Chinese leader Xi Jinping is to unveil sweeping economic reforms at the Party's Third Plenum next month, with an assault on the state behemoths and the Party patronage machine (really?).

Yet he also wants to tighten the grip of the one-party, one-ideology, authoritarian state. Here's a good account from Wiang Xiangwei at the South China Morning Post.

The Development Research Center (DRC) in Beijing has published its road map of reform measures. It is being taken very seriously since it is written by none other than reformer Liu Wei and by President Xi's right-hand man on economic affairs, Liu He.

The problem is that these proposals skirt over/contradict the core finding of a joint DRC-World Bank report last year. It said China would not succeed in jumping to the next stage of economic development and would languish in the the "middle income trap" unless it embraces the whole package of modern free thinking. It did not quite say democracy, but that is what it meant.

Last week, Christine Jacobs, the CEO of Theragenics Corp., a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange that makes medical devices and is involved in cutting-edge cancer cures, wrote a letter to President Obama explaining why it was necessary to "begin moving our U.S. manufacturing to Costa Rica."

The power players in Washington still do not get that many businesses are being forced to flee America or just plain shut down because it is no longer profitable or too risky to continue to do business in the historical home of entrepreneurial capitalism.

Businesses operating in the United States, and even businesses outside of the country that have a small nexus with the U.S., are going to be hit with a slew of expensive job- and growth-destroying taxes and regulations beginning the first of the new year, even if the "fiscal cliff" is avoided.

The more government regulation grows, the more business in America dies.

When Ted Turner compared Fox News to Hitler this week, a Fox spokesman commented that “Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind - we wish him well.” It is time to feel such sympathy for other famous businessfolk who have similarly lost their minds - such as Warren Buffett.

The legendary investment guru has allowed his newly acquired left-wing politics to idiotize him. Just like Turner, he sets up an assumed liberal populism as an envy-deflection device, ends up hating America and the capitalist system that made him wealthy - and becomes a fool in the process.

To be clear: only a fool would bet long-range on the euro now.

Hi, everyone.  I'm Karma Singh, a longtime TTPer in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley.  I was with Jack Wheeler on his incredible Hidden China adventure last month, and we talked about what's going on in India, the world's second most populous country and China's rival for superpower status in Asia.

Our conversations got pretty interesting, so Jack suggested I write an India Report for TTP.  Here's my first effort.  Let's jump right in.

India's major drawback is the people administering the country. Plagued with monumental amounts of corruption, there are no words to describe these monstrous looters.   According to an article published back in 2010, unofficial estimates of black money obtained through government corruption is pegged around 1.4 Trillion US Dollars. 

The hope for India lies in the elections next spring.  For there is a man being hailed by the Indian press as India's "capitalist hero."  He is the amazingly successful governor of one of India's largest states, and he stands an excellent chance of being our next Prime Minister.  His name is Narendra Modi.