The World Today

Daylight Savings Time has started in the US. It is so good to see sunshine at 6pm. Darkness in early morning is the other side of the coin, but soon nature will take care of making early mornings brighter. Spring is on its way here.

In other parts of the world things are also happening, of course. A sampling:

China Vows to crimp 'Hot Money' inflows - This is a fascinating financial topic. China, technically remaining a communist system, these days is the hothouse of capitalism. The US has descended into something of a capitalist-socialist hybrid, and a bureaucratic, post-capitalist state, as it were; Europe is a social democratic bureaucracy (and that includes the UK); only in China, India, Brazil and Russia is capitalism in its raw form extant. Well, in Singapore, Hong Kong, and other nations also. But China today is capitalist state #1. The irony of that is rich, of course.

Hot Money is speculative money invested to take advantage of the rising value of the yuan in relation to the dollar, and rising Chinese interest rates. The money goes into China, invests in yuan-denominated investments, and bets that the rising value of the yuan and high interest rates in China will provide a higher return than keeping the funds in dollars.

Chinese authorities have clamped foreign-exchange rules on bringing money entering the country, but there are ways to get around such rules.

"The hot money -- which could be pulled out quickly -- has added to liquidity that, along with soaring food and energy prices, has pushed inflation to its highest level in 11 years. Brad Setser, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, estimates that more than $200 billion in hot money may have flowed into China last year, eclipsing the $82.66 billion in foreign direct investment."

Obama wins in Wyoming, gets a boost in Mississippi - talk of fascinating: a black man actually has a realistic chance of getting nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, and of getting elected President of the USA. This is a topic that will get its own post. Suffice it to say here that I am amazed: I did not give Senator Obama a chance, and did not like him, four months ago; now I believe he is going to win both contests, and almost like him.