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Money matters: The Investment Regulations (Part
2)
Graham Macdonald
MBMG International Ltd.
There is also a view that the general market needs
protecting from individual interest. Short selling is always emotive
because it’s clearly a case of a few benefiting when the majority
suffer. If the market goes down why should someone be able to profit from
that just because they’ve been smarter? That’s both ironic and
rhetorical by the way!
Interestingly though, the Commodity and Futures Trading
Commission (CFTC) believes that the presence of Commodity Trading Advisor
hedge funds in the market has stabilised the price of oil during the
recent turmoil and not made it more volatile - having short selling in the
armoury can actually be for the general good.
Admittedly there is still a great deal of confusion
about which strategies do what and how. Without understanding how the
risks and the returns are generated you should avoid any investment. Many
people invest in shares without understanding the work that Eugene Fama
has done in quantifying the risks of equity investing, but somehow
that’s okay with the regulators. A less risky, more efficient investment
might be available but if the regulator doesn’t fully understand it then
he’s not going to stick his neck out.
That’s not to say that we’re opposed to regulation
- we’ve been at the forefront of attempts to regulate the offshore
industry in Thailand and we believe that one of the biggest disasters
waiting to happen could have been avoided with better regulation.
Greenspan and the Fed have long held the view that derivatives provide
balance and checks to the market and are a welcome alternative method of
risk control.
The problem is that the industry has now grown so large
(roughly 7 years worth of US GDP currently outstanding on contracts, 10%
of US GDP traded in such contracts every day and a further year’s worth
of US GDP out on debt securitisation contracts too!) that Warren Buffet is
waiting for the accident to happen. The potential damage if a major
counter-party fails in these contracts is unparalleled and yet this
situation has been allowed to develop almost entirely without regulation.
Regulating the parties here rather than preventing individual investors
getting access to more efficient strategies would have been a better use
of Fed time.
There are winds of change blowing though - in the UK,
the Financial Services Authority will this month publish a discussion
paper, prompting a debate on whether the ฃ275bn retail fund
management industry should be able to engage in the sort strategies used
by hedge funds.
Hedge funds, once seen as dangerous, high-risk and
exotic investments on the fringe of the investment community, are becoming
mainstream with more than ฃ1,000bn in assets and 8,000 funds
worldwide. However, most private investors in the UK are prevented by
regulators from investing directly in hedge funds. Fund managers report
pent-up investor demand for the products, which can offer double-digit
returns but can also be high-risk.
The FSA will publish two discussion papers to launch a
debate about the range of investments open to individuals. Regulators
worldwide are looking at the same issue. The UK asset management industry
is pressing for change amid fears that it is losing out to financial
centres such as Germany and Ireland that have relaxed the rules on retail
investment into hedge funds.
Keith Jones, chief executive of Morley Fund Management,
a subsidiary of Aviva, said: “Most asset management firms would welcome
the opportunity to look at distributing hedge funds in the retail market.
There is no logical reason for not allowing retail investors to buy hedge
funds.”
Industry chiefs who have had meetings with the FSA on
this issue claim that the regulator appeared “supportive” of change.
One said, “They seem open to change.” The FSA’s discussion papers
will cover retail investment and the wholesale market.
The Investment Management Association said, “The FSA
is looking at extending the range of products available to investors,
including hedge fund strategies.”
Let’s just hope there are no attempts to link this to CAT standards -
financial methodologies of the highest sophistication in the hands of
mediocrity would be a scary thought - a bit like seeing a Ferrari Enzo
with ‘L’ plates in the hands of a pimply 17 year old.
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The above data and research was compiled from sources believed to be
reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its officers can accept
any liability for any errors or omissions in the above article nor bear any
responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any actions taken or not
taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For more information please
contact Graham Macdonald on [email protected]
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Snap Shots: Time exposure for beginners!
by Harry Flashman
Talk time exposure and most photographers will run
away. How many times have you used the “time exposure” facility on
your camera for example? How about “never”! That’s the usual
response to that question. And the reason? “Looks too complicated or too
hard to work out the exposure.”
Photo
courtesy of Mercure Hotel, time-exposure of hotel building.
Let’s address the “too technical” aspect first. A
camera is purely a device that lets a certain amount of light fall onto
sensitized film for a predetermined amount of time. This is the old “f8
at 1/60th” sort of routine. The number of the “f” stop (the
aperture) tells you how large the hole is that lets the light in, and the
1/60th denotes how long the hole was left open. Sounds technical - but
it’s not!
Way back, when photography was in its infancy, the film
material was so insensitive that the exposure times were nowhere near as
“short” as today. 1/60th was unheard of - it was more like a three
weeks at f4 in those days! With today’s super-sensitive film materials
and printing papers you can get away with “short” time exposures and
you don’t even need to be accurate any more. Near enough is good enough!
What do you need for Time Exposure photography? Well, a
camera is a good start, but it has to be one with “T” or “B”
settings. The “T” setting stands for Time Exposure - one “click”
opens the shutter, the second “click” closes it. “B” originally
stood for “bulb” and the way that works is by holding the shutter
release down keeps the shutter open until you take your finger off, which
closes it. Why two settings? Simple, use “B” for time exposures up to
a minute and “T” for longer ones (mainly because your finger will go
numb holding the button down for 20 minutes!)
Film stock? The new 400 ASA is fine (but you can use
anything, I generally just use the standard 200 ASA film in the camera.)
Those of you who have read books and magazines will
have read about ‘reciprocity failure’ with long time exposures. Forget
everything you have read! It’s photo industry techo-speak and won’t
stop you getting good pictures, it just changes the colours a bit. In
fact, pro photographers will use this to their advantage to produce a
different atmosphere to a shot.
The last thing you need is a tripod, unless you are
good at standing motionless for twenty seconds or so. You should have one
by now anyway. And a strong sturdy one, not one of those lightweight
skinny aluminium models that will blow over in the breeze. However, if you
have not got a tripod, it is not the end of the world, but you will have
to find some way to keep the camera steady. I have taken 30 second time
exposure with the camera sitting on a table, or the roof of a car.
The important point to grasp, is that all Time Exposure
photography is “hit and miss”. There’s no real way anyone can tell
you exactly “f8 and 24 seconds”. The camera’s exposure meter
doesn’t help here either. There’s too many variables, but all you have
to do is to take the same scene or picture with several different exposure
times - one of them will be right. Believe me! This is what the pro’s
call ‘bracketing’. In other words, at least one shot will come out!
Here’s the rough guides. In all of these the aperture
(f stop) is set on f8. Now to take a street scene at night, try 2 seconds,
4 seconds and 8 seconds. For the interior of a room, lit with ordinary
light bulbs, try 5 seconds, 10 seconds and 20 seconds. To take a picture,
just before dawn try 5, 10 and 20 seconds. Now, for a completely dark,
night landscape (or seascape) try 30 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes.
Make a note of the order your time exposures were shot
in, and jot down the “best” result after you get your films back.
Sure, the colours will be strangely different - but if you wanted a
“normal” shot you’d have taken it in daylight, wouldn’t you?
Modern Medicine: Anaphylaxis. Will it kill you?
by Dr. Iain Corness, ConsultantAnaphylaxis
is something that all doctors dread. Or I should be more accurate and say
‘anaphylactic shock’. That difficult sounding name of Anaphylaxis is
just a fancy word for the most severe form of allergic reaction you can
experience. Those people who have lived through this will attest to just how
frightening it can be. And they have good reason to be frightened - it is
classed as a medical emergency as people can die from this reaction. It is
also much more common than you would imagine. The figures quoted from
America are that Anaphylaxis occurs at an annual rate of 30 per 100,000.
Unfortunately the causes are multiple and include food
allergy, penicillin, cephalosporin and sulfur drugs, intravenous contrast
medium (used in some special X-Rays), aspirin and Non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s), walnuts, cashews and pistachios and
insect stings. The commonest food allergy is peanuts and again going by the
American figures, peanuts cause 30,000 documented cases of Anaphylaxis every
year and 200 deaths within that figure. (And you never thought that those
nuts on the bar were killers, did you?)
The symptoms include a very sudden and very severe
breathing problem (bronchospasm - the basis of asthma), itching around the
mouth, flushing of the skin with large swellings plus swelling of the face,
tongue and mouth, some gut pains and sometimes nausea and vomiting and
finally a lowering of blood pressure and increasing difficulty in breathing.
Although Anaphylaxis does mimic an asthmatic attack, the
difference is in the speed of the attack and the rapid progression of the
bronchospasm, plus the skin effects that come with it.
With Anaphylaxis, the patient should be hospitalised,
even if they appear to have recovered from the acute symptoms as there is
something we call the “biphasic reaction” which sees a recurrence of the
symptoms a couple of hours later. This can be even more severe than the
initial attack, so we recommend that patients be kept in hospital under
observation for 12 hours, in case there is a biphasic reaction.
The treatment of the acute phase emergency includes
injection of Adrenaline 1/1000 strength, oxygen by mask or by tube if the
swelling is producing too much of an obstruction, intravenous saline to
boost the blood pressure plus intravenous steroids and even some
antihistamines. Not the sort of things you keep at home in the cupboard
above the drug cupboard, is it! And you do have a drug cupboard, locked and
high enough up that small children cannot reach it, don’t you.
The management of the condition from the long term point
of view goes into trying to find out and eliminate the allergen causing the
problem. With the food allergies this is very difficult, and involves
withdrawing each “perhaps a problem” food from the diet, one at a time.
But start with peanuts, if peanuts are something commonly eaten, and
something that was eaten on the day of the last attack. Do not suppose that
the triggering item is bananas if you didn’t have a banana before the last
episode of Anaphylaxis.
So what should you do if you are a person who suffers
from these acute allergic responses? Well, if it were me, I would alert
those around me to the dangers and advise them on what to do - mainly to get
you to the hospital as soon as possible - remember that this is a medical
emergency. I would also be looking at keeping a supply of 1/1000 Adrenaline
injectable for immediate use. But most of all, I would be letting family and
friends know to take you to hospital at the first signs of a problem.
Learn to Live to Learn: Whose knowledge is it anyway?
with Andrew Watson
Having ruminated on this knowledge thing even as sleep
enveloped me, with the first blue light of dawn I woke up with something
singing in my head. In a moment of IB generated euphoria, the IBO
(International Baccalaureate Organisation) Mission Statement had once
more, come to the fore front of my mind. It ends with the words,
“Other people, with their differences, can also be right”. In a
post-modern and post-colonial word, this statement marks a significant
and conscious divergence from the idea, dominant perhaps until
relatively recently (although if you consider for a moment how
“democracy” and “freedom” are sometimes peddled, perhaps it’s
still with us), that it was possible and often preferable to impose one
set of cultural values upon another. The Mission Statement does not mean
that the IBO is in favour of cultural relativism, and one might argue
that a set of “ethical absolutes” could be generated. The
responsibility is great indeed, to remain inclusive and compassionate on
the one hand, yet resolute, critical and firm on the other. The IBO
realize that a complex network of national and international schools,
can only be bound by ideology which is strong, but not rigid.
Last week, I posed the question, “Why do some
subjects seem to be regarded as ‘more important’ than others?”
I’d like to delve a little further and consider, from a possibly
subversive perspective (what a surprise), what it is, within the
curriculum, that teachers, schools and governments are really trying to
teach. I’d like to ask, “What is this thing that you call
‘knowledge’? Justify it, in content, delivery and philosophy, if you
can!”
In commencing my answers to these questions, I hope
you will forgive me if I invoke (not for the first time) Professor
George Walker, outgoing Director General of the IBO whom, during his
address to the Asia Pacific Regional conference in Singapore in 2003,
remarked, “When I was at secondary school I remember the day, the
exact moment, the precise disposition of the classroom around me, when
my headmaster gently suggested that the huge area coloured red on the
map of the world, marking out the British Empire, might not be a matter
of pride, but rather of questions or possibly even of some guilt. The
sense of shock remains with me today because this radical notion
contradicted everything that I had been previously told, not least by my
parents. Incidentally, we might want to note in passing that this
headmaster, who subsequently had a huge influence on my life, had once
been a terrorist. As a member of the Resistance in occupied France in
World War II, he had used both violence and intimidation in pursuit of a
political aim, expressed in the motto, borrowed from the Revolution,
“Vivre libre ou mourir.”
How do they take you, statements like these, I
wonder? I grew up, cloaked in the Union Jack, proud of my regional and
national representations at sport, determined to take the concept of
British supremacy across the globe. I took it to the United States,
proclaiming in what must have appeared as a series of crass and
ultimately ethnocentric acts, the cultural and linguistic dominance of
the “motherland”. I should have known better, even then. I had been
fortunate to travel a great deal even up until the age of eighteen and
in essence, I probably wasn’t so very different to the person I am
now.
Then, one day, sitting in a lecture hall in Virginia,
something changed. My knowledge base, filled until this time by one,
relatively unchanging view of the world, was turned upside down, shaken
and spat out again. Just as Professor Walker remembers his moment of
enlightenment, so do I. Delivering his “Cultural Anthropology” class
at the College of William & Mary, Professor Zamora, in a theatre
packed to the rafters, seemed to be speaking to me, alone. I began to
question the status of human knowledge. I identified within me (and felt
ashamed in doing so) a superficial level of assumptions, shared by those
of my social, economic and political group in the United Kingdom.
Suddenly, removed from my comfort zone, I was forced to reassess every
aspect of where and how I had come by the knowledge that I seemed to
possess. I regard this experience as most fortunate and remember
thinking, “This is something I should have recognised in myself
already!” Until this time, winning academic arguments had appeared
difficult. Now, I felt I had been given a key to the world. Everything
seemed to fit much better. No longer did I regard the world as being
full of “absolute” truths. Rather, by looking around me I recognised
that there were different truths for different people and that this was
not something to feel threatened by – indeed quite the reverse – it
was something to be celebrated. This was the dawning of my concept of
diversity and I felt I understood all that embracing such a concept
entailed. I mean, the last thing you want on earth is to have us all the
same, right? Even genetics recognises diversity. So do the three
monotheistic religions (if you read their holy books without prejudice).
This, I propose, is not a coincidence. Understanding the roots of
knowledge helps you appreciate other people for whom and what they are.
So whilst I might find the idea of a world full of greying, fossilized,
monotone, tedious, unethical, self-serving even racist creatures
anathema, I am at least reassured that they should be few and far
between. I don’t need to tolerate them, but maybe I can understand
them.
[email protected]
Next week: The Politics of Knowledge
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
This is a very embarrassing problem, so you will forgive me if I don’t
attach my real name. I have suffered from wind for many years. My mother
even tells me I had it when a child. Living on my own it is not too much
of a problem as I can let one rip whenever I like, but I have recently
taken up with a lovely young lady and it is obvious that she would be
willing to spend some nocturnal quality time with me. I don’t want her
to hear the Charge of the Light Brigade and be put off by the musical
items that my bottom can produce, so what do you suggest?
Flatulent
Dear Flatulent,
You have my sympathies, as opposed to my symphonies. You have several
choices, however, Flatulent. You can opt to remain celibate and join the
clergy, but your flatulent fits might be misunderstood as music to some
cleric’s ears. You could train yourself to be able to play the Charge
of the Light Brigade, and make money from your musical bottom. A French
entertainer did just that. Called Le Petomaine he could musically
extinguish a candle at one metre. You can have a look at your diet and
avoid milk products and green beans and see if that helps. Finally, you
can always get the young lady concerned to ‘burp’ you before
settling down for the night. That is what your mother would have done.
Dear Hillary,
Every day I see these Thai girls sitting sideways on the rear of some
motorcycle and wonder where did this custom come from? China adopted
bicycles, but Thailand seems to have adopted the motorcycle. Do you know
why this is so, and also when did the Thai girls start to ride pillion
in this strange way? I must say I have never seen one fall off, but I
suppose they must. Any answers are appreciated.
Pillion Pete
Dear Pillion Pete,
An interesting observation. China, I believe, adopted the pedal power
because of financial reasons, while the more affluent Thais adopted the
gasoline engine for boats, cars, trucks and personal transport
(motorcycles). The Thailand infrastructure was such that the itinerant
motorcyclist could always find a gas station to get fuel. Well, up till
now anyway, as you may find your local gas station closed at night to
save the country’s fuel and put the pump jockeys out of work. However,
the art of riding sideways came long before the nasty two strokes from
Japan (smelly motorcycles and karaoke bars were Japan’s revenge after
the war, I am sure) as Thai women have always been very aware of their
femininity. Figure hugging sarongs and skirts are not new. They were
wearing them over 100 years ago, and try slinging your leg over a
buffalo in a tight skirt, Pillion Pete my Petal. No, you can’t, so
they sat side-saddle on the buffaloes. Sitting side-saddle on a
motorcycle was a very natural progression, otherwise the skirt would
have to be hoisted around the waist to get on. Something you men
wouldn’t mind, but something the naturally shy Thai woman would not
countenance. “Do they fall off?” the simple answer is yes they do,
but not because they lost their balance. They only fall off when the
rider (or the person nominally in control of the machine) loses balance,
and down they go, including the two girls sitting opposite each other,
but still side-saddle!
Dear Hillary,
You hear that farangs should not learn Thai, because you will learn too
much. This is the situation I am in now. I do frequent the bar scene and
know many of the mamasans and know where they have been and what bar
they’re off to next. I also know the real ‘professional’ girls who
stay in the oldest profession because they can make big money out of it,
by playing the suckers. Some of these girls are milking three or four
farangs, all sending cash to their sweet adorable faithful darling! But
that is their problem, not mine, but that’s not quite the case.
Because I can speak Thai (Esarn really), many of these guys are asking
me to relay messages to their girls and I have got to the stage that I
don’t want to know any more. How do I tell them that they are being
scammed, but at the same time be able to go back to the bars and just
sit and chat to the girls, something I enjoy too? Should I just come
clean and lose the farang friends and my Thai ones, or what?
Poot Esarn
Dear Poot Esarn,
You certainly do have a problem, don’t you! But it isn’t all that
impossible to fathom. I think you’ve got too close to the problem to
be able to see the big picture. If someone asks you a direct question
about someone else, the answer is surely to tell that person to go and
ask the question themselves. Stay out of it. You are not going to do
much for anyone by giving unsolicited advice. Your farang ‘friends’
won’t thank you, and neither will your bar girl ‘friends’. I
really think that what is happening is that you have grown out of the
bar scene. Start looking for real friends, away from the
‘entertainment’ industry.
Psychological Perspectives: A wish for Asian University graduates
by Michael Catalanello,
Ph.D.
Asian University hosted its annual
commencement ceremony last week. It’s always a great pleasure to attend
these ceremonies. It is, by far, the happiest event of our academic year.
The graduates look very scholarly in their caps and
gowns. Polished and painted for the occasion, their faces animated with
broad smiles, they appear almost unrecognizable, surreal. Are these the
same sleepy students who dragged themselves from the dorm to attend my
early morning psychology lectures? There must be some mistake!
Commencement draws friends and family members to
celebrate an event many have sacrificed for, and anticipated for many
years. Some may have, at times, wondered if this day would ever come.
Faculty members appear distinguished in colorful robes
reflecting the diversity and international character of their academic
backgrounds. Diplomats and distinguished guests are on hand to add an air
of even greater importance to the occasion, as if such were needed. Flowers
are blooming everywhere. Even the rain, which fell in sheets during the
earliest portion of the day, cannot hold out long against the positive
vibes our celebrants are putting out.
Commencement is an important event, a rite of passage.
Traditionally, it is a time to reflect on what has been accomplished, and
on what lies ahead.
At a minimum, we hope that our graduates will have
absorbed some of our knowledge: the basic language, and concepts necessary
for them to function as professionals within their respective areas of
specialization. We hope their diplomas will offer them a means toward a
lucrative and fulfilling career, or provide a strong foundation toward a
more advanced degree.
But we wish more for them. Much more.
The knowledge we have provided our students during the
four or so years during which we have commanded their attention is woefully
inadequate. While it may represent the best our generation has to offer, it
has, nevertheless, proven to insufficient for solving the greatest problems
facing us in the twenty-first century. We need the help of their generation
to construct new knowledge and find new solutions.
Our current state of knowledge has not provided a
workable solution to the problem of a growing world population, and the
resulting stresses this puts on our limited global resources. As our
population grows, growth in food and energy production must keep pace. Can
we continue to meet the most basic needs of our growing population? How
will we do it?
Our dependence upon fossil fuels has gotten us into a
jam. We now find that the planet, which sustains our life, all life that we
know of, is warming. Despite our understanding of this process, and the
doomsday predictions, we appear unable to summon the will to take the
necessary steps to curb this alarming trend. Our current state of knowledge
appears insufficient to tackle the problem of global warming.
As human populations have expanded across the globe, the
populations of other species are on the decline, and many are becoming
extinct. While species extinction is a natural and ongoing process,
scientists warn that the rate of extinctions is accelerating, from 100 to
1000 times the normal rate. This increasing rate of extinction is primarily
driven by a loss of habitats, due to increased farming, deforestation, and
fragmentation of habitats resulting from road construction. An extinct
species is gone forever. Our current state of knowledge has proven
inadequate to stop this heartbreaking trend.
As a result of climate change, coupled with the demands
of irrigation agriculture and industry, global demands for water are on the
rise. Many regions are getting drier. How will we meet increasing demand
for this most precious of all resources? The solution has so far eluded us.
Poverty, racism, sexism, discrimination, inequality,
torture, genocide, terrorism, the exploitation of women and children, the
proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, illiteracy,
HIV-AIDS and other infectious diseases, universal access to healthcare,
suffering brought about by natural disasters, the list of problems
besetting us seems endless. How do we think about these issues? How might
we think about these issues?
Yesterday’s solutions may have worked yesterday.
Today’s problems require new, innovative solutions. We cannot rest on our
laurels. We need constructive criticism of our most sacred cows. We need
new knowledge, new solutions.
During their time with us, I hope our graduates will
have sharpened their capacity for critical thinking and their sense of
social responsibility. I hope they leave Asian U. with a sense of
dissatisfaction with the limited knowledge we have given them, a readiness
to imagine better solutions, and a determination that better ways of
thinking and doing are possible, even necessary.
When it comes to thinking and acting on today’s important issues, I
hope our graduates will do better than we have.
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Dr. Catalanello is a licensed psychologist in his home State of Louisiana, USA, and a member of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Asian University,
Chonburi. You may address questions and comments to him at [email protected], or post on his weblog at
http://asianupsych.blogspot.com
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