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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (41587)	10/20/2008 8:52:11 PM
From: Joe S Pack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220315

Arranged love: India's newest export to West 19 Oct 2008, 0500 hrs IST, Insiya Amir, TNN (article found in Times of India) Madonna may be divorcing her husband Guy Ritchie seven-and-a- half years after marrying him for love but your average Joe may soon be routinely meetin g and marrying Jane from next door, who his mother invited to dinner. After yoga and software professionals, here is India's latest export to the West: the arranged marriage. Reva Seth, whose recent book 'First Comes Marriage' is catching the West's fancy, argues that the developed world needs a different method of finding a spouse in an age of uncertainty. There are signs that some are listening. Elaine McCabe, 33, a physiotherapist in Michigan, USA, has just permitted her father to invite men he thinks eligible to meet his daughter with a view to their marrying. McCabe, who took her cue from an Indian friend, says, "Any of us with Asian friends know if someone could save us from all those terrible nights next-to-zero hits and nearly-all misses, it would be wonderful." But she adds, "This does not mean I am supporting the kind of marriage in which the parties are left with no choice. The word is arranged, not forced." For Seth, champion of the great Indian arranged marriage, it may be one way of preventing divorce. Just last week, she told The Times, London about her own happy, (arranged) marriage and the blissful arranged unions of more than 300 others. Seth claimed that divorce rates only ever rose to a maximum of 7% for arranged marriages. It is a view that finds some favour with Marian Salzman, New York trend spotter and partner at PR firm Porter Novelli. She says the arranged marriage has to flourish in this economic downturn, which Time magazine describes as "new hard times”. She says the cost of courtship — and god forbid, divorce — is so high that people increasingly want the institution of marriage to have more structure. "In these hard times, lust wears thin." Marian Salzman, New York trend spotter and partner at PR firm Porter Novelli, says the West increasingly finds "the modern Indian a very strong symbol. He is educated, rich and most importantly, leads a happy family life." This is why, says Salzman, the West "is beginning to realise that the partner they choose may not be enough to sustain a relationship socially and economically (and that the arranged marriage may be a way to find) happiness as a family and a community. Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Varkha Chulani agrees that the arranged marriage could be a popular, if unlikely export to the West because its very basis shared values and similar backgrounds are more likely to sustain a union than the heady idea of romantic love. But is the arranged marriage quite as Indian as it is portrayed? History records that the West once encouraged a system of arranged marriages in order to safeguard property and inheritance. There is evidence of arranged marriages in Western societies as far back as the 1500s and in the prim Victorian era, which encouraged a union for cultural and economic reasons rather than mere love. Ask any married person and they will tell you that marriage is a unique bond, whose strength lies in commitment, responsibility and the law and it has little to do with being madly in love with one's intended.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (41587)	10/20/2008 11:29:37 PM
From: prosperous	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220315

Happy days are here again! dollar up, stocks up, gold up, oil up, every freaking thing now up; the govts only too happy to help with the liquidity needed for speculating on the assets. Will continue until more hedgies blow up...

To: TobagoJack who wrote (41587)	10/21/2008 1:17:34 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220315

Basic one-bedroom flats rent at $7,000 a month, and it is not uncommon for expatriates to pay $20,000 a month for something more luxurious. Demand for office space has also been frothy, tripling in the last three years, according to Colliers International, an Australian real estate firm. ... Residents in Luanda, home to one third of the population, often have no option than to squat in derelict buildings in the city centre. Renovating these prized areas could ease the housing shortage and perhaps keep a lid on prices. An opportunity to do so could emerge in coming years as President Jose Eduardo dos Santos's government embarks on a plan to build 1 million homes for the poor at a cost of $50 billion. Angola property market seen immune to global crisis Sun 19 Oct 2008, 9:07 GMT [-] Text [+] By Henrique Almeida LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola's sizzling property market has sailed through the global financial crisis and is expected to continue to thrive in coming years, executives and analysts say. Property values, particularly in the capital Luanda, skyrocketed amid an oil-fuelled economic boom that followed the end of a 27-year civil war in 2002, making the city one of the most expensive in the world to live. Basic one-bedroom flats rent at $7,000 a month, and it is not uncommon for expatriates to pay $20,000 a month for something more luxurious. Demand for office space has also been frothy, tripling in the last three years, according to Colliers International, an Australian real estate firm. A shortage of modern buildings coupled with growing demand for housing from foreign workers promises to keep real estate one of the hottest and most profitable sectors of the African nation's economy after oil. "Everyone wants to be here. I predict growth in real estate prices during the next three years," Jose Camargo, head of the Angolan real estate unit of Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, told Reuters in an interview. Angola, which rivals Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer, has embarked on a massive reconstruction programme since emerging from the war, buoyed by rising oil production, a jump in world oil prices and billions in foreign investment. Angola's government said last week steep falls in world oil prices would not derail its plans to spend billions to fight poverty and spur economic growth. Benchmark U.S. crude was on Friday trading at around $72 -- roughly half a July peak. Angola's focus has mostly been on rebuilding ports, railways and other key infrastructure for the oil-centred economy, but the government has also earmarked funds for the construction of office and apartment buildings as well as hotels. Dozens of construction cranes dot Luanda's skyline. The Bay of Luanda is currently being revamped with a $2 billion facelift that will spawn new hotels and apartment buildings and other businesses along its historic but neglected shoreline. The construction craze is likely to dent but not solve the shortage of apartments and office space, and prices are expected to remain at the lofty end of the spectrum. "There is a huge gap between supply and demand and that is the main factor pushing prices," said Nelson Rego, the head of Angolan real estate consultancy firm Proprime. MOVING AGAINST THE CYCLE Unlike real estate markets in the United States, Britain and elsewhere, which have slumped due to the credit crunch, Angola's market has been buoyed by heavy inflows of foreign investment and strong economic growth. The economy grew by around 20 percent last year and is expected to expand by a further 15 percent this year. Investors see the country as a stable emerging market with a government that has embraced pro-business policies, and the ruling MPLA's landslide victory in a parliamentary election last month ensured that the direction would not change radically. "Angola is one of many places that are moving against the current economic cycle," said Helder Bataglia, the chairman of Portuguese conglomerate Escom, Angola's biggest non-oil investor. The government, however, is under pressure to do more to spread the benefits of economic growth to Angola's 16.5 million people, many of whom live in run-down shantytowns that lack electricity, running water and sewage facilities. Residents in Luanda, home to one third of the population, often have no option than to squat in derelict buildings in the city centre. Renovating these prized areas could ease the housing shortage and perhaps keep a lid on prices. An opportunity to do so could emerge in coming years as President Jose Eduardo dos Santos's government embarks on a plan to build 1 million homes for the poor at a cost of $50 billion. Yet some Luandans say they will resist an offer to move. "Why should I?" says Ricardo, 17, who lives on the 18th floor of the Lagoa building, one of the most famous of Luanda's run-down housing blocks. "Where else can I wake up and have this beautiful view of the bay of Luanda? It's all I have."

To: TobagoJack who wrote (41587)	10/21/2008 12:57:29 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	1 Recommendation Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 220315

Hi Tj, it is just unbelievable - we are really in a once in a life time period and the lack of sound judgment is astonishing. Best example price of gold On October 9th is was around $930 intraday, - today when uncertainty is even greater and the fear factor more pronounced gold is selling at around $765 intraday To me those exaggerate movements in a commodity which is supposed to shield against inflation and uncertainty is very strange. It only indicates IMHO of major unrecoverable losses of wealth both corporate and personal – it is a very bad sign for the times to come. If history is a lesson there is nothing positive to look forward too within few years this bear market WILL destroy every one. The USD rally is astonishing - as it is fueled mostly by those that made huge mistakes with OPM not realizing that nothing goes to the sky and speculated and followed WS follies. One of the major issues that no one cared and they should have, - was the exponential rise in energy and other commodity prices at that time the government should have taken a strong stand – since everything run aground – mistakes where made in summer of 2007 when first cracks where obvious - and to blame is every CB and Finance minister and his team who where sleeping at the wheel - around the world and not only the US Unfortunate only the Thieves and Swindlers of the financial markets will prevail as will some tyrannical regimes – but otherwise people, honest corporate and democratic states will be on the looser side – I do not like it one bit!! Now I must worry if the banks I have my moneys will not fail