NEWS/BLOG

Fires Rage in Greece

After a week with strong winds and uncontrolled fires, Greece has lost more of its forests than in any previous year on record. At least 64 people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed in southern villages.

Unofficial estimates say the fires have ravaged about half a million acres of forest, olive groves and scrub. This is about ten times the average for the past 50 years. Also destroyed are fragile mountain ecosystems that will require decades to revive. The livelihood of many rural people has also been disrupted and may be forever changed.

Local fire brigades are being assisted by personnel and equipment sent from abroad. Cypriot firefighters have made fire break corridors in the mountains north of Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics in the western Peloponnese. The 2,700-year-old archaeological complex narrowly escaped destruction.

Arson has been widely blamed, and 11 suspects are charged with deliberately setting fires. Local people are blaming land developers intent on making way for new construction. The government offered rewards of up to $1.4 million (1 million euros) for help in tracking down arsonists and asked a public prosecutor to see if they can be prosecuted as terrorists.

Bulls Invade the China Shop

Cabot’s China & Emerging Markets Report might be called the BRIC report, since it lists securities of Brazil, Russia, India and China, although China is responsible for the most impressive returns. The report was the best performer in 2006 and came in first again with an impressive 51.21% for the 12-month period ending in July of this year vs. 16.49% for the dividend reinvested Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, according to the Hulbert Financial Digest, which tracks the performance of over 180 investment newsletters with more than 500 recommended portfolios. The Cabot report is up 28.19% annualized over the past three years, also according to HFD.

The report doesn’t ignore the risk inherent here. “Chinese equities have been going up fast because a significant chunk of the world’s hot money the money deployed by aggressive growth investors who are actively sniffing out the most rewarding opportunities is chasing Chinese stocks. The thing to remember is that this is short-term money, and that it takes only a tiny piece of unsettling news to send it running for the safety of T-bills.”

What’s driving Chinese stocks on Monday, August 27, is an announcement by China’s currency regulator that individual investors on the Mainland may now buy Hong Kong stocks directly for the first time. Chinese citizens with a Bank of China account in the northern city of Tianjin may invest in foreign currencies under a pilot program and will not be subject to the rule that limits foreign exchange purchases to $50,000 annually. The combination of Fed easing and this change in Chinese policy makes for a very bullish environment for Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong. 

A Sinking Feeling in Sunny Spain

The property market in Spain is sagging. Areas with a glut of new apartments appear to be struggling the most. Mortgage interest is on the rise and there are far too many planning approvals, according to experts there. Spanish builders constructed 750,000 houses and apartments last year, more than in France and Germany combined, while annual demand runs about 60% of that, according to the Finance Ministry.

While Spain’s economy has been strong and overall unemployment is low, 18% of the country’s GDP is housing related, compared to 9% in the EU overall. For some time, there has been concern that a construction-lead recession could occur. Now, with the turmoil in U.S. mortgage markets and the flight from risk in Europe, Spain’s prosperity is genuinely threatened. Banks are now having difficulty syndicating loans and real estate listings on the Madrid stock exchange have plummeted.

Housing prices haven’t fallen as yet, but sales are down.The average house price in Spain was 276,300 euros or $370,670 as of last December, up 107% since the same period of 2000. Defaults on Spanish home loans in the first quarter were the highest in at least four years, according to Standard & Poor’s.

The Expanding Chinese Lexicon

Everything is changing very rapidly in China, creating the need for new words and expressions in the Chinese language. A total of 171 entries were recently added, according to the national language registry.

For example, young married couples who choose to have separate living quarters, ostensibly to keep romance alive, are known as ‘semi-honey couples” or ban tang fu qi. Then there are couples choosing a pet over children or ding chong jia ting in Chinese or “DINKS with pets” in English.

The words duan bei literally mean “brokeback,” and refer to male homosexuals. The expression derives from the Oscar winning film by Taiwanese director Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain.

Economic reforms and soaring rates of home ownership have spawned a name for people struggling to pay their mortgages, fang nu, which translates to house slaves.

Will these notions with their fancy monikers become the new wave of Chinese exports? We were just learning to live with feng shui.

Book Now, Save Later

Ever postpone buying your airline ticket because you’re hoping the price will go down? Well, here’s another reason to book early and be sure of getting the flight you want. If the price on a flight you have booked drops by $25 or more, you can get a refund for the difference. But you have to call while the lower price is in effect. If you don’t want to be checking the price every few hours, you can let Yapta do it, that’s http://www.yapta.com. It just requires a download. Yapta, which stands for Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant, works with Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and most U.S. airline websites.

Where Have I Been?

You might be wondering since our Updates haven’t been sent out for a while. A few weeks ago, the news came on NPR that Antioch College in Ohio would be closing after the current academic year. Antioch happens to be the college where I earned my B.A. and which sponsored the abroad program which introduced me to a wider world by sending me to France for a year.

I was up in arms and I wasn’t the only one; there are about 17,000 alumni of this small, liberal arts college. A few hundred had gathered for “reunion week” when the news broke, and began organizing in an effort to keep the college open. Those who weren’t there as well as some who were began blogging and e-mailing frantically. Alumni groups began organizing in major cities all over the U.S. as well as in London and Paris, and an e-mail from Peru turned up in my inbox.

I started following the blogs and e-mailing alumni in the Albuquerque - Santa Fe area, sending out “updates” or digest versions of breaking news. It seemed, and still seems, like the right thing to do. We hope these efforts will pay off and save the college from closing. For those who’d like to know more, see http://www.antiochians.org.

Passport Needed for Border Crossings

After January 31, 2008, most individuals will need to carry a US. Passport, a passport card (still being developed) a “trusted traveler” card, military ID or merchant mariner ID. Mexican citizens may still use Border Crosser cards. There will be exceptions for first-responders and for emergencies, but it’s not certain how authorities will handle a lost-passport situations.

This is not yet set in stone. Beginning June 30, there is a 60-day comment period on the sea and land portion of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, a component of the Patriot Act signed into law by President George W. Bush 45 days after 9/11.

You may comment on the proposal up through Aug. 27. Just log on to http://www.regulations.gov. The comment must be labeled with the docket number, USCBP-2007-0061. This is number is important whether you use electronic or regular mail.

Comments may also be submitted through regular mail to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of International Trade, Office of Regulations and Ruling, Border Security Regulations Branch, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, [Mint Annex], Washington, DC 20229. These comments must also be labeled with the docket number.

All comments will be posted on the government regulations Web site, according the notice of proposed rule change. Comments submitted by mail will be available for public viewing at the office.

Expats Seize Opportunities in Prague

A lot of Americans in Prague are”doing very interesting things,” according to Johnathan Kandell, writing in the August issue of Smithsonian. He’s not talking about young folks with backpacks although there are plenty of them as well.

Expatriates of various ages are making films and television dramas here in the capital of the Czech Republic, which has been a center for movie-making almost since the birth of cinema. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

was produced here on gigantic sets, and frequently the city itself is the setting for filming. With its picturesque palaces and streets, Prague easily passes for 17th century Paris, 18th century London or early 20th century Vienna.

Speaking of palaces, one of the expats interviewed in the article is a former real estate broker who moved here to claim properties - castles and palaces, actually - that had been taken from his family during the Communist regime. He succeeded in getting backing four properties and uses them to generate income by hosting conferences and social receptions.

Another expat, Karen Feldman had been a collector of fine glass and now creates designs executed by local artisans. In her work, she draws from the long Czech tradition of glass making. She’s also the author of a unique guide that’s been getting superlative reviews, Prague: Artel Style.

Tonya Graves is another of the expats interviewed. In Prague she found success in a singing career, not in the classical music that Prague is known for but with a band called Monkey Business.

A man who had always wanted to run a bank had a chance to do so here and ended up making changes that triggered major reforms in the Czech Republic’s banking system. Naturally, it helped that he’d had considerable experience in banking. Of all the expats interviewed, he is the only one planning to return to the U.S. The others have settled in Prague permanently, in some instances with a Czech spouse.