News and Analysis: 4-8 Jan 10 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

Based in: Manila, Philippines

Posted on Fri, 8 Jan 10:

Asian markets, Brazil see consumer confidence boost - global survey: Consumer sentiment in Asia and Brazil point to a boost in global economic recovery, acc to the latest Global Consumer Confidence Survey. Overall global consumer confidence remains cautiously optimistic, w/ Indonesia, India and Brazil the most confident nations heading into '10, and SKorea and Japan the least confident, Nielsen Wire, 6 Jan 10 (Media release [pdf])

Jeffrey Sachs: Can we feed and save the planet?--Transgressing planetary boundaries: We are eating ourselves out of house and home. A recent article in Nature proposed 10 'planetary boundaries' to define safe limits of human activity. Yet humanity has already exceeded several of them and is on a trajectory to exceed most of the others. The rising demand for food plays a large role in those transgressions, says Columbia U Earth Inst dir, Scientific American, Dec '09

Notice from the Publisher: In case some of you are wondering where we've been the past two days - Mon and Tue, 4-5 Jan - when we weren't posting (as we had promised to do before going on a year-end break), EmergingFrontierMarkets.com, 8 Jan 09

Posted on Thu, 7 Jan 10:

Kemal Dervis: Developing economies can help cure global imbalances--China can no longer behave like China, because the US intends to behave much more like China, acc to US Pres Obama's Natl Econ Council dir. There is widespread consensus that global account imbalances - esp. the large US current account deficit and the large Chinese current account surplus - contributed to the financial crisis by adding to excess liquidity in US fincl markets and encouraging the development of toxic fincl products, says Inst vice-pres and fmr UN Devt Prog head, FT (courtesy Brookings Inst), 21 Dec 09

'Top ten' humanitarian crises--Aid blocked and diseases neglected: MSF began producing the 'Top Ten' list in '98, when a devastating famine in southern Sudan went largely unreported in Western media. Drawing on MSF’s emergency medical work, the list seeks to generate greater awareness of the magnitude and severity of crises that may or may not be reflected in media accounts, Medecins Sans Frontieres, 21 Dec 09 (Top ten of '09)

Posted on Wed, 6 Jan 10:

Top risks for 2010--US-China relations tops the list: An open letter to the clients of a consulting group by its head and research dir, entitled Top Risks and Red Herrings for '10, identifies the new year's key geopolitical areas to watch for global investors and market participants, Eurasia Group, 4 Jan 10

Robert Shiller: Sustainable housing recovery?--It appears safer to predict high volatility in '10 than to predict that home prices will rise. This surge in volatility appears to reflect a new and different attitude toward homes as an asset - an attitude that has spread around much of the world, says Yale economist, Proj Syndicate (courtesy Gulf Times/ Qatar), 25 Dec 09 (TIAA-CREF Inst announces Paul Samuelson Award winners, 4 Jan 10 | Princeton Univ Pr)

Asian Bank more upbeat on emerging Asian economies for '10: Emerging East Asian economies have performed better than anticipated thanks to swift policy responses and an improved external environment. The region is set for a speedy recovery in '10, acc to the recently released Asia Economic Monitor, which noted, however, that the pace of recovery is uneven across the region. Emerging East Asia comprises the 10 Assn of SE Asian Nations plus China, Hong Kong, SKorea, and Taiwan, Asian Devt Bank, 15 Dec 09 (Bank upgrades econ forecast for developing Asia)

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