iBanker.jp

The following link to an FT article is an interesting piece of reading. I follow with some comments in Russian. Даже не будучи специалистом в российском законодательстве, и зная об особенностях национального бизнеса только из комментариев бывших одноклассников и знакомых бизнесменов, сразу вижу в этом проекте легко узнаваемый шаблон: президент сказал "надо!", и все бросились поднимать "наш ответ Силиконовой Долине". Начинание похвальное, но оно игнорирует принципиальное отличие Калифорнии от Подмосковья: отлаженную правовую базу. Какие бы там не создавались "зоны" и "технопарки", до тех пор пока регистрация нового предприятия исчисляется не в днях, а в месяцах, никакой "Силиконовой Долины" в России не будет. И как говорится, как бы я хотел, чтобы я был не прав! US fund set to invest in Russian tech hub : "Siguler Guff, the private equity group, will invest $250m in a high-technology hub outside Moscow" ■

Below is a post on Japan Private Equity News  blog. I really hope the momentum holds, but unfortunately this has too little to do with Japan and too much with China. Some big gamble... Exports Up 40% In April; Trade Surplus Soars : "Ministry of Finance announced that Japan's trade surplus in April is 742.3 billion yen from 48.9 billion yen in the same month a year earlier. Japan's exports rose 40.4% on year in April on strong overseas demands for Japanese cars and electrical parts. Export to Europe were strong, up by 19.8%, exports to US gained 34.5% and those to Asia climbed 45.3%. " ■

The following post on AllAboutAlpha.com is a good very-brief-and-basic introduction in the timberland investments. I happen to know one of the speakers mentioned in the post personally, and some of the graphs look very familiar: How much wood would a woodchuck allocate if a woodchuck would allocated part of his portfolio to wood? : "As alternative investors know, money does grow on trees after all. The trick is: how to harvest it." ■

Below are some excerpts and a link to a great post on Disstressed Debt Investing blog. Highly recommended. http://www.distressed-debt-investing.com/2010/05/howard-marks-on-risk.html Quote 'When investor demand is so strong in the leveraged loan and high yield market that second lien dividend deals are being oversubscribed, it is time to start selling' I think you would sleep a little better at night with that in hand. Back to Marks. The paragraphs I cite below really left me in awe when I read it earlier this morning. It makes so much sense from a value investor's perspective but I feel like it gets lost in the weeds of the Mr. Market's of the world. Enjoy: For about a year, I’ve been sharing my realization that there are two main risks in the investment world: the risk of losing money and the risk of missing opportunity. You can completely avoid one or the other, or you can compromise between the two, but you can’t eliminate both. One of the prominent ...

One of the great things about working in third-party marketing is that you get to meet all kind of investment managers from around the world. Over the past few months I have participated in the research effort on a very exotic asset class: life settlements. We met with a number of leading managers in the space, and had some very interesting discussions. Now I am clearly not an expert on the subject, but I believe some facts and thoughts below will still be interesting to share.