On December 19, 2012, South Koreans elected Ms. Park Geun-hye as its first female President. The 60-year old is the daughter of longest-ruling former dictator Park Chung-hee who was assassinated in 1979. Ms. Park received 51.6 percent of the votes casted during the election. Since the adoption of the new constitution in 1987, she is […]
The Federal Reserve adopt a new policy for unemployment and economic growth
For the first time, the Federal Reserve introduced a new policy to spur economic growth in the U.S. At its meeting in December, the Federal Reserve decided to tie the interest rate to unemployment and inflation. The new policy received the support of almost all (11 to 1) of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). […]
The new Chinese leader Xi Jinping, taking steps to curb corruption in China
Last month China selected its new leaders for the next decade. Its new leader, Xi Jinping, who is also the party secretary, is expected to be ceremonially installed in March 2013. But he is busy making adjustments and issuing new directives. During the just concluded once in a decade power transfer, the outgoing leader highlighted […]
Some actions ahead of the “Fiscal Cliff”
By now we all have heard about the looming “Fiscal Cliff”. If President Obama and the Congress failed to act, a series of serious budget provisions including tax increases and spending cuts will go into effect as of January 1, 2013. The Bush era tax cuts will expire and every one’s tax rates will go […]
Can Chinese premier-elect Li Keqiang fix the slowing economy?
China’s once in a decade leadership transition took place at the recently concluded communist party meeting. As expected the incoming Communist Party General Secretary and President-elect Xi Jinping take control in March 2013. Much has written about Xi Jinping but not much about the China’s premier-elect Li Keqiang, who will be in charge of the […]
Troubles for Hewlett-Packard continues
The Palo Alto, California based hardware giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) just announced that it is taking an $8.8 billion accounting write-off for the acquisition of British software giant Autonomy they bought in the summer of 2011 for $10.3 billion. Due to the size of the acquisition two lawyers and several financial institutions assisted HP to make […]
Does the size matter when investing in ETFs?
There are more than 1,400 ETFs covering very narrow emerging market segments to much larger indexes in developed nations. But more than 87 percent of the money invested in ETFs are with four providers; iShares, State Street, Vanguard and PowerShares. Does the size matters when investing in ETFs? Buying ETFs are easy. But liquidating or […]
The ever continuing Syrian struggle
The new United Nation’s and Arab League’s Syrian peace negotiator, Lakhdar Brahimi, is making headlines on newspapers and on the Web for his attempts to negotiate a truce between the Syrian government and freedom fighters before the start of the Id al-Adha holiday that begins on October 25, 2012. He is holding talks with key […]
A case for dividend growth companies
Thanks to Federal Reserve’s latest attempt dubbed as QE3 (Quantitative Easing three), the low dividend paying companies may increase their dividend payments. According to Barron’s the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) which has a 4.1 percent yield only paid out 30 percent over the past two years. Companies are sitting […]
Effects of QE3 (Quantitative Easing three)
It has been more than a month since the introduction of QE3 by the Federal Reserve. It intends to purchase $40 billion of mortgaged-backed securities a month with an aim to boost employment and housing. Some expect the program to continue until the end of third quarter of 2013. Since QE3, the mortgage interest rate […]