation

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Sunday here that China, Russia and India should regard and push forward the trilateral cooperation from a strategic and comprehensive point of view, during a meeting of the three countries' foreign ministers.

Wang said China, Russia and India stride two continents, link three oceans and have 40 percent of the world population as well as over 22 percent of world territorial surface.

He said the three countries are both global powers and emerging economies. If they work together in furthering their cooperation, not only the people of the three countries but also the whole world will benefit from such cooperation, he said.

Wang said that pragmatic cooperation among the three countries will instill great new dynamic into the global economy. To strengthen strategic coordination among the three countries will also add an important guarantee to Asia-European Continent's peace and stability, he said, adding that to utter a common voice by the three countries will bring tremendous positive energy to human historical evolution as well.

He suggested that the three countries should focus their cooperation on three aspects: firstly, increasing strategic trust among them and regarding each other as true strategic partner rather than rival. Secondly, coordinating in major international affairs to safeguard their own interests and promoting democratization of international relations as well as the construction of a multipolar world. Thirdly, deepening and strengthening pragmatic cooperation and playing a major role in building the Silk Route Economic Corridor and Asia-European Continental Bridge.

Wang also expressed his hope that their cooperation goes deep and solid in the fields of think tanks, industry, commerce, agriculture, disaster prevention & relief, medical & sanitation, high technology, environmental protection, energy, communication & transport and cyber space security.

Source: Xinhua

Japan voices hopes for Iran Nuclear deal

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida expressed strong hopes Saturday that Iran and six world powers will reach an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program.

An agreement will mark a major step forward, Kishida said in a meeting with Iranian President Hasan Rowhani in Tehran.Kishida proposed that Iran ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and allow unannounced nuclear inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to end the nuclear standoff.

Source: NewsOnJapan

U.S. Shale Gas Comparative Advantage GE CEO : "Over the next five or 10 years, the US is definitely going be a big player in gas".

Jeff Immelt:   if you look over the next five or 10 years, the US is definitely going be a big player in gas.  There's just no two ways about it but so is Australia.  I really think that two countries, given different geographic positions and the vastness of the resources will be more or less, at least for the next decade, very complementary in terms of what they do.
    Then, you know, the question in Australia is what can be done in this country to repurpose some of the human resource talent away from just activity round the natural resources, whether it's mining or natural gas, into maybe more engineering or high value added work.  I think with the stronger Aussie dollar, manufacturing can exist here but we're going to need to be extremely productive to demonstrate its value.
    So for instance, our mining business is headquartered in Australia.  We think we can develop high tech mining products that can be shipped around the world but our team is going to have to be very innovative and very productive in order to keep that going.  I was going to add to that what I also see in Australia is the development of software and analytics around some of the oil and gas applications because you're going to be practitioner.
    In other words, you are on the leading edge of some of the most advanced LNG facilities in the world and it is always good to have some of the application resources close to the customer.  So I see us using either our location in Perth or another location in the country to drive some of the software and analytics around natural gas that can be done here not just in the US.

Toyota Next-Generation Taxi Concept at the 43rd Tokyo Motor Show.

  Toyota will  be premiering a next-generation taxi concept at the 43rd Tokyo Motor Show. Although it bears more than a passing resemblance to London's iconic black cabs, Toyota says the JPN Taxi Concept has been created with Japanese hospitality in mind.
  With a length of 4,350 mm (171.2 in), width of 1,695 mm (66.7 in) height of 1,700 mm (66.9 in) and wheelbase of 2,750 mm (108.2 in), the vehicle features a roomy, open interior with room for five occupants and a flat floor that is designed to facilitate easy ingress and egress for everyone from children to seniors via the large, electrically operated door on the passenger side.

Once inside, passengers can track the route to their destination and keep an eye on the fare via a large monitor attached to the roof. Up front, the instruments and gauges have been designed specifically for taxi use.

Though no firm details have been released, Toyota says the vehicle is powered by a new liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) hybrid system that has been optimized to offer excellent environmental performance for taxi driving patterns.

It has also been designed in keeping with the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's efforts to force the incorporation of more barrier-free features along bus and taxi routes to make buildings and transport more accessible for the elderly and physically disabled.

Source: Toyota

Defense Minister Onodera to strengthen missile defense

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera has visited the western Japanese city of Kyotango on Saturday to inspect a site where a US radar system is scheduled to be installed.

Onodera visited the Air Self-Defense Submarine Base at Kyogamisaki in Kyoto Prefecture. That's where the Japanese and US governments plan to install an X-Band radar capable of tracking North Korean missiles. It will be the second such radar installed in Japan.

Source:NewsOnJapan

Is the sun rising on Japan - or is this just another false dawn?

Could it really be true, could Japan be back? After two "lost decades" the stimulus programme of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, dubbed "Abenomics", nearly a year old, seems to be doing the trick, at least as far as investors are concerned.

The Nikkei 225, so often the world's stockmarket poor relation, is up by a staggering 46 per cent since Mr Abe was elected. The UK's FTSE 250, by comparison, is up 26 per cent over the same period.

However, it is a journey that has hit some bumps along the way. This is best demonstrated by a 20 per cent market fall in late May after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke announced the US central bank's intention to end its quantitative-easing programme, sending global markets haywire. Since the sell-off bottomed on 13 June, the Japanese index has recovered by 8 per cent, with some taking the view that earnings can continue to grow.

The average Japanese equity fund is up 33 per cent since mid-December, while the Legg Mason Japan Equity fund has proved the best performer over the period with a staggering 80 per cent return for investors, followed by the Invesco Perpetual Smaller Companies fund which rose 65 per cent.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China vows to support development of other developing countries

 China vowed to continue to support the development of other developing countries and contribute to the realization of United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

The pledge came from a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Li Yong, at the Great Hall of the People on Sunday afternoon.

Xi said China always supports international development, and is willing to work with the UNIDO, within the framework of south-south cooperation and in the win-win principle, to help the development of other developing countries and contribute to the realization of UN's Millennium Development Goals.

He said China will continue to support the work of the UNIDO and the director general.

Xi reviewed the fruitful cooperation between China and the UNIDO, and the latter's contribution to China's reform and opening up, especially to the country's industrial progress.

He said China is promoting new industrialization and is willing to learn advanced ideas from international industrial development and to strengthen cooperation with the UNIDO.p Xi also called on the two sides to conduct more fruitful cooperation.

Li thanked China for its support for the UNIDO, saying the organization is engaged in inclusive and sustained development of global industries. China's successful experience is worthy for the international community.

The UNIDO attaches high importance to cooperation with China and will work together to push forward global development, Li added.

Source: Xinhua

Abe rides in automated cars

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has taken a ride in experimental automated cars designed to help prevent collisions and other traffic accidents.

Several vehicles developed by Toyota, Honda and Nissan were taken to the prime minister's office on Saturday.

Abe and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi were briefed about how onboard cameras and radar systems send signals to other cars, ensuring the vehicles keep a safe distance apart.

The automated systems also enable cars to speed up and turn without the help of drivers.

Abe sat in the passenger seats of each model as they drove on roads around the Diet building, cornering and changing lanes without problems.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Rouhani says Iran rejects threats

President Hassan Rouhani, architect of Iran's diplomatic opening to world powers, said on Sunday it had "red lines" and would not bow to threats in an apparent bid to keep hardliners on side as Tehran edges toward a deal on its nuclear programme.

He was speaking to the Iranian parliament, a bastion of conservatives, a day after the Islamic Republic and the six powers narrowed differences at talks in Geneva and decided to resume them on November 20 to try to defuse a decade-old stand-off and fears of a drift towards a wider Middle East war.

The sides seemed on the verge of a breakthrough - before cracks materialised among U.S. and European allies as France declined to endorse the proposal under discussion, believing it did not adequately neutralise the risk of an Iranian atom bomb.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France Inter radio that Paris desired a nuclear settlement with Iran but could not accept a weak deal.

Diplomats said the main stumbling blocks included the status of Iran's Arak heavy-water reactor of potential use in making bomb-grade plutonium, the fate of Iran's stockpile of higher-enriched uranium - both acute issues for France - and the extent of relief from trade sanctions demanded by Tehran.

Rouhani told the Iranian parliament that his negotiators had told their big power interlocutors in Geneva, "We will not answer to any threat, sanction, humiliation or discrimination."

Source: Reuters

Maduro government 'occupies' Venezuela electronics chain

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government "occupied" a chain of electronics stores on Saturday in a high-profile crackdown on what it views as price-gouging hobbling the country's economy.

Authorities arrested various managers of the five-store, 500-employee Daka chain, sent soldiers into the shops and forced the company to start selling products at cheaper prices.

That brought crowds of bargain-hunters to Daka outlets and sparked looting at one store in the central city of Valencia.

Maduro, who accuses rich businessmen and right-wing political foes backed by Washington of waging an economic "war" against him, said the occupation of Daka was simply the "tip of the iceberg" in a nationwide drive against speculators.

In a speech to the nation on Saturday evening, he condemned the looting reported in Valencia but said it was an isolated incident and the real criminals were unscrupulous businessmen exploiting Venezuelans with unjustified price hikes.

Critics say Venezuela's runaway inflation - the annual rate is now 54 percent, the highest since Chavez came to power in 1999 - is due to economic mismanagement and the failure of socialist policies rather than unscrupulous retailers.

Opponents say excessive government controls and persecution of the private sector are to blame for shortages of basic goods ranging from flour to toilet paper, and for price distortions and corruption caused by a black-market currency rate nearly 10 times higher than the official price.

"This ridiculous show they've mounted with Daka is a not-very-subtle warning to us all," said one Venezuelan businessman who imports electronic goods and is an opposition supporter.

Under price controls set up a decade ago, the state sells a limited amount of dollars at 6.3 bolivars, but given the short supply, some importers complain they are forced into a black market where the price is nearly tenfold higher.

Maduro retains support from large sections of the population, particularly the poor who benefit from massive state welfare programs and who remain loyal to Chavez's dying exhortation to support his chosen successor.

But the economic problems - in an OPEC country with the world's largest oil reserves - have begun weighing on Maduro's popularity, which dropped 10 points in recent months to 41 percent according to a recent survey by pollster Datanalisis.

The economy is the No. 1 issue going into local elections next month that are Maduro's first test at the polls since narrowly beating opposition leader Henrique Capriles in the April presidential vote to replace Chavez.

Capriles is trying to cast the December 8 nationwide municipal elections as a referendum on Maduro.

Source: Reuters

Here comes the great liquidity drought

Liquidity is drying up across the bond markets. Regulations designed to curtail banks’ leverage have had the unintended consequence of also sharply reducing their ability and willingness to make markets in corporate and even government debt. New regulations on the leverage ratio that will reduce banks’ repo funding books threaten to make matters even worse and to spread the drought from credit markets to rates, the underpinning of all financial markets. Secondary markets are close to a breakdown that will soon imperil the primary markets on which companies and sovereigns depend for funding. All that is masking the decay is the extraordinary actions of central banks. Their stimulus has created what looks like an asset bubble, siphoning abundant investor flows into bond funds all betting on declining rates and narrowing credit spreads. Asset managers’ trade-execution desks have been more worried about how to buy bonds than whether or not they might ever be able to sell them again. And the enlarged primary markets, in which Apple was able to sell $17 billion of bonds in a single go, with lead banks eagerly trading bonds in the first few days after launch, have obscured the underlying structural weakness in secondary markets. But just take away the central banks’ extraordinary provision of stimulus and liquidity and those investors will be left gasping. Investors have spent much of the past few years blaming banks for failing to make markets, blaming regulators for harming their ability to do so and even blaming borrowers for issuing too many different bonds that it’s near impossible to trade. It’s now time that investors took responsibility and did something about the situation themselves. New venues are being set up for asset managers to trade with each other as well as did the bank dealers. These new venues bring new trading protocols, new choices besides the now inadequate request-for-quote model that institutionalizes investor dependence on dealers to make markets. These new solutions will succeed only if investors fully embrace them. They must dare to show their orders and start making dealable prices to other asset managers, rather than just sitting back and waiting for dealers to quote prices to them. That requires a new way of doing business. But if investors don’t make the effort, the consequences might be disastrous. 

Liquidity in the world’s bond markets has reached crisis point. Investors can no longer rely on banks to provide a crucial intermediary function in secondary markets. It’s now time that investors took responsibility and did something about the liquidity challenge themselves. Failure will be disastrous for global financial markets. 
by: Peter Lee

Source: Euromoney

Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan leaves estimated 10,000 dead and 4.4 million Homeless

Philippine government disaster relief agency said Sunday about 4.4 million people have become homeless in areas hit by super typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda).
Among these people, 86,513 families or 403,503 persons were housed in 1,425 evacuation centers, said National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
Haiyan, the most powerful typhoon in the Philippines in its history, engulfed many areas in Leyte, Eastern Samar, Western and Central Visayas, Bicol and Northern Mindanao regions.
"The sea water rose as high as 20 feet, causing the people to drown," said Leo Dacaynos of the Eastern Samar provincial disaster risk reduction council.
As of Sunday, many parts of Eastern Visayas are still without electricity. Downed communication facilities caused problems in gathering information from Tacloban City and other affected areas in Leyte, official said, adding officials are relying on satellite phones and military radios.
The number of deaths from the wrath of super typhoon Haiyan continue to pile up as authorities continue to exert efforts to retrieve bodies in Tacloban City and other worse-hit areas. Local media reported 10,000 people were feared dead.
NDRRMC operations officer and spokesman Rey Balido said Tacloban City airport remains closed to commercial flights after the facility sustained damages.
"The only aircraft landing there, particularly in Tacloban, are military efforts. We are bringing relief goods (to Leyte) through other means like vessels of the Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard," he said.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas said authorities are clearing the roads in Tacloban City for the smooth retrieval of bodies.
He said homes made of light materials along the coast were destroyed "by the giant surge from the seashore which came with high winds."

Source:  Xinhua