ASIA THE NEW US - ROGERS - Jim Rogers co-founded the Quantum Hedge Fund with George Sorros in 1970 and watched its value appreciate by 4,200% in a decade. At 37 he was able to retire and travel around the world on his motorcycle - his adventures were recorded in a bestseller. Known as one of the shrewdest investors in the world, Mr Rogers is in Dublin for a speaking engagement organised by Merrion Capital.
Jim Rogers says he will be telling the clients of Merrion Capital today that the world has changed dramatically and that Asia is the wave of the future, with China destined to be the 'great' country of the 21st century in the same way as the UK was in the 19th century and the US in the 20th century. He says that he will say the US dollar is doomed and they should be making plans to avoid or get out of it as much as they can. He says the only bull market he knows of at the moment is commodities and predicts that recent rises in the prices of oil and wheat is only the beginning.
Mr Rogers is now living in Singapore and says that he is not only saying that Asia is the wave of the future, he is acting on it. He says that to this end, his four-year-old daughter is now fluent in Chinese, after being taught by her Chinese nanny. 'The best skill that I can give someone born in 2003 is to be able to be fluent in Mandarin and in things Chinese,' he states.
On commodities, he says that prices are going to go through the roof. Mr Rogers says that he would urge investors who buy things that grow to buy twice has much as they had planned and to start stockpiling.
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BEDMINSTER SIGNS NEW WASTE TECHNOLOGY DEAL - Entrepreneur Bill McCabe's Bedminster is one of a number of companies looking to make millions, if not billions, from the new green agenda - what to do with landfill, and how to create green energy. Bedminster extracts biodegradable waste destined to rot in landfill to turn into either energy or compost. It has operations in the US and this morning tells us it has signed a deal worth €50m with a company called American Combustion Technologies for the global rights to a thermal technology which turns biodegradable waste into gas for the energy sector.
Bedminster's CEO Pearse O'Kane says that the company has an established 'mechanical biological treatment' technology, which has been extracting biodegradable waste from various waste streams for the past 30 years. He says the company is bringing this technology together with ACTI's pyrolysis technology, which can take this biodegradable waste and convert it into a gas for making renewable energy.
Bedminster currently carries out its activities in the US, but Mr O'Kane says the company is working on a project in Ireland, and also in the UK.
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MORNING BRIEFS - World oil prices rose to near $100 a barrel in Asian trade on Monday, as Turkey's offensive in northern Iraq and reports Iran would back an OPEC output cut sparked fresh worries, dealers said. A short while ago, New York crude was trading at $99.56 a barrel, up 75 cent since Friday's close.
*** The sale of Fair Trade goods rose 81% in 2007 to reach £493m sterling according to figures from the Fair Trade Foundation released today. Bananas accounted for more sales than any other Fair Trade item, at £150m, while Fairtrade cotton sales saw the biggest rise, up 660% to nearly £35m.
*** On the currency markets today, the euro is worth $1.4826 and 75.4 pence sterling.
