Protestors, dressed up as the four elements: fire, air, earth and water, take part in a demonstration during the meeting of the four key players in the WTO in the eastern German town of Potsdam.

Trade ministers and negotiators from four important trading blocs of the World Trade Organization at their recent meeting in Potsdam, Germany, failed to break the deadlock in the Doha development round.
On the face of it, there is nothing to distinguish the latest failure from the several previous ones. While details of the meeting are still unclear, it appears that both sides--the European Union and the United States on the one hand, and India and Brazil on the other--broadly stuck to their well known positions on agriculture, reported Hindu.com.
The developed countries would not countenance a substantial cut in subsidies and support the farming sector without the developing countries allowing greater market access for their products, both agricultural and manufactured.
That nothing has changed is clear from the statement of Commerce Minister Kamal Nath after the meeting. Blaming the US in particular, he said “the developed countries are looking at promoting and protecting the prosperity of their farmers, whereas in India we are talking about protecting the livelihood of our farmers.“
The view from the other side is naturally different. Both the US and the EU have accused India and Brazil of being inflexible. Public posturing by politicians and political appointees is perhaps inevitable in complex trade talks. Yet now, more than at any time in the past, hopes for a breakthrough seem to be fading fast.
While multilateral negotiations will continue at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, the likelihood of smaller groups of representative nations such as the G4--or the G6 that met in New Delhi in April--spearheading a consensus approach has all but disappeared.
There were inherent difficulties in such an approach anyway. No two countries, such as India and Brazil, can be expected to have identical views. The US and the EU have had major differences over farm support and subsidies. After the Hong Kong meet of the WTO in December 2005, it has been the small groups of influential trading nations that have kept the hopes of a breakthrough alive.
But each successive failure has lengthened the odds and made the official declarations after the meetings sound unreal. Even as recently as in April, the G6 countries seemed to think that a draft agreement by July, followed by a wrap-up of the Doha round by the end of this year, was achievable.
Considerably stretching the odds is the imminent expiry of the US President’s fast track authority to negotiate trade deals. The new US Congress is reportedly more protectionist.
Perhaps the only good news is that all member-countries are still publicly committed to negotiations for bringing the Doha round to a conclusion.

It was a rare moment, sitting among about 100 young reporters mainly from media in the Pearl River Delta, listening to a talk by Wang Shi, probably the largest property developer on the Chinese mainland, focusing on the “bursting“ of the economic bubble.
He did not give a time frame, but said, emphatically, that the present near frenzy in stock and property investment, is not sustainable, and will one day come to the point of explosion or find other ways to release internal pressure.
One does not usually encounter a leading entrepreneur expressing such views on macro-economics. But Wang is not alone.
According to Chinaview.cn, many economists have argued that China is in the middle of a great change that will lead to a very different way of development.
Even most stock traders would have to agree. They have, out of a sense of urgency, been rushing to invest in the market.
At the start of the year, almost 300,000 new trading accounts were being opened in a week. This has led to China’s total retail investors’ accounts to exceed 100 million.
Their time frame is also very short. It is only between now and the third quarter of 2008, when the Beijing Olympics closes. They know - as a Chinese saying goes, there is no party that lasts forever. They are grabbing whatever there is on the table at the moment.
They believe they have made the right decision, although their way of reasoning is totally against economic logic. They think central government officials cannot afford to lose face with a major stock market plunge when the Games are just around the corner.
Of course, no government deliberately tries to dampen investors’ enthusiasm. Investors got hurt seven years ago, but that was because the government was inexperienced in managing the capital market - and the market economy as a whole.
However, stock traders are mistaken in thinking that the government will manage the market primarily for political reasons - like how to look good during the Olympics. The government will not offer them simple protection, even less any pledge on financial returns.
The best thing is not to “talk down“ the stock market when it appears too bullish, and to “talk up“ the market next day when some investors have incurred heavy losses.
The government should avoid sending messages that may give investors the impression that there are officials checking their grudging blogs from time to time, and are sympathetic over their losses. This is not the way to run a benevolent government, much less a responsible one for the long-term interests of the public.
Now, when thinking people are talking about post-bubble scenarios while retail investors continue to harbor wishful thoughts of earning profit on whatever stocks they buy, economic policymakers will have come to an ultimate decision: Pamper the insatiable appetites of investors and keep the party going.
Or for the sake of China’s long-term health, take reasonable action to prick the small bubbles before they grow into large ones - and forget about the Olympics.

Pieces of property that lie within city limits regulated by specific city planning are directly and clearly impacted by local construction and public works laws.

Some of the important factors affecting real-estate values are people’s feelings, the financial and spiritual value accorded to physical property, and societal, economic, political and general financial situations.
According to Todayszaman.com, for every piece of property, there can be different factors at work on the value given it, and these factors can make themselves felt in distinct and different ways. It is difficult to systemize these factors, but there are some basic aspects that do in fact directly affect property values, and these are accepted by everyone. Below is a basic categorization of some of these factors:
It is widely accepted that certain legal standings and orders have an important effect on the use and the economic value of a piece of property. For example, a property’s status and purpose can be changed by a law allocating the property to public works and/or public service.
When a piece of property is being evaluated, it should be examined from the perspective of the property and construction laws and rules of the region in which it is found. Pieces of property that lie within city limits regulated by specific city planning are directly and clearly impacted by local construction and public works laws.
In terms of the laws and usage restrictions that apply to property lying within city borders, there are significant advantages and disadvantages of which property purchasers should be aware.
The general aims of the regional construction and development plans for the area in which the property is located are at the top of the list in terms of factors affecting the property’s value.
For this reason, it is vital to immediately identify which plan dictates the use and goals of the area in which the property lies. This includes identifying whether the property has been set aside for residential use, development or public use such as trade, industry, apartment buildings, road, city square, green area, park and/or parking lots.
It might also lie in an area set aside for official buildings like a school, hospital or mosque. Factors that define the property’s parcel front and structural code also need to be identified. This includes elements such as how many floors are allowed in a building built on the property, what the foundation size is allowed to be, what point a building built on the property can reach out to and what the property lines are.
In order to make these evaluations, documents need to be obtained from the municipality, which show the official plan for the particular parcel, the size of the surrounding gardens (if applicable), the building codes, etc.
Another vital factor affecting property value is whether or not there are any legal claims or limitations in place on the property. This can be identified by careful examination of the documents concerning the property’s deed.
Any cases of liens or claims on legal, deeded properties must be noted in the property’s deed papers; otherwise all proceedings that follow will not be legal.

The continuing frenzy of global M&A and debt and equity issuance shows no sign of abatingÑand investment banks are reaping the benefits.
As reported by Gfmag.com, records fell across the board in 2006 for worldwide debt and equity issuance, as well as mergers and acquisitions, and there are no signs yet that the investment banking boom has reached its peak.
Private equity firms are raising big new funds to invest in corporate buyouts, the financial services industry is continuing to consolidate, and high oil prices and an expanding global economy are spurring energy and power deals. And while interest rates are creeping up from record lows, there is plenty of global liquidity to keep the party going.
Citi’s gross investment banking revenues were a record $1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2007, reflecting record equity underwriting revenues, up 83 percent from the same period a year earlier, and record advisory and other fees, up 45 percent. Net investment banking revenues increased 31 percent to $1.6 billion in the first three months of this year.
Investment banking records were a dime a dozen in 2006, with a slew of mergers valued in the tens of billions of dollars each, record issuance of high-yield bonds to finance record leveraged buyouts, and record initial public offerings.
In the world’s largest IPO, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China raised $21.9 billion last October in a simultaneous offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which was the first time that feat has ever been accomplished.
Measured by IPO proceeds, the London Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange both surpassed the New York Stock Exchange for the first time ever in 2006, according to Thomson Financial.
Worldwide underwriting of debt, equity and equity-related securities increased for the fourth year in a row in 2006, reaching a record $7.6 trillion. Meanwhile, global announced M&A activity increased 38 percent in 2006 to a record $3.8 trillion. Private equity firms accounted for nearly 20 percent of global M&A volume.
Energy and power was the leading sector for worldwide M&A transactions announced in 2006, followed by financial institutions and media and entertainment. As Global Finance went to press, two competing bids for ABN AMRO--the higher offer approaching $100 billionÑwere the sixth and seventh largest deals on record globally and the biggest ever in the finance sector, according to Dealogic.
Global Finance’s editors, with input from industry analysts, corporate executives and banking consultants, used a series of criteria to identify the best investment banks in the world. They considered deals and offerings announced or completed in the last three quarters of 2006 or the first quarter of 2007.
Their selection criteria included market share, customer service and advice, deal-structuring capabilities, distribution network, and staff dedicated to investment banking. They also considered efforts to overcome difficult market conditions, innovation, competitive pricing and after-market performance of underwritten securities.
The banks that won were not necessarily the biggest, but rather the best, the ones that major corporations around the world should seriously consider when looking for an organization to handle their investment banking needs.