Most Chinese Cities Don’t Need And Can’t Afford The Subway Systems They’re Building: The Economist

Most Chinese Cities Don’t Need And Can’t Afford The Subway Systems They’re Building

The Economist | Apr. 29, 2013, 10:30 AM | 1,604 | 7

NOT many global cities of nearly 9m people lack an underground line, but until the end of last year the eastern city of Hangzhou was one of them. Now city slickers and rural migrants squeeze together inside shiny new carriages, checking their smartphones and reading free newspapers like commuters the world over. There is standing-room only in the rush hour and, with tickets at less than a dollar, the metro is revolutionising the way people travel across town. Two other Chinese cities—Suzhou and Kunming—have also opened their first underground lines in the past year, and the north-eastern city of Harbin is preparing to open one too. Four more cities have just added a new line to their existing systems. At least seven others have begun building their first lines.

If all the metros approved by central officials are built, 38 cities will have at least one line by the end of the decade, with more than 6,200km (3,850 miles) of track (London has nearly 400km.) As with many infrastructure projects in China, including the high-speed rail network above ground, questions abound about the wisdom and potential wastefulness of such ambitions. Many of the underground systems are needed, but some are being built in cities that are too small to justify the exorbitant expense. By some estimates the total bill could approach $1 trillion, not including the cost of operation. Zhao Jian of Beijing Jiaotong University reckons that metros in fewer than 20 of the 38 designated cities make sense. He says that perhaps ten of those could be replaced with cheaper light rail, which runs above ground. The minimum core urban population that can qualify a city for an underground system is 3m people, but even a place that big may find the operating costs crippling. Mr Zhao says the systems in Harbin and Kunming are unnecessary. Read more of this post

Hong Kong-based Richland Capital is shutting down its hedge funds despite outperforming peers, an unexpected move for a successful operator in an Asian industry which is struggling to raise assets

Hong Kong-based Richland to shut hedge funds in surprise move

Mon, Apr 29 2013

By Nishant Kumar

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong-based Richland Capital Management Ltd is shutting down its hedge funds despite outperforming peers, four sources said, an unexpected move for a successful operator in an Asian industry which is struggling to raise assets. Richland is one of Asia’s best-known hedge funds. It manages $100 million between two funds and advises on an additional $150 million for wealthy clients, according to a fund information document obtained by Reuters. The hedge fund, founded in 2006 by former HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) trader Alex Au with Eva Lo, who earlier worked at Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz), has made money for its main Richland Asia Absolute Return Fund each year since launch, including a 5.3 percent gain in 2008. An e-mail to Lo and Au remained unanswered. The sources, who have direct knowledge of the matter, declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak on the matter. It was not immediately clear why Richland was closing. Typically, hedge funds shut down in response to poor performance or clients withdrawing large amounts of money, but Richland has suffered from neither. “Today is the day when funds are winding down,” one of the sources said. Launched in December 2006 with $10 million, the Richland Asia Absolute Return Fund managed about $75 million in February this year, the fund document showed. The fund gained 14.1 percent in 2012 and was up about 6 percent in the first quarter of 2013, according to fund performance data seen by Reuters, outperforming a 10 percent gain in the benchmark Eurekahedge Asia index last year and 5.8 percent in the March quarter. The second fund, Richland Emerging Opportunities Fund, returned 13.1 percent last year and was up about 18 percent in the first quarter of 2013. So far, 23 hedge funds have shut down in Asia, compared with 18 launches, according to data from Eurekahedge. Last year, 169 hedge funds closed in Asia, exceeding 139 launches.

CEO Pay 1,795-to-1 Multiple of Wages Skirts U.S. Law

CEO Pay 1,795-to-1 Multiple of Wages Skirts U.S. Law

Former fashion jewelry saleswoman Rebecca Gonzales and former Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson have one thing in common: J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) no longer employs either. The similarity ends there. Johnson, 54, got a compensation package worth 1,795 times the average wage and benefits of a U.S. department store worker when he was hired in November 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gonzales’s hourly wage was $8.30 that year. Across the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of companies, the average multiple of CEO compensation to that of rank-and-file workers is 204, up 20 percent since 2009, the data show. The numbers are based on industry-specific estimates for worker compensation. Almost three years after Congress ordered public companies to reveal actual CEO-to-worker pay ratios under the Dodd-Frank law, the numbers remain unknown. As the Occupy Wall Street movement and 2012 election made income inequality a social flashpoint, mandatory disclosure of the ratios remained bottled up at the Securities and Exchange Commission, which hasn’t yet drawn up the rules to implement it. Some of America’s biggest companies are lobbying against the requirement.

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Why the China Dream Might Be a Mirage; Will the vested interests getting obscenely rich in Beijing let President Xi rewrite China’s model?

Why the China Dream Might Be a Mirage

If global economists are distraught over the gloomy numbers coming out of China, imagine how Xi Jinping must feel. China’s president, officially in the post for barely a month, is still consolidating his power. At home, he confronts a widening rich-poor gap and endemic pollution, not to mention bird flu and rivers overrun with dead pigs. Abroad, China’s erstwhile ally North Korea is looking increasingly unhinged. Now Xi faces intense pressure to retool the Chinese economy if he wants to build on gains the Communist Party has delivered over the last 30 years. Xi could be excused for feeling a tad bitter. He’s in this awkward position largely because of the failings of his predecessor, Hu Jintao. That may sound like an odd way to characterize Hu’s tenure. During his decade in office, China grew at rates of more than 10 percent, surpassed Japan to become the world’s No. 2 economy and matured into a key diplomatic actor. Hu and his premier, Wen Jiabao, should have used this time to wean the Chinese economy off its obsessive reliance on exports and investment. Yet too many well-placed figures were getting too rich. Modestly paid politicians mysteriously became multimillionaires. Local governments amassed mountains of debt for boondoggle projects. Hu and Wen presided over a robber-baron era that would have made Cornelius Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan blush.

By contrast, Xi has been saying all the right things about revamping the economy so that domestic demand, not sweatshop labor, drives growth. He talks about the need to attack chronic graft and to preserve the environment. He has made noises about increasing spending on research and development, and has promised to institute a more inclusive urbanization strategy. One of the most tantalizing questions in economics is whether Xi has the courage to oversee such an ambitious rewriting of China’s model. Yet the real question is this: Will the vested interests getting obscenely rich in Beijing let him? Read more of this post

Japan’s “Abenomics” detractors brace for “I told you so” moment

Japan’s “Abenomics” detractors brace for “I told you so” moment

Mon, Apr 29 2013

By Tomasz Janowski and Chikako Mogi

TOKYO (Reuters) – In the shadows of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s formidable PR machine, a small, tenacious group of “Abenomics” detractors is battling to be heard and waiting for their “I told you so” moment. Being a contrarian in a society that values consensus and conformity is hard enough, but it is even harder for academics, commentators and investors who are attacking Abe’s economic revival plan as misguided and potentially dangerous. The plan relies so much on changing attitudes formed during years of decline that critical voices are more than just part of the political debate. Criticism could undermine Abe’s efforts and there are many skeptics reluctant to openly challenge policies that are giving Japan long-forgotten optimism and hope.

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Goldman Sachs Jim O’Neill’s Farewell Letter

Jim O’Neill’s Farewell Letter

Tyler Durden on 04/29/2013 12:03 -0400

Over the years, Jim O’Neill, former Chairman of GSAM, rose to fame for pegging the BRIC acronym (no such luck for the guy who came up with the far more applicable and accurate PIIGS, or STUPIDS, monikers, but that’s neither here nor there). O’Neill was correct in suggesting, about a decade ago, that the rise of the middle class in these countries and their purchasing power would prove to be a major driving force in the world economy. O’Neill was wrong in his conclusion as to what the ultimate driver of said purchasing power would be: as it has become all too clear with the entire world drowning in debt (and recently China), it was simply debt, which moved from the funding developed world consumption to handing out credit cards to consumers in the developing world. O’Neill was horribly wrong after the Great Financial Crisis when he suggested that it would be the BRIC nation that would push the world out of depression. To the contrary, not only is the world not out of depression as the fourth consecutive year of deteriorating economic data confirms (long since disconnected with the actual capital markets), but it is the wanton money (and bad debt) creation by the central banks of the developed world (as every instance of easing by China has led to an immediate surge of inflation in the domestic market) that has so far allowed the day of reckoning, and waterfall debt liquidations, to take place (and certainly don’t look at the stock index performance of China, Brazil, India or Russia). Despite his errors, he has been a good chap having taken much of the abuse piled upon him here at Zero Hedge somewhat stoically, as well as a fervent ManU supporter, certainly at least somewhat of a redeeming quality. Attached please find his final, farewell letter as Chairman of the Goldman Asset Management division, as he moves on to less tentacular pastures.

From Jim O’Neill

The World.

For my last Viewpoint, I have chosen to focus on the world. Attached is the opening presentation I gave at the 2013 GSAM Growth Markets Summit last Thursday in New York. It was a brilliant event and I wanted to thank all our guests who joined us as speakers, panellists, and in particular our clients who attended. The main theme was the growth that has taken place in the evolving world and the challenges that go with it.