East and South Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere

That prediction of your writer from a few years ago continues to develop before our eyes. Reading the news this mornings, I saw two examples of this evolution to a "Common Market" in East and South Asia.

FT: "China, Japan and other east Asian countries must have “serious” talks on currency co-operation to prevent a recurrence of violent fluctuations that have raised trade tensions in the region, said the president of the Asian Development Bank on Sunday. Haruhiko Kuroda said currency movements threatened the growth of trade between Asian countries, widely regarded as a key way of reducing the region’s reliance on exports to the US and Europe.

" “I think this is one area where east Asian countries are well advised to start a serious effort to co-operate,” Mr Kuroda said at the East Asia Summit between the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand."

By the way, don't be deluded by the headlines about the dollar vs. the Euro. The real story is the dollar vs. all those currencies in Asia (except China). Those nations for decades undervalued their currencies to sell more goods to the US. That policy is now collapsing as it eventually had to do. This is also putting pressure on China to let its currency rise, as its competitors in SE Asian are beginning to be hurt relatively.

WSJ: "CHA-AM, Thailand -- Japan and China laid out competing visions of how to create a European Union-style trade bloc in Asia at a regional summit here Sunday, with China pushing for stronger ties with its trading partners in Southeast Asia while Japan held open the door for the U.S. to play a role in a proposed East Asia regional trade group."

I'll be a bit facetious now - here's another of my favorite quotes: The Emperor – Return of the Jedi - “Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.” Hehehe.

Actions

I am doing nothing, but I'm thinking about where the next "screaming buy" (or sell) might be. My sales of various stocks and most of the call options to take sugar left me with lots of cash for new speculations. I'll just keep thinking ...

Book of the Week

"A Pragmatic Theory of Fallacy" by Douglas Walton [The University of Alabama Press: 1995] is a serious book crammed with excellent analysis and explanations of fallacies in rhetoric and argumentation. And it's very, very useful information for anyone who wants to truly understand all those types of dialogues that occur in our modern culture: critical discussions, quarrels, debates, negotiations, inquiries, and deliberations. People use techniques to advance their arguments that might be fair, or might be fallacies. Walton sorts though 25 "baptized" fallacies, explains and defines them and shows where they can be unfair or deceptive tactics, or might be legitimate.

If you've ever heard someone (or read it here) state that someone's adversary in an argument made the logical flaw or fallacy of "post hoc" [more completely, 'Post hoc ergo propter hoc'] or uses 'argumentum ad verecundium' without validity, and didn't know what he was talking (or writing) about, then this book is for you.

I just finished the book and enjoyed it immensely. I'm now sifting through it to prepare a synopsis of all the fallacies covered so I can be adept in recognizing them. I think this knowledge will help me understand public speeches and arguments on policy better. Of course, knowing the Latin names makes me 'appear' more erudite, too.

The book actually is perhaps best read after listening to a course from The Teaching Company [ www.teach12.com ] titled "Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning, 2nd Edition" by David Zarefsky, available now on sale for $49.95 on CDs.

Word of the Day

"Parapraxis" - noun [$100]; used in the comments last week by Sunboy.
Parapraxis means a slip of the tongue or pen, forgetfulness, misplacement of objects or other errors thought to reveal unconscious wishes or attitudes.
Sentence: When a politician says something not popular and later brushes it aside as an error or "slip of the tongue", the public would be well served by suspecting it was at least parapraxis, or at most a lie, and not mere inadvertent choice of words.