From Chris Hynes China trip

My summer trip to China was summed up in a Tibetan monastery, as I saw the past Buddha, the present Buddha, and the future Buddha. I saw the ancient capital of Xian, with its terra cotta soldiers as monuments to man's bellicose nature. I saw the present capital of Beijing, with its Forbidden City, wide avenues, and Olympic Stadia, and I saw what perhaps may be the world capital of the future, Shanghai, with its brazen architecture, impossibly tall structures, and ttraffic that even New York can't match. If I were 20, the age at which I first saw New York and decided to move to the capital of the universe as soon as possible, I might make the same decision again in favor of Shanghai. New York replaced London as the financial capital as England became a debtor nation, dancing to America's tune, over the course of WW I. But who is the debtor, and who is the creditor now? Here's a link to an article on the subject of New York's pre-eminence in finance: http://finance.yahoo.com/techticker/article/286606/Wall-St.-in-Danger-of-Losing-Its-Crown-as-King-of-Finance. One of the fellows on our trip is a venture capitalist who was a former securities lawyer. He had come to China in 1986, and there were basically no tall buildings yet in Shanghai (now they build very tall ones in less than a year!). He was part of a group of lawyers advisng the Chinese on the creation of securities markets, how they would be structured and regulated, etc. It dawned on me that in 1994 I had made a speech on trading innovations in Milan to the FIBV, an international federation of stock exchanges. I was amazed to see representatives of about 35 Chinese stock exchanges. They all had high levels of automation and electronic audit trails, we we were still struggling with the occasional crooked floor broker or specialist. All that had happened in only 8 years. Today Shanghai claims to be the 6th largest exchange in the world. While in China it seemed that China was liberalizing investment rules that might bring more business to Shanghai. And the China Daily has reported that according to Bloomberg, China's equity market capitalization has again passed Japan as the world's second largest at $3.2 trillion. (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-07/20/content_8447558.htm)

MI Developments(MID) working with Forest City at Gulfstream

Frank Stronach has caused some frustration with the inability to maximize vallue in MID- presented by a Dallas presenter at one of our forums on JUne 11 in Dallas. A recent conversation with partner Forest City on the Gulfstream project in Florida mentions that Stronach is well aware of his shortcomings in working with developers for successfully monetizing properties. This property appears to be unique and Forest City is very intrigued by progress and future of the property.

Notes From Roulston Energy Expert

This week's ESAI publication of its Weekly Oilfund Watch talks about a more bullish outlook. Both renewed optimism in the financial markets and less bearish fundamentals should translate into rising prices.

Westchester Mall visit

Mall tours tell us a great deal. Historically the Westchester Mall is somewhat insulated from economic slowdown. This weekend the mall had store fronts that were dark where Simon made no effort to even board up stores or two restaurants in the food court that were dark as well. Usually appearance is imperative to satisfy customer loyalty and the appearance of orderly operations. Lease deals are being negotiated at straight sales percentages to maintain some tenants. Renegotiations are now not just common its everywhere. We are doing a real estate event in New York on July 27. Should be great expert discussion.

Unemployment

In the last week we have talked to numerous companies that are furloughing employees, asking for 4 day work weeks, taking unpaid leaves of absence and generally doing the same "keep a job until business picks up practice".Visiting California its the same strategy the state is doing as well as other states to put of the inevitable job cuts and permanent layoffs. If we are in an "L" curve economic slowdown we are building an inventory of unemployment. If order rates don't return by the fall, if tax revenue doesn't show some sort of miraculous recovery and if there is not some actual stimulus to the economy we will see continued job loss. The recent Tatum survey supports that after a slow small improvement this spring businesses are now seeing slowing improvement if any. The market is saying it understands.

Health Care update from San Francisco

Our panel of experts talked re WAG vs. CVS and is WAG ever going to get into the pharmacy business and not just be a retailer.CVS has integrated the CareMark acquisition very well and acording to former chief clinical officer despite street concerns they are on track with assimilation and now ell positioned versus competion in PBM market and versus WAG and Rite Aid.

Our San Francisco presenter maintains his buy recommendation for Hillenbrand (NYSE: HI). This casket manufacturer has just received a favorable court ruling, when a petition by the Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) to appeal a federal district court order in its antitrust lawsuit against Hillenbrand was denied.