Real Estate Malaysia - Valuation and Property Services Department – Ministry of Finance, Malaysia

A forum friend has mentioned about this website of Malaysia’s Valuation and Property Services Department – Ministry of Finance, Malaysia :
website
(in Malay, it is "Jabatan Penilaian dan Perkhidmatan Harta" (JPPH) )

I think it is a great resource to read about Malaysia’s Real Estate.

JPPH has 3 programmes:
1. Valuation and Property Services
2. National Institute of Valuation (INSPEN)
3. National Property Information Center (NAPIC)

Information by NAPIC is good for Malaysia Real Estate industry analysis.
Its quarterly Property Stock Report and Property Market Status Report are particularly useful.

Property Stock Report:
Inside the Property Stock Report, there is a summary of existing stock, future supply of residential property, commercial property, industrial property and leisure property in different states of Malaysia. Occupancy rates are also available. More detailed tables are also available for different types of property.

Property Market Status Report:
Inside the Property Market Status Report, there is a summary of new launches, property overhang, unsold not constructed property, unsold under construction property and commercial complexes vacancy. (Definition of what these include are in Technical Notes.)

Information on types, unit launched, sold and sales performance are available too. More detailed tables are available. It has details to the level of district, price ranges etc.., cool.

Group of Thirty (G30) – Financial Reform: a framework of financial stability

The Group of Thirty (G30) has published a report titled "Financial Reform: a framework of financial stability".
PDF file

This report may be an influential one. It may give a glimpse of what will happen in near future.

Take a look at who is inside current Group of Thirty (G30).
G30 list

Some important names of G30 members are in current US Obama "economic team":
Paul Volcker
Timothy F. Geithner
Larry Summers

Many central bankers, leaders in important organizations and financial companies are inside G30 too.

A summary of recommendations and its area. (Read the report for details)

Core Recommendation 1
Gaps and weaknesses in the coverage of prudential regulation and supervision must be eliminated.

1. Prudential Regulation and Supervision of Banking Organizations
2. Consolidated Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions
3. Money Market Mutual Funds and Supervision
4. Oversight of Private Pools of Capital
5. Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs)

Core Recommendation 2

The quality and effectiveness of prudential regulation and supervision must be improved.

6. Regulatory Structure
7. Role of the Central Bank
8. International Coordination

Core Recommendation 3
Institutional policies and standards must be strengthened, with particular emphasis on standards for governance, risk management, capital, and liquidity.

9. Regulatory Standards for Governance and Risk Management
10. Regulatory Capital Standards
11. Standards for Liquidity Risk Management
12. Fair Value Accounting

Core Recommendation 4

Financial markets and products must be made more transparent, with better aligned risk and prudential incentives. The infrastructure supporting such markets must be made much more robust and resistant to potential failures of even large financial institutions.

13. Restoring Confidence in Securitized Credit Markets
14. Rating Agency Reforms
15. The Oversight of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and Over-the-Counter (OTC) Markets
16. A Resolution Mechanism for Financial Institutions
17. Improving Transparency of Structured Product Markets
18. Sharing Market Activity and Valuation Information

Some organizations, standards mentioned in the report, may worth exploring:
1. Counterparty Risk Management Policy Group (CRMPG)
2. Institute of International Finance
3. Basel Committee Principles

The proposal to re-regulate global finance is indeed drastic and all-encompassing !

US Stimulus Package - Bush's TARP/EESA; Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill

For investors who wish to look at details of US Stimulus Package:

Bush’s Stimulus Package
Name: Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) under Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA)

Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) under Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, is passed and became Public Law No: 110-343 (H.R.1424 prior to enactment)

H.R. 1424 (from Library of Congress)
link

H.R. 1424 pdf file (from GPO)
PDF file

Public Law No: 110-343
PDF file

Obama’s Stimulus Package
Name: American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill
Summary of American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill (from Committee of Appropriations) – (as passed by the house on 28 Jan 09) (refer to Committee of Appropriations for updates)
PDF file

Full text
PDF file

Note:
If you like this post, you may be interested on my other posts on US and fiscal stimulus.
Feel free to check them out and comment.

Financial Modelers' Manifesto

Paul Wilmott and Emanuel Derman have come out with a Financial Modelers' Manifesto.
Financial Modelers' Manifesto document
This Financial Modelers' Manifesto is a great read, especially for investors who sometimes place too much confidence in using model to evaluate financial assets and predict financial outcomes.

Excerpt from the Manifesto:
[

The Modelers' Hippocratic Oath
~ I will remember that I didn't make the world, and it doesn't satisfy my equations.
~ Though I will use models boldly to estimate value, I will not be overly impressed by mathematics.
~ I will never sacrifice reality for elegance without explaining why I have done so.
~ Nor will I give the people who use my model false comfort about its accuracy. Instead, I will make explicit its assumptions and oversights.
~ I understand that my work may have enormous effects on society and the economy, many of them beyond my comprehension.

]

Before this Oath, there is a manifesto.
Among many things,
it talks about :
why CDO’s model went wrong; There is no right model; Examples of a good model (Black-Scholes model of options valuation); limitations of model.. etc..

Great read !