This truncated brief blog is about ethics.

The deal being worked out over eastern Ukraine sounds like the 1937 Munich capitulation and unlike the British rush to defend Polish borders 75 years ago in Sept. 1939—right down to the presence of a supposed outsider in the deal (Hitler in 1937; Putin in 2014.)

Gazprom got lucky. First the EU wrote a letter to Putin asking him not to cut gas supplies running through Ukraine after Kiev turned down OGZPY demand to be paid $3.5 bn for gas in advance. That was good for Russian morale.

Mr Diamond and partners have created a new fund to invest in Africa, Atlas Mara. It raised $325 mn from investors and just announced its first deal, to buy Botswana's BancABC, with a third of its business in Zimbabwe.

The average ADR score is 43.85, below the four week moving average score of 49.28 and the lowest score since last summer (see chart). The average ADR is trading 22% below its 52 week high, -2.2% below its 200 dma, has 3.68 days to cover short, and is expected to post EPS growth of 20% next year.

The best scoring ADRs from one year ago (1/28/2013) returned 22.78% this past year, 13.61% more than the MSCI EAFE, with 0% turnover. The top performers have been HIMX up 389%, MPEL up 90%, GA up 89%, and TRIB up 66%.