Commodities
There were some cheers when crude oil prices started moving north from below US$30 a barrel. It didn’t go any further than US$40 a barrel and has now retreated to below the figure. Nevertheless, nobody believes it could skyrocket at the same momentum it had tumbled though. And Moody’s isn’t impressed despite the jump from […]
... written on Mar 16 2016When Apple Pay was introduced back in Oct 2014, many were sceptical. Today, 16-month later, the scepticism remains. However, ExxonMobil may be able to change that with its newly launched service – pay for your fuel at any of its 6,000 gas stations using Apple Pay – starting today. Well, actually, you still need to […]
... written on Mar 09 2016Just like a salesman desperately wanted to meet his quarterly sales quota, or else risk being axed, the same can be said about Prime Minister Najib Razak. While the salesman needs P.O. (purchase order) from customers to justify his existence, Najib needs document from Saudi royal family to justify that the controversial RM2.6 billion was […]
... written on Mar 06 2016During its peak, the Daesh (ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State) was the world’s wealthiest terror group. When it captured the city of Mosul, the group was flushed with 500 billion dinars (US$452 million; £320 million; RM1.86 billion) kept in the Iraqi city’s central bank. They were also reportedly made off with a large amount of gold […]
... written on Mar 03 2016Effective Dec 2014, Malaysia scrapped decades-old fuel subsidy and the prices of RON-95, RON-97 petrol and diesel have been based on a “managed float system”. It’s been 15 months now since the implementation and so far so good. Malaysians can proudly say they can survive without subsidy, even though the (subsidy) money came from taxpayers […]
... written on Mar 02 2016Does China own South China Sea so much so that nobody, including the supposedly superpower United States, dares to retaliate – militarily – when Beijing happily parked some HQ-9 air defence missile system on Woody Island, the largest of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, which is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam? […]
... written on Feb 19 2016Oil prices, both Brent and WTI, are above US$30 a barrel today. The price fluctuations, nevertheless, have been extremely volatile. Thankfully it hasn’t breached below US$20 a barrel. It would be a total chaos if the price goes below that level. But shall we conclude the worst is over on oil apocalypse? Not so fast. […]
... written on Feb 18 2016During the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis, then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad went berserk and accused everyone except himself for bankrupting corporations in Malaysia. He tried to bailout his cronies, including his own eldest son Mirzan Mahathir’s Konsortium Perkapalan Bhd which had accumulated RM1.6 billion in debt. But there wasn’t enough money to go around. Outrages, Mahathir […]
... written on Jan 27 2016He’s worth a staggering US$24.5 billion (£17.23 billion; RM106.37 billion) based on Forbes’ estimation. He survived the Nazi-occupation of Hungary and fled the regime as a refugee for 15-years hence he has a soft spot for refugees currently flocking to the European Union. He worked as a railway porter and waiter in London before becoming […]
... written on Jan 22 2016China announced on Tuesday that its 2015’s economy grew 6.9%, matching economists and analysts’ expectation. The problem is nobody believes the Beijing-endorsed figures. That wasn’t the real economy – argue investor, economist, analyst and specialist. China has simply cooked a number that people wanted to see and hear. Instead, they believe China’s National Bureau of […]
... written on Jan 20 2016
