Cris Sholto Heaton’s recent article on investing in the small Asian countries outside China and India brings a welcome change to the usual run-of-the-mill emerging markets coverage.

You can read the whole story here.

I’ve long been a big proponent of investing in so-called Asian frontier countries. As Cris points out, “These smaller countries complement China and India. They should benefit from the rise of their larger neighbors and the region as a whole, while offering exposure to different themes and sectors.”

In fact, when I talked to Franklin Templeton’s outgoing emerging market fund manager Mark Mobius earlier this year, he was in the process of putting more of his own personal money into these miniature high-growth markets (you can read that story here, but you’ll need to have access to Index Publications’ subscription-only monthly ETFR publication).

Cris highlights

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Investing in Thailand: Revolutionizing Global ETF Investments

Ryan Cole, The Investment U Research Team

Buy when there’s blood in the streets, indeed.

Every investor knows the phrase, but very few have the required fortitude to actually put it in practice. When there’s blood on the streets, most investors bail and head for cover as fast as they can.

But the sentiment goes double when the blood is literal – like we’ve recently seen in one Southeast Asian country, formerly thought of as one of the most stable in the region… but now, somewhat unfairly, considered just as bad as the rest.

I’m talking about Thailand – a country no self-respecting investor would go near with a ten-foot pole.

Right?

After all, they just had a civil war… or something… right?

Well, not exactly.

The Bloody Non-Revolution

It’s true, the literal blood fell in Thailand

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Daimler AG (DAI) aims to close down 2 plants at its Japanese truck unit Mitsubishi Fuso, resulting in a reduction of 2,300 positions.

Daimler stated that its Mitsubishi Fuso division would shut a bus production plant at Oye near Nagoya in Japan by mid-2010 and also close a truck plant near Bangkok in Thailand by the end of 2009.

The company also indicated that it would restructure its retail network in Japan to adjust capacity to a weakening market.

The above-mentioned jobs cuts at Mitsubishi Fuso would be carried out through voluntary leave, retirement, and other means.

Daimler also said that its overall fixed costs would be reduced by 25% as a result of its latest actions.

Meanwhile, Daimler, a Zacks #4 Rank ("Sell") company, dipped almost 5% today on low volume of 233,000, against the daily average of 829,000.

"DAI" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? ...

img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/5843/160/thinking.jpg"br /br /emfont color="#0000FF"(P.S: Sorry for any disturbances the advertisements above may have caused you)/font/embr /Why some people love to shoot themselves in the foot I will never understand.br /br /I am talking about the current political chaos in Thailand, which has forced its months-old government to call off the ASEAN summit in Pattaya on Saturday, and to declare a state of emergency in Bangkok just earlier today. There are rumours of yet another coup that could see yet another government change. My guess is that if it comes to this, it won't be as peaceful as the last few bloodless ones because the Abhisit essentially has the implicit blessings of the Thai king and the Bangkok elite and these power brokers will not let their man go quietly.br /br /This is not the first time I'm saying this, but essentially it is tragic that Thaksin had to be ...

Jon Stewart torched Jim Cramer live on TV, but did he do more harm than good by slamming long-term investing as well?

For anyone who didn't catch it on March 12, comedian Jon Stewart put to shame many hard-nosed financial journalists when he caught CNBC's Jim Cramer in outright lies about his scamming ways running hedge funds.

Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," also blasted Cramer for his less-than-substantive antics on CNBC's "Mad Money" show. 

We should all stand up and applaud Stewart's performance. But he took it too far when talking about how his elderly mother had bought into the industry's long-term investing mantra.

Stewart should've stayed on-topic, drilling Cramer and not letting him off the hot seat. Instead, he ventured too far afield when relating the apparent drubbing his mom took in the markets during the ongoing recession.

Although ex-journalist Cramer is the sort of slumdog

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With the arrest of both Satyam Computer Services Ltd.'s (SAY) ex-CEO and ex-CFO, the interim management announced that it'll make all attempts to clean up its books and appoint a new auditor. A new Board has been formed to spearhead the task of salvaging the company, and three members have already been appointed by the Government of India itself.A majority stake sale is currently being undertaken, and the Board of Directors announced that it will release the Request for Proposals (RFP) to all registered bidders. Previously, the Indian government announced that it would not step up to help Satyam with any financial assistance, citing the company's current receivables of approx. $350 million.Given the recent developments, we had earlier downgraded SAY shares to a Sell and have suspended our estimates and target price. Read the full analyst report on "SAY"Zacks ...

I am moving in blindly behind Macro Man in his reiteration of the shock and awe effect of today's announcement by the Fed that they are going to do pretty much what it takes and most important that they now will be buyers of treasuries.

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January indicates that the economy continues to contract. Job losses, declining equity and housing wealth, and tight credit conditions have weighed on consumer sentiment and spending. Weaker sales prospects and difficulties in obtaining credit have led businesses to cut back on inventories and fixed investment. U.S. exports have slumped as a number of major trading partners have also fallen into recession. Although the near-term economic outlook is weak, the Committee anticipates that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, together with fiscal and monetary stimulus, will contribute

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Investors often look to a country’s GDP to determine whether or not invest in its markets, but when it comes to China the official rate of growth could be exaggerated based on a new, revealing data.

A little-known indicator surfaced as China was preparing to attend the first meeting of the Committee on Statistics under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, held in Bangkok, Thailand, from February 4-6.

An article in the People’s Daily called into question the final official GDP numbers for 2008 issued by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Apparently, the 6.8% positive growth released in Q4 2008 did not correlate with the negative growth in China’s power consumption.

Now it seems that China will face a power glut this year, further calling into question its official GDP data.

The China Electricity Council (CEC) on Wednesday said in a report that demand for energy is expected

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NetSol Technologies, Inc., global provider of financial and other enterprise software solutions and business services, today released positive first quarter 2009 financial results. Quarterly revenues increased 7.5%, to $9.3 million, over the same period last year. Part of this was due to a 33% increase in license fees to $2.5 million. In addition, GAAP net income increased approximately 18%, to $1.0 million, from the same period last year.

Another measure of the company’s operating trends is EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). NetSol reported EBITDA of $2.3 million for the quarter, a 21% increase over the $1.9 million figure for the same period last year.

As a result of the new figures, NetSol is adjusting fiscal 2009 financial guidance to annual revenue growth of between 20% to 25% over fiscal 2008.

NetSol Chairman and CEO, Najeeb Ghauri, commented on the growth, during what is normally a slow quarter for

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NetSol Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: NTWK) provides business services and enterprise application solutions to organizations around the world. Headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., the company has operations and offices in London, Los Angeles, Sydney, Beijing, Bangkok and Lahore.

The company today announced the opening of NetSol University North America (NUNA), located at NetSol’s Emeryville headquarters, to encourage continued education and boost client productivity. NUNA will provide classes in a variety of industry-related topics and features a state-of-the-art facility with the latest in audio/video, Internet and wireless technologies. The center will house classroom lectures, Webinars, tele-training, product demonstrations and evaluations.

“NetSol University North America has been chartered to support continuing education as it pertains to industry sponsored education and development programs,” Najeeb Ghauri, chairman and CEO of NetSol stated in the press release. “We believe that training is a key element in ensuring both client productivity and an appreciable return on human capital

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