If the world speculative bubble is to burst, it will start from China IMHO. Watch China first for signs of significant downmoves like in May 2006 My blog: http://lauristonletter.blogspot.com/
I agree, if only my math teacher, my worst subject, had told me that by becoming strong in math, specifically stats, I could be a successful trader or card counter, I would have worked towards straight A's. Now I have learn in my 30's what I refused to learn in my teens.
illiquid - I feel for you...that little repartée with unforgiven must have frustrated the hell out of you. I was going to respond to unforgiven's call about me being an idiot, but after seeing his exchange with you I realised it was best not to - for I was reminded of advice my brother once gave me: "Never argue with an idiot - all they'll do is bring you down to their level and beat you with experience." Che
LMAO! Che, I love that quote. But you did respond to me, you couldn't help yourself. I may not have been a direct response but nonetheless it was a response. I'm just fooling w/ you, i don't care who is num# 1 as long as no one starts attacking each other. If the main countries are @ peace with each other it's all good. They can all be great if they help each other.
Oh jeez...give me a break buddy. I've been to almost every state in the US, Europe, Africa, Aus/NZ, Asia, etc. Never been to China, it's on the list. I can tell you that for human rights abuses China ranks #1 in the world as determined by most NGOs and human rights organizations...I'm not sure you can discount any African nation from that running but China has the ability to treat its people better and doesn't. Most of the government sanctioned human rights abuses in the world are of the Chinese flavor. Who said anything about slave labor? There are other SE Asian countries that are more well governed and Westernized than China that haven't had so many problems with human rights issues when it comes to working labor...but you wouldn't know a thing about that huh little man? Mexico, Guatemala, and other areas of Latin America have the infrastructure to do the same. Yes...my opinion is more important than yours I'm sure.
Uh...I don't think you'd be saying that if N. Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya, and Venezuela were waving their nukes around saying that they wanted some free stuff sent to them. You're a moron my dear.
From your list only N. Korea has nuclear weapons, so there isn't much chance of any of the other countries "waving their nukes around". As a matter of fact, the only country "waving their nukes around" at the moment is the United States with the build up of nuclear armed naval forces in the Gulf.
blast19 - you must either be a fast typer or have a slow brain. Either way, you're typing faster than you're thinking. As dcraig quite rightly pointed out, only Nourth Korea has 'nukes' from your list. Funny that you then went on to call me a moron... you should either slow down your typing or think a little before you write. Che