The Silk Long-Term Holdings Portfolio continues to outperform. New readers, please note that this is a long-only portfolio. I imposed this restriction in order to fairly compare performance against benchmarks, and all major market indexes are also long only. Read More

Will yesterday’s global equity market bounce evolve into a sustainable rally, or will it prove nothing more than a short-covering flare, as the ultra-purist market observers predict? The reality is that global markets, measured by the MSCI All Country World Index, reached a low at the end of January. And since then, they’re up 6 percent in US dollar terms. Read More

Taiwan is poised to enjoy the view its ascent in the global political and economic scene has made possible. Ma Ying-jeou, the leader of the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) party, was elected president of Taiwan this past weekend. The KMT received almost 60 percent of the vote, a clear indication that the people of Taiwan are ready to end the hostility with China. Read More

The continued deterioration of the US dollar has left it a laughingstock. Any mention of the US dollar elicits sarcastic comments from simple European folk and deep skepticism from the more sophisticated. And as the last dollar bulls are dragged screaming and shouting into the dollar short trade, you can’t help but think that maybe it’s time for a greenback bounce. Read More

American policymakers are one step closer to nationalizing mortgages. The Federal Reserve’s latest effort to inject liquidity in the interbank market--the loans will be collateralized by the weakest assets--is clear evidence of this trend. Read More

Cambodia is coming back from the dead. Just over a decade ago, Cambodia was battling through a bloody political crisis reminiscent of the days after Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Since then, however, the country has achieved relative political stability compared to its past and has pursued pro-development policies as it integrates into the global economy. Read More

The news on the US economy and the global credit crisis is still gloomy, and it will remain so for some time. But as long as the global financial system doesn’t collapse, and my working assumption is that it won’t, the current market volatility provides excellent opportunity to buy Asian stocks. Read More

Infrastructure has been a favorite Silk investment theme for more than a year. Not a day passes that I don’t see solicitations from multiple outlets touting new opportunities. Infrastructure is a great long-term idea, but it shouldn’t have a disproportionate position in your portfolio. Read More

Preliminary economic numbers in China indicate that private consumption was the biggest contributor to China’s GDP for 2007. This confirms the idea that domestic demand is gradually becoming more important to the Chinese economy. Read More

The current earnings reporting season is critical in the sense that the numbers are always important. But also, in light of the current instability in the global economy, what’s reported now will have a significant impact on investor sentiment. Guidance for future operations is the primary factor I’m focusing on. Read More