Where in Asia are you talking about? Not Japan, not China, not HonkKong, not Singapore, not South Korea. Sounds like your experience of Asia is some sex tour in Thailand or the Philippines! I own a 6 bedroom Town house in a one of the nicer communities sin Pudong and have lived in Shainghai for months at a time over the last 5 years as well as having travelled extensively throughout developed Asia and do not recognize it in your description. As far as why Shanghai is up, it is because people have access to cash and credit for the 1st time and have nowhere else to invest it as it is practically impossible for the average Chinese to invest outside of China's markets. This is why a share in a company that on the Shanghai exchange trades at such a premium to the same share in the same company on the Hong Kong exchange (not captive). It used to be that it was the other way around but that was before the Chinese investing public had cash and access to credit. I have talked to people who trade the market in China though I have never done so (missed the boat there as I had the opportunity) but I know we have some resident Chinese on this board and I would be very interested to hear their take from the horse'es mouth so to speak.
I totally agree. Mike, Prostitutes in the Street - you sure you weren't in Europe? Poverty... you don't have to look farther than NYC streets for that, especially in the mornings before the bums get rousted out of 'bed' by store owners and told to move on. In the 'financial capital' of the world, that's pretty sad. There's no part of the developed world that doesn't have what you described as Asia... except I saw less of that IN China than I did here in the USA. For a population the size they have, it's remarkable how far they have come in only a decade. The US has never seen growth on the scale China is experiencing, not in the 70's, not in the late 40's and early 50's. There has been no era in US history to compare to what China is undergoing right now in terms of speed, depth and breadth of development. I don't know what part of Asia you visited, but if you look only look at the ass of an elephant, you do not have enough data to describe the animal. As for the Shanghai market, what goes up must come down, but 30% growth is not very hard to believe when compared to their economic development over the last few years. It's amusing that people think it's overbought... what did Google IPO at and how long ago?
[snip]" but if you look only look at the ass of an elephant, you do not have enough data to describe the animal. " lol I'm going to borrow this phrase sometime.
The entire world has been impoverished for a long time to include Europe. The living standards for the "poor" here in the United States are a lot better then for the poor folks over in other countries. For example, a homeless man can still live in a shelter where food is provided. There are many charity programs that provide free essentials to the poorest of the poor here in America. You can apply for welfare and social security. The homeless in other countries do not have the same benefits. In fact, a homeless man in the US has more benefits then a working man in some other countries of the world. As for NYC, there are not that many homeless on the streets. Not as many as there used to be many years ago. Homeless people do have choices and most choose to live in shelters in NYC. In Asia or Europe, this is not an option. Most Westerners go to only the good parts of Asia where you see nice hotels and tall buildings. This is not the entire picture, however. There are a few billion people in Asia and most live in poverty. Of course there is growth. My conclusion was that the only place they can go is up. They really must get rid of these rebel strongholds. I dont see many rebel outposts in America.