Yet another chapter from the you-can’t-make -this-shit-up book. Despite record unemployment, restless natives, growing xenophobia – not to mention fiscal problems AND monetary challenges – everything is apparently fine in Europe. The timing of this release could have been better, because even the goofy looking guy at the back of the class with Rain Man …

Always an oldie but goodie. “We have strict laws against money laundering, but as far as we are concerned, we have serious doubts about the veracity of the Indonesian government’s claims that obviously well-regarded and reputable merchants could be accused of the crimes they were alleged to have committed. Our private bankers have one simple ...

Not that this will surprise anyone who actually reads the rantings from this blog, but BT has served up a reminder that when your broker issues a conviction buy recommendation to you (the sheep), the very same ‘buy’ may be on their secret inhouse conviction ‘drop it like its hot’ list. And don’t say they ...

Nothing inherently political or economical about this article from the Independent, yet inextricably linked to the control systems in our world today. You can consider this either as a useful article that delivers illumination, or a Monday funny, or a highly offensive post that deserves to be reported to the Straits Times forum immediately. From ...

The government has decided to take a leaf from Yoda’s playbook According to the new rules, set to take effect in June, a two-year ‘restriction period’ will be put in place to make it just a wee bit tougher to restart the enbloc process, and to “try and try” again. In all fairness, even though ...

In a monologue designed to justify the ministerial junkets to the a-gogo bars of Bangkok (not so easy now that half the red shirts are occupying Patpong, and half the rainbow and yellow shirts are made up of clientless sex workers), Surin P says that ASEAN is not a magic wand for the region’s problems. ...

With regards to the Batam riots, here’s an excerpt from the PT Drydocks World website on “Our People”“We recognise that Drydocks World’s position as a world-leading …

Duh. The brain trust at IMF ‘confirms̵ 7; what every kopi-o-siew-dai and Calrsberg-guzzling uncle already knows. We’re in the midst of a property bubble, driven in part by large inflows of foreign money. In Q4 2009, 80% of new loans were created for non-self liquidating transactions (since rents are now WAY out of whack with property ...

Airlines are taking a leaf from the TBTFs in Wall Street. If Blankfein can claim that Goldman is doing the work of God, and therefore deserves to be bailed out, why shouldn’t airlines – who are being undone by the work of God – ask for bailouts too?From USA Today “European airlines ask for government ...

Posted without comments. From ZH “Morgan Stanley warns Germany may decided to secede from EMU”A fantastic overview of all the game theory aspects embedded in the European crisis, from Joachim Fels, head of Euro research at Morgan Stanley.* Somewhat paradoxically, the show of solidarity for Greece by other euro area members and the ECB raises ...