There’s no denying that China has come a long way in terms of economic growth. But even as the country produces ever more millionaires and foreigners flock to seek their fortunes in the world’s second largest economy, many of its elites are making a dash for the exit. EB-5, a little-known programme in the US designed to attract more foreign investment, has seen a surge in interest from Chinese applicants as the country’s wealthy look to settle abroad or at least secure foreign citizenship. The programme, which grants a green card to any foreigner who invests at least $500,000 in a business that creates 10 jobs in the US, received 2,408 Chinese applications last year, compared to just 772 in 2010, and 63 applications in ... Continue reading →
Many thanks to Scotty Barber for putting this chart together for me. It shows the extraordinarily high correlations that we saw within the S&P 100 at the height of the Lehman crisis; at the height of the Greece crisis; and then, again, for pretty much the entire second half of 2011. At that point, high correlations really did look as though they were the new normal. Obviously, correlations within and across different asset classes don’t always move in tandem with each other. But in general, the RORO trade, as it’s known, (risk-on, risk-off) tends to send correlations soaring across the board. And I can’t help but wonder whether that huge plunge in correlations that we see at the beginning of 2012 was related to the ... Continue reading →
