As one of the most shocking and dismal economic years of our time comes to a close, it deserves a moment to take a look at the vast shifts which have transpired. Major banking giants which have fallen, stock markets have plummeted, and a whole host of issues have reared their head for the coming year. Yet, as we look ahead there are quite a few points of optimism. There are strong buying opportunities, and a sense of worldwide cooperation – both for investors, and for international leaders – which is arguably unique to this crisis, and will undoubtedly shape the next wave of future international financial decisions for the coming generation.

First, a quick, partial summary of international stock markets for the last year:

Developed:

US -42.32% UK -34.31% Germany -42.15% France -44.28% Italy -48.91% Belgium -54.96% Spain -40.69% Scandanavia -51.09% Netherlands -52.63% Russia -65.72%

Emerging:

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Austria is justifiably famous for its banking system—particularly for its bank secrecy law, which has the same legal status as the Austrian Constitution. But while Austrians take their financial privacy very seriously, there’s another aspect of Austria that doesn’t get as much attention: residence. With its world-class opera, museums, and galleries, Austria is truly one of the world’s most civilized countries. Vienna, its capital, is a cultural treasure. Indeed, Mercer’s, a major human resources consultancy ranks Vienna as the second most desirable city to live in the world (behind Zurich)—and Vienna is much more affordable. And within an hour’s drive of Vienna, you can visit three different countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. Austria is also a popular haven for English-speaking expatriates. While you won’t find the concentrations of U.S. expatriates that you would in places like Costa Rica, Panama, or London, you’ll find a high quality of life and reasonable ...

We have just screened out universe for Free Cash flow yields. There are some suprising results. One of the highest FCF yields is Sanitas, a Lithuanian company. br /br /Sanitas is a Generic Pharmaceuticalcompany. It has modern manufacturing facilities in Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland, producing a variety of medicines often though of as defensive. br /br /Not much wrong with the company, other than being in a small illiquid market exposed to foreign currency risk. The compny even converted its outstanding loans from banks Bank Polska Kasa Opieki S.A. and Bank Zachodni WBK at favourable terms. Maybe there is real value out there?

Recent stories about Russian passports being distributed in Crimea, Ukraine have raised quite a ruckus. But that doesn't seem to be the only place in the Ukraine with some ethnic nationalism issues, and a new report we've translated from Izvestiya after the jump tells the story of Moscow's possible assistance to the Ruthenians - a fiercely independent group located in Transcarpathia, the western-most Oblast of the country, near the Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian, and Romanian borders. For centuries, the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and known as Subcarpathia. (Everything depends on where you’re looking from: if your vantage point is Vienna or Budapest, the region is in the foothills “below” the Carpathian mountains, hence “Subcarpathia”. But if you’re looking from Moscow or Kiev, it’s on the “other side” of the mountains, hence “Transcarpathia”!) After ...

It’s becoming clear that subprime lending wasn’t limited to the housing market. Companies in the auto-loan business are battling hard to keep their heads above water. Andrew Snyder says small firms like AmeriCredit (NYSE:ACF), United PanAm (NASDAQ:UPFC) and Consumer Portfolio Services (NASDAQ:CPSS) will struggle to survive.

This from Today’s Financial News:

If you thought lending in the home-mortgage lending industry was tight, you will be shocked by the woes in the auto-lending world. This subprime debacle is destroying one company after the other.

Just this morning, GMAC (NYSE:GJM) announced it has stopped issuing car loans in seven European countries. October 31 will be the last day for folks from Finland, Norway, Greece, the

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It’s becoming clear that subprime lending wasn’t limited to the housing market. Companies in the auto-loan business are battling hard to keep their heads above water. Andrew Snyder says small firms like AmeriCredit (NYSE:ACF), United PanAm (NASDAQ:UPFC) and Consumer Portfolio Services (NASDAQ:CPSS) will struggle to survive.

This from Today’s Financial News:

If you thought lending in the home-mortgage lending industry was tight, you will be shocked by the woes in the auto-lending world. This subprime debacle is destroying one company after the other.

Just this morning, GMAC (NYSE:GJM) announced it has stopped issuing car loans in seven European countries. October 31 will be the last day for folks from Finland, Norway, Greece, the

...

A fun little bit of news out of the beautiful city of Prague today…

The first Burger King (NYSE:BKC) will open in Prague in the next few months. And it’s not only targeting the Czech Repbulic. It wants to become number one in European markets. To do that, it’s already got operations in Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary, and it planning joints in Slovakia and Slovenia.

But it’s got tough competition from McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), who is top dog right now with 70 restaurants serving 53 million customers. It’s spent more than $172.2 million on restaurants in the Czech Republic.

When I was in Budapest, I grabbed a Whopper for a quick lunch before meeting my guide back at the hotel, Buro Panzio. It cost me 750 Forint, which is about $3.75 or so, and the place was packed. My last night in Budapest, I hit the town with some new friends, and ended up

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viastockadvisors

“PepsiAmericas is the world’s second-largest bottler of PepsiCo beverages,” notes leading quantitative analyst Vahan Janjigian.Here, the editor of the industry-leading The Forbes Growth Investor takes a look at the globally-expanding bottling firm, which is 44% owned by PepsiCo.

Track this recommendation at:

http://trackthepros.com/stocks/category/546

“Brands licensed from PepsiCo accounted for 90% of 2007 sales. The U.S. was responsible for 70% of first half 2008 sales.

“This territory consists of 19 states mostly in the Midwest. Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Aquafina are top brands in the U.S. Central and Eastern Europe generated 25% of sales. Markets include Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

“The U.S.is a mature market with limited growth opportunities and has presented special challenges in recent years as consumers shy away from traditional carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) in favor of non-carbonated soft drinks and energy drinks.

“This evolution has opened the door to boutique beverage companies, allowing them to grab

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Satcon’s PowerGate Plus 500 kW commercial solar photovoltaic inverters will provide 20MW for the European utility Energy 21. Installations for the large-scale plants in Czech Republic and Slovakia are set to begin in Oct. 2008 and continue through the spring of 2009. The move is part of a new agreement with CE Solar, the project development arm of Energy 21.

“Our goal is to create long-term investment opportunities for our clients by providing clean, reliable energy in a profitable way,” said Energy 21 CEO Gary Mazzotti. “We chose Satcon because we believe they offer the best in class solutions for utility scale distributed power generation that will ultimately increase our return on investment from these systems.”

All 500 kW PowerGate Plus inverters include Satcon’s Edge Maximum Power Point Tracking, allowing utility projects like those by Energy 21 to maximize power production and increase efficiency of each system. The company also works

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Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is getting a lot of interesting press coverage this week - and like his public persona, there are those who hold him in awe, and those who blame him entirely for what's happened (if you haven't yet read what the Russians say about him, hold onto to your keyboards...). Here are some more interesting snippets of how his personality is being portrayed. "Why Americans swoon for the former Soviet Republic of Georgia," by Ilan Greenberg, Slate.com I got to know Georgia—and Saakashvili—when I profiled him for the New York Times Magazine. For almost two months I shadowed Misha. In Slovakia for a regional summit, walking next to Saakashvili along Bratislava's cordoned streets, the Georgian head of state hooked his arm on my elbow and offered to trade gossip about his senior staff. In Tbilisi, Saakashvili gave me ...