Hello Maurice, It is Sunday again, the eighth such day in 2003. Another 44 Sundays and we are finished with 2003. Outside my window, the air is warm, birds are chirping, falcons circling, and the hemp carpeted steel buoy swimming platform is once again anchored in the middle of the bay, ready for swimmers.
The cycle of nature continues. The financial collapse process is also continuing, though slowly, trying the patience of all and testing the endurance of some.
We still have a long way to go as yet, what with war, housing, energy, inflation, USD, equity capitulation and other shocks waiting on the the road to the next abracadabra state of market. This is, of course, only if you consider the return of Tech valuation to be the next abracadabra.
In the meantime, non-USD currencies, gold specie, commodities, and some real estate are rising, while other goodies, such as some flavors of bonds and other real estate are topping out.
Speaking of real estate, yesterday I went to check out the Mongkok district in Freedom Mountain Kowloon, opposite Money Rock Hong Kong.
This is the neighborhood where a real estate partnership I invested in had purchased some street level shops. The shops are arranged strategically around a very large urban revitalization project by the firm of Great Eagle. The construction is progressing well greateagle.com.hk and should be topped out by October of this year, ready for tenants by April of 2004.
Like most Hong Kong Island dwellers, I do not go to the surface of Kowloon very often. I attach here some random photos I took of that exotic land.
achamchen.com
Notice how crowded the place is, even in a very bad recession or mild depression. Many of the shoppers are mainland tourists, saving their Hong Kong cousins’ bacon in the nick of hardship time. The folks are buying clothing, gold, watches, cosmetics, food, and more gold. I do not know why they are buying, but am happy to note that the pedestrian traffic flow and the up market move of the neighborhood should benefit my portfolio in some way.
I was accompanied by two Austrian co-investors and two general partners of the real estate partnership. We felt confident of our good fortune as we struggled through the crowd, and thankful when we left the crowds behind.
Real estate is ever forgiving and ultimately self-correcting, as long as there are crowds. Chugs, Jay |
