Culture has a lot to do with the actions of individuals and companies, and greed is a powerful force. But so is fear.  As I say, prison is the only thing that will stop white collar crime. Taking millions away from someone may hurt but not as much as taking their freedom.

EU is not immune to this type of behavior. Tyco just announced some accounting problems in Europe, and Ahold, a EU company, announced a major accounting scandal.

It is entirely possible that if Turkey turns it’s back on us now, we will turn our back on it later. The market is telegraphing an opinion that may or may not be right, but it surely acknowledges the possibility of the the US turning its back on Turkey and therefore doesn’t give it a very high probability.

China both full of opportunities and full of risks at the same time. I have a close friend (he’s an England expat) that has moved there from Los Angles to open a manufacturing company. He’s extremely excited about the opportunity as the market opens all kinds of investment. Their culture is very open to all business and although there are some very significant hurdles to doing business there, they aren’t insurmountable. And Yes, China is a WTO country and they received permanent most favored nation status from the US.