What would a world without banks look like? Converts to peer-to-peer websites such as Zopa and RateSetter believe we’re already there; Risk and reward in the p2p revolution

July 26, 2013 6:01 pm

Risk and reward in the p2p revolution

By Elaine Moore

What would a world without banks look like? Converts to peer-to-peer websites such as Zopa and RateSetter believe we’re already there – and it’s a utopia of 5 per cent returns, affordable loans to trustworthy borrowers and no hard selling of extra products. The UK government, Google and hard-nosed former Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack appear convinced, putting money behind the sector, and high street bank Santander is now considering a partnership with a peer-to-peer lender. But with interest rates almost double the equivalent offered by banks, what exactly are investors accepting in exchange for a lift in returns? Read more of this post

Why China pays too much for medicines

Why China pays too much for medicines

Fri, Jul 26 2013

By Ben Hirschler, Ransdell Pierson and Kazunori Takada

(Reuters) – China has a drug problem. While most Western countries spend 10-12 percent of their healthcare budget on medicines, in China it is well over 40 percent, a disparity that goes to the heart of Beijing’s crackdown on the industry. A promise this week by GlaxoSmithKline to make its drugs more affordable in China in the wake of a bribery scandal is an important lever Chinese authorities may now use to start redressing the balance. Britain’s biggest drugmaker has given no details on the size of the price cuts it will consider, but an examination of its discounts in other emerging markets suggests there may be scope for reductions for some medicines of a third or more. Other pharmaceutical firms might have to follow suit. Read more of this post

Online Start-Up LearnVest Aims to Bring Financial Planning to the Masses; “Financial advice shouldn’t be a luxury. We want to disrupt the industry.”

July 26, 2013

A Start-Up Aims to Bring Financial Planning to the Masses

By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD

It’s an unfortunate fact: the people who are most in need of honest financial advice often cannot afford it, or they don’t realize that their so-called adviser isn’t an adviser at all, but a salesman. If Alexa von Tobel has her way, however, financial advice will be as widely available — and affordable — as any other mass-produced consumer product or service. Think gym memberships. It will become the perfect wedding gift for your best friend, or for adult children after they have their first baby. As the founder of LearnVest, an online financial advisory that she started four years ago, Ms. von Tobel, 29, repeats these themes several times over the course of a recent meeting to underscore what she has set out to do: deliver comprehensive and conflict-free financial advice to the middle class. “Financial advice shouldn’t be a luxury,” said Ms. von Tobel, a petite blonde with a big personality, in the company’s loftlike offices in New York. “We want to disrupt the industry.” Read more of this post

As a revitalised Coles goes from strength to strength, Woolworths has foundered amid missed opportunities and a lack of innovation. “It takes a long time to slow down the Queen Mary but once she is dead in the water she is awfully hard to restart”

Choosing the right hardware for growth

July 27, 2013

Katherine Jimenez

As a revitalised Coles goes from strength to strength, Woolworths has foundered amid missed opportunities, a lack of innovation and a misstep into the big-box hardware sector.

From the first day of Greg Foran’s appointment as Woolworths supermarket chief, one thought consumed his mind. He wanted to break Coles. The opportunity was there. Foran saw Wesfarmers’ $20 billion takeover of Coles in late 2007 as a perfect opportunity for the $40 billion supermarket juggernaut – once dubbed the ”Queen Mary” of grocery chains – to put its ”foot on the throat” of its arch-rival. Not long after his promotion in October 2008, Foran approached the then Woolworths chief Michael Luscombe and chief financial officer Tom Pockett with his grand plan. Having cut his teeth under highly regarded chief Roger Corbett during Woolworths’ golden years, Foran had pinched a leaf out of his book and believed the best weapon was to aggressively cut prices. Read more of this post

Fibra Macquarie CEO sees ‘danger’ of price bubble for Mexico’s REITs

Fibra Macquarie CEO sees ‘danger’ of price bubble for Mexico’s REITs

Fri, Jul 26 2013

By Gabriel Stargardter

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – There is a danger that the growing value of Mexico’s real estate investment trusts could form a property price bubble, the head of Macquarie’s Mexican REIT said on Friday. The trusts, known locally as fibras, issue certificates that function much like shares on the stock exchange, and allow investors to participate in Mexico’s property market without owning buildings. But the extra liquidity generated by the funds, which have posted dizzying gains on the local bourse in recent months, has led some to suggest an inflated price bubble is around the corner, possibly resulting in painful price adjustments. Read more of this post

Bloomberg has quietly pulled the plug on its new wealth management business BloombergBlack just months after the financial data company began offering investment advice for individuals.

Last updated: July 26, 2013 2:39 pm

Bloomberg pulls plug on wealth management business

By Tracy Alloway in New York

Bloomberg has quietly pulled the plug on its new wealth management business just months after the financial data company began offering investment advice for individuals. “We weighed the future prospects of the business against the ongoing resource investment and concluded that it wasn’t in our best interest to continue moving forward,” a Bloomberg spokesman said. “We remain optimistic about the idea and open to the possibility of pursuing a similar business in the future.” Discussions about shutting the web-based service, which took more than three years to develop, were already in advanced stages as early as June, according to people familiar with the business. Read more of this post

Taiwan yachtmakers face struggle to stay afloat

July 26, 2013 12:28 pm

Taiwan yachtmakers face struggle to stay afloat

By Sarah Mishkin

Truckers at Bluewater Yacht Builder struggle to load a megayacht on to a truck that will help the 30-tonne luxury boat begin its journey to its new owner in California. While the task may be tricky, at least this Taiwanese company has a buyer. Taiwan recently overtook Germany to become the world’s sixth-largest yachtmaker, with 43 boats under construction. Yet despite this, sales are much lower than before the 2008 financial crisis. Production at yards across the country hit $148m last year, down from $357m in 2008. Read more of this post

China sovereign wealth fund downgrades commodities

July 26, 2013 1:31 pm

China wealth fund downgrades commodities

By Simon Rabinovitch

China’s sovereign wealth fund has switched emphasis away from commodities to financial stocks in its overseas equity holdings over the past year. The investment shift by China Investment Corp is notable because the fund is uniquely placed to make a call about the global commodities market, with Chinese demand one of the biggest drivers of prices. Since its establishment in 2007 CIC had focused most heavily on commodities. But the fund, which had $575bn of assets under management at the end of last year, changed tack as Chinese growth slowed. Less than 17 per cent of CIC’s overseas equity holdings were in the energy and materials sectors, according to its annual report published on Friday. That was down from 23 per cent at the end of 2011. Read more of this post

Darwin, Japan and the origin of outperformance

July 26, 2013 6:02 pm

Darwin, Japan and the origin of outperformance

By Merryn Somerset Webb

Things that there are too many of. It’s a long list. But if you turn your thoughts to the financial industry you will see that the standout is investment funds. I have no idea how many funds there actually are available to chip away at your savings in the UK, but you can choose between over 2,000 at the top fund supermarkets alone. On that basis I would guess at 7,000-10,000 in total.

Most of those will be rubbish one way or another, which of course is why the average active fund regularly underperforms any given index. So here’s an interesting thing to wonder about at the beach this year: what if a 20-year bear market meant none of the big houses bothered to market funds in one particular sector any more? Read more of this post

The cult of home ownership is dangerous and damaging; The US and UK should ditch their obsessions with residential property, writes Adam Posen

July 26, 2013 7:28 pm

The cult of home ownership is dangerous and damaging

By Adam Posen

The US and UK should ditch their obsessions with residential property, writes Adam Posen

You would think that the residential property bubble and subsequent crisis of the past decade would make people leery of widespread home ownership, and governments reluctant to pump it up. Yet, here we are again. Despite the continuing fiscal tightening, the UK coalition government is pressing on with its “Help to Buy” scheme and the US Congress continues its unquestioning protection of the home mortgage interest tax deduction. This is the economic policy equivalent of incurring the individual and social costs of an obesity epidemic while still subsidising maize and beef production – but maybe more fixable. Read more of this post

Emerging market growth story dies

Last updated: July 26, 2013 11:44 am

Emerging market growth story dies

By Jonathan Wheatley

An uncomfortable truth is making itself felt around the world of emerging market investors: the emerging market growth story is dead. This is not to say that emerging economies will no longer grow. Nor even that emerging market assets will no longer deliver attractive returns. But the days are long gone when “emerging markets” could be seen as a single asset class. More than that: as David Lubin, head of emerging market economics at Citigroup puts it, the very “foundation myth” of the emerging markets no longer holds true. “The EM story is based on rapid growth, led by exports, which delivers large current account surpluses, which leads to the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves and the expansion of domestic credit,” he says. “Every single element of that story is no longer true.” Read more of this post

‘King of Beers,’ Fizzling in U.S., Sets Goal of World Domination; Anheuser-Busch InBev is making a bold move into China, the largest and most elusive prize

Updated July 27, 2013, 12:00 a.m. ET

‘King of Beers,’ Fizzling in U.S., Sets Goal of World Domination

Anheuser-Busch InBev is making a bold move into China, the largest and most elusive prize

MIKE ESTERL

Budweiser ads drape the windows of banquet halls and karaoke bars in China. It’s all part of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s effort to transform America’s King of Beers into a truly global brand. WSJ’s Mike Esterl reports. ZIYANG, China—Little of the Western world has infiltrated this dusty city in China’s rural hinterland, where red lanterns hang from lampposts and restaurants serve pig tail and duck neck. But Americans would recognize a beer increasingly making the rounds here: Budweiser, which flows from a state-of-the-art brewery built below a hilltop pagoda. Advertisements for the 137-year-old brand from St. Louis, Mo., drape the windows of a banquet hall, trumpeting the year of the snake. The walls, floors and stairs of a karaoke bar are blanketed with Budweiser’s red bow tie and gold crown symbols. On a narrow back street, three hot pot restaurants serve the beer. “It’s brewed in Ziyang. I’m very proud of that,” says Li Mei, manager at the “Very Hot Hot Pot.” Read more of this post

Industrialization has turned much of the Chinese countryside into an environmental disaster zone, threatening not only the food supply but the legitimacy of the regime itself

July 26, 2013, 6:33 p.m. ET

China’s Bad Earth

Industrialization has turned much of the Chinese countryside into an environmental disaster zone, threatening not only the food supply but the legitimacy of the regime itself.

JOSH CHIN and BRIAN SPEGELE

In Dapu, a rain-drenched rural outpost in the heart of China’s grain basket, a farmer grows crops that she wouldn’t dare to eat. A state-backed chemicals factory next to her farm dumps wastewater directly into the local irrigation pond, she says, and turns it a florescent blue reminiscent of antifreeze. After walking around in the rice paddies, some farmers here have developed unexplained blisters on their feet. “Nothing comes from these plants,” says the farmer, pointing past the irrigation pond to a handful of stunted rice shoots. She grows the rice, which can’t be sold because of its low quality, only in order to qualify for payments made by the factory owners to compensate for polluting the area. But the amount is only a fraction of what she used to earn when the land was healthy, she says. The plants look alive, “but they’re actually dead inside.” Read more of this post

J.P. Morgan to Sell Commodities Business

Updated July 26, 2013, 7:54 p.m. ET

J.P. Morgan to Sell Commodities Business

Move Comes Amid Regulatory Scrutiny of Wall Street

DAN FITZPATRICK and CHRISTIAN BERTHELSEN

NEW YORK—The largest U.S. bank is getting out of the power-plant and warehouse business, amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street’s ownership of such assets. J.P. Morgan Chase JPM -0.80% & Co. said Friday it is putting its physical commodities operation up for sale, a major retreat for a company that last decade made a costly and bold effort to become No. 1 in the commodities field. J.P. Morgan joins rivals Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -0.39% and Morgan Stanley,MS -0.22%  which also are seeking buyers for such holdings. Regulators in recent months have ratcheted up scrutiny of banks’ power-market operations. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s enforcement staff in March accused J.P. Morgan of manipulating energy markets in California and the Midwest. J.P. Morgan denied the accusations in a written response to FERC. The company is negotiating a $410 million settlement that would resolve those allegations. The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, is reviewing a decade-old policy allowing banks to hold physical commodity assets. Read more of this post

Moody’s Sees Local Chinese Debt Default as $21 Billion Matures

Moody’s Sees Local Default as $21 Billion Matures: China Credit

Local-government financing vehicles need to repay a record amount of debt this year, prompting Moody’s Investors Service to warn Premier Li Keqiang may set an example by allowing China’s first onshore bond default.

Some 127 billion yuan ($21 billion) of so-called LGFV notes expire in the second half, according to Everbright Securities Co., the most in its data going back to 2000 and more than double the 62.7 billion yuan that matured in the first six months. The yield premium over top-rated notes for one-year AA debt, the most common rating for LGFVs, widened to 67 basis points yesterday, the highest level since Jan. 16, Chinabond data show. The comparable gap in India is 47. Read more of this post

Fed may decide that owning warehouses, pipelines and tankers does not fit with banks’ missions – meaning they could be ordered, or pressured, to divest those infrastructure assets

On U.S. banks and commodity trade, Fed unlikely to say no

12:03am EDT

By Jonathan Leff

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When it comes to commodity trading, the U.S. Federal Reserve has a habit of lengthy deliberation, deep enquiry and saying yes. The Fed granted its first authorization to trade physical commodities to Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research,Stock Buzz) in 2003 after nearly five years of study; the letter allowing it to keep its Phibro unit arrived just six days before a grace period ended. It spent another nine months scrutinizing one of its last such permits, given to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L:Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in 2008 when it bought half of Sempra Commodities; the Fed’s deliberations delayed plans to close the deal by months, but it ultimately approved a vastly expanded array of activities. So even after a week of unprecedented public and political scrutiny on the multibillion-dollar commodity trading desks at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research,Stock Buzz), a dozen legal experts and industry sources say the Fed is unlikely to turn back the clock to an era when banks were barred from touching gasoline cargoes or aluminum coils. Read more of this post