R.E.S.-ilience in Value Creation 《竹经：经商经世离不得立根创新》
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
DECEMBER 20, 2013, 12:01 AM
Who Says Laughter’s the Best Medicine?
By JAN HOFFMAN
Just in time to protect patients from the dangers of holiday cheer, a new scholarly review from a British medical journal describes many harmful effects wrought by laughter. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
2013-12-06 17:08
Serendipity
Hyon O’Brien
The 18th century litterateur Horace Walpole was taken by a Persian fairy tale called “The Three Princesses of Serendip,” whose heroes, as he said, “were always making accidental discoveries of things they were not in quest of.” Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
The Financial Crisis: Why Have No High-Level Executives Been Prosecuted?
January 9, 2014 issue
Five years have passed since the onset of what is sometimes called the Great Recession. While the economy has slowly improved, there are still millions of Americans leading lives of quiet desperation: without jobs, without resources, without hope. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 2:57:48 PM
The Downfall of John Taylor
From aiCIO magazine’s December issue: Generations of hedge funds rose and fell; FX Concepts endured. Then, the unshakeable disintegrated. So how did John Taylor’s steady reign end in ruin? Leanna Orr reports.
The Champagne was flowing at the 21 Club in New York City. It had been a good year. FX Concepts employees, gathered at the 2006 holiday dinner party, quieted down as the firm’s founder, chairman, and CEO took to the front of the room for his address. He held up a brick. Did anyone know what it meant, John Taylor asked. Then he filled them in: On top of the performance and trading bonuses, which promised to be bountiful, FX Concepts was sending all 60 or so staff members and their partners to the BRIC country of their choosing—first class all the way. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2013
Geography and American Destiny
By JOHN STEELE GORDON | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR
How the American economy was built on smuggling.
Imagine that North America was somehow flipped, so that East was West and West was East. The continent’s West Coast, as we know it, would face the Atlantic and Europe. That would have greatly affected the history of this country. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
U.S. Military Lingo: The (Almost) Definitive Guide
by BEN BRODY Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Confessions of an Institutional Investor
by Downtown Josh Brown – December 6th, 2013, 7:00am
Josh here – the other day I did a post about the amazing complexity and obsession with tail risk that’s caused so many professionally-managed investment pools to miss the market over the last few years (see: I don’t understand). Every general fights the last war, as they say, and a portfolio geared toward having a 2008-like event every year is a loser. Why invest at all if that’s your expectation? I was inundated with responses to this – from professional investors to fiduciaries who sit on board and councils to my colleagues who advise these gargantuan pools of assets. One incredible response I share with you below. I am leaving the author of this anonymous given their current position, but this is about as raw and honest a take from the inside as you will ever come across. No one working in the field would ever be able to say this out loud. The intent of this author is to (hopefully) influence the current investment management debate. At the institution the author works for, no one is interested in deviating from the status quo, no one wants the risk of picking their heads up and trying something new. The author believes that the consequences of these systemically failed investment policies will ultimately represent a tragedy of lost opportunity and perhaps even unfunded needs. Enjoy! – JB Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Pharma Cost Cuts Could Be a Tonic for Quintiles
HELEN THOMAS
Dec. 20, 2013 12:44 p.m. ET
The pharmaceutical industry is getting into virtual reality. Investors wanting to play the game should consider U.S.-listed Quintiles Transnational Holdings. Q +0.58% Drug makers have in recent years turned to contract-research organizations to carry out large clinical trials needed to win approval for new medicines, an outsourcing trend known as “virtualization.” The global market for outsourced development is about $26 billion, estimates Jefferies. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Health care in America: Going public, and private; The fuss over Obamacare’s teething troubles is obscuring a bigger story for investors: American health care is gradually being both nationalised and privatised
Dec 21st 2013 | NEW YORK | From the print edition
FOR the past three months American politicians have been rowing over the disastrous launch of Obamacare’s website, on which people can shop for health insurance. The new online “exchanges”, created under America’s health reforms to provide cheap private care for millions of uninsured people, are so far the most visible element of Obamacare. Once the software glitches are fixed, sellers of private health plans should gain new customers. But in the years ahead they have a far bigger opportunity: as more Americans come to depend on the government to pay for their treatments, more of them will have their publicly funded health care managed in some way by private insurers. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
For the Mentally Ill, Finding Treatment Grows Harder
New health-care law may add to crunch for enough treatment
GARY FIELDS and JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN
Updated Dec. 20, 2013 10:35 p.m. ET
WSJ reporter Gary Fields discusses his series about the shortage of treatment for the mentally ill and its impact on families, communities and the criminal justice system. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
When a Good Indicator Goes Bad
By John Rekenthaler | 12-17-13 | 02:45 PM | Email Article
The New Normal
The vaunted cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio, or CAPE, developed by Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller, is busted. The article “Fixing the Shiller CAPE: Accounting, Dividends, and the Permanently High Plateau” from Jesse Livermore’s blog “Philosophical Economics” is the best attempt yet at explaining why. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Japan Inc. builds mountain of cash
BY TORU FUJIOKA
BLOOMBERG
DEC 20, 2013
Japanese companies’ cash holdings rose to a record last quarter, highlighting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s struggle to spur the investment and wage increases needed to end a 15-year deflationary malaise. Corporate holdings of cash and deposits rose to ¥224 trillion, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, according to a Bank of Japan report released Thursday. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Corporate entertaining in Japan: Kanpai! Wining, dining and gift-giving are to become tax-deductible for big firms
Dec 14th 2013 | TOKYO | From the print edition
ALREADY, confides a kimono-clad hostess at Maiko, one of the pricier nightclubs in Ginza, Tokyo’s entertainment district, the efforts to revive Japan’s economy by Shinzo Abe, the country’s prime minister, are having a positive effect. The atmosphere at Maiko is indeed buoyant, as a billionaire entrepreneur and other moguls make a late-night entrance into the establishment’s convivial salon. Things could soon get even better. The government’s latest ploy to revitalise the economy is to make corporate entertainment by large companies partially tax-deductible. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Jokowi & Vox Populi
By Yanto Soegiarto on 2:46 pm December 11, 2013.
Ask a taxi driver, a street vendor, or any ordinary citizen who they’d want to have as Indonesia’s next president and the likely answer will be Joko Widodo, the current governor of Jakarta. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
JIM ROGERS: If India Can Successfully Convince Its People To Sell Gold, Then Who Knows How Low Prices Can Go?
DEC. 20, 2013, 12:44 PM 2,052 4
Gold has had a nice runup for over a decade now, but it has taken a beating this year. The yellow metal is currently trading at three-year lows. We reached out to commodities expert Jim Rogers for his take on what will happen next in the gold markets. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Indian voters in assertive mood
Shivraj Singh Chouhan (3rd R), chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, greets his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters during his swearing-in ceremony in the central Indian city of Bhopal on December 14, 2013.
Saturday, December 21, 2013 – 09:00
The Straits Times
EDITORIAL
The results of the recent Indian state elections are a clear message to the ruling Indian National Congress that it should take the perils of incumbency seriously – when voters get jaded – as it prepares for the general election in May. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Indian dairy milks everything for a laugh
Amul ads have given their humorous take on topical issues for nearly 50 years
Published on Dec 21, 2013
(Above) An Amul ad doing a take on the movie Life Of Pi and its director, Lee Ang. Another Amul ad making reference to the current row between India and the United States involving diplomat Devyani Khobragade
By Nirmala Ganapathy India Correspondent In New Delhi
PROBABLY India’s oldest dairy brand, Amul butter is known for spreading not just tasty goodness but also topical humour. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
December 20, 2013 6:41 pm
Hong Kong shows its claws in $45m ruling against Tiger Asia
By Paul J Davies in Hong Kong
Two US-based hedge fund managers have been ordered to pay HK$45m (US$5.8m) to compensate investors, having admitted to insider trading in Hong Kong after a fight to block the regulator from taking action against them. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
DECEMBER 20, 2013, 12:20 PM
Beating Back Pain
Two months ago, I stepped into a shower in a hotel room in Baton Rouge, La., and felt a slight twinge in my back. I didn’t pay it much mind. I’ve experienced twinges from time to time, but for more than 25 years, I have been essentially free of back pain. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
CHARTS: Just How Big Is Walmart?
Its net sales equal some nations’ GDPs. Its grocery revenue makes Whole Foods’ look downright puny. In other words: really, really big.
—By Andy Kroll
These charts are part of Mother Jones‘ investigation into Walmart’s much-praised green makeover, for which reporter Andy Kroll traveled to China, the home of many of the retail giant’s manufacturers. He found that although Walmart claims to be monitoring its factories’ compliance with environmental and labor rules, its auditing system is plagued by corruption. What’s more, many factories outsource more than half their work to “shadow” factories—unregulated operations that auditors never visit at all.
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Last updated: December 9, 2013 4:09 pm
Shale gas boom helps US chemicals exports
By Ed Crooks in New York
The US chemicals industry is planning a sharp increase in its exports as a result of the cost advantage created by the shale gas boom, putting pressure on competitors in Europe and Asia. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Mexico to End 75 Years of Govt Control of Vast Oil Reserves
By Adam Williams, Eric Martin & Nacha Cattan on 10:10 am December 15, 2013.
Mexico City. Mexico’s Congress approved a bill to end a 75-year state oil monopoly and generate as much as $20 billion in additional foreign investment a year. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
December 18, 2013, 4:34 PM
Unsold: Ten Million Pounds of McDonald’s Mighty Wings
Some McDonald’s franchisees are in a flap over a chicken wings promotion that flopped. McDonald’s, which has been struggling to attract customers amid a sluggish economy and has suffered from some operational missteps, purchased approximately 50 million pounds of chicken wings for a limited-time promotion in the fall, according to a person familiar with the matter. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
How Madonna’s $35 Tops Make Macy’s Unbeatable: Corporate Finance
Macy’s Inc. (M) is rewarding bondholders with the retail industry’s biggest returns as the most-profitable U.S. department store boosts sales in the face of what may be the weakest holiday shopping season since 2009. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Xi Weakens Role of Beijing’s No. 2
Expanding His Own Remit Further, President Takes Lead on Economy, Traditionally Premier’s Turf
JEREMY PAGE, BOB DAVIS and LINGLING WEI
Dec. 20, 2013 8:20 p.m. ET
China’s President Xi Jinping, right, walks ahead of Premier Li Keqiang at a ceremony in Beijing on Oct. 1.Reuters
BEIJING—British officials were finalizing details of Prime Minister David Cameron‘s visit this month to Beijing when they received a last-minute scheduling change: President Xi Jinping would host a banquet in Mr. Cameron’s honor. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Lavish funerals go up in smoke as China orders frugality
Friday, December 20, 2013 – 11:50
AFP
BEIJING- Chinese officials have been ordered to tone down their increasingly extravagant funerals, state media said Thursday, as Beijing made clear its sweeping austerity crackdown applies even in death. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Guangdong worries bird flu outbreak is possible
Friday, December 20, 2013 – 09:44
Zheng Caixiong and Shan Juan
China Daily/Asia News Network
CHINA – Guangdong province has warned of a possible outbreak of H7N9 bird flu in the coming months after a new case was reported on Wednesday. Zhang Yonghui, director of Guangdong provincial centre of disease control, warned that Guangdong has entered a peak period for flu cases. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
China’s Achilles’ heel: Growing foreign oil and gas dependency
Tim Daiss
2013-12-21
Amid news of China’s GDP growth for the third quarter, still stellar at 7.8% compared to the rest of the world, its impressive US$3.66 trillion in foreign currency reserves — the largest in the world — and even its recent successful unmanned moon mission, China has an Achilles’ heel, a weakness that is mounting and posed to worsen in coming years: its dependency on foreign oil and natural gas. Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
China’s financial system is in crisis mode again, and the central bank’s billions aren’t helping
By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros December 20, 2013
On Dec. 20, as China’s overnight money-market rate surged to 10%—the level reached during the country’s cash crunch last June—the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) pumped a reported 200 billion yuan into the system. That brought rates down to 7%.
But it wasn’t enough. Rates neared 10% once again today. And the PBOC’s floodgates swung open, again. In total, it injected 300 billion yuan in the last three days via its short-term liquidity operation (SLO), the PBOC said over Sina Weibo (link in Chinese; registration required). Here’s a look at the 7-day rate, viaBloomberg’s Tom Orlik: Read more of this post
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
China to Open More of Government Market to Foreign Firms
Wants to Join Global Pact on Government Purchases
BOB DAVIS
Updated Dec. 20, 2013 10:33 a.m. ET
BEIJING—China said it would agree to open more of its vast government market to foreign firms as part of a decadelong bid to join a global pact on government purchases, which could ultimately benefit Chinese companies too. Read more of this post
咬定青山不放松，立根原在破岩中。 千磨万击还坚劲，任尔东西南北风。
Bamboo Innovator 