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Mongolia
Photo Courtesy of: Sibirsky Extreme
Quoting Barron’s, Blogger and fund manager Barry Ritholtz posted the following interesting chart on the performance of various asset classes since the March 2009 lows:
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Source: Bottoms Up! From March 9, 2009 to Today, The Big Picture
I wanted to see how the various US-listed foreign banks have performed from March 9, 2009 to March 9, 2012. The table below shows that while most foreign banks traded on the New York Stock Exchange have recovered a few have not.
[TABLE=1057]
Note: Split-adjusted prices have been used for splits and reverse splits; Table includes most but not all of the foreign banks traded on the NYSE.
Data Source: Yahoo Finance
Despite undergoing reverse splits National Bank of Greece (NBG) and Bank of Ireland (IRE) are still down by double digit percentages. Among British banks Barclays (BCS) has performed better than HSBC (HBC). Overall emerging market banks have recovered strongly compared to developed market banks.
Disclosure: Long many of banks listed above.
In an article last April I wrote that despite the events at the Fukushima, Japan “power generation from nuclear energy is set to rise in many countries.”.
I came across an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal this week on this topic.From the article:
Developing countries with an insatiable thirst for electricity are going full speed ahead with new reactors a year after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster disrupted the growth of nuclear power around the world.
Sixty nuclear reactors are currently under construction globally, with 163 more on order or planned, according to the World Nuclear Association. That is little changed from the trade group’s February 2011 survey—a month before Fukushima—showing 62 reactors under construction and 156 on order or planned.
The numbers belie the perception that the nuclear power industry was stopped in its tracks after the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant following an earthquake and tsunami, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. While Japan and some European nations prepare to shut down or idle their nuclear plants, the march to build reactors continues in developing countries.
Source: Nuclear Pushes On Despite Fukushima, The Wall Street Journal
The journal article also includes a nice interactive graphic of atomic footprint across the globe.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration just 19% of the electricity power generation comes from nuclear power in the US. Coal remains the main source of electricity accounting for about 42% of total power generated. Among the developed countries electricity generation from nuclear power is the highest in France.
Related ETFs:
Market Vectors Uranium + Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR)
iShares S&P Global Nuclear Energy index ETF (NUCL)
Disclosure: No Positions
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In an earlier article I discussed about the total tax revenues as a percentage of GDP.In this post lets a look at three charts about corporate taxes in the U.S.
Chart 1:
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Chart 2:
Chart 3:
Source: Ten Charts that Prove the United States Is a Low-Tax Country, Center for American Progress.
U.S. corporate profits are at historic levels as companies experience strong growth overseas and cut costs in the domestic market. Booming profits and low tax rates have benefited companies tremendously with an estimate putting the cash pile they hold at over a $1 Trillion. Despite the huge cash pile, most companies have a low dividend payout ratio. The average yield on the S&P 500 is just around 2%. Due to lack of growth in the local market most companies avoid investing at home. As a result, the unemployment rate continues to be high and most government policies have failed to to stimulate economic growth.