As Beijing air pollution worsens, some American expats clear out; “I want them to leave before they hate this place”

As Beijing air pollution worsens, some American expats clear out

MARK RALSTON, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

“I want them to leave before they hate this place,” one American executive said of his family’s decision to leave pollution-choked Beijing.

BY DON LEE,Los Angeles Times

June 21, 2013, 9:19 a.m.

BEIJING — After nearly two decades in Beijing, David Wolf knew it was time for a change when his 11-year-old son, Aaron, somberly asked him, “Dad, when you were growing up, did you ever have PE outdoors?”

Wolf had grown up in smog-choked Los Angeles in the 1970s, but even that wasn’t nearly as bad as Beijing today. His son, like many young students in the city, has been kept inside for months, with the luckier children getting the chance to exercise under huge air-filtered domes that their international schools have built. Read more of this post

IKEA’s planned entry into Korea in 2014 is feared to deal a decisive blow to already-struggling furniture makers

2013-06-23 14:59

IKEA faces hurdle in opening store in Korea

Lee Hyo-sik

IKEA’s planned entry into Korea in 2014 is feared to deal a decisive blow to already-struggling furniture makers here. Since December 2011 when the Swedish home furnishing giant announced its plan to establish a presence in the country, it has drawn protests from concerned local furniture firms. Read more of this post

North Korea anxiety sparks South Korean global property binge

North Korea anxiety sparks South Korean global property binge

LONDON – A jump in tensions with North Korea has fed a tenfold surge in overseas commercial property spending by investors south of one of the world’s most heavily armed borders, making South Korea the largest property investor so far in 2013.

23 MIN 4 SEC AGO

LONDON – A jump in tensions with North Korea has fed a tenfold surge in overseas commercial property spending by investors south of one of the world’s most heavily armed borders, making South Korea the largest property investor so far in 2013.

South Korean investors bought about US$5 billion (S$6.4 billion) in the first five months, a huge increase on the first half of 2012, real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle said. Read more of this post

The vacancy rate in office buildings in major business districts in Seoul has reached a five-year high due to a toxic cocktail of an oversupply and a prolonged property market slump

2013-06-24 18:05

Landmark buildings stand empty

Office vacancy rate at highest level since 2008 crisis
By Yi Whan-woo
The vacancy rate in office buildings in major business districts in Seoul has reached a five-year high due to a toxic cocktail of an oversupply and a prolonged property market slump. Read more of this post

Public companies are taking advantage of record U.S. equity prices to sell the most stock in 17 years, even as initial offerings slow

Stock Sales Climbing to $78 Billion Highest Since 1996

Public companies are taking advantage of record U.S. equity prices to sell the most stock in 17 years, even as initial offerings slow.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Dollar General Corp. and HCA Holdings Inc. are among U.S. corporations that offered $78 billion in shares during 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They’ve completed 334 secondary offerings, the most since 1996. IPOs are down 31 percent to $19.9 billion, the lowest since 2010, the data show. Read more of this post

Eurobonds as Refugees From Tax Men Turn 50 in $4 Trillion Market

Eurobonds as Refugees From Tax Men Turn 50 in $4 Trillion Market

Half a century ago, a London bond deal for an Italian highway operator, denominated in U.S. dollars and arranged by a U.K. bank founded by a Jew fleeing Germany spawned a $4 trillion-a-year global market.

Autostrade SpA, the manager of Italy’s freeway network, borrowed $15 million on July 1, 1963, through a new kind of international debt security, dubbed a Eurobond. Financiers led by Siegmund Warburg, founder of S.G. Warburg & Co., created the debenture so its interest payments were untaxed and in so doing gained access to pools of stagnant American dollars in Europe. Read more of this post

BIS: ‘Window-Dressing’ Undermines Bank Risk-Weight Trust; Global banks have improved their capital ratios in part by understating the riskiness of their assets, not by raising their ability to stem losses

‘Window-Dressing’ Undermines Bank Risk-Weight Trust: BIS

Global banks have improved their capital ratios in part by understating the riskiness of their assets, not by raising their ability to stem losses, the Bank for International Settlements said.

Regulators need to monitor the use of internal risk models in determining the capital lenders hold against losses and complement them with gauges that don’t use risk weightings, the BIS said in its annual report released today. The BIS, based in Basel, Switzerland and owned by 60 central banks, hosts the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a group of regulators and central bankers that sets global capital standards. Read more of this post

Million Indian Engineers Struggling to Find a Job

Million Engineers Struggling to Find a Job

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 12:43 PM PDT

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

It’s tough to find a job everywhere: in the US, in China, in Europe, and in India. Think education is the answer? I don’t. Economic Times reports a million engineers in India struggling to get placed in an extremely challenging market

Somewhere between a fifth to a third of the million students graduating out of India’s engineering colleges run the risk of being unemployed. Others will take jobs well below their technical qualifications in a market where there are few jobs for India’s overflowing technical talent pool. Beset by a flood of institutes (offering a varying degree of education) and a shrinking market for their skills, India’s engineers are struggling to subsist in an extremely challenging market. According to multiple estimates, India trains around 1.5 million engineers, which is more than the US and China combined. However, two key industries hiring these engineers — information technology and manufacturing — are actually hiring fewer people than before. Read more of this post