The battle for the Syrian city of Al-Qusayr, which came under regime artillery fire May 19, is actually part of a larger battle for the highly coveted Homs governorate. As we noted in 2012, the battle has wide-reaching ramifications for the Syrian rebels since Al-Qusayr sits along a major transit point for rebel supplies and reinforcements coming in from Lebanon. But it is equally important to loyalist forces. If the Syrian regime loses control of the...
Read More »
One feels sympathy for U.S. President Barack Obama. Whatever he does in Syria, he is doomed. Had he intervened a year ago, as many pundits demanded, he might presently be in the midst of a quagmire with even more pundits angry athim, and with his approval ratings far lower than they are. If he intervenes now, the results might be even worse. Journalists often demand action for action’s sake, seemingly unaware that many international...
Read More »
Several years ago, I wrote a series of articles on a journey in Europe. It was intended both to be personal and to go beyond recent events or the abstract considerations of geopolitics. This week I begin another journey that will take me from Portugal to Singapore, and I thought that I would try my hand again at reflecting on the significance of my travels. As I prepare for my journey, I am drawn to a central...
Read More »
The civil war in Syria, one of the few lasting legacies of the Arab Spring, has been under way for more than two years. There has been substantial outside intervention in the war. The Iranians in particular, and the Russians to a lesser extent, have supported the Alawites under Bashar al Assad. The Saudis and some of the Gulf States have supported the Sunni insurgents in various ways. The Americans, Europeans and Israelis, however, have for the most part avoided...
Read More »
Where to find value? Just as any real value investor knows that companies which have lower valuation metrics on average far outperform the S&P 500, so too countries which are cheaper outperform those which are more expensive. So which countries have the cheapest valuations? By a long shot based on PE its Greece. Some other countries in the single digits in terms of PE, Russia, Spain, Argentina, Italy, Ireland and Austria. Everyone knows the macro risks...
Read More »
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) released its latest Transparency Report which shows a consistent rise in government requests for its users’ private data. The search engine giant publishes the Transparency Report to reveal how frequently governments request checks on users’ private data and the removal of content. Brazil made the most censorship requests, a total of 697, followed by the United States, which made 321 such requests in the second half of 2012. The report shows that...
Read More »
The continuing cold across the United States and Russia, in combination with a drought in Argentina and heat waves in Australia could cause a large decline in crop outputs from four of the world’s bread baskets. With global food supplies already coming under strain from a rapidly growing population, increasing economic development, and re-purposing food crops for products such as Ethanol, it’s fair to ask if 2013 could see a serious famine. The growing...
Read More »
Value investing – the concept of buying stocks when they are inexpensive – has been around for decades. It is not an easy model to follow as investors need to sort through the stocks that are underpriced because their earnings potential is being underestimated or the stocks that are inexpensive for a reason, such as ineffective management and a maturing product market. Several investment analyses providers – including MSCI and Thomson – have...
Read More »
Eurasianet Commentary Last Monday I was on Boylston Street, having just completed my first Boston Marathon, when the bombs detonated. As is so often the case in the digital age, I may have been just a couple of hundred yards from the epicenter, but in the immediate aftermath, people watching on television and following via social media knew far more than I about the unfolding horror. I could hear the sirens, could see some...
Read More »
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has released a new report detailing its analysts opinions on the short term future of equities in emerging markets. The analysts opinions on the Russian equity market are particularly interesting, pointing to the resilience of the consumer economy in the country, while pointing to a depression in the price of the country’s equities. The MSCI Russia index has been in “no man’s land” so far in 2013 according to the report....
Read More »
The Boston Bombing suspects are brothers from Russia, and they are of Chechen ethnicity, law enforcement officials told reporters. One of them is a legal permanent resident of the United States. Earlier this morning, one of the suspects was killed in a firefight with police in Watertown, Massachusetts. The suspect number 2, identified as Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, is loose and has dangerous arms, the police said. The law enforcement officials released a new image of the second...
Read More »
