January 28th, 2007

The "Monday After", a brand new year and i'm mildly reinvigorated.

- Obama won South Carolina 55 - 27%
- Ted Kennedy to endorse Obama; Caroline Kennedy endorsed and compared to her father
- breakdown of the Project for a New American Century: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/27/205559/973/1018/444438
(and who said this was an 'imminent threat')

- China CP was set at 7.1996, first time below 7.2000.
- Again all Asian stock markets were down 1-4%, Hang Seng down 6% at lowest
- John Tsang, HK Financial Secretary, expects growth to slow sub 6% after 6.2% growth in '07
- Singpoare IP fell 1.7% vs. expectation of -0.4%; growth in '08 expected to slow to 4.5%
- PM Lee reiterated that Singaporean SWF is one of the most transparent
- Indian FM Chidambaram expects growth to remain around 9-9.5%,
- FM not in favor of capital controls but might need to to prevent US negative impact
- BoT raised inflation forecast to 2.8 - 4% from 1.5-2.8% in light of supply side constraints and commodity price
- BoT maintained domestic growth rates at 4.5 - 6% in '08
- Thailand: newly appointed speaker Yongyuth said appointment of new PM will be on Monday; rumors flying that PPP and coalition members flying to HK to meet with Thaksin over cabinet allocations; PPP leader Samak is the new PM

Economist
- Many markets are 20% below their highs, definition of a bear market; January 21st was worst day of losses since Sept 11th