China’s accounting industry matures with challenges

China’s accounting industry matures with challenges

(Xinhua)    20:51, October 29, 2013

China’s certified public accounting industry has grown to be worth over 50 billion yuansince the sector was re-established in the 1980s. Significant regulatory developments have accompanied its rapid progress. One regulatorystep China has taken ahead of Europe and the United States is mandatory rotation ofauditing irms.
The idea of forcing companies to change bookkeepers gained momentum after the 2008global financial crisis. Taxpayers were furious that some banks were given a clean bill ofhealth but later rescued using public cash. Read more of this post

Tom Friedman Is Too Optimistic About China’s Schools

Tom Friedman Is Too Optimistic About China’s Schools

By Adam Minter – Oct 29, 2013

The New York Times recently published “The Shanghai Secret,” a column by Thomas Friedman that explained how Shanghai’s students received the world’s top scores on the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment exams. Administered every three years (the 2012 results will be released Dec. 3), PISA is designed to assess how well 15-year-olds worldwide are prepared to apply their educations to real-world situations. Read more of this post

South Korea’s financial authorities will take disciplinary actions against banks for their negligence to be on the lookout for the default of conglomerates.

Banks to face penalties over negligent lookout for default of conglomerates

2013.10.30 11:28:58

South Korea’s financial authorities will take disciplinary actions against banks for their negligence to be on the lookout for the default of conglomerates. The authorities will also increase the number of conglomerates who commit to improving financial structure to prevent another collapse of conglomerate as Tong Yang Group did. After Tong Yang Group’s subsidiaries filed for court receivership, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) decided to conduct a thorough evaluation of main creditor banks during its bank assessment to strengthen accountability of financial firms, said sources in the financial sector Wednesday.  Read more of this post

Moody’s Discussed Stripping New Zealand of Last AAA Rating

Moody’s Discussed Stripping New Zealand of Last AAA Rating

Moody’s Investors Service considered stripping New Zealand of its sole remaining top credit rating amid concern the nation’s current-account deficit is exacerbating its vulnerability to external shocks. New Zealand’s reliance on overseas investors means it can face difficulties when crises such as the Christchurch earthquakes and Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd.’s contaminated milk scare occur, Steven Hess, Senior Vice President at Moody’s in New York, said in an interview in Wellington today. The kiwi fell today to a four-week low. Read more of this post

Madoff Money to Japan Mob Ties Breed Banks’ Global Pains

Madoff Money to Japan Mob Ties Breed Banks’ Global Pains

Japanese regulators said they’re looking for loans to gangsters by the nation’s three biggest banks. The 115-year-old Dutch lender Rabobank Groep was fined more than $1 billion for rigging interest rates. Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and UBS AG (UBSN), Germany and Switzerland’s biggest lenders, both said they’re facing investigations into currency manipulation. It was another day in global banking. Read more of this post

India equities enjoy stunning rebound

October 29, 2013 1:52 pm

India equities enjoy stunning rebound

By James Crabtree

“Crisis? What crisis?” This seems to be the new motto for Indian markets. Stocks have built on a startling recovery, shrugging off a period of currency freefall and capital flight that had threatened to turn into a full-fledged crisis. The buoyant mood seemed confirmed on Tuesday, as Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan’s decision to raise interest rates sent equities nearly 2 per cent higher. The benchmark Sensex index closed at 20,929, just a fraction below its all-time closing high, set last week. Read more of this post

‘We buy the best companies – and many of them happen to be Australian’

‘We buy the best companies – and many of them happen to be Australian’

Fund manager Jason Pidcock of Newton explains why he is optimistic about prospects down under

By Jason Pidcock

12:47PM GMT 29 Oct 2013

We maintain a constructive view on the Australian economy, market and currency. While we are more positive than most of our peers, who have been swayed by some excessive pessimism; it is worth pointing out that we do not have an aggressively large holding of Australian shares in our funds. As always, our aim is to look for the best companies, wherever they may be listed, and Australia happens to provide us with a lot of candidates, especially for the Income fund. The weighting of the portfolio to Australia is purely a function of that. Read more of this post

For Once-Mighty Sears, Pictures of Decay; “Every store has something fundamentally wrong with it.”

OCTOBER 29, 2013, 8:41 AM

For Once-Mighty Sears, Pictures of Decay

By DAVID GELLES

Updated, 8:46 p.m. | When Brian Sozzi, the chief executive of Belus Capital Advisors, visited Sears locations in New York and New Jersey this month, he said, he found barren shelves, haphazard displays and badly stained carpets. Also missing: customers. “It’s just badness throughout,” Mr. Sozzi said in an interview. “Every store has something fundamentally wrong with it.” Read more of this post

World is entering devastating chocolate crisis

2013-10-29 17:03

World is entering devastating chocolate crisis

By Doug Bandow
Attention in Washington remains focused on the government shutdown. But a far more important issue confronts America while the president and congressional leaders dither: rising chocolate prices. When will the government address this terrifying global crisis? Cocoa trees have been cultivated for thousands of years. The early Mesoamericans, including the Aztecs and Mayans, turned the beans into cocoa solids, liquid, and butter. These peoples were serious about their chocolate, offering cocoa beans as gifts for the gods and using cocoa drinks in sacred ceremonies. Read more of this post

‘Allergy-free’ milk firm reaches £1m sales, disrupting the traditional dairy market

‘Allergy-free’ milk firm reaches £1m sales

Milk producer a2 has chalked up £1m of sales in Britain and Ireland since its launch a year ago, despite a fire that razed its Droitwich dairy earlier this month.

By Anna White, Enterprise Correspondent

6:00AM GMT 29 Oct 2013

The Anglo-New Zealand business – a collaboration between the British company Müller Wiseman Dairies and Auckland – has disrupted the traditional dairy market, claiming to produce a type of milk that does not create lactose intolerances. The milk manufacturer, which now sells into 1,000 stores across the UK, markets milk containing the A2 protein. Read more of this post

Zoomlion, Press Crackdowns and China’s Economy; Criminalizing business journalism damages investor confidence

Zoomlion, Press Crackdowns and China’s Economy

Criminalizing business journalism damages investor confidence.

Updated Oct. 29, 2013 5:04 p.m. ET

Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on media freedom is bad enough in political terms. But the case of Chen Yongzhou, the latest reporter to run afoul of the police, highlights the extent to which it’s also an economic problem. Mr. Chen was arrested October 18 in connection with his reporting on alleged financial shenanigans at construction-equipment manufacturer Zoomlion. Mr. Chen’s articles in the Guangzhou-based New Express newspaper claimed that Zoomlion forged various financial documents to conceal accounting improprieties and may also have been involved in the “loss”—to use state television’s word—of government property. Zoomlion has consistently denied these allegations. Read more of this post

Political Gridlock, Beijing Style; With Plenum Weeks Away, Few Signs of Reform

Political Gridlock, Beijing Style

With Plenum Weeks Away, Few Signs of Reform

ANDREW BROWNE

Updated Oct. 29, 2013 11:11 a.m. ET

A high-level meeting in Beijing, which will set China’s economic course for the next decade, is expected to deliver only narrow reforms. The WSJ’s Michael Arnold speaks to Andrew Browne about China’s economic roadmap.

BEIJING—To admirers outside the country, China’s political system stands far above the dysfunctional democracies of the West in one regard: its ability to act decisively and deliver results that boost economic growth. Think of the flood of investment that enabled China to sail through the recent “Great Recession,” the dizzying roll out of high-speed rail, or even the spectacular 2008 Olympics. Read more of this post

China’s anti-pollution drive risks running out of gas

China’s anti-pollution drive risks running out of gas

8:40pm EDT

By Adam Rose and David Stanway

BEIJING (Reuters) – A chronic shortage of natural gas is hurting China’s plan to move away from burning coal to heat homes and offices, raising the prospect of more choking air pollution this winter and beyond. The problem is worst in northern China, where air pollution mainly caused by decades of reliance on coal has lowered life expectancy by an estimated 5.5 years compared to the south, Chinese and international researchers said in July. Read more of this post