“Made in China” is a hair-trigger slogan that would often ignite a tirade about lost jobs, junky products and sweatshop labor. Well, it looks like “Made in China” will be a relic of the past as the Communist Party goes up-market.

The People’s Daily reported today that China’s Coordination Bureau under Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will replace “Made in China” with “Created in China.” The intent is show the world that China is no longer a copycat maker of disposable junk, but has risen to become a true manufacturing innovator.

Why should investors care?

Because China’s transition to a high-quality manufacturer comes at a time when the economy is softening — perhaps prolonging a slump in stocks, real estate and exports.

For example, the Wall Street Journal ran a story today that speculated China’s economy could be worse than stated by government agencies.

China’s economic policy has been to maintain a minimum

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2009 is shaping up to be a boffo year in equities, real estate and commodities markets.

Yeah, and my aunt would be my uncle if she had, uh, some of the sorts of things uncles have.

Really, it's hard to know what to make of the tea leaves of consumer confidence and macroeconomic numbers. I do get the feeling, though, that the world will survive, and that businesses will come out better—more sensible, more efficient, more competitive—on the other side. So, big picture, I actually like all of this, assuming unemployment doesn't soar to 15% or something. It's sort of like we're going to economic boot camp, getting in shape and cutting out the Doritos.

On the fixed-income thing, Matt—well, I'm 40, so I should have 40% in bonds now, right? I just cannot see that happening any time soon. The TYPES of bonds? Uh, well, you've got to love those zero-yielding Treasuries

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While most companies remember 2008 as a very challenging year, one company has grown leaps and bounds. That company, MyECheck, Inc., offers online merchants, call centers, billers, retail POS and RDC/back office applications an array of comprehensive Check 21 imaging, processing and related solutions.

MyECheck has been able to easy sign on new clients in the current economic climate as ecommerce businesses strive to find new ways to reduce costs, while increasing their sales. MyECheck has been able to achieve both results by giving these businesses access to every U.S. checking account, even accounts that ACH cannot debit; providing financial access to more consumers and businesses than any other payment method at a fraction of the cost of credit-card processors.

In the last two months, the company has signed on the following high-profile clients:

– Superior Business Network, the parent company of Yellow Pages,

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IEB reader Durgesh Prasad, sent in this idea, via email to some of the IEB contributors.

In today’s slow economy, where government is trying its best to keep the real estate market rolling and attracting investors to invest in real estate market in order to keep market live, I had an idea through which it can be achieved by government without loosing anything. Presently, the deciding period of differentiating a CAPITAL GAIN as Short term or Long term is 3 years period. If one sells his new house in less than 3 years and incurs profit, the gain is termed as Short term capital gain. And if he sells his new house after 3 years and incurs profit, the gain is termed as Long term capital gain. Now there is no way to avoid tax in short term capital gain, whereas there is way to save tax in long term capital

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Pessimism about the U.S. economy and financial market is so thick right now you could cut it with a knife. I’ll be the first to admit that times are tough. But Americans have seen tough times before. And we have always prevailed.

Too many investment myths have gone unchallenged lately. Today I plan to refute them - and explain why financial markets are likely to perform much better than most investors believe in the year ahead.

Let’s begin by examining the four biggest investment myths circulating right now…

Investment Myth #1: The Era of Free Markets is Over

It’s true that many of the apostles of free-market economics have begged Congress for government intervention during the current credit crisis. But nobody is seriously arguing that Uncle Sam should nationalize the economy, set wages and prices, or establish production quotas.

The free market still constitutes the best means of securing

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The 4 Biggest Investment Myths of 2008

by Alexander Green, Chairman, Investment U Investment Director, The Oxford Club Monday, December 29, 2008: Issue #907

Pessimism about the U.S. economy and financial market is so thick right now you could cut it with a knife.

I’ll be the first to admit that times are tough. But Americans have seen tough times before. And we have always prevailed.

Too many investment myths have gone unchallenged lately. Today I plan to refute them - and explain why financial markets are likely to perform much better than most investors believe in the year ahead.

Let’s begin by examining the four biggest investment myths circulating right now…

Investment Myth #1: The Era of Free Markets is Over

It’s true that many of the apostles of free-market economics have begged Congress for government intervention during the current credit crisis. But nobody is seriously arguing that

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I’m writing this from a hotel room in Santa Monica in California. I’m on holiday here with my lovely wife Lynn and our two equally gorgeous daughters, Eilish and Maddie, and am about to embark on an RV trip across America to Orlando in Florida.

Lynn will attend a conference on digital scrapbooking at Disneyland in Orlando in a fortnight if we make it. I’ll tell her story about how she came to be a digital design exporter (earning a lot more than me…) in this blog at a later date.  Suffice to say, this trip will more than pay for itself in US dollar earnings.

I’ll try to blog about the trip and what I learn from an economic and business point of view as often as I can. It should turn out a lot easier to do than in New Zealand. Free cable broadband or WiFi access

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If there’s a proverb that captures the outlook for the U.S. economy in the New Year, it’s the one that says: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Regardless of any formal announcement of whether or not the United States drops into an actual recession, the ongoing credit crisis guarantees a contraction of the American economy by virtually every measure we know. That period of darkness will be marked by a dramatic slowdown in economic activity, as well as by rising unemployment, additional declines in U.S. stock prices, and constant volatility. It could last as long as 12-18 months.

But when the dawn does come, it will be one to remember. If U.S. President-elect Barack Obama gets it right - and I have every reason to believe that he will - then investors will be presented with the greatest investment opportunity of our generation. At that point, shares of American companies will be

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Bernie Madoff was a stock broker "managing" client accounts. He was never part of the hedge fund industry. His firm was "regulated" and fraud is already illegal. He did not charge 2 and 20 and had no prime broker, proper auditor or independent administrator. Few sophisticated investors invested directly with so many red flags. Due diligence ITSELF is an alpha source. Diversification with NUMEROUS strategies and managers is MANDATORY. Despite his "performance" Bernie was not a billionaire. With those "returns" on that asset size he should have been a stalwart of the Forbes 400. The chart below is the Madoff feeder, Fairfield Sentry, versus Gateway, GATEX, a mutual fund running the same strategy. Suspicious outperformance in the 1990s went from bad to worse in 2001. Split strike conversion is a ...

In a recent post about “bubbly” Treasuries, we got some comments that deserve attention.

First, this is briefly what we said;

“Treasuries have reached bubbly levels, both in terms of low yield and the rate of change of price.

Interest rates will rise when the economy recovers, or when bond buyers demand more long-term interest to absorb trillions of new issues to fund recovery programs. Rising interest rates mean Treasury prices will fall.

… For investors who invest only “long”, closing long positions in long-dated Treasuries, or being alert to a trend reversal necessitating the closing of those positions is recommended.

… For investors who also invest “short”, being alert to a trend reversal creating a shorting opportunity is recommended. The current trend is strongly upward, but could reverse dramatically …”

Some commenters agreed and some did not.

A supportive comment was;

“The safe haven play into Treasuries is demonstrating a true example of a parabolic

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