Anyone questioning whether financial markets are in a bubble should consider what we witnessed in 2017:

• A painting (which may be fake) sold for USD450 million.

 

• Bitcoin (which may be worthless) soared nearly 700% from USD952 to ~USD8000.

 

• The Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank bought USD2 trillion of assets.

 

• Global debt rose above USD225 trillion to more than 324% of global GDP.

 

• US corporations sold a record USD1.75 trillion in bonds.

 

• European high-yield bonds traded at a yield under 2%.

 

• Argentina, a serial defaulter, sold 100-year bonds in an oversubscribed offer.

 

• Global stock market capitalization skyrocketed by USD15 trillion to over USD85 trillion and a record 113% of global GDP.

 

• The market cap of the FANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet) increased by more than USD1 trillion.

 

• S&P 500 volatility dropped to 50-year lows and Treasury volatility to 30-year lows.

 

• Money-losing Tesla Inc. sold 5% bonds with no covenants as it burned USD4+ billion in cash and produced very few cars.

Extracts from The Bonfire Burns On

Aeon Vietnam is planning to open 500 grocery stores across the nation by 2025.

It is part of a strategy by the Japanese supermarket group to open small stores in emerging Asian markets, also including Cambodia and Myanmar, the Nikkei Asian Review says.

The plan is to boost its stores in Vietnam almost ninefold to 500, and has teamed up with two local chains for the expansion. It has held a 30 per cent stake in Hanoi-based supermarket chain Fivimart and 49 per cent of Ho Chi Minh City-based Citimart, since early 2015.

As well as providing its Top Value products for the two partners, Aeon is co-operating with them to promote those products as well as consolidate and expand distribution.

Meanwhile, Aeon has partnered with Japan’s Sojitz Corporation to develop Ministop convenience stores throughout Vietnam. The two firms aim to raise the number of their joint outlets to 800 in the next eight years.

Aeon has four shopping malls, in Binh Duong, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and plans to build another in the capital plus one in Haiphong in the short run. It aims to have 20 malls across Vietnam by 2020.
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Aeon Vietnam early this year launched an e-commerce website offering such products as cosmetics, furniture, electronics, household appliances, bicycles and stationery.

"No names are mentioned in the article of The Star, but a friendly tip pointed at the possibility that this relates to the research report by CIMB on Instacom Group."  You can read the rest of the article here.

A rather bullish projection? Revenue projected to grow from RM66 million in 2014 to RM195 million in 2015 and a whopping RM572 million in 2016. In 2017, it is projected to achieve RM3.23 billion. The detailed research paper dated 18 November 2015 is here.

Unleashing the giant? Time will tell.

Check out this movie to have a glimpse of Wall Street. From Academy Award winning director Martin Scorsese comes The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Money, sex, power, corruption, lavish lifestyle ... 

The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. Wall Street turned back the clock to 1929.

But how did it all go so wrong?

Lack of government regulation; easy lending in the US housing market meant anyone could qualify for a home loan with no government regulations in place. Also, London was competing with New York as the banking capital of the world. Gordon Brown, the British finance minister at the time, introduced 'light touch regulation' - giving bankers a free hand in the marketplace.

All this, and with key players making the wrong financial decisions, saw the world's biggest financial collapse.

What will happen in 2014 and beyond?

Bank Negara today placed a full page ad in Star newspaper, warning the public about illegal investment schemes.  Such scams have been very rampant lately and many victims lost large amount of money.  This is mainly due to the lethal combination of greed and stupidity. 

Yes, greed is good but combined with stupidity, it will lead to financial ruin.

How to detect if an investment "scheme" is fraudulent? The tell tale signs include:

1. Promise of high interest over a short period of time.  This is very common for gold investment, which promises 10% return per month plus you get to keep the "real" gold bar.

2. Buy back promise, usually over next 3 to 5 years.  By then, the conman would have retired happily with your hard earned money.

3. You are given an interest in the property.  That is exactly what you get - an interest and not the property itself.  The certificate given to you is not the title of the property.  It is just printed on fancy paper, with no monetary value or legality whatsoever.

4. The return you are getting is from your own money.  Examples of such "scheme" usually involved investment in real businesses such as oil palm plantation, sea weeds, crabs farming etc (in fact, in can be any type of business). The "scheme" promises a fixed return of, say, 10% per year for next few years.  Thereafter, the return will be dependent on the market price / yield of the business.  If you invest RM100,000, the promoter will keep RM60,000 (10% per year for 6 years) with a Trustee, who will pay you promptly the 10% return every year. That RM60,000 is actually your own money.  What will happen on the 7th year onwards? Guess.

Be wise and invest prudently.  Before you invest, visit Bank Negara and Securities Commission websites on updates of illegal investment schemes.  Caveat emptor.