In the late 1980s, Japan’s economy was the envy of the world. The country’s meteoric rise to become the world’s second-largest economy coupled with the dominance of Japanese brands such as Sony, Toyota and Kubota gave rise to the term “Japanese Economic Miracle.” Managers around the world sought to emulate the nation’s manufacturing techniques. Japanese companies and consumers, enriched by their nation’s rapid economic growth, bought up prime real estate and other assets in the United… Read More

In the late 1980s, Japan’s economy was the envy of the world. The country’s meteoric rise to become the world’s second-largest economy coupled with the dominance of Japanese brands such as Sony, Toyota and Kubota gave rise to the term “Japanese Economic Miracle.” Managers around the world sought to emulate the nation’s manufacturing techniques. Japanese companies and consumers, enriched by their nation’s rapid economic growth, bought up prime real estate and other assets in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. #-ad_banner-#But Japan’s miracle was built in part on a bubble. In 1989, at the height of the property bubble, choice commercial property in Tokyo sold for more than $20,000 per square foot. Average Japanese homes near the nation’s six largest cities cost the equivalent of 30 to 50 times the median Japanese income, an unsustainable level. Gains in residential and office properties between 1986 and the top of the property bubble in 1991 were even more dramatic than home price gains in the United States during the mid-2000s. The economic miracle came to an abrupt end… Read More

Financial stocks have been out of favor for much of the period since the financial crisis. In the United States, the S&P 500 Financials Index rallied just 9% between the end of 2008… Read More

Fifty years after Yugoslavian President Josip Tito founded the Non-Aligned Movement, the economies of the association’s roughly 120 nations have grown in excess of 5% per year on average, while larger developed economies in North America, Europe and Japan have slowed to a crawl. Yet, it’s easy to forget the… Read More

“Let your winners ride.” It’s a favorite maxim among gamblers, and also applies to a top-performing casino stock. Recently announced monthly revenue figures from the world’s newest gambling mecca… Read More

One mark of a successful investor is the ability to think outside the box. There is a never-ending opportunity for investors who remain open to new horizons. Many investors get trapped with a myopic view of the possibilities — some only invest in… Read More

Mexico and Brazil had a big problem several decades ago. They had a small but very wealthy elite class and a massive underclass. The middle class in these countries was relatively small, leading to low levels of domestic consumption. Since then, a set of far-sighted government policies has helped… Read More

During the past decade, dozens of Chinese companies began trading on U.S. stock exchanges, and more than a few were complete frauds, causing investors to lose 100% of their money. You can blame it on the auditors. The accountants who were… Read More

If you think about a powerful creature plowing through the streets of Tokyo, then you probably think of Godzilla. However, I suspect there’s about to be another type of powerful animal running through one of the world’s greatest cities — and that’s a raging… Read More

China is one of the final great economic frontiers. Its oxymoronic mixture of communism and state-sanctioned capitalism has created a colossal economic engine that had been, until recently, on a sharp upward trajectory. But I don’t think the growth story is… Read More

Greece’s economic woes have drawn the eyes of a jittery world lately, with many observers fearing that the nation’s debt crisis could throw the world economy back into a serious tailspin. Things are so bad in Greece that some in their country… Read More