Credit: Odysseas Gp Creative Commons BY NC SA
By John Richardson
WHEN the Fed launched its third round of quantitative easing (QE3), a Perth Australia-based investment analyst said:
“I get the feeling that people are waking up to the …
Archive | September, 2012
Managing European Volatility
By John Richardson
THE blog was in Amsterdam this week for an ICIS training event involving delegates who were European chemicals and polymer buyers.
They had one overriding question for us: “How on earth do we manage the extreme volatility in …
Central Bankers Making Global Economy Worse
By John Richardson
A NEW research note from our colleagues at International eChem discusses how central bankers have pledged to do “whatever it takes” to achieve a sustainable economic recovery. Click here for a full copy – Research-Note-24Sept12.pdf.
Their well-meaning …
Nova Chems Company Of The Year
By Nigel Davis
The ICIS Company of the year award goes to NOVA Chemicals, a company that has risen phoenix-like from near bankruptcy to produce a healthy set of financial results in 2011.
Underlying its performance is the backing of …
BBC News Warns On China’s Demographic Crisis
A major new report from BBC News suggests that “China’s economic model is in danger” due to its rapidly ageing population.
It reaches exactly the same conclusions as in our Boom, Gloom and the New Normal ebook. Chapter 6, published …
Putting The Genie Back In The Bottle
Source of picture: Flickr
By John Richardson
“How do you put the genie back in the bottle?” asked China scholar Victoria Hui in this New York Times article, referring to the difficulty that China now faces in stepping away …
China Politics Before Economics
By John Richardson
CHINA’S manufacturing activity did, at least, stabilise in September after hitting a nine-month low in August, according to the latest preliminary HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI).
The PMI improved to 47.8% in September compared with 47.6% …
Saudi Arabia To Boost Oil Output
By John Richardson
SAUDI Arabia has offered its main customers in the US, Europe and Asia extra oil supplies until the end of the year as a result of concerns over the impact that expensive crude could have on the …
Asia Faces More Asset Bubbles
Marc Faber
Source of picture: http://www.cliffkule.com/2011_06_26_archive.html
By John Richardson
RECENT action by Western central banks will result in more hot money flowing into Asia, creating further asset-price bubbles.
Last week, the Fed launched QE3 and the previous week, the European …
Asia Top Ten Chem Companies
By John Richardson
SINOPEC’s remarkable rise in the petrochemicals business continued in 2011 as it jumped two places in the ICIS Top 100 ranking, compared with 2010, to finish second overall, behind BASF. This was the result of a 28.9% …