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Rubenstein's often uncanny ability to seize opportunity out of crisis, makes him one with the Chinese Symbol which signifies both. And the Carlyle Group, which has had its share of navigating the last global economic Tsunami and the turbulent waters which pervade both free-markets, and state run capitalist copies has reverted back to dead reckoning. Luckily, it seems to be working.
The other day an acquaintance asked me where I'd invest in emerging markets, specifically Rare Earth Elements. After considering this and all the nationalizing going on in South America, the challenges of Chinese Markets, and the hard to get to stuff that is a decade off to mine and build the infrastructure to transport it to markets, I'd say that is a hard play to guess. The prices fluctuate drastically and everyone else is playing those commodities like Enron traded energy.
In any case, sometimes you have to watch where the big money, the political money flows are going. I like to follow and study what the Carlyle Group is investing in, because they always have the insider view of the money flows. Not long ago, the Carlyle Group invested in Chinese fisheries. Why? Simple the Gulf Oil Spill from BP has shut down fishing there, and people aren't about to stop eating fish. Too, the ocean's fishing is no longer able to keep up with demand; we are running out of fish.
Right now the consumers are sketchy about buying fish at restaurants or in the grocery stores due to the BP Oil Spill, they don't know where the fish comes from, and are not willing to take that "consumer perceived risk" even if those fish have not come to market and most likely never will. Fishing is closed in the Gulf of Mexico, anywhere near the spill regions.
At the grocery store was Salmon on sale for a very decent price; Pacific Salmon the label said, but that bothered me, because, well, the Pacific Ocean is pretty large. It could be from Peru, Chile, Oregon, Washington, China, or any number of places. Well, you guest, on the back in smaller letters it said processed and packaged in Seattle or something to that effect, and below that in very small letters it said; "Product of China" which scared the ever-living-proverbial-crap out of me.
You see, I belong to an online style think tank and amongst other things we study ocean dead zones. China is full of them. There is one algae blooms that is 110 square miles, which the local fishermen call "the Fairway" or "the carpet" and they fish all around it. Off the coast of Shanghai and Beijing there are dead zones of 350 and 450 square miles and growing. Meaning nothing lives there, or nothing you'd want to eat anyway.
So, the Carlyle Group didn't invest in Peru Fisheries or Alaska Salmon, they invested in Chinese Fisheries. Okay fine, and maybe this is a good thing for American Consumers. If you will recall the Chinese where boosting "protein" feed for their fish in these fisheries, along with protein for other foods, pet food, etc, it was a terrible food safety problem. That plus the environmental issues, and I'd say; Don't Buy Anything from China.
Recently, the FDA has said it would be watching food products coming from China, but that isn't happening, we don't know anything about the reality of quality control there, that's flat scary. However, we do know there are major problems. With the Carlyle Group now involved they will wish to watch their investment and make sure that these Chinese Fisheries are operated safely, if not there could be the consumer backlash and boycott of the century.
Rubenstein is no idiot, he knows about all this, and he knows that the watch-dog consumer groups are watching out, and that his investments in these fisheries will go South very quickly if strict consumer safety is not put into place. If not there will be hell to pay, and more negative publicity for the group, something they don't need or want after this last fiasco. Word of advice to the Carlyle Group; Pay attention and don't let the Chinese Fisheries screw with the fish it send to America!
About this Author
Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net. Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.
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