Brown Motion

What that tells is the story of the world's currencies.  In that they are being devalued.  Vietnam included.  Their currency is called the Dong. And it was dinged this week when their central bank decided to devalue it in order to remain cost competitive what with so many of their today's exports are priced in USD. Better to Ding the Dong early than suffer the consequence of the call centers being moved out of Hanoi to Harare or large MNC not producing their electronics in the country because their dong does not ring true anymore. China started the ball rolling when they realized that the housing bubble was about to burst and the equity assets class was not going anywhere.  So they devalued the Yuan. Which took the Rupee with it. You know what happened then. One by one other countries decide to do the same either through rate cuts or simply printing more currency.  So net net Ding Dong Bell and the Pussy is still in the well. No basket (of currenc...

I went to a bootcamp.  Outside of the daily work routine with its unknowns, it was a chance to expand the mental horizon and think big.  It was a two day training to learn about the payments industry evolution and understand the motivation of the various stakeholders from private to public entities to governments. More important to me than the actual curriculum was the intense dialog from the 30 odd participants that brought insight to any point of view presented with respect to markets.  Markets that accept different forms of payment tender to facilitate a transaction. The world we live in is full of transactions.  Whether buying a sweater online, or a burger or coffee at the local restaurant, a train ticket or plane ticket, or redeeming loyalty currency to get that free trip to the Bahamas.  Value is exchanged each time a buyer and seller come together. It is now commonplace to see various payment marks at the cash register when making a payment in ...