Don’t Believe Everything You Read on the “Internets”
November 20th, 2007Came across this jewel on an investment site:
I’m also partial to the iShares Taiwan Index Fund (EWT). After all, the Republic of China known as Taiwan has the stability of a long-standing, nimble Democracy for 50+ years. And still, it scores emerging market-like growth, particularly in the tech space.
Um, impressive economic growth yes, 50+ years of democracy no. Taiwan was a Leninist state until recently. They were “our” Leninists unlike the mainland communists, but they were Leninists nonetheless. The government controlled the press, suppressed dissent and didn’t have free elections. Martial law was in force from 1948-1987. The first opposition candidate elected president came into office in 2000.
Taiwan does now have a vibrant democracy (with occasional slugfests in the legislative yuan), and they have some great companies that should benefit from continued growth in China and the tech sector globally. But the prospects of those firms have nothing to do with 50+ years of democracy in Taiwan.
On a different site, I found someone bullish (like me) on Giant Interactive (GA) because, inter alia:
Giant Interactive raked in the largest amount of money of any IPO this year (over $86 million)
That’s the kind of typo I’m prone to. Actually, they raised about USD 800 million in their IPO. The official report is here. The typo aside, I agree with much of the commentator’s analysis, though after-hours trading in GA (post earnings release) is making both of us look bad right now.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Can we believe the things sell on internet >?