Money Losing Power

 In Israel, the main categories in the consumer price index are Housing (25.2 percent of the total weight) and Transport and Communication (20.6 percent). Food accounts for 16.5 percent; Education, Culture and Entertainment for 11.7 percent and Dwelling Maintenance for 9.7 percent. Others: Health (5.2 percent); Miscellaneous Goods and Services (4.3 percent); Furniture and Household Equipment (3.7 percent) and Clothing and Footwear (3.1 percent).  Official inflation rates, therefore, refer mostly to items that are of no interest for this old man. I am not in the Housing,  Communications, Furniture, or Education markets. Only Food and Health are relevant for me. On the other hand, all affect my daughters and indirectly, me.   

Earth Abides

 

Ecclesiastes 1:4  "Men go and come, but earth abides."

קהלת:  דּוֹר הֹלֵךְ וְדוֹר בָּא, וְהָאָרֶץ לְעוֹלָם עֹמָדֶת

My fav crown princess. 

Annette

Yesterday my daughter and her fiance took us to the Cinematek Tel Aviv, to see a very long "rock opera", Anette. It is about a double murder drama. Motive: Doubts about the paternity of Anette, the baby symbolized in the film by a puppet. The emotional crisis is represented by a fantastic storm in the sea. The monologues of the main character, a start-up actor are answered by a Greek chorus formed by the audience. It is extremely stylized. The catharsis came with the final scene in the jail when Annette - this time a real girl - rejects her father's love. I understood the story only after looking it up on Wikipedia.   

Wasting time

I caught a cold and slept badly. The last 2-3 days have been difficult for me to concentrate on work. I waste my time on the internet with Prof. John Mearsheimer lecturing about China's demographic collapse and a China - USA war. He has a strong New York accent but speaks clearly. He says that Communist rule is illegitimate in China so the Party whips up nationalism to stay in power. He doubts the formation of a NATO-type alliance in Asia because the distances are too big.  For him, the suppression of Tibetans and Uyghurs are publicity items. BTW I like the Chinese position on East Turkestan. We met their monstrous faces in the Raqqa Caliphate. In conclusion, I have to work.

Demographic Collapse — China's Reckoning (Part 1)

Extremely clear and logical exposition. 

The Future is Theirs

This is an impressive pic from Bangkok. The child is not losing a moment but studying with the assistance of her mother - while being inoculated. These are the future scientists and engineers. How different is  Asian culture from the American feel-good education!  The future is theirs. 

The Chinese Real Estate Development Model

Evergrande development company is stopping paying back its debt, and the world is anxiously expecting the consequences. It has 300 billion in outstanding debt and it was being financed by sales of unbuilt apartments.  The model is something similar to a Ponzi scheme, which works wonderfully till it does not. Earlier this month, the government barred private equity funds from investing in real estate, cutting off a major source of funding for builders.

The company’s electric vehicle business, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, also lost the equivalent of $741 million. The EV company’s valuation was estimated as high as $80 billion earlier this year and now sits at around $6.5 billion. The personal fortune of the worried man in the pic stood at 10 billion, before the debacle. 

What we learn? That economic management in China makes mistakes. What will happen now? The building sector will be re-organized and raw materials sales to China will fall. Evergrande owes money to Chinese financial organizations which will be badly hurt. The coming events may depress the Chinese and open opportunities to American financial firms.