Alibaba, Chinese Bourgeois & Xi Jinping

Alibaba blew away earning estimates this morning. It's six percent higher in pre market trading. Alibaba is the Chinese equivalent of America's Amazon. Alibaba is a measuring stick if you will of the ever rising appetite of Chinese bourgeois for all thins that a consumer wants. China's population now approaches 1.5 billion. And they are hungry. Which brings up the hot seat China's President Xi Jinping is uncomfortably sitting on.How is he planning to insure all those people will get fed? How is he insuring that all those people will have room to live and breed ? He has a lot of levers of power. Xi Jinping commands a formidable military. But he can't control 1.4 billion people if they are heading to lunch with a a big appetite.So who's controlling whom? Consequently Xi Jinping has been expanding his countries influence and occupation of the planet into new areas.South China Sea has seen raw aggression in China's filling in tiny atols so Chinese can settle. There they can drop a fishing line into the water . Maybe one of the ever dwindling fish might bite on the Chinamans hook and disappear like so many before him.Chinese are already plundering Africa. In the beginning most of the planet looked like Africa. Now much of the planet looks like China- overpopulated and polluted.So today Xi Jinping has the problem. But increasingly the world will have more of a problem accommodating the munching jaws of the Chinese bourgeois.

San Francisco Progressives Lose Way

Nobody could make this story up.It happened in the progressive enclave of Presidio Terrace. It's about five blocks from where I live.I can see it from my roof where I have an anchored tripod mounted for photos or any other chore that requires a steady support. Some of the former residents of the Terrace were Senator Dianne Feinstein and her husband Dick Blum who has made tens of millions for his family and other investors by selling off U.S. government property.He acted as broker in some cases and as principal in others. That's self dealing also known as stealing. Also Former Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi lived there. Her husband Paul Pelosi also sells property that belongs to the U.S. government but at prices that only his investors can afford. Pelosi is the big titted progressive that all want to suckle for freebies. She obliges. She gives one and all what they want because it costs her nothing. Tax payers pick up the tab. She neglects thank you but instead berates all for more. Long story short. A couple of Chinese immigrants, Tina Lam and Michael Cheng, happened upon property for sale due to non payment of back taxes advertised by San Francisco City An County Tax Department .The bill was $14.00 a year. But The Presidio Terrace Association failed to pay for thirty years. The couple paid $90,000. 00 to clear arrears and penalties to secure title to the street and common areas including side walks in Presidio Terrace.That's it. End of story. Progressives in the enclave awakened from their routine of reaching out to illegals or learning how to care and protect members of the LGBTQ community and other designer cause celebre are faced with the prospect of not having control of their streets. How will they explain to visiting politicians who come for money why they can't park on the street unless the pols or other big wigs pay a parking fee to the Chinese couple? Suppose the Chinese couple decide to have a live market street sale featuring live chickens, eels in a tank or mystery meat with the same DNA as a human etc. Progressive have come so far that they have run out of common sense and lost the common touch in pursuit of keeping an open mind.They have lost their way which includes sometimes their streets.

ETF : What's It Worth ?

My information about Exchange Traded Funds (ETF)is from Investopedia. It is the leading source of financial information on the web. My opinions on what ETF's represent in actual value to holders are my own. According to Investopedia ETF's track indices. That would include but not limited to Standard & Poors 500, NASDAQ Power Shares (QQQ), commodities such as gold, oil, materials etc.But because they only track the ETF's don't actually own. Conversely mutual funds own actual shares incorporated in their respective indices. Consequently mutual funds publish daily the net asset value (NAV) of the fund. Exchange traded funds do not publish NAV's. Because they don't own the shares.Every shareholder of ETF's effectively rely on arbitragers to keep the price of ETF's roughly in line with the theoretical underlying value of the stocks or commodities or bonds that make up the index.So the value of the ETF that trades from second to second is what the arbitragers say it is. Shareholders effectively take the word of some unknown person about the fair value of the ETF's at any given moment. Obviously what the price will be in the next moment is not guaranteed by the arbitrager. This reality leaves open the possibility of the tail wagging the dog. The arbitrager may engage in a bear or bull raid in the ETF which could impact actual prices of the real shares that are traded on the exchange.Let's fast forward to an unlikely but possible scenario. Suppose the market crashes. What does an ETF shareholder really own? Legally the shareholder owns a tracking index.Can one cash that in any where? If a mutual fund crashes the shareholders own the residual shares in the fund.Those are actual deeds to real companies.