With markets continuing to swoon, the next shoe to drop is likely to be hedge funds. That means tough times for hedge-fund filled Greenwich, Conn. (As Nick Paumgarten wrote in the New Yorker magazine recently, “If New York City is the heart of the marketplace, Greenwich is the liver, where toxins are processed and rich bits collect.”)

Greenwich collected so many rich bits in recent years that its small population of about 60,000 contributed nearly $600 million in state income taxes in 2006. In other words, Greenwich pays 13% of all state income taxes in Connecticut with only 1.8% of the population. Read more »

Background:

Hyperkalaemic paralysis due to renal failure is a rare but potentially life threatening event. Case presentationWe present a 61 yr old Caucasian male who had sudden onset ascending flaccid paralysis. The EMS first diagnosis was acute ST- elevation myocardial infarction based on an EKG. In the emergency room (ER) due to careful history taking, serum electrolytes and repeat EKG a correct diagnosis was made and both hyperkalemia and paralysis were treated on time.

Conclusion:

Hyperkalaemic paralysis is rare one must keep it in the back of the mind especially in the case of renal failure patients to avoid misdiagnosing a rapidly fatal but yet completely reversible condition.

Efficient human resources development is vital for facilitating tuberculosis control in developing countries, and appropriate training of front-line staff is an important component of this process. Africa and Central Asia are over-represented in global tuberculosis statistics. Although the African region contributes only about 11% of the world population, it accounts for at least 25% of annual TB notifications, a proportion that continues to increase due to poor case management and the adverse impact of HIV/AIDS.

Central Asia’s estimated current average tuberculosis prevalence rate of 240/100 000 is significantly higher than the global average of 217/100 000. With increased resources currently becoming available for countries in Africa and Central Asia to improve tuberculosis control, it is important to highlight context-specific training benchmarks, and propose how human resources deficiencies may be addressed, in part, through efficient (re)training of frontline tuberculosis workers.

Training of front-line health workers for tuberculosis control: lessons from Nigeria and Kyrgyzstan

That article compares the quality, quantity and distribution of tuberculosis physicians, laboratory staff, community health workers and nurses in Nigeria and Kyrgyzstan, and highlights implications for (re)training tuberculosis workers in developing countries.

There has been plenty of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China over the years, and it is continuing strongly (with the help of the RMB) despite lots of laws, regulations and rising costs, many of which have been reported on this blog.

The last time we mentioned big FDI, it was in relation to China’s new anti-trust (anti-monopoly) law , now it is the turn of Coke to shake things up – with their US$2.4 billion bid for Huiyuan Juice Group. MarketWatch reports:

“The deal would value the firm at about three times its market value, and would mark the U.S. beverage maker’s largest acquisition in China by value to date. …The Chinse firm is reportedly the country’s largest maker of pure fruit juice. Coca-Cola said three of the Huiyuan’s biggest shareholders have given “irrevocable undertakings” in support of the deal.”

Read more »

France 24 asks if the Beijing Olympics will have any longlasting environmental legacy. The answer may have come earlier than expected: the smog has come back to envelop Beijing almost as soon as the restrictions on drivers and factories were lifted.

Looks like our earlier warning to not eat or drink anything with dairy content for the time being bears repeating. Singapore has now found traces of melamine in White Rabbit candies, wildly popular throughout Asia. The Straits Times reports:

Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said samples of White Rabbit-brand Creamy Candy imported from China were contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.

Authorities on Friday suspended the sale and import of all Chinese milk and dairy products after finding melamine in samples of a Yili-brand yogurt bar and Dutch Lady-brand strawberry milk manufactured in China. The ban includes milk, ice cream, yogurt, chocolate, biscuits and candy, as well as any other products containing milk from China as an ingredient.

‘Retailers and importers have been instructed to recall these products and withhold them from sale,’ the AVA said in a statement.

‘Consumers who have bought the affected products are advised not to consume them.’ This would be the second time in the short history of this blog that the quality of White Rabbit candies has been called into question. In July 2007, we reported that traces of the cancer-causing agent formaldehyde were found in the candies which are produced in Shanghai by the Guan Sheng Yuan Group.

Meanwhile, the melamine scandal continues to widen around the region:

• Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety has found traces of melamine in Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk. And in the first reported case outside of the mainland, a three-and-a-half-year-old Hong Kong toddler has been diagnosed with kidney stones after being fed with Yili milk daily for the past 15 months.
• Public health officials in Taiwan have announced their findings of melamine-tainted instant coffee, milk tea and chicken-and-corn soup. The import of all such products into Taiwan has been banned with immediate effect, including instant coffee made by the popular Taiwan brand Mr Brown in China.
• In Japan, Marudai Food Co. issued a voluntary recall of five China-made products, saying they may contain the toxin melamine
• China ally Myanmar has announced it would “seize and destroy imported Chinese baby formula to safeguard against poisoning by the toxic chemical melamine”.
• Brunei has ordered a blanket ban on all China-made milk products and dairy items.
• Malaysia has imposed a “level six import ban” on all Chinese dairy products.
• Bangladesh has also started on a crackdown and ban on three brands of Chinese-made milk powder.
• In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon were the first to impose bans on Chinese dairy products and Burundi has just joined them in the ban.

Photo from serenitynow78.

Adding to the list of Chinese social networking service providers like Xiaonei and Tencent, kaixin001.com (开心网) has confirmed to have secured USD4-5million in venture capital today from Northern Light Venture Capital headed by Feng Deng, one of the top 10 Chinese venture capitalists in 2007. Launched in April this year, the SNS that is still a private beta already boasts over 20 million active users. Rick Martin (@pandapassport) reports on CNET that the Chinese Facebook clone includes features such as a photo uploading, blogging & micro-blogging platform, music sharing and 1GB online storage space.

Tangos Chan of cwrblog.net comments that the popularity of Kaixin001 is attributed to the Parking Wars and Friends for Sale games hosted on the platform.

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir, because I’m not myself you see.”
~ Alice, from Alice in Wonderland

According to the South China Morning Post (subscription required), the Chinese government has taken to censoring the financial media in effort to stem the floodgates of discontent brewing over dismal market sentiment.

With the craziness of the financial meltdown in the United States, the Shanghai Stock Exchange has followed the rest of the world down the rabbit hole. Within 10 minutes of the opening of the SSE on Tuesday morning, right after the declared bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the SSE Composite fell by almost 5% but slowly steeled itself back around the 2000 mark.

The idea of the SSE breaking the 2000 barrier might have seemed impossible this time last year but the stock market has been free-falling, losing more than half its value since January. Frustrations have been mounting despite varied efforts by the regulators to stem the volatility (loan controls, bank reserve rates, administrative fiats, etc). Calls for government intervention have grown louder as fund managers, academics and regulators debate the efficacy and timeliness of a Chinese-styled bailout. The US Federal Reserve’s recent rescue package for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and now insurance AIG have only raised the volume of why-them-not-us, whens and hows among Chinese investors.

SCMP reports that perennial fears of social disunity have led the Communist Party’s Publicity Department (rather than the securities regulator) to verbally inform major financial websites to sift out negative and sensitive commentaries, reports and headlines about the hard-hit markets. There is no paper trail backing up such claims, but editors of online financial media have confirmed them.

Sound familiar? Regulators had warned fund managers not to say anything publicly that could harm the stability of the market weeks before the Summer Olympics. The gag worked only because international financial markets were quiet since half the world was actually in Beijing at the Olympics.

While we do not underestimate the power of censor, it may not work as well this time round. For one, the market doom and gloom is palpable as Asian economies, many of which have tight trade links with China, are tumbling faster than Jack and Jill. China’s capital markets may not be completely open, but some of the problems it has suffered thus far are of its own doing as well. Couple that with twitchy and inexperienced dealers currently panic-selling and a significant portion of Chinese investors who lack proper financial education, a shiny gold-plated band aid is surely not enough to address the roots of the problem.