The graphs above are from The Wall Street Jourals summary of the financial events in 2010. Story: Bumpy Climb for Stocks in 2010.
Financial Times has also made a neat overview of numbers that mattered the past year here: 2010 in figures: what it all adds up to.
Year To Date Relative Futures Performance [Chart via Finviz.com]
(Good thing palladium isn’t important for much):
Sara Grillo CFA of Diamond Oak Capital Advisors thinks: Now Is The The Right Time To Buy Cheap Shipping Stocks.
PYONGYANG: Vladimir Putin with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Image via Wikipedia
This week the movie obsessed dictator Kim Jong Il of North Korea aired a western-made film for the first time on state TV. His choice was the British football film: Bend it Like Beckham (heavily censored of course).
The Daily Mail covered the event and added some fun facts:
Kim Jong Il declared himself ‘Genius of the Cinema’ and produced the definitive North Korean text on its theory and practice: On the Art of Cinema.
It contains the advice to would-be film-makers: ‘Be loyal to the party and prove yourselves worthy of the trust it places in yourself.’
His artistic instructions are displayed on huge billboards.
One recent one read: ‘Make more cartoons!’
More here.
According to data collected by DailyFinance (as of Dec 24.) the Philippines had the best-performing equity market in the world providing investors with a 58% return.
The winners followed the 2010 trends: China and rising commodity, specifically metals, prices.
Full story from DailyFinance here. [Chart via The Business Insider]
Data from economist Angus Maddison suggest that China and India were the biggest economies in the world for almost all of the past 2000 years. Why they fell so far behind may be more of a mystery than why they are currently flourishing.
Full story from The Economist here and the rest of the magazines cavalcade of the hottest charts of 2010: a year in nine pictures here.
Reason.tv’s ten most-viewed videos released in 2010 are located here.
By MyEyeSees via Flickr
FINS Finance recommends the five books below to enhance your career the coming year.
1. Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World, by Stuart Diamond ($26)
2. The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness, by Deepak Chopra ($19.99)
3. Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, by Linda A. Hill, Kent L. Lineback ($25.95)
4. The Personal MBA, by Josh Kaufman ($27.95)
5. The Futures: The Rise of the Speculator and the Origins of the World’s Biggest Markets, by Emily Lambert ($26.95)
Details on the books here.
Via Wikipedia
The notorious futures contract, pork bellies, once among the CME’s most-traded commodities and a staple at CME since 1961, has seen its volume drop in recent years, prompting calls for the exchange to shut down trading.
Full Story From The Wall Street Journal here.
Balancing the budget doesn’t require higher tax rates, it just requires spending restraint and pro-growth policies, according to Scott Grannis latest post: Federal revenue growth is impressive, believe it or not.
To get a more nuanced view of the situation and why ”the really hard stuff” in US politics lies ahead read Thomas L. Friedman: Cut Here. Invest There via NY Times.
click for a larger chart
Source:
In Defense of the “Old Always” (PDF)
James Montier
GMO, 12/22/2010
[via The Big Picture]
Via Wikipedia
Life & Arts at Christmas: Financial Times writers gives a flavour of the celebrations where they are.
Flying Home For Chrismas? Here is how to get things done on a plane.
The Economist looks at alternative ways of celebrating Christmas around the world.
If a stranger is standing nearby, shoppers are more likely to pick the expensive brand – and other claims about marketing via Marginal Revolution.
What a high status vs lower status message look like.
Various Economists on Ebenezer Scrooge:
via Greg Mankiw.
The Hangover Helper: Gooey, salty, meaty and cheesy, mega-omelets that save the day, including a recipe via The Wall Street Journal.
Barron’s: Are Steel Stocks Still a Steal?
By zoonabar via Flicker.
BBC: UK economic growth revised down. The UK economy grew less than previously estimated between July and September, revised figures have shown.
Bloomberg: Oil Hits 2-Year High After Supplies Drop More Than Forecast. Crude oil rose to the highest level in more than two years after government reports showed that U.S. supplies dropped and the country’s economy grew more than previously estimated in the third quarter.
BusinessWeek: The Year Of Printing Money. Despite Tea Party protestations, Fed policy hasn’t put much more currency into circulation. Increased bank reserves, though, could one day fuel inflation.
CNBC: Nearly Everyone Likes Stocks Again—So Is It Time to Sell? With investor sentiment bubbling at levels comparable to just before the market’s historic highs in 2007, now may be the time to pull back some before the froth gets out of hand.
Forbes: World’s Most Unique Travel Destinations. Some of these places are wonders of nature–a spot where the flora or fauna can’t be found elsewhere, or where the
MarketWatch: Mining and Metals: Payouts lack luster. As prices of gold, silver and other metals soar, European miners’ dividends haven’t kept pace, writes MarketWatch’s Sam Mamudi.
Reuters: Chill wind hits bank bonuses. A Reuters worldwide survey finds that bankers believe their payouts will be lower this year by an average of 7 percent. Here’s why the bonus pool is turning cold.
The Business Insider: 17 Facts About China That Will Blow Your Mind. Get to know the world’s most important economy.
The Economist: Why do firms exist? Ronald Coase, the author of “The Nature of the Firm” (1937), turns 100 on December 29th.
The Financial Times: Notes on a crisis: A musical take on the financial meltdown.
The Guardian: For sale: all of our forests. John Vidal: Government plans to sell off state-owned forests are unwarranted, unwanted and unworkable
The New York Times: Op-Ed Contributor: Thanks for the Tax Cut! There is a God! It passed!
The Telegraph: Citigroup fears fresh wave of sovereign defaults. Bank warns eurozone crisis will deepen unless EU agrees crisis plan.
The Wall Street Journal: Why I Don’t Want an iPad for Christmas. Columnist Brett Arends offers 10 reasons why Apple’s iPad — this year’s hottest adult toy — makes a lousy gift.
By Aray Chen via Flickr
Google doesn’t have any chance at all of competing with arch-rival Facebook, according to former Google bigwig Paul Buchheit. Buchheit tells Gawker that his old company will probably find it easier to land on the moon.
Full interview via Gawker.
Via Wikipedia
“JP Morgan is spending £495m to buy the former home of Lehman. This ends months of uncertainty over the investment bank’s plans, and means it will not move its 11,000 London-based staff overseas.”
Morw via The Guardian here.
This weekend Scott Grannis features the oil market He argues that there are two things driving higher oil prices and that the higher prices are less harmful to the economy:
“Accommodative monetary policy from almost every central bank in the world that is weakening the purchasing power of currencies, and An ongoing and probably-strengthening global economic recovery that is causing the demand for commodities and energy to exceed the expectations of commodity producers.
The chart above shows the price of Arab Light Crude in constant dollars (using the PCE deflator). In real terms, oil today is not only at a post-recession high, but also higher than it was in the early 1980s. This is not necessarily an ominous development, since U.S. consumption of oil per unit of output has fallen by more than half since the early 1980s. In other words, we are much less reliant on oil to run the economy, so higher prices are less harmful than they were before.”
Additional charts and full column here.
I bet Jerry would wish he could give Tom an iPad loaded with these games for Christmas.
[via Gizmodo]
Via Wikipedia
Working out before eating breakfast can do wonders for your health, especially if you overeat during the holiday season:
A new study published in The Journal of Physiology suggests that you run or ride a bicycle before breakfast. The study results show that exercising in the morning, before eating, seems to significantly lessen the consequences of indulging in more fat and calories than usual.
Story by NY Times: Phys Ed: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast.
“In terms of domestic credit market debt, the U.S. surpassed the pre-Great Depression heights by some point in the mid-noughties and just kept growing. In 2009, it was all the way up to 353% of GDP.”
Jeff Gundlach’s full presentation here > [via the Business Insider]
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