With the US elections over, things should be getting back to normal media-wise. If the worst financial crisis since the 1930s is our idea of "normal," that is. There's also more space and airtime to be devoted to celebrity gossip and whatnot. But fear not, political junkies, I heard a report that the governor of Louisiana will soon be visiting Iowa. So the campaign cycle never really ends.
And with that, here are five items you can check out this weekend.
- General Motors was the first stock I bought when launching this blog in April 2005. It has been a wild ride, but a terrible one this year. Hard to believe it traded north of $40 last fall. Today's reporting, including this story from Bloomberg, leave me grateful that I switch from the common stock to convertible debt (GBM).
- Among my weekend reading will be this Vanity Fair feature by historian Niall Ferguson (H/T Paul Kedrosky). I hit "print" and 17 pages were spat out. I've been an admirer of Ferguson since reading The Pity of War: Explaining World War I
some years back. I sometimes think he's joined the ranks of the "celebrity historians" -- can't quite make up my mind on that -- but I always find his thoughts worthy of consideration.
- Regular readers know I'm attracted to the concept of an Africa-wide play. You've read me say several times (possibly to the point of annoyance) that the Dark Continent has been growing nicely, and that I'm keeping my eye on Lonrho PLC. The Economist runs this story about jet-setting across Africa with Lonrho Chairman David Lenigas looking at investments and deals. Many of the new businesses in Africa are joint ventures with governments or with people tied to the ruling parties. It is called reducing political risk. They are less likely to nationalise you if they already own you, argues Mr Lenigas. Another old Lonrho hand, brought back to run the hotels, argues that “Africa is all about relationships. Africa does not trust commerce—it’s all done on relationships. It’s the only way to succeed.” A lesson the Chinese have learned all too well.
- Bloomberg's Michael Sesit gives thumbs down to French President Nicholas Sarkozy's idea of European countries establishing their own sovereign wealth funds. Not because he's against them. But because Sarkozy would turn the SWF idea "on its head." He writes: Sarkozy's proposals smack of protectionism at a time when the global economy can least afford it. Rather than using scare tactics to pursue narrow nationalistic agendas, the leader of a major nation and the acting head of the world's biggest economic bloc should, instead, be preaching the evils of restricting the free movement of capital, limiting investment opportunities and imposing trade barriers.
- One of the first bloggers I started reading regularly was John Ellis. His blog is an eclectic mix of topics including business, technology, media, politics, golf and baseball. Ellis has been blogging very infrequently the past couple of years or so. But he announced he'd be posting more regularly and that's a very good thing, IMO.
Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week.
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