One of the biggest drivers of global infrastructure is the rapid rate of urbanization experienced in the developing world. The reason is simple ndash; roughly 70 million people per year in developing countries are moving to cities, so there will need to be more roads, water systems, housing and electrical generation. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in China, which already has 100 cities with more than 1 million people. It is expected to eventually have 30 cities with more than 10 million people. As you can see in the chart from UBS, Asia will be the main source of this urban growth. The United Nations says that over 1 billion Asian people will move to urban areas by 2030. Another 500 million people are expected to migrate to urban areas in Africa. While this trend has picked up in pace in recent years, the growth of urban centers in the developing world ...

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Monday September 14, 2009

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Blue Square-Israel Ltd. (NYSE: BSI) announced that it was served with a claim and a request for approval as a class action (the “Claim”), in which Blue Square is being sued regarding the sale of cosmetics and perfume products without marking the expiry date or the allowed use period after its opening, as is allegedly obligatory according to the 15 amendment of the Pharmacists directive [new edition] 1981 which is in effect since July 1st 2009.

InferX Corporation (Pink Sheets: NFRX) today announced that it has signed a Memoradum of Understanding (MOU) with KG Information Systems

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Clearwire Begins Global Roaming Collaboration with WiMAX Operators

Memorandum of Understanding Lays Foundation for Global Roaming Capabilities with UQ Communications of Japan and Yota of Russia

Clearwire Communications, LLC, an operating subsidiary of Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR), announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with WiMAX operators UQ Communications of Japan (UQ) and Yota of Russia that identifies the objectives and activities each operator will perform towards the realization of establishing WiMAX roaming between the operators.

About Clearwire

Clearwire Communications, LLC, an operating subsidiary of Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR), offers a robust suite of advanced high-speed Internet services to consumers and businesses. As part of a multi-year network build-out plan, Clearwire’s 4G service, called CLEAR™, will be available in major metropolitan areas across the U.S., and bring together an unprecedented combination of speed and mobility. Clearwire’s open all-IP network, combined with significant spectrum holdings, provides unmatched network capacity to deliver next-generation

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Edward is already plugging this article by Daniel Gross over at Demography.Matters but I think it is important enough to deserve circulation here at Alpha.Sources too. Basically, Daniel gets to the heart of the matter in terms of Japan when he argues that one of the principal reasons that Japan is not rising is that it has failed to do the homework in the human capital department or as Gross phrases it; while Japan is still leading in engineering, this is not the case with respect to social engineering.

Japan still retains its lead in engineering. A showroom at Panasonic's headquarters displayed a heated, multifunction toilet seat that conserves energy. (Wouldn't leaving the seat cold conserve even more?) The sleek Shinkansen bullet trains roll up to their appointed spots on time. TKX, an 87-year-old Osaka-based company that makes abrasives, has adapted its expertise to cutting silicon ingots into wafers

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Japan’s Darkest Days Lay Ahead

Ryan Cole, The Investment U Research Team

Bet against Japan.

It pains me to say it. I lived in Japan for five years – great years. I love the country, I love the people, I love the cherry blossoms in spring and the festivals in the streets and the poetic dewdrop in my window each morning.

But right now, I hate Japan’s economy. Here’s why:

1. It’s an exporting country, and nobody’s buying.

The American savings rate has gone from 0 to around 5%, and it’s still rising. Remember, this is with U.S. unemployment hovering just under 10%, officially. And, with furloughs and cost-cutting measures, the average work-week for the “fully employed” has fallen to 33 hours – the lowest number on record. So a 5% savings rate of a markedly smaller income pie, equals the collapse of disposable income spending.

That

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Simon Property Group, Inc. (SPG), the largest publicly traded retail real estate company in North America, has recently opened a premium outlet in Japan. The outlet has been developed by a JV called Chelsea Japan Co. Ltd., in which Simon Property has 40% stake. The remaining 60% of the JV is owned by Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd., the second largest real estate developer in Japan.

Currently only Phase I of the outlet, known as Ami Premium Outlet, spanning 225,000 square feet of gross leasable area, has been opened to the general public. Ami Premium Outlet is the eighth outlet of the JV in Japan, the others being Gotemba Premium Outlets and Sano Premium Outlets (both serving Tokyo), Rinku Premium Outlets (Osaka), Kobe-Sanda Premium Outlets (Kobe-Osaka), Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets (Sendai), Toki Premium Outlets (Nagoya) and Tosu Premium Outlets (Fukuoka).

Ami Premium Outlet is strategically located in the close proximity of Ami-Higashi interchange

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PetroChina OKed to Buy Osaka Refinery Stake Earlier today, PetroChina Company Ltd. (PTR), the largest integrated oil company in China, gained approval from the country’s top economic policy planner -- the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) -- to invest in Nippon Oil Corporation’s Osaka refinery. NDRC said on its website that the agency had given the green light to the Chinese state-controlled energy giant's oil trading subsidiary PetroChina International to acquire a stake in the 115,000-barrels-per-day (Bbl/d) refinery in western Japan. Nippon Oil and PetroChina’s parent China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) finalized the deal earlier in the year to convert the Japanese refiner's wholly owned Osaka refinery into a 51:49 export-oriented joint venture, mainly targeting oil demand in China. The Osaka deal – which will be PetroChina's second overseas refinery transaction – would allow the company to take charge of all crude supply ...

Both gold and silver rose in Sunday evening trading on the Globex [counterparty...Western Pacific Ocean]. The peak prices in Far East trading occurred around lunchtime in Hong Kong. From there, both metals drifted slightly lower…and remained there all through European trading until the Comex open in New York…then away they both went.

Gold managed a $10 rally before some not-for-profit seller showed up at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time. Once the London p.m. gold fix was in, gold rallied again…making it a hair above $900 for a few seconds…before some other [probably the same] not-for-profit seller showed up. From there it got sold off into the close.

Silver’s 8:00 a.m. rally on the Comex was like a moon shot…and heaven only knows how high the price would have gone [certainly north of $13] if the same not-for-profit seller hadn’t showed up at exactly the same 9:15 a.m. time. Silver got sold off a

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If you want a real look at what’s headed this way, ask Hideko Toyotomi.

When Japan’s so-called “Lost Decade” began with a bang in the early 1990s, she was an “OL” - an office lady - working in one of Japan’s mightiest corporations and she kept her job, despite the downturn.

She was one of the lucky ones. Her employer was a mainstay electronics producer and a key exporter, meaning the company’s business remained reasonably healthy.

This time around, she’s a housewife and mother. And she’s worried. Her husband, Masao, works at a local manufacturer that’s cut back production to only four days a week. He’s taken a part-time job, schlepping boxes overnight at the local convenience store, to make up for the reduced pay. Their son, Daiki, is headed for college - and for an uncertain future.

“I don’t know if I have the strength to go through this again,” she said.

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Japan’s exports were cut nearly in half last month as the global downturn crushed demand for the country’s electronics and automobiles, a development that increases the odds that the Japanese yen could be poised for a tumble.

Japanese exports fell by 45.7% in January from a year ago - the steepest decline since 1957 - as exports to three of Japan’s biggest overseas markets fell by record levels. Exports to the United States fell by 52.9%, exports to Europe declined by 47.4%, and exports to Asia dropped by 46.7%, Japan’s Ministry of Finance reported.

The sharp drop in exports has had a crushing impact on Japan’s trade deficit, which grew for a fourth straight month to a record $9.84 billion (¥952.6 billion). But the impact on the nation’s leading corporations has been even more devastating.&

Many Japanese blue chips, such as Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) and Sony Corp. (

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