The New Communism: Capitalism!

The US ban on short-selling financial stocks just expired last week. And during most of the 2-week duration stocks plummeted anyway. The WSJ had an article on it where several large financial bigwigs admitted it was a farce and a bit like "having a big glass of orange juice only to have a sugar crash a few hours later".

But while the rest of the world is scrambling to shore up its financial markets through bailouts, short-selling bans, and de-leveraging balance sheets, China announced a trial introduction of margin trading and short selling.

In the announcement, the China Securities Regulatory Commission didn't refer to the current global economic crisis, but said it plans to introduce "new vitality" into the stock market.

Isn't is ironic that even the "communist" Chinese have a stock market more open and free than our own?

Time To Buy Taiwan Real Estate?

According the Wall Street Journal,

Anticipation that a wave of cash from mainland China will eventually reach Taiwan is helping to turn its real estate into a hot property.

Markets in Taiwan, one of Asia's worst laggards as an investment destination in recent years, were livened up by the Nationalist Party's victory in the March 22 presidential election. On May 20, winner Ma Ying-jeou will be inaugurated, succeeding Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party.

Billy Yen, general manager for property brokerage DTZ Taiwan, estimates that home prices have risen as much as 30% since the voting. And he thinks that by the end of 2008, prices could be 60% higher than they were March 22.

The sharp change in sentiment is rooted in Mr. Ma's pledge to open Taiwan's property market to Chinese investors as part of a broader effort to more closely tie the economies of the mainland and Taiwan.

I guess Morgan Stanley missed it, else they would've jumped up with a newly created Taiwan Property ETF. Looks like it worth looking into.