In Divided Thailand, Some Voices Driven to Silence

December 17, 2013, 7:05 AM

In Divided Thailand, Some Voices Driven to Silence

By Nopparat Chaichalearmmongkol

BANGKOK—Amid political protests that have divided Thailand into two opposing camps – those in support of the government and those against it – a third voice is being silenced for trying to remain neutral.

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A majority wants more democracy, but a minority, including many rich and powerful people, is petrified by the thought of it.

December 16, 2013

In Thailand, Standing Up for Less Democracy

By THOMAS FULLER

BANGKOK — In a world now accustomed to democratic upheavals, including the Arab Spring and the Saffron and Orange Revolutions, the weeks of political upheaval in Thailand stand out for one main peculiarity. Protesters massing on the streets here are demanding less democracy, not more. Read more of this post

Taiwan’s Proposed New Rules Seen Making M&A Easier; Some Firms Have Struggled to Get Deals Approved

Taiwan’s Proposed New Rules Seen Making M&A Easier

Some Firms Have Struggled to Get Deals Approved

ISABELLA STEGER

Dec. 18, 2013 6:07 a.m. ET

Private-equity investment in Taiwan has plunged since the global financial crisis, this year totaling less than 1% of that seen in 2007, but proposed new rules may help revive interest in the country. Read more of this post

What the short-sellers may have known in Singapore’s speculative penny stocks saga

What the short-sellers may have known

Thursday, Dec 19, 2013

Goh Eng Yeow

The Straits Times

For short-sellers operating in the big league, the modus operandi has always been to build up a large position in the target stock, then charge into town with guns blazing to tell the world what is wrong with it. Read more of this post

Malaysia’s Securities Commission tightens rules governing special purpose acquisition companies

Updated: Thursday December 19, 2013 MYT 4:45:22 PM

Securities Commission tightens rules governing special purpose acquisition companies

BY RISEN JAYASEELAN

PETALING JAYA: The Securities Commission has tightened the rules governing special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) including extending the moratorium on promoters and initial investors as well as capping the discounts these investors enjoy in their SPAC shares. Read more of this post

Time to end the SPAC-ulation? More than two years after the listing of Malaysia’s first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), it’s time to ask this question: Is it a good idea to have SPACs in Malaysia?

Updated: Saturday December 14, 2013 MYT 7:07:25 AM

Time to end the SPAC-ulation?

BY ERROL OH

We’re still waiting for SPACs to become capital market catalysts

MORE than two years after the listing of Malaysia’s first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), it’s time to ask this question: Is it a good idea to have SPACs in Malaysia? Read more of this post

Price increases driving Malaysian consumers crazy

Price increases driving Malaysian consumers crazy

Wednesday, December 18, 2013 – 09:01

The Star/Asia News Network

PETALING JAYA – With the sugar, fuel and cigarette price increases and an impending electricity tariff hike, a planned toll hike is driving consumers round the bend. Teacher Roger Ho, 28, said his toll costs would go up by RM4 daily if the proposed hike, as posted on Facebook, is to be believed. Read more of this post

S&P: Malaysia’s rising household debts may become ‘problematic’

Updated: Thursday December 12, 2013 MYT 8:10:46 AM

Malaysia’s rising household debts may become ‘problematic’

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s rising household debts, while still manageable in this current economic condition, would be “problematic” if the country’s growth rate slows, according to Standard & Poor’s (S&P). Read more of this post

Former Malaysian fund manager fined $390,000 for providing misleading disclosures

Former Malaysian fund manager fined $390,000 for providing misleading disclosures

Monday, December 16, 2013 – 19:03

AsiaOne

KUALA LUMPUR – The Court of Appeal on Friday (Dec 13, 2013) found Mohamed Bin Abdul Wahab, who was previously both a licensed fund manager and executive director of Metrowangsa Asset Management Sdn. Bhd. (Metrowangsa), guilty of authorising the furnishing of misleading statements to the Securities Commission (SC) in Metrowangsa’s semi-annual report from 2000 to 2001. Read more of this post

Why stagnation might prove to be the new normal; In the past decade, before the crisis, bubbles and loose credit were only sufficient to drive moderate growth

December 15, 2013 8:41 pm

Why stagnation might prove to be the new normal

By Lawrence Summers

In the past decade, before the crisis, bubbles and loose credit were only sufficient to drive moderate growth

Is it possible that the US and other major global economies might not return to full employment and strong growth without the help of unconventional policy support? I raised that notion – the old idea of “secular stagnation” – recently in a talk hosted by the International Monetary Fund. Read more of this post

What the Rest Really Should Learn From the West

What the Rest Really Should Learn From the West

In “Free to Choose,” Milton and Rose Friedman first posed the binary of private markets versus state intervention, which would come to underpin World Bank and International Monetary Fund reports, policies and prescriptions for the next two decades. According to the Friedmans, places such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore had succeeded due to their reliance on “private markets.” India, China and Indonesia had stagnated after “relying heavily on central planning.” Read more of this post

Wealthy N.Y. Residents Escape Tax With Trusts in Nevada

Wealthy N.Y. Residents Escape Tax With Trusts in Nevada

Wealthy Americans looking to avoid state income taxes are moving billions of dollars in assets to trusts in no-tax states such as Delaware, Nevada and Alaska. The maneuvers are getting fresh scrutiny from officials in states including New York, which is losing an estimated $150 million a year through such tax avoidance. As fewer Americans pay the estate tax and top earners in New York and California owe more state income taxes, wealth planners say their clients are looking for new ways to escape those levies. Read more of this post

Washington’s Worst Mistake of 2014? Veteran regulators warn against making asset managers too big to fail.

Washington’s Worst Mistake of 2014?

Veteran regulators warn against making asset managers too big to fail.

Dec. 16, 2013 7:19 p.m. ET

Some consequences of government action remain largely unforeseen until a moment of crisis. That will not be the case if Washington regulators forge ahead on a misguided attempt to treat every large financial firm like a bank. Read more of this post

The Top Post On Reddit’s Bitcoin Page Is A Suicide Hotline Phone Number

The Top Post On Reddit’s Bitcoin Page Is A Suicide Hotline Phone Number

ROB WILE

DEC. 18, 2013, 12:15 PM 3,549 9

Bitcoin is down 25% in the past 24 hours on USD exchanges, to an average of $559. As a result, redditors decided to perform a public service by “stickying” — artificially boosting the profile of — a post linking to a suicide hotline phone number. This is also the No. 5 post on reddit overall. Check it out:

The Threat to Mandela’s Economic Legacy

The Threat to Mandela’s Economic Legacy

By Mike Cohen December 12, 2013

Nelson Mandela, who died on Dec. 5, emerged from 27 years in prison in 1990 pledging to seize South Africa’s mines and banks. Instead, his government slashed spending and courted foreign investors, paving the way for the longest period of growth in the country’s history. “Only a Mandela could have realigned the African National Congress’s economic policy from the mindset of the 1950s to the world of the 1990s and beyond,” says Robert Schrire, a politics professor at the University of Cape Town. “He recognized that for the poor to prosper, the rich had to feel they had a future in the country.” Read more of this post

The Hidden Danger in Public Pension Funds; Their investments expose government budgets and taxpayers to 10 times more risk than in 1975

The Hidden Danger in Public Pension Funds

Their investments expose government budgets and taxpayers to 10 times more risk than in 1975.

ANDREW G. BIGGS

Dec. 15, 2013 6:26 p.m. ET

The threat that public-employee pensions pose to state and local government finances is well known—witness the federal ruling earlier this month that Detroit’s pension obligations are not sacrosanct in a municipal bankruptcy. Less well known is that pensions are larger and their investments riskier than at any point since public employees began unionizing in earnest nearly half a century ago. Read more of this post

The Gatsby Curve: How Inequality Became a Household Word

The Gatsby Curve: How Inequality Became a Household Word

By Brendan Greeley December 12, 2013

Alan Krueger stuck his head into the office in Washington, D.C., where the Council of Economic Advisers keeps its pool of research assistants and offered a deal. Krueger, then the council’s chairman, needed a name for a graph. He offered a bottle of wine to the researcher who could come up with the best one. The winner: “The Great Gatsby Curve.” That was in 2011. Krueger admits now that he’s not sure he ever delivered the wine. Read more of this post

Swiss Christmas Trees Feel Chill as Franc Helps Rivals

Swiss Christmas Trees Feel Chill as Franc Helps Rivals

By Patrick Winters – Dec 19, 2013

For 50 years, Alfred Spaltenstein and his family have grown Christmas trees at their farm outside of Zurich. Now the strong Swiss franc is threatening to spoil his festive spirit. Read more of this post

Spanish Defaults Surge as Banks Forced to Come Clean: Mortgages

Spanish Defaults Surge as Banks Forced to Come Clean: Mortgages

By Sharon Smyth and Charles Penty – Dec 18, 2013

Liliana Proano Males won’t be decorating her house in Madrid this Christmas because she’s about to lose it. Males and her husband, who was fired from his job during the depths of the financial crisis in 2009, can no longer afford their mortgage. With Spain’s persistently high unemployment rate now at 26 percent, the couple is among the 350,000 homeowners who may be foreclosed upon by lenders in the next two years as the housing crisis worsens, according to AFES, a Madrid-based association that advises on restructuring debt. Since 2008, about 150,000 families have been hit with a foreclosure. Read more of this post

Secret Inside BofA Office of CEO Stymied Needy Homeowners; “I can’t believe Bank of America was allowed to do the horrible things it did to me and others.”

Secret Inside BofA Office of CEO Stymied Needy Homeowners

Isabel Santamaria thought she finally caught a break in her effort to save her Florida home from foreclosure after nine frustrating months: She reached Bank of America Corp.’s Office of the CEO and President. Read more of this post

Russia to Get Tough on Shadow Economy; Central Bank Cracking Down on Institutions That Engage in ‘Dubious Financial Operations’

Russia to Get Tough on Shadow Economy

Central Bank Cracking Down on Institutions That Engage in ‘Dubious Financial Operations’

ANDREY OSTROUKH

Dec. 18, 2013 9:26 a.m. ET

MOSCOW—The Bank of Russia will seek to rein in the county’s shadow economy by purging “illegitimate” banks in an effort to reduce billions of dollars in capital outflows, central bank chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina said Wednesday. Read more of this post

Robust Auditor Reports Lure Investors: PCAOB Audit Chief; But CFOs have felt that auditor reports shouldn’t say more than that their companies’ financials were reported fairly

December 12, 2013

Robust Auditor Reports Lure Investors: PCAOB Audit Chief

But CFOs have felt that auditor reports shouldn’t say more than that their companies’ financials were reported fairly.

David M. Katz

While CFOs have opposed proposals to make auditor reports more than pass-fail check-offs of company financials, adding information to the report could attract capital markets investment, the chief auditor of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board contends. Read more of this post

Promise – and potential – in Israel; Ari Shavit offers an unvarnished but optimistic assessment of his homeland

Promise – and potential – in Israel

December 12, 2013: 7:42 AM ET

Ari Shavit offers an unvarnished but optimistic assessment of his homeland.

By David Whitford, editor-at-large

FORTUNE — For my first trip to Israel I prepared three ways. First I watched NationalGeographic’s IMAX movie, Jerusalem,  which helped me get my bearings. Next I reread Thomas Friedman’s 1989 classic, From Beirut to Jerusalem — still a terrific introduction to the region’s cast of characters (and a gripping foreign correspondent’s memoir to boot). Finally I followed Friedman’s advice to President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and I read Ari Shavit’s just-published bestseller, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. Read more of this post

NYC Taxi Drivers See Green as New Cabs Cruise to Brooklyn

NYC Taxi Drivers See Green as New Cabs Cruise to Brooklyn

Six coats of DuPont GS028 paint did more than change Porfirio Valdez’s 2006 Lincoln Town Car from black to the color of a green apple. The new look almost doubled his income, too. Read more of this post

Norway Business Group Sees Long Effort to Rebuild Investor Faith

Norway Business Group Sees Long Effort to Rebuild Investor Faith

Norway will need years to smooth out the damage caused by unexpected cuts to gas pipeline tariffs and the withdrawal of support for its export credit lender, according to the head of its biggest business group. Read more of this post

Misleading CEO Pay-for-Performance Numbers Target of SEC

Misleading CEO Pay-for-Performance Numbers Target of SEC

With its stock price depressed and shareholders objecting to how much its top officers were paid, Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT) worked to show that its chief executive officer was sharing the pain. Read more of this post