Dark side of the mooncakes: China’s war of graft hits high-end pastries

Dark side of the mooncakes: China’s war of graft hits high-end pastries

6:07pm EDT

By Megha Rajagopalan

BEIJING (Reuters) – Gold-encrusted mooncakes stuffed with shark’s fin are out of favour ahead of this week’s mid-autumn festival in China after a crackdown on corruption killed off demand for such lavish pastries – long used as a way to bribe officials. With more calories than a Big Mac, mooncakes are given as gifts to family, friends and employees during China’s Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on September 19 this year. In recent years lavish varieties have popped up with jewellery-box style packaging, allowing cash, liquor or other goodies to be hidden in with the pastries. Read more of this post

Corruption and the world’s biggest building: 50-year-old billionaire behind the biggest building in China and the world has vanished; “There are more investigations, and more arrests, to come”

Corruption and the world’s biggest building

The New Century Global Centre is the biggest building in the world; 16 Wembley stadiums could fit underneath its vast roof.

By Malcolm Moore, Chengdu

5:35PM BST 13 Sep 2013

But the behemoth in the central city of Chengdu which formally opened at the end of last month, has become for many China’slargest and most embarrassing monument to the allegations of corruption that have wormed through the Communist Party. The 50-year-old billionaire behind the project, Deng Hong, once one of China’s richest men, has vanished and is thought to be in police custody. “We don’t know where he is,” a spokesman for his company, Entertainment and Travel Group (ETG) said. In his wake, more than 50 government officials have been detained by a series of overlapping investigations that reach to the highest level of the party, according to a former editor of a state newspaper. “There are more investigations, and more arrests, to come,” the editor added. Read more of this post

China replaces US as the people of ‘more, more, more’; more than 60% of citizens admitted to worshipping money, with more than 95% of citizens believing that Chinese people worship money too much

China replaces US as the people of ‘more, more, more’

Staff Reporter

2013-09-16

As China continues to develop into one of the world’s biggest and most important economies, the dreams of its people have also evolved. According to Chinese investment web portal Eastmoney.com, modern Chinese citizens have nine big wishes, and almost all of them are all about money. The most common wish among Chinese citizens nowadays is to make big money and become super wealthy. A joint poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos in February revealed that China ranked no. 1 out of 23 countries surveyed when it comes to agreeing with the statement that “money is the best sign of a person’s success.” Around 69% of Chinese people polled agreed with the statement compared to just 33% of American participants. A survey conducted by China’s nationalistic Global Times tabloid also found that more than 60% of citizens admitted to worshipping money, with more than 95% of citizens believing that Chinese people worship money too much. Read more of this post

China Reins in Popular Online Voices With New Microblog Controls

China Reins in Popular Online Voices With New Microblog Controls

Chinese microblogger Dong Rubin mused to his 45,000 followers last month that he might face arrest amid a government crackdown on Internet rumors. On Sept. 10, he was detained for misreporting the worth of his business. Dong joined a group of people who had gone online to criticize government-sanctioned projects or voice political opinions and wound up in detention on unrelated allegations. This year, Dong opposed plans for an oil refinery in the southern city of Kunming where he lives, a project that spurred street protests. Read more of this post

Flurry of Chinese plans to build aviation hubs raises concern

Flurry of Chinese plans to build aviation hubs raises concern

5:32pm EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 50 cities in China have answered Beijing’s call for cleaner economic growth with plans for aviation hubs, airports clustered with industrial zones. The problem is that they may not all be needed. The cities hope the projects will attract investment in areas like logistics, high-technology and finance – the sort of businesses Beijing is encouraging to move the economy away from the smoke-stack industry that has driven rapid growth for years. But critics argue the projects will exacerbate a problem China is trying to stamp out – debt-fuelled construction that local authorities have used for years to boost their local economies. Read more of this post

Floating Casinos From Hong Kong Stealing Macau Gamblers

Floating Casinos From Hong Kong Stealing Macau Gamblers

When Li Yu wanted to take a gambling trip, she looked into Macau but found the hotels too expensive. So she booked a room on an overnight casino boat that sailed about an hour from Hong Kong into international waters before opening up its baccarat tables. “I don’t care about the food or other amenities, my sole purpose is to gamble,” said Li, a housewife from nearby Guangzhou who played into the early hours of the morning with about 70 others in the ship’s cramped casino. “It’s way cheaper than going to Macau.” Read more of this post

Bubble trouble hits Hong Kong jade sales

Bubble trouble hits Hong Kong jade sales

Celine Ge 9 hours ago

Prized as a magical imperial stone, jade is a status symbol of the super rich in Asia, but rocketing prices in the top-end of the market have left traders in Hong Kong struggling to find buyers. With the cost of high-quality raw jade and jade products surging repeatedly in the past eight years, prices tags are now becoming prohibitive and experts predict the bubble must soon burst as buyers are stepping back. Driven up by the appetite of wealthy Chinese, the rising cost of jade is also being fuelled by fears of a shortage in supply from Myanmar, the key source. Read more of this post

Why Australia is Miele’s biggest market outside Germany

Caitlin Fitzsimmons Online editor

Why Australia is Miele’s biggest market outside Germany and the retail sector has reason to be cheerful

Published 16 September 2013 11:32, Updated 16 September 2013 11:34

The joint head of German appliances brand Miele has a message for the Australian retail sector: times are pretty good, actually. Given that Australia is Miele’s second biggest market outside Germany, he should know. Dr Markus Miele and Dr Reinhard Zinkann, the great-grandson of the company founders, recently spent a week in Australia to launch the new range of Miele cooking appliances and met with retail partners including Harvey Norman and Winning Appliances. Read more of this post

This time, Japan keen to learn from Fed’s policy exit

This time, Japan keen to learn from Fed’s policy exit

5:14pm EDT

By Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) – As markets tune into how the Federal Reserve is going to rein in its massive stimulus program, so is the Bank of Japan. The BOJ, the pioneer of so-called quantitative easing, is still years away from tapering off its own extraordinary stimulus program so it has the luxury of watching the U.S. central bank go first. But the more that the BOJ is able to push inflation towards its policy target of 2 percent – compared with less than 1 percent now and following years of deflation – the more attention financial markets will pay to how Japan’s exit debate is shaping up. For now, all eyes are on the Fed. Read more of this post

Singapore Banks on Asean Lure as Job Crunch Raises Angst

Singapore Banks on Asean Lure as Job Crunch Raises Angst

Singapore is counting on Southeast Asia’s economic boom to lure investment as the island’s clampdown on foreign labor raises wage costs and makes it difficult for companies to fill positions. A plan by Southeast Asian nations for a common market through the removal of tariffs and trade barriers for goods and services by 2015 will boost the bloc’s appeal as a production base, Economic Development Board Chairman Leo Yip said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Haslinda Amin. Singapore is poised to benefit as companies expanding in the region set up headquarters and research facilities here even as they build factories elsewhere, he said. Read more of this post

When market movers are the index makers; Investors have outsourced much power to the index providers

September 15, 2013 2:53 pm

When market movers are the index makers

By John Authers

Investors have outsourced much power to the index providers

Who has the power to move markets? Often some unlikely candidates. As everyone learnt during the global financial crisis, rating agencies had been given too much power. This was the side-effect of regulations that placed limits on the bonds that banks or fund managers could hold, based on their ratings. The result was to outsource due diligence to the agencies. This put far more weight on the opinion of one or two analysts than they were ever designed to bear. Read more of this post

Gross’s Trade Sours as Bonds Lose Faith in Fed Guidance

Gross’s Trade Sours as Bonds Lose Faith in Fed Guidance

Bond investors are losing confidence in the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep benchmark interest rates at about zero into 2015 as the U.S. economy accelerates. Concern the Fed will increase its target rate for overnight loans between banks next year is showing up in wider price swings for shorter-term securities. Volatility in five-year Treasuries (USGG2YR) rose above 10-year notes for the first time since 2011 and yields on two-year notes more than doubled in the past four months. As recently as last week, Bill Gross, who manages the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., was recommending debt with short maturities. Read more of this post

Fed Leadership Doubt Erodes Low-Rate Message as QE Taper Looms

Fed Leadership Doubt Erodes Low-Rate Message as QE Taper Looms

Federal Reserve officials will gather in their Washington board room this week to decide on policies that will unfold over the next two to three years without knowing who will lead the institution during that time. Yesterday’s announcement that Lawrence Summers has withdrawn his name from Obama’s list of candidates to succeed Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke threatens to weaken the central bank’s policy message by leaving the succession unsettled just as it considers scaling back record accommodation. Policy makers will decide at their Sept. 17-18 meeting whether the economy is strong enough to begin tapering $85 billion in monthly bond purchases. As they do so, they will use so-called forward guidance to convince investors they can keep interest rates low for as long as it takes to bring down unemployment so long as prices remain in check. Read more of this post

Rates too low: Why housing trouble in Australiaa could be just months away

Rates too low: Why housing trouble could be just months away

Published 12 September 2013 10:04, Updated 12 September 2013 12:19

Christopher Joye

I am worried about Australia’s housing market. Very worried. Not so much about the fundamentals, which are solid. Or current performance, which is robust without raising alarm. I am concerned about what lies around the corner – and here, I am talking months, not years. I presented at a hedge fund conference during the week with notorious housing pessimist Gerard Minack. There was a fascinating role reversal. Asked about Australia’s housing prospects, Minack said he now buys into the view that house prices will track incomes. Minack was up front in admitting that he forecast striking price falls during the global financial crisis – he certainly bandied around figures in the 20 per cent range. He explained that he was wrong because it was “garbage in and garbage out”. The enormous rise in the jobless rate he anticipated never materialised. Read more of this post

Mortgage crisis looming, Bank of Israel warns; Too many borrowers are committing themselves to excessive monthly payments that could lead to widespread defaults

Mortgage crisis looming, Bank of Israel warns

Too many borrowers are committing themselves to excessive monthly payments that could lead to widespread defaults, a study has found.

By Eran Azran and Arik Mirovsky | Sep. 16, 2013 | 8:50 AM |  1

Israel’s mortgage market is at risk of collapse in the event of a major economic downturn, a study released on Sunday by the Bank of Israel warned. The average monthly mortgage repayment as a percentage of household income has risen sharply to 31%, up from 23% three years earlier – a rate that is exceptionally high by international standards. If housing prices continue to rise at their current levels, that figure could climb to 34%, the central bank warned. The percentage of total mortgage repayments made by Israelis exceeding 40% of household income – a threshold the Bank of Israel said it regards as high risk – has reached a record high of 17%. Four years ago, the figure was just 12%, the central bank said. Read more of this post