Right now, there is a lot of talk concerning our landlord neighbor to the east. And it is hard to decypher what is the truth. How can we answer questions like;

• Is the rapid expansion of lending in 2009 leading to a catastrophic bubble in China?
• Are the growth numbers that came out for Q4 acurate or are they simply puff?
• How committed to understanding China should I be?

The only one of these that I can out right answer is the last one. Yes. You should be very committed to learning all you can about our owners friends. Which brings me to Michael Pettis. He is an author and professor at the Peking University Business School and with this position, he has the unique advantage of working/learning/living in the country of interest.

Blog
Bio
Books (Sorry Dunc)

The depth of his knowledge is vast. And when I first started my self motivated education five years ago, on real estate and world markets, Michael’s blog would have been a challenge to read. But I encourage everyone, to read his stuff. It is just that good.

Take his post on currencies.

Already some of my students whose parents own their own businesses have been telling me that Chinese speculative money held abroad is flowing back into the country.  One of my students from rich coastal city Wenzhou, the most free-wheeling and business-savvy city in China, and perhaps the world, just rolled his eyes when I asked him if his family and friends were tying to bring money into the country.  “Of course,” he said.  I didn’t get the impression that he thought mine was an especially astute question.

That is the type of “on the ground” perspective that Michael can offer. Which helps me out a lot. For a while I watched the dollar as it tanked into the 70′s. Wondering if we were going to break lower. Michael’s post on the dire straights of other world economies and their fiat currencies was enlightening. It made me realize that holding US dollars (right now) is not that absolute worst position in the world (though not the best). Maybe I should own more RMB.

Also, I personally would love to go to a school like this.

a) Economics and fianance are a real passion/hobby of mine

b) The Chinese market will be an area of continued growth

Learning from a school in China would be extremely insightful into how the Chinese people think. Also, learning the language would be a great tool towards anyone’s career.

And now I will bring up someone who is a buddy of mine. The dude is totally brilliant. His name is Tony Bivens and he is currently completing a degree in linguistics from a University in Thailand (Tony, I know you read this, so post in the comments about the University if you get time).

I think his degree will be highly effective in his future career. As the world drifts from the US being the sole super power, we will have a great need for accurate communication with many emerging countries. So I am envious of Tony a wee bit. I see him as having a ton of opportunity. I only wish he blogged a tad more so I could read up on his thoughts. Though I really enjoy our skype conversations.

Jared.Out()

best minimum wage job a middle aged guy ever had
This year, our much beloved Duncan McGeary will take a vacation from both Blogging and Work (OMG!?! I know right!). Oddly enough reports start coming in from FoxNews CNN MSNBC reliable news sources that Hell has frozen over. Upon hearing this, Linda and Dunc decide to go take their icy holiday in Hell for a quote “Righteous ice fishing trip dude!” as well as visiting the historic set of  ”Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey”. While there, the happy couple will also learn that the best selling board game in Hell is “The Settlers of Satan” (Say-tawn), where alas, Satan always wins. Never the less, good times had by all!

UtterlyBoring
Jake Ortman will sit down at his desk, boot up his computer, open his favorite web browser, and stumble across a cold and deadly truth. There is no longer any Time to kill. So successful were his “Time Killing” posts, that Time suffered a fatal blow in 2009.  For what should have been several weeks (were Time to still be alive) Jake will find himself in a near anemic stupor. But finally,  Jake will set into motion a new diabolical plan. Being both a Blogger and a fan of  phonetics, he will start off on a horrific killing spree with his series of “Thyme Killing” posts targeting both the spice and the Japanese band.  (Mwhahahahaha!)

BendBubble2
Seeing the failings of the Democrats to do anything worthwhile in two years and having a gift for sensing weakness, BendBubble2′s Paul-Doh shuts down his blog and announces that he is running for Jesus. “I think this is the right time for it.” Paul says when asked about his reasoning “The Dems have been pathetic and Jesus is a deity and political position that I was born for. The prophetic nature of my blog, along with my strategic use of the ‘F’ word, will easily help the transition from blogger savant to savior of souls“. Sadly the campaign poster of an Anglo-Saxon Paul-Doh, with creamy skin, blue eyes, flowing brown hair, and clothed in a blue and white robe while holding two swim-suit clad women under each arm, does nothing to garner support. (Pundits will eventually argue that it actually weakened his message)

HackBend
Jon Abernathy surprisingly rues the day “The Brew Site” was able to supply him with an all-you-can-drink alcoholic beverage buffet. In a drunken haze some time during June and while trying to sober up, he will access his HackBend blog over an unencrypted wireless network at one of the many coffee shops around Bend. The packet containing his username and password will be garnished by a 15 year old taking a break from an eighteen hour WoW marathon. The teen will then proceed to hack “HackBend” leaving the message “You’ve been h@x0r’d!!! All your base are belong to us!” on the index page of HackBend’s site. Oh the irony!

My Back Pages
After seeing Avatar in 3D, Jesse Felder makes a bullish move and goes long on Pandora. “I believe that the unobtanium stock pile that exists beneath the surface of Pandora is where the market is headed” Jesse will state on record. He will then go on to research the world of Pandora, even going as far as calling James Cameron to ask for insider tips on when “The Company” will IPO and release their market shattering quarterly. James’ people will eventually leave a brief voicemail message that states “Dude, we realize that the movie contains ground breaking CGI and sweet 3D cinematography leading to the very edge of realism, but thats all it was, a movie.”

Congrats to everyone who made it in the Top 5 this year, and a happy holidays to all!

-peace