31 January 2012 19:13
My debate last week with Gordon Chang on China's future at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference was a stimulating, intellectual exercise. A healthy market needs a compromise between the bid and ask, and a discussion between people who strongly disagree is a great way to promote critical thinking.
Critical thinking is vital to our investment process as a means to ensure that we question assumptions. One way our portfolio management team practices a critical-thinking process is through a weekly S.W.O.T. (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analysis of key factors influencing global markets. By hammering out the positives and negatives, we can paint an accurate picture of the realities we face. The S.W.O.T. model allows us to avoid pitfalls by weighing the evidence....
30 January 2012 19:09
This dawning of the Year of the Dragon gave rise to great excitement across China and Chinese communities worldwide. To the Chinese, Dragon years are associated with great deeds, innovative ideas and big projects. However, outside China, some commentators have been a little less sanguine about the country's prospects, pointing to reduced GDP figures and poor stock market performance last year. While a...
28 January 2012 18:30
While Kenya has no proven reserves of hydrocarbons, the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK), which is 100% owned by the government, in recent years has been actively promoting Kenyan exploration acreage and this has led to the signing of numerous Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) covering exploration blocks. Looking at history, a number of oil exploration companies were involved in the exploration for oil in Northern Kenya in the 1980's and 1990's, but then pulled out. However, there is general consensus that the potential of discovering oil and gas is high given the fact that data acquisition and interpretation techniques used nowadays are more advanced.
Kenya has four major sedimentary basins (Lamu, Anza, Mandera and Tertiary Rift) with a total surface area of 400,000km&su...
23 January 2012 04:53
A European recession will probably be nothing on the scale seen in 2008.
19 January 2012 18:53
Saudi Arabia is the largest supplier of oil to China.
16 January 2012 21:30
The Mayan were predicting the end of Europe, not the end of the world, write John Mauldin.
11 January 2012 21:43
New insights from two emerging market luminaries.
Deepest, Darkest, RichestLosing half of Africa's economic hope?African women beaten for wearing trousers – why it matters. |
Letters from ZimbabweJust doing my jobA human cyclone was underway in Bulawayo, writes Cathy Buckle. |
African women beaten for wearing trousers – why it matters.
A human cyclone was underway in Bulawayo, writes Cathy Buckle.
Saudi Arabia is the largest supplier of oil to China.