Arsene Lupin's  Instablog

In a thought provoking article (www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138219/r...), Ruchir Sharma argues that the BRICs (as in Brazil, India, China and Russia) are finished, since no miracle lasts forever. He further goes on to say that their replacement is Poland, Czech, Turkey and South Korea.

In that light, the following map of taxes in those countries (and others) is interesting.

(click to enlarge)

I'd love to see GM (Ticker: GM) turns things around and give Michigan a bit of relief from the decade of misery. But will this really work - wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/heres-how-gm.../?

As Driver Zhao's guide shows, GM has let its Buick brand degrade from aspirational to ordinary. Buick had a chance to be what the Audi A6 has now become. Below is the status guide in its entirety

Toyota sedan - Driven by putongren. Ordinary people. Not so ordinary that they have to use public transport or ride a bicycle, mind you.

Mercedes SUV - Driver Zhao presumes someone who drives one of these ubiquitous (and always black) vehicles is a laoban. The word means "boss," but in this case laoban can mean anyone who recently come into cash and wants to show it off.

Buick GL8 minivan - Wildly popular in China (though discontinued in North America), these vans aren't for soccer moms. To Driver Zhao, someone driving a Buick GL8 is a " xiao laoban," or little boss. Someone who can't yet afford the Mercedes. Just as often, the driver is a professional and the passengers are Western expatriate families with kids.

Audi A6 - Weibo had it bang on, it's the automobile of choice for the Chinese bureaucrat. Seeing an Audi A6 in traffic means you're idling beside part of the country's power structure. As The New York Times put it , the A6's "slick frame and invariably tinted windows exude an aura of state privilege, authority and, to many ordinary citizens, a whiff of corruption." (The Beijing government says there are 62,000 official cars in the city, a figure that seems far too low. The state-run CCTV television station reported last year that the real figure is closer to 700,000.)

Humvees or Ferraris - Driver Zhao says the only people arrogant enough to drive one of these on Beijing's streets are the well-off children of top government officials. As evidence of that, I once saw a bright yellow Humvee rip the wrong way through traffic in Beijing's busy Sanlitun bar district, before proceeding to drive through a red light without so much as tapping the brakes. At least three policemen witnessed the same scene, but seemed to conclude from the driver's brazen behaviour that he was too powerful to be stopped.

Got to admire there willingness to go 'all in'

(click to enlarge)