Developing Economies Face
Reckoning as U.S. Stumbles

By PATRICK BARTA and MARCUS WALKER
January 24, 2008; Page A1

Today’s global economic crunch was made in America. But despite hopes to the contrary, the pain will be shared by developing nations from Turkey to Thailand.

Developing economies — where 85% of the world’s population lives — are maturing and are far less fragile than they were a decade ago. But they aren’t strong enough to escape the pain of a slowdown in the industrialized world or self-sufficient enough to hold up global growth on their own.

Those realities were underscored this week, as stocks in China, India and other parts of developing Asia swooned amid fears of a global recession. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index suffered its biggest point decline ever on Tuesday, and Indonesian shares dropped more than 7%. While many Asian markets rebounded strongly yesterday, worries persist that developing-world markets remain at risk to the gathering economic storm.

Many emerging markets are reliant on exports to rich countries. And while local sources of economic growth, including consumer spending, have taken root in China and elsewhere, they aren’t enough to keep developing countries from slowing if their export engines sputter.

Economists have been debating for years whether the developing world is robust enough to motor ahead should the mammoth U.S. economy soften. That theory of “decoupling” now faces a real-world test, and is a major topic at this week’s gathering of the world business and political elite at Davos, Switzerland.

“No country can decouple from the U.S.,” said Kamal Nath, India’s trade minister, at Davos. “The question is the impact.”

American consumers hold far greater sway over the world economy’s fate than do their counterparts in the big emerging markets: They spent about $9.5 trillion last year — nearly six times as much as Chinese and Indian consumers between them, said Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley in Asia.

In Thailand, shoe exports are already cooling and some apparel factories have closed. In China, furniture makers are facing weaker sales. Hua Chao Art & Furniture in Zhongshan says exports to the U.S. fell about 17% in 2007 compared with the previous year, in part because of the U.S. housing bust. “Production may shrink and jobs may be cut accordingly,” said a sales manager at the company.

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Bank Says Trader’s Fraud
Caused $7.2 Billion Loss

Société Générale
Cites Elaborate Means
Used to Elude Controls

By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS and NICOLAS PARASIE
January 24, 2008 1:08 p.m.

PARIS — Jérôme Kerviel, a 31-year-old trading in “plain vanilla” futures at Société Générale SA, pulled off what appears to be a singular feat in the world of finance: putting together what the bank termed a string of “elaborate fictitious transactions” that amounted to a €4.9 billion ($7.2 billion) loss.

Now the bank appears to have lost Mr. Kerviel as well.

Jerome Kerviel

Société Générale Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Bouton said Thursday that the bank didn’t know Mr. Kerviel’s whereabouts, though it was still trying to mop up the path of destruction he had left behind.

Using what Société Générale co-Chief Executive Philippe Citerne described as “pure fraud,” Mr. Kerviel dodged myriad elaborate computer-control systems and an army of 2,000 back-office supervisors to make huge bets on stock-index futures.

Société Générale said it lodged a legal complaint with French prosecutors against the trader. The complaint alleges Mr. Kerviel committed fraudulent falsification of banking records, fraudulent use of such records and computer fraud.

Former Barings futures trader Nick Leeson in November 1995.

Here’s a look at stories in the Journal over the past decade on trades gone bad, and an accompanying photo gallery above.

• Behind a $550 Million Bad Bet: A Mystical Man With Ambition(CAO Singapore, 2004)

• Junior Staffers Cited for Stopping National Australia Bank Scandal(2003)

• Allied Irish Banks Say a Rogue Trader Lost $750 Million in Unauthorized Deals(2001-2002)

• Sumitomo Trading Scandal Still Haunts Copper Market(1996)

MORE

• Deal Journal:Who Are You, Jerome Kerviel?

• Daily Davos:Massive Trading Loss Is Talk of the Town

Mr. Citerne said the bank failed to notice the unauthorized trades until last week because the “smart” trader had an “intimate and malicious” knowledge of Société Générale’s procedures and also knew the days in which they were conducted.

“Each time he took a position one way, he would enter a fictitious trade in the opposite direction to mask the real one,” Mr. Citerne said. He said he was at a loss to explain the motivation of the trader, who didn’t benefit from the alleged fraudulent trade. “He was mentally weak,” Mr. Citerne said. “I have no idea why he did that.”

Mr. Kerviel, 31, joined Société Générale in August 2000 and was working as a trader on the futures desk at the bank’s headquarters near Paris. He was in charge of futures hedging on European equity-market indexes, known as “plain vanilla” futures.

Though Société Générale says it first learned of what it termed “massive fraudulent directional positions” last Saturday, it waited until it could close out those trades before going public with the problem. Winding down the trades, the bank said, resulted in a €4.9 billion charge, making it potentially the largest loss ever from an alleged rogue trader.

The size of the loss also raised questions as to what role regulators are playing, and even whether they would ever be able to detect such a fraud.

Christian Noyer, the governor of the Bank of France, said an investigation was to begin immediately at Société Générale to figure out the origins and methods behind the fraud. “We will closely examine how the process malfunctioned and look into whether the internal controls were sufficient,” he said at a news conference. Once the investigation is completed and the bank had “a complete vision of the methods used by the trader” it would decide whether any regulations or oversight needed to be tightened at France’s banks. “We need to learn what happened at Société Générale to make sure this cannot happen again,” he added.

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French bank to seek $8 billion in new capital after it discovers trader’s fraud, takes subprime-related writedown.

PARIS (AP) — French bank Societe Generale said Thursday it has uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud - one of history’s biggest - by a single futures trader who fooled investors and overstepped his authority.

The fraud destabilized a major bank already exposed to the subprime crisis. France’s second- largest bank by market value said it would be forced to seek $8.02 billion in new capital.

Trading in Societe Generale’s shares, which have lost nearly half their value over the past six months, was suspended on the Paris bourse. It was unclear when trading would resume.

The bank said it detected the fraud at its French markets division the weekend of Jan. 19-20. In a statement announcing the discovery, it called the fraud “exceptional in its size and nature.”

It said a trader at the futures desk had misled investors in 2007 and 2008 through a “scheme of elaborate fictitious transactions.”

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问：看菜谱上介绍煲汤的方法，总是说“将肉出水或飞水”，什么意思？这样做有什么好处？答：用鸡、鸭、排骨等肉类煲汤时，先将肉在开水中氽一下，这个过程就叫做“出水”或“飞水”，不仅可以除去血水，还去除一部分脂肪，避免过于肥腻。

问：我每次煲鱼汤，汤好了，鱼都没形了，快给我支一招。急！

答：煲鱼汤不能用出水的方法，而要先用油把鱼两面煎一下，鱼皮定结，就不易碎烂了，而且还不会有腥味。

问：煲汤时是冷水下料好还是热水下料好？

答：冷水下料比较好，开水会使蛋白质迅速凝固，不易出鲜味。 　

点 击 图 片 看 原 图

问：煲汤用什么锅好？

答：煲汤以选择质地细腻的砂锅为宜，但劣质砂锅的的瓷釉中含有少量铅，煮酸性食物时容易溶解出来，有害健康。内壁洁白的陶锅很好用。 　　

问：为什么煲完汤的肉很柴？

答：瘦肉煲汤后，肉质较粗糙。可以选半肥半瘦的肉，但猪前脚的瘦肉，煲炖多个小时后肉质仍嫩滑可食。　　

问：在饭店里喝的鱼汤，肉汤都像奶汁一样，感觉很滋补，可是我自己在家煲汤总是出不来这个效果。

答：油与水充分混合才能出奶汁的效果。做肉汤时要先用大火煮开，然后用小火煮透，再改大火。做鱼汤时要先用油煎透，然后加入沸水，用大火。还要注意水要一次加足，中间再补水，汤就泄了。　　

问：煲汤要加哪些香料，味精要吗？什么时候放盐？

答：大多数北方人煲汤认为要加香料，诸如葱、姜、花椒、大料、味精、料酒之类，事实上，从广东人煲汤的经验来看，喝汤讲究原汁原味，这些香料大可不必。如果需要，一片姜足矣。盐应当最后加，因为盐能使蛋白质凝固，有碍鲜味成分的扩散。

点 击 图 片 看 原 图

问：煲汤是不是时间越久越好？

答：错！汤中的营养物质主要是氨基酸类，加热时间过长，会产生新的物质，营养反而被破坏，一般鱼汤1小时左右，鸡汤，排骨汤3小时左右就足矣。

问：汤虽滋补，有些肥腻，怎么办？

答：可以把汤煲好后熄火，待冷却后，油浮在汤面，或凝固在汤面，用勺羹除去，再把汤煲滚。 　　

问：喝汤应该是在饭前还是饭后？

答：一般人饭前喝点汤，可促进胃液分泌，帮助消化吸收，但有浅表性胃炎的人应饭后喝，以免加重症状。 　　

问：煲过汤的肉料食之无味，弃之可惜。

答：一般人认为营养都集中在汤里，所以煲好的汤就只喝汤，对于里面的肉类就弃之不要了，其实，无论煲汤的时间有多长，肉类的营养也不能完全溶解在汤里，所以喝汤后还要吃适量的肉，把煲过汤的肉料取出撕开，以生抽、葱姜丝、辣椒丝调成蘸料配食，入口很美味。　　

问：听说不同的汤有一定的功效，能介绍一下吗？

答：

（1）骨汤抗衰老：骨汤中的特殊养分以及胶原蛋促进微循环，50－59岁这十年是人体微循环由盛到衰的转折期，骨骼老化速度快，多喝骨头汤往往可收到药物难以达到的功效。

（2）鱼汤防哮喘：鱼汤中含有一种特殊的脂肪酸，它具有抗炎作用，可以治疗肺呼吸道炎症，预防哮喘发作，对儿童哮喘病最为有效。

（3）菜汤抗污染：各种新鲜蔬菜含有大量碱性成分，其溶于汤中通过消化道进入人体内可使体液环境呈正常的弱碱性状态，有利于人体内的污染物或毒性物质重新溶解，随尿排出体外。

（4）鸡汤抗感冒：鸡汤特别是母鸡汤中的特殊养分，可加快咽喉部及支气管膜的血液循环，增强粘液分泌，及时清除呼吸道病毒，缓解咳嗽、咽干、喉痛等症状。

（5）海带汤御寒：海带含有大量的碘元素，而碘元素有助于四状腺激素的合成。 　　

问：煲汤有什么经验吗？

答：广东人煲汤的经验，是喝汤讲究原汁原味。如果需要， 一片姜足矣。盐应当最后才加， 因为盐能使蛋白质凝固，有碍鲜味成分的扩散。 　　

问：下料最佳时间：

答：煲汤时是在冷水时下料比较好，因热水会使蛋白质迅速凝固，不易肴出鲜味

Buying Into China’s Land Rush

Americans, Others
Acquire Luxury Homes
Despite Restrictions

By LORETTA CHAO and JASON LEOW
January 18, 2008; Page W1

Beijing

Once known for drab, government-controlled housing and ancient courtyard homes, China has become a land of multimillion-dollar apartments and soaring property values. And foreigners are trying to get in on the action.

Real-estate prices in major Chinese cities have been shooting up at double-digit rates year over year, boosted by an economy that has been growing at more than 10% annually. The jump in prices has been so sharp that the government in mid-2006 implemented stricter controls on foreign investment in hopes of reining in housing costs. Still, foreigners keep buying.

Bill Bishop, a 39-year-old American living in China, bought a four-bedroom penthouse in Beijing in 2005, choosing a luxury complex built by a big-name developer and run by a well-known property manager. The apartment was an unfinished shell — a common way of buying a unit in China — and fitting it out took more time and attention than Mr. Bishop, a private investor, imagined it would. But he estimates that the home, for which he paid “a fraction of the cost of an apartment in Manhattan or San Francisco,” now is worth at least 50% more than he paid for it.

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华 盛顿17日电／面对经济衰退的担心日增，美国总统布殊与联储局(Fed)主席长伯南克17日纷纷表态，指出国会应尽快制定刺激经济的方案。政府官员透露， 布殊私下告诉国会领导人，他支持用给个人退税和给公司减税的做法，避免经济陷入衰退。与此同时，伯南克也呼吁国会迅速制定一个刺激经济的一揽子方案。据 悉，布殊、国会领导人和伯南克挽救经济的一个主要做法将是退税。现在民主、共和两党领导人考虑的退税数额是：个人退税300美元至800美元；夫妇退税最 多可得1600美元。 Read The Full Story…

Will this be a good news or bad news? Of, coz…………. MySQL hold the largest open source market, now ……..
BTW: Read below, no wonder the default charset of MySQL is swedish

Will Silicon Valley Deals Kick Into Overdrive?

By VAUHINI VARA, CHRISTOPHER LAWTON and DON CLARK
January 17, 2008; Page B1

Acquisitions by Silicon Valley software giants Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. suggested a slowing economy and other forces could kick a recent wave of high-tech deals into higher gear.

Oracle succeeded yesterday in forging an $8.5 billion deal to acquire rival BEA Systems Inc., a maker of programs known as middleware that had resisted an unsolicited bid from Oracle in October. The $19.38-per-share price is about 14% higher than Oracle originally offered, but below the $21 figure that BEA sought. Investor Carl Icahn says he urged Oracle to raise its bid and then lobbied BEA to take the sweetened bid.

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