by Tony Sagami on November 20, 2009
Pfizer has made a fortune off Viagra. No surprise to me because sex has always been a big, big business.
Here’s another sex-based investment opportunity. Japan’s Shionogi Inc. has developed a treatment for premature ejaculation. The product incorporates two local anesthetics in an aerosol applied to the tip of the penis and has shown to prolong intercourse by as much as five times.
Before you laugh, premature ejaculation is estimated to affect as many as a third of American men aged 18 to 59 years old.
Shionogi is traded in Japan (4507.JP) and on the U.S. pink sheets (SGIOF.PK).
by Tony Sagami on November 19, 2009
Sony was hoping for big sales for its e-book, the Daily Edition Reader, but said it can’t guarantee that it will be able to ship before Christmas. Somebody at Sony really screwed the pooch on this one.
Sony was getting so cheap that I was taking a close look at taking a position but this news is just horrible news for Sony. Stay away!
by Tony Sagami on November 19, 2009
Ha! Officials at the main Indian stock exchange wanted to extend trading hours by another 2 hours and make it the longest trading market in the world. Sounds good to me, but the lazy stockbrokers hated the idea and are violently opposed to the plan.
by Tony Sagami on November 19, 2009
China has embraced free markets and capitalism…to a degree. The government of China still sets the price for many of the key consumer products, such as gasoline and cooking oil. It also controls electricity prices.
The National Development and Reform Commission of China, the central economic planning agency, raised the price of electricity for non-residential use by $0.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
by Tony Sagami on November 18, 2009
The number is almost hard to grasp. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, China owns $799 BILLION dollars worth of U.S. Treasury bonds.
When — not if — China decides to start dumping those U.S. bonds, the bottom is going to fall out of our bond market and our dollar. Owning long-term U.S. government bonds is going to be one of the worst investments you can own going forward.
by Tony Sagami on November 18, 2009
I think the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen in my life is the Canadian Rockies, but the Great Wall of China was the most amazing man-made object I’ve ever seen.
Since Obama was in Beijing, he made the trek to the Great Wall of China.
by Tony Sagami on November 17, 2009
One of the hottest selling t-shirts in China is one with Obama dressed in Mao’s traditional communist uniform.
The Chinese government is not happy with the trade sanctions and rhetoric coming from the Obama administration, but the Chinese people love Obama because as they watch him embrace what they consider to be dear communist principles.
by Tony Sagami on November 17, 2009
Think this ruling is a coincidence with Obama’s arrival in China?
A Beijing court has ruled that Microsoft violated a Chinese company’s intellectual property rights in a case over fonts used in past Windows operating systems.
Microsoft, by the way, charges much, much, much less for Windows in China than it does in the U.S.
by Tony Sagami on November 11, 2009
Iron ore, used to make steel, imports into China dropped by 30% in October.
I have to admit, this data point isn’t consistent with the rest of the strong growth numbers I’ve seen out of China.
I pay attention to anomalous numbers like these because they are often an early warning sign of momentum changes.
by Tony Sagami on November 11, 2009
China doesn’t hand out their precious panda bears without some serious relationship considerations. China announced today that it would loan two pandas to Singapore.
Singapore is rapidly becoming the financial center of Asia and this gift from China shows how important China considers the relationship with Singapore to be.
The last country to receive pandas was Taiwan.
You Obama will come home with some Chinese pandas? After kicking China in the groin with several tariffs on Chinese goods, Obama will be lucky to come home with some cheap Chinese trinkets.
