They say, dear readers, that the financial press has a bad habit of focusing on negative events. “They” who? We couldn’t tell you. But we vehemently disagree. It’s all about how you look at things.
For instance, it seems that Chinese trust firms have sidestepped a regulatory crackdown on risky real estate projects and have shifted those funds instead to risky financing, such as asset-backed securities like those that helped trigger the 2008 financial crisis. Cause for concern? No, sir! Cause for celebration, more like. Such artisanal bookkeeping is the very soul of entrepreneurship, and evidences a hearty and hale financial system.
Or take a look at Geely Auto, where profits fell 46% last year and the ruble’s depreciation hit like a sledgehammer unto the proverbial kneecap. Time to sell? No, time to buy, dear readers. Sales were brisk these last two months, so never you mind any apparent drops in total revenue or the occasional unexplained absences of any Russian strongmen leaders threatening to drive the ruble even lower.
Of course it’s not always the negative that’s positive. On some rare occasions the positive is negative, as when we found out this week that China had become the third-largest exporter of weapons in the world. Impressive uptick, you might suggest? Alas, dear readers, we fear not. China’s ability to create and distribute arms across still pales in comparison to the mercantile might of silver medal winner Russia and the undisputed champ, the US.
But if that’s got you down, just look to American Internet firm Yahoo for a ready-made lesson for any negative Nancys out there. Sure, the company closed its Beijing research center a mere six years after opening its doors, and yes that means 350 employees will soon be out of a job. But we’d hazard a guess they won’t be unemployed for long, as mainland firms began circling Yahoo as soon as they smelled blood in the water.
And there’s still plenty of bad news out there to cheer you up! Cnooc job cuts, new housing prices’ ongoing slide, Li Ning’s incredible loss of $126.3 million last year, even a looming collapse for the China-dependent potash industry. Yes, we’d say things are really looking up–by necessity, we suppose, having fallen so low.