Brazil is ..

• Is a democratic nation, not a communist one.
• Possesses a population that is much younger - the median age is 28.3, compared to 33.6 in China.
• Is far less reliant on exports. Only 14% of Brazil's gross domestic
  product (GDP) comes from exports, compared to 35% from China.
• And already possesses all the natural resources
  necessary (and then some) to support its booming economy. Meanwhile,
  China needs to go out and gobble up foreign assets to ensure it can

While stock market performance so far in 2010 not encouraging, economists continue to suggest that the recession had ended and we are experiencing economic growth. Further evidence in support of this claim arrived Friday in the form of a quarterly growth report from the U.S. Commerce Department.

According to the report, the U.S. economy grew by a rate of 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, surpassing the initial forecasts of economists.  That's big surprise compared to expected.

US unemployment remains high and recent meetings by Mr Obama suggest that he might be preparing for Stimulus 2.0 . Yeap , with double digit jobless Obama is going to play the stimulus game again. That means more spending for US Dollar and hence cheaper dollar. Can recent strength in dollar survive for longer term. I don't think so.

American Banks are returning that TARP money to get out govt control and get the liberty they want. But nowhere the previous stimulus helped the job market. Surely it did helped shareholders of those Banks and many other corporations.

Sheikh Makhtoum won't go to debtor's prison, but short of that, Dubai's
all-but-sovereign default is an epochal event in its story. I wrote a
column in Financial Express titled Dubai's great crash
where I draw on this episode to think more clearly about (a)
International financial centres and (b) Puffery. On this subject, also