Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Beijing

President Hu Jintao (R) greets his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, April 8, 2009. Chavez arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night for a three-day working visit.

Bolivia is the gatekeeper to LITHIUM

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2009/04/08/hilsum.bolivia.salt.mines.itn

Japan is cheap!

The SPDR Russell/Nomura Small Cap Japan ETF (JSC) and the iShares MSCI Small Cap Index fund (SCJ) give you exposure to Japanese smaller companies. So does Nomura’s Japan Small Companies fund (JOF), a closed-end fund that trades pretty cheaply right now for about 88 cents on the dollar. They have, of course, been knocked down a long way by the crash.

A priceless OLD interview with Paul Tudor Jones

http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Paul-Tudor-Jones-interview.html

Loomis Sayles DAN FUSS (LSBRX)

http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=Dan%20Fuss%20Sees%20Higher%20Treasury%20Yields%2C%20Likes%20Corporates&clipSRC=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/v9_cOyt5tHK4.asf

Pimco Gross – Evolution or Revolution

http://media.pimco-global.com/pdfs/pdf/IO%20April%2009%20Web%20FINAL.pdf?WT.cg_n=PIMCO-US&WT.ti=IO%20April%2009%20Web%20FINAL.pdf

Sony Cuts Price on PlayStation 2 to $99

Deflation in needs Inflation in wants.

Sony Corp. is cutting the price of its PlayStation 2 by 23% to $99.99 as it tries to keep the momentum going for the older videogame console, which has been selling well despite the introduction of the PlayStation 3 in 2006.

Sony said the price cut on the PS2, which previously sold for $129.99, will take effect Wednesday. It is also cutting the PS2′s price in Europe to 99.99 euros ($132), but leaving its price in Japan unchanged at 16,000 yen ($165).

Sony declined to comment on whether it would cut prices for the PS3, which starts at $399.99. People familiar with the situation said the company plans to cut prices on that console as well later this year. Analysts expect prices to be lowered by about $100.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123851191140173891.html

Pimco Gross – Evolution or Revolution

http://media.pimco-global.com/pdfs/pdf/IO%20April%2009%20Web%20FINAL.pdf?WT.cg_n=PIMCO-US&WT.ti=IO%20April%2009%20Web%20FINAL.pdf

GOOG vs MSFT?

H-P testing Google software for its notebook PCs

Pakistani Taliban Leader Threatens Washington

Lets hope that the financial bailouts work better then our control over the Taliban.

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban threatened Tuesday to carry out a terrorist attack on the U.S. capital, and said his forces were behind an assault on a police academy in eastern Pakistan.

Baitullah Mehsud said fighters loyal to him raided the police academy on the outskirts of Lahore on Monday to avenge continuing U.S. missile strikes against Islamic militants based along the border with Afghanistan, a region largely controlled by the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The attack on the police academy, which left 12 people dead, “was in retaliation for the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas. There will be more such attacks,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. Mr. Mehsud, who spoke with a handful of Pakistani reporters, is based in the South Waziristan tribal region, on the Afghan border.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123847850370972947.html

Japan Tries to Increase Exports

This is getting to be a very interesting experiment.

TOKYO — Japanese companies are caught in a double bind, facing markets at home that are shrinking with the population as well as the global downturn. Nevertheless, companies must expand foreign sales aggressively — or face longer-term decline.

Exports from the world’s No. 2 economy fell an unprecedented 49 percent in February. But even as Japanese policy makers call for a renewed focus on domestic markets, companies are tying themselves more tightly to overseas markets and innovation.

“Japanese companies themselves just don’t see a future in the domestic market,” said Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute. “They’re looking for opportunities overseas instead of investing at home. That makes it almost impossible for Japan to reduce its export dependence.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/global/01trade.html?hp

Gas prices in South Florida creeping upward

Gas prices in South Florida edged up to $2.135 a gallon of unleaded in Broward County; $2.152 in Miami-Dade, according to AAA. That’s roughly 6 percent higher than last month. But the prices are still well below the $3.352 and $3.389 gas was selling for in Broward and in Miami-Dade, respectively, a year ago. Average for Florida was $2.095 Monday.

Angry Workers Detain Caterpillar Bosses in France

PARIS — Angry French workers facing layoffs at a Caterpillar Inc. factory briefly detained four of their bosses Tuesday at the U.S. manufacturer’s plant in the Alps, a regional official said.

It is the third time in recent weeks that French workers have seized their bosses to protest job losses stemming from the global economic crisis. Last week, workers at a 3M Co. plant south of Paris held the company boss hostage for two days, and earlier this month workers at a Sony Corp. plant held a similar protest.

Workers occupied parts of the Caterpillar plant in Grenoble on Tuesday morning and detained the managers. Police later moved in to clear out the seized areas and the managers were freed, said Chrystele Aubert, chief of communication for the regional government.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123850379569973495.html

Canada sees role for emerging economies

Emerging economies must play a bigger part in unravelling global economic and trade imbalances that have helped create the financial crisis, according to Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime ­minister.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, Mr Harper expressed the hope that if participants at the G20 summit in London discuss these imbalances, “it isn’t just about the desire or the ‘right’ of emerging economies to play a bigger role according to their growing power, but also [about] their responsibilities”.

The role of emerging economies in the global financial system has been highlighted by such issues as the argument over China’s manipulation of its currency, the US’s yawning current account deficit and moves by developing countries, led by Beijing, to gain a bigger say in the International Monetary Fund.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a9ea3c90-1d51-11de-9eb3-00144feabdc0.html

Pension insurer shifted to stocks Concern increases as losses mount; Failing plans could overwhelm agency

WASHINGTON – Just months before the start of last year’s stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks. Switching from a heavy reliance on bonds, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation decided to pour billions of dollars into speculative investments such as stocks in emerging foreign markets, real estate, and private equity funds.

The agency refused to say how much of the new investment strategy has been implemented or how the fund has fared during the downturn. The agency would only say that its fund was down 6.5 percent – and all of its stock-related investments were down 23 percent – as of last Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal year. But that was before most of the recent stock market decline and just before the investment switch was scheduled to begin in earnest.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/30/pension_insurer_shifted_to_stocks/?page=full