Is China a global innovation powerhouse?

Is China a global innovation powerhouse?

Defending the motion

Edward Tse  

Senior Executive Advisor, Greater China, Booz Allen Hamilton

SOEs will continue to play a big part in China, but most of the innovation will come from private companies.

Against the motion

Anne Stevenson-Yang  

Founder and Research Director, J Capital Research

China has the building blocks for innovation but is thwarted by government domination of the economy. Read more of this post

164-year-old commodities trading house Ecom enters cocoa and coffee top league; Esteve family mantra: “volume is vanity, profits are sanity”

November 12, 2013 8:52 am

Ecom enters cocoa and coffee top league

By Emiko Terazono in London

Armajaro Trading purchase puts publicity shy group in spotlight

Even within the publicity shy commodities industry, Ecom Agroindustrial is considered one of the least known of the trading houses. Yet the 164-year-old company is about to become one of the leading players in cocoa and coffee after it acquires the trading arm of London-based Armajaro, the commodities and hedge fund group co-founded by veteran cocoa trader Anthony Ward. Read more of this post

A Jolt to Complacency on Food Supply; The negative effects of global climate change on agriculture are expected to get worse, experts say, raising deep concerns about the global food supply in the decades to come

November 11, 2013

A Jolt to Complacency on Food Supply

By JUSTIN GILLIS

For a look at what climate change could do to the world’s food supply, consider what the weather did to the American Corn Belt last year. At the beginning of 2012, the Agriculture Department projected the largest corn crop in the country’s history. But then a savage heat wave and drought struck over the summer. Plants withered, prices spiked, and the final harvest came in 27 percent below the forecast. Read more of this post

The Worst Starbucks Product Flops Of All Time

The Worst Starbucks Product Flops Of All Time

HAYLEY PETERSON NOV. 11, 2013, 5:27 PM 25,641 1

Melody Overton

After decades of domination in the coffee market, Starbucks is now entering brand new territory with the launch of 1,000 tea bars over the next five years. The company has clearly had success introducing hundreds of new drinks and other coffee products over the years. But along the way, Starbucks has also had its fair share of flops.  Carbonated coffee, liquid chocolate and a brief foray into the magazine industry are a few of Starbucks’ ventures that have failed. Melody Overton, a Seattle attorney who runs the blog StarbucksMelody.com, helped us compile some of the most notable failures in the company’s 42-year history. She originally posted a list of flops on Quora. Read more of this post

Larsen & Toubro chief warns of India investment crunch

November 13, 2013 3:41 am

Larsen & Toubro chief warns of India investment crunch

By James Crabtree in Mumbai

AM Naik, the head of Larsen & Toubro, India’s largest infrastructure company by sales, is a man with a warning – that his country’s struggling economy faces a sustained investment crunch that will continue to force major industrial groups to seek growth abroad. Over the past decade, L&T has cemented its reputation as India’s premier engineering and construction conglomerate, earning $14bn in revenues during the past financial year with operations ranging from roads and port construction to power equipment and shipbuilding. Read more of this post

India still wary about shopping online; Ex-Asos boss to list Indian venture on Aim

Last updated: November 12, 2013 4:54 pm

India still wary about shopping online

By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

For largely bricks and mortar retailers such as Marks and Spencer India presents a big challenge, with an acute shortage of suitable physical space for modern shops, sky-high rents and a geographically diffuse potential customer base, spread across megacities and scores of smaller cities and towns. Read more of this post

Indonesia in frame for cinema shake-up; Indonesia’s influential Riady family is making a pitch to shake up the tightly controlled cinema industry to break the stranglehold of Cinema 21 which has nearly 600 of the country’s 700 screens

November 12, 2013 2:30 pm

Indonesia in frame for cinema shake-up

By Ben Bland in Jakarta

They have led the way in shopping malls, private hospitals and luxury cemeteries and now Indonesia’s influential Riady family is making a pitch to shake up the tightly controlled cinema industry in southeast Asia’s biggest economy. The family’s Lippo group is planning to open its first cinema next year and roll out hundreds more screens as it tries to break the stranglehold of Cinema 21, which gained a monopoly on Hollywood film distribution during the Suharto dictatorship. Read more of this post

A gambling scandal is spreading throughout Korea’s showbiz industry as opportunities to place bets and wagers are increasingly available online

2013-11-13 17:11

Celebrities’ gambling

A gambling scandal is spreading throughout the nation’s showbiz industry as opportunities to place bets and wagers are increasingly available online.
Earlier this week, the prosecution accused a handful of celebrities of illegal online gambling. So far, five popular entertainers have been questioned for gambling big sums on sports betting websites. Among them are singers Tony An and Andy; top comedian Lee Soo-geun; and TV personalities Tak Jae-hoon and Lee Min-ho, better known by his stage name Boom. Read more of this post

KakaoTalk operator trapped by fund shortfall as venture business

KakaoTalk operator trapped by fund shortfall as venture business

Won Yo-hwan

2013.11.13 15:21:12

Kakao, operator of South Korea’s largest mobile messenger KakaoTalk, is facing hard times. KakaoTalk grew exponentially until last year, spurring the mantra “whatever KakaoTalk does becomes success.” But the mobile phone messenger application is not as influential as it used to be. Its competitors Line and WeChat, meanwhile, are gaining edges in the global market. Eyes are on how Kakao, the big player in the mobile start-up industry, will break through the situation. What has been undermining the KakaoTalk’s platform?  Read more of this post

South Korea’s derivatives market, once the world’s largest by trading volume, is suffering a sharp drop in liquidity as stricter regulations damp appetite and drive investors to neighbouring markets in China and Japan

November 12, 2013 9:40 am

South Korea’s derivatives decline threatens equity trade

By Song Jung-a in Seoul

South Korea’s derivatives market, once the world’s largest by trading volume, is suffering a sharp drop in liquidity as stricter regulations damp appetite and drive investors to neighbouring markets in China and Japan. The country was the world’s top derivatives trader until 2011 thanks to heavy retail investor activity in equity derivatives. Last year it fell to fifth ranked in the world, and is now not even in the top 10 as retail investors deserted the market after regulators raised the entry barriers against them. Read more of this post

Waiting for Chaebol reform

2013-11-12 17:13

Waiting for Chaebol reform

Bernard Rowan
When I first visited Korea, I learned about chaebol. Chaebol refer to Korea’s large business conglomerates, often centered on a particular family.
In 1998, LG, Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung, and SK were the main chaebol.  I looked up at the names of associated buildings, apartment complexes, gas stations, industrial concerns, electronics stores, and automobile dealers and saw these business titles.  Read more of this post

Why does the new iPhone have a 64-bit processor?

Why does the new iPhone have a 64-bit processor?

Nov 12th 2013, 23:50 by G.F. | SEATTLE

SINCE its resurgence in the late 1990s, Apple has generally shied away from trumpeting processor speeds, cache sizes or other technical details in its marketing materials, preferring to emphasise what its products can do, rather than what is inside them. It does make exceptions, however, as in the case of the recent launch of the iPhone 5s, its new flagship smartphone. Executives hyped its “64-bit” A7 processor, which they asserted had desktop-computer performance and could complete some tasks twice as quickly as the 32-bit chip in its previous model. Rivals, bloggers and technology-news sites disparaged its claims, saying that there was no good reason to put a 64-bit chip in a smartphone except to claim bragging rights. Anand Chandrasekher, the chief marketing officer of Qualcomm, a rival technology firm, told Techworld: “Predominantly…you need it for memory addressability beyond 4GB [gigabytes]. That’s it. You don’t really need it for performance.” Yet the performance boost is there, as independent benchmark testing confirms. Why has Apple made the jump to 64 bits? Read more of this post

Sequoia Capital Invests in Berlin Start-Up

NOVEMBER 12, 2013, 12:01 PM

Sequoia Capital Invests in Berlin Start-Up

By MARK SCOTT

LONDON – For many European start-ups, connections to Silicon Valley are still viewed as a sign of success. In the latest deal, 6Wunderkinder, a Berlin-based maker of an online task application, announced on Tuesday that it had raised $19 million in a new round of investment led by Sequoia Capital. Read more of this post

Outside-the-box innovations seen in next generation of video games

Outside-the-box innovations seen in next generation of video games

NOV 11, 2013

LOS ANGELES – The next generation of gaming is nearly here, but what about the generation after that one? Sony and Microsoft are launching their new superpowered consoles in the coming weeks. However, gamemakers at last week’s Game Developers Conference Next in Los Angeles were already contemplating outside-the-box innovations — from wearable controllers to illuminated living rooms — that might follow the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Here’s a glimpse at five big ideas pondered at GDC Next: Read more of this post

Online fashion retailer Asos launches Chinese website

Online fashion retailer Asos launches Chinese website

Asos.cn is eighth country-specific website for e-tailer, which operates in 237 countries and has seen soaring sales

Sarah Butler

theguardian.com, Tuesday 12 November 2013 16.17 GMT

Nick Robinson, chief executive of Asos, says the fashion brand’s Chinese website will ‘break down barriers’. Photograph: Suki Dhanda

Fashion website Asos is aiming to tap into the fast-growing Chinese market with the launch of a dedicated website for the country. “China continues to impress us with its steady growth. The launch will not only help navigate and break down existing barriers, but also dramatically improve the Asos experience for our fast-growing number of Chinese customers,” said Nick Robertson, the chief executive. Read more of this post

Giving People a Glimpse of What Their Pets See; Nature’s Recipe is giving“collar cameras” to influential pet owners, and resulting photos are posted online

November 11, 2013

Giving People a Glimpse of What Their Pets See

By STUART ELLIOTT

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Nature’s Recipe pet food is giving “collar cameras” to influential pet owners. The photos from those cameras are posted online.

FORGET about a bird’s-eye view. A leader in pet foods is introducing a digital campaign for a principal brand that promises to provide views from the dog’s- and cat’s-eye perspective. The brand is Nature’s Recipe, sold by Del Monte Foods, which is calling the campaign “Nature’s Recipe for Moments.” The campaign, with a budget estimated at $2.6 million, is being promoted with this declaration: “See life through their eyes. Experience the moments that Nature’s Recipe can provide.” Read more of this post

A Recharging Industry Rises; High-voltage, superfast public devices for recharging electric cars are appearing more frequently, though some are more expensive for drivers than home chargers, or even gasoline

November 12, 2013

A Recharging Industry Rises

By MATTHEW L. WALD

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Michael D. Farkas, co-founder and chief of the CarCharging Group, which is buying up high-voltage recharging networks.

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of new electric cars are zipping into traffic this year, and with them come a trunkful of strategies about how to recharge them. There are at least four ways to go: recharging slowly through a standard 120-volt wall socket, the type a consumer would use for a hair dryer; buying a faster 240-volt home charger, about the size of a garden gnome, for several thousand dollars; plugging into the same 240-volt charger in a public parking space but paying a price; or using a $30,000 superspeedy public charger that takes only minutes but is not widely available. Read more of this post

Kao Ching-yuan (高清愿) founder and chairman of Uni-President (統一), announced that he will be stepping down from his post, marking the end of an era at the international food and beverages conglomerate

Uni-President chief announces plans to pass leadership torch

By Ted Chen, The China Post
November 13, 2013, 12:08 am TWN

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Kao Ching-yuan (高清愿) founder and chairman of Uni-President (統一), yesterday announced that he will be stepping down from his post, marking the end of an era at the international food and beverages conglomerate. Kao will retain his seat on the company’s board of directors, with Alex C. Lo (羅智先) stepping up to the vacated chairmanship, in addition to his current duties as company president. Read more of this post

The design flaws that lead to financial explosions; Interactive systems that allow little room for recovery leave us vulnerable to shocks; The UPS delivery system, although complex, is linear rather than interactive in its complexity, and loosely coupled

November 12, 2013 6:33 pm

The design flaws that lead to financial explosions

By John Kay

Interactive systems that allow little room for recovery leave us vulnerable to shocks

Nuclear power and financial systems both have the capacity to blow up the world. Perhaps there are lessons from one for the other. Charles Perrow, the organisational sociologist, was prompted by the 1979nuclear incident at Three Mile Island to investigate breakdowns in complex systems. The accident is still the most serious nuclear plant failure in a western economy. Read more of this post

The Case Against Too Much Independence on the Board; While crony-filled boards are gone, Steven M. Davidoff argues there is no evidence that a supermajority of independent directors does any better

NOVEMBER 11, 2013, 10:42 AM

The Case Against Too Much Independence on the Board

By STEVEN M. DAVIDOFF

Regulators and institutional investors keep pushing the independent directors as the cure-all for what ails America’s corporations. Yet that independence, like innovation itself, can be too much of a good thing. Decades ago, the boards of corporate America were occupied by the C.E.O. and the C.E.O.’s handpicked friends and colleagues. Today the independent director, an outside director who is not beholden to the chief, dominates the corporate board. Read more of this post

Separating the Market-Moving Tweets From the Chaff

NOVEMBER 11, 2013, 7:29 AM

Separating the Market-Moving Tweets From the Chaff

By WILLIAM ALDEN

Carl C. Icahn wields it as a megaphone. Traders and analysts use it to chat publicly about stocks. Eyewitnesses employ it to post messages about news events before they make headlines. Wall Street has undoubtedly recognized the value of Twitter as an investing tool. But a question remains about how best to harness the stream of half a billion messages that flow through Twitter daily — and use that information to gain a market edge. Read more of this post

Russia’s economy: The S word; Will the stagnating economy bring about much-needed structural reform?

Russia’s economy: The S word; Will the stagnating economy bring about much-needed structural reform?

Nov 9th 2013 | MOSCOW |From the print edition

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STAGNATION has a particularly unpleasant resonance to the Russian ear, conjuring up memories of the ossified gerontocracy of the Brezhnev era. But with year-on-year GDP growth at just 1.2% last quarter and growth in investment and industrial production nearing zero, stagnation seems to be the most apt description of the Russian economy. Speaking at an investment forum last month, Alexei Ulyukayev, the economic-development minister, paraphrased an old joke: “Practically, there is no economic development,” he said, “but the economic-development minister is here in front of you!” Read more of this post

Ottawa’s $3.7-billion credit crisis bailout actually made money

Ottawa’s $3.7-billion credit crisis bailout actually made money

Barry Critchley | 12/11/13 | Last Updated: 12/11/13 6:32 PM ET
The Canadian Secured Credit Facility, one of the federal government’s key emergency responses to the global credit crisis, may be the most financially successful government program in recent history. The reason: every penny of capital that was provided has now been repaid and the government received market interest rates along the way. Accordingly, thanks to the receipt of the final payment in the past week, the book is closed on this bailout and taxpayers are more than whole. Read more of this post

Markets Evolve, as Does Financial Fraud

NOVEMBER 11, 2013, 7:01 AM

Markets Evolve, as Does Financial Fraud

By PETER J. HENNING

It is usually the case that there are not new frauds, just new avenues for deception. As the financial world has evolved into a high-speed race to trade assets while investment strategies are kept secret, both regulators and investors face the challenge of finding the fine line between permissible trading and manipulation aimed at generating unfair profits. Read more of this post

James Packer outlines plan to turn Sri Lanka into gambling mecca

James Packer outlines plan to turn Sri Lanka into gambling mecca

November 13, 2013 – 4:02PM

Colin Kruger

Just days after receiving approval to build a $1.5 billion luxury hotel and casino at Sydney Harbour development Barangaroo, James Packer is making his most public pitch yet to build a $400 million casino resort in Sri Lanka. In a speech to be delivered to delegates at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Colombo overnight – a conference being held ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – Mr Packer said a luxury casino resort is a necessity if Sri Lanka is to achieve its potential to become ‘‘a leading tourist mecca for the rising middle class of India, China and the rest of Asia.’’ Read more of this post

How Much Popularity Can Low Volatility Stand?

How Much Popularity Can Low Volatility Stand?

Date: November 11th, 2013 | Category: EquitiesStrategy

Craig Lazzara

Global Head of Index Investment Strategy

S&P Dow Jones Indices

The low volatility anomaly — i.e., the tendency for low-volatility or low-beta portfolios to outperform market averages — has been the subject of at least 40 years of academic research.  Given its challenge to what “everyone knows” about risk and return, it’s a fertile field for both professors and practitioners, some of whom recently characterized “the long-term outperformance of low-risk portfolios [as] perhaps the greatest anomaly in finance.” Read more of this post

Hedgies have built a sector on an aura of exclusivity

Last updated: November 12, 2013 10:19 pm

Hedgies have built a sector on an aura of exclusivity

By Jonathan Guthrie

You are a discerning member of the elite. So please read on. We have to be selective, obviously. Just as Goldman Sachs will doubtless be in inviting investors to participate in Petershill II, a private equity fund that will buy stakes in hedge fund partnerships. One can’t give any old Tom, Dick or Harriet access to such an exclusive investment. Or the go-ahead to peruse this incredibly classy column. Read more of this post

Germany is disheartened by America, its one-time mentor, protector and role model

Germany is disheartened by America, its one-time mentor, protector and role model

Nov 9th 2013 |From the print edition

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EDWARD SNOWDEN makes a perfect hero for some Germans. As a former contractor of an American spy agency who has been divulging its excesses, he is a “good American” who makes some of his compatriots look like “ugly Americans”. He thus taps into both of the archetypes that Germans have long held about their most important ally. Mr Snowden also placed his own sense of morality above that of his government at the risk of being deemed a traitor. To Germans, who remember two dictatorships in one long lifetime, that is heroism. Read more of this post

Foreign exchange: The big fix; Banks fear a repeat of the costly Libor scandal after traders were suspended over currency concerns

November 12, 2013 8:46 pm

Foreign exchange: The big fix

By Daniel Schäfer, Alice Ross and Delphine Strauss

Banks fear a repeat of the costly Libor scandal after traders were suspended over currency concerns

For years, the chatroom cacophony in the clubby world of foreign exchange traders was peppered with allusions to drinks, drugs and women. But in the spring of 2012, debate in the private Bloomberg chats suddenly turned serious. The conversations centred on a committee meeting of an elite group of the City of London’s most senior currency traders and their counterparts at the Bank of England. Traders were agitated about rumours that BoE representatives may have raised concerns in an April meeting over possible manipulation of daily currency fixings, said people familiar with the interbank chatroom conversations. Read more of this post

Confessions of a Quantitative Easer; Fed Official Who Helped Orchestrate QE: ‘I’m Sorry, America,’ QE Really Was A Huge Wall Street Bailout

Fed Official Who Helped Orchestrate QE: ‘I’m Sorry, America,’ QE Really Was A Huge Wall Street Bailout

STEVEN PERLBERG NOV. 12, 2013, 9:05 AM 13,008 70

Andrew Huszar, a former Federal Reserve employee who executed QE, has written a Wall Street Journal op-ed apologizing for the “unprecedented shopping spree.” Huszar worked at the Fed for seven years before leaving for Wall Street. The central bank recruited him back in 2009 to manage “what was at the heart of QE’s bond-buying spree–a wild attempt to buy $1.25 trillion in mortgage bonds in 12 months.” Read more of this post