C&B Notes

One of our favorite and most informative sources of information are the charts delivered by The Daily Shot; we would recommend it to you. This chart caught our eye – Gavekal Research shows a strong positive relationship between commodity price…

Thankfully and mercifully, daily life in Venezuela is evolving.  We did not expect this level of relief without a leadership transition, but the Maduro administration has quietly allowed free market reforms to take shape.  The country is now essentially dollarized,…

Most of the discussion we have heard about digital currencies is around their use as a replacement or alternative to a sovereign fiat currency.  China is exploring ways and investing in methods to integrate digitized currency into its existing, centrally-controlled…

We have visited hundreds, if not thousands, of “mom and pop” stores throughout Latin America, as they account for a large portion of retail sales in the region.  Kiranas, which are akin to Latin American bodegas, are of similar —…

In our most recent partner letter, we identified the importance of pension and tax reforms to unlock economic growth in Brazil.  Lawmakers successfully passed some long-awaited long-term fixes to the country’s social security equivalent earlier this month.  Tax reform is…

On our recent trip to South America, we were struck by the growth in delivery sales for large QSR brands like McDonald’s and Burger King.  We are interested in whether delivery’s impact on the global restaurant industry will be enduring…

Borrowing short and lending long are typically ingredients for a financial disaster.  India’s shadow banking system, which gets its name because participants are more lightly regulated, is creating problems in the country’s formal banking sector.  The tone of this piece…

It remains to be seen if this week’s resounding win by AKP’s opposition in Istanbul’s mayoral election is the beginning of a reversal of President Erdogan’s quasi-autocracy in which party, legislature, judiciary, and the media have become subordinate to the…

This month, Enrico spent a week in Nigeria researching businesses and experienced first-hand the power generation challenges the country faces.  Even on Victoria Island, the nicest neighborhood in Lagos, brownouts and blackouts occur daily.  Fixing this problem is a key…

During his reelection campaign, Narendra Modi struck a nationalist tone.  His economic policy of privatizing India’s state-owned enterprises and industries has not aligned with this rhetoric, as the country has increasingly allowed business to function in growing free markets. Among…

Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power and nominal campaign against corruption continues to change the rules in China, with a recent high-profile example occurring in the Chinese film industry.  The country’s most famous actress, Fan Bingbing, disappeared for six months as…

India’s 900 million (!) registered voters started going to the polls earlier this month with voting taking place from April 11th to May 19th.  The key issues in the election are similar to those in the West — the economy,…