Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Abner Hosmer who wrote (7494)	2/12/1998 8:14:00 AM
From: PaulM	Respond to of 116984

Good MorningThomas. There's no question that these Asian markets deserved to trade at a premium these past years. The Asian real economies have had a number of advantages over the rest of the world, not the least of which is an excellent work ethic. But left on its own, the situation in Asia will IMO get much worse before it gets better. The Japanese authorities (and in fact the whole world) have an overriding objective through March 31: push the Nikkei to 18000. That seems like it should be do-able over a two month period, but now I'm not so sure. An overlooked cause of the SE Asian problem was the Japanese repatriation of capital that fueled the boom in Asia, and all over the world. This is what we're told will never happen anywhere else, but the truth is we're likely to see much more of that in the coming months. Its poetic that U.S. and European markets are at their highs when the Asian situation was never more dangerous. I guess its destiny that markets crash only when the very last person is convinced of the opposite.

To: Abner Hosmer who wrote (7494)	2/13/1998 12:10:00 AM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116984

OFF TOPIC (Taken from the South China Morning Post) For your information and interest/amusement: Friday February 13 1998 India Today Battle to protect plant patents after basmati rice 'hijack' JOHN ZUBRZYCKI India's battle to protect its plant varieties from intellectual piracy suffered a setback this week when a patent for its most famous aromatic variety of rice, basmati, was issued to a company in the United States. The patent was issued to Ricetec, which is already producing a number of aromatic rice varieties and marketing them under names such as Kasmati and Texmati. India fears it may lose millions of dollars worth of exports to Ricetec, which will now be able to label rice grown in the US as basmati and export it to Europe, Britain and western Asia. India and Pakistan are the only two countries in the world where basmati rice is grown. India, which has long jealously guarded the use and ownership of an estimated 2,300 indigenous plant varieties, recently initiated moves to toughen its intellectual property laws to ensure the country's vast plant genetic heritage remained its own. The Government has proposed the introduction of a Plant Varieties Protection Act that would include the setting up of a national gene bank. Scientists and environmentalists fear foreign biotechnical supremacy might lead to a ravaging of India's biodiversity. India's vulnerability to the pilfering of plant varieties by foreign firms came to light in 1995 when a US company tried to acquire a patent!!! for the neem plant, which has a wide variety of medicinal uses. Last year, India won a legal battle against an American company that wanted to patent the healing properties of turmeric. India is expected to appeal to the International Trademarks and Tariffs Commission to restrain Ricetec from using the name basmati on any of its products.