The cost of setting up Food Opera is around 15-20 percent higher than that of an ordinary Food Republic, which has emerged as largest food court chain in HK

Taste of glory
Imogene Wong
Monday, December 30, 2013

Foodie Jenson Ong Shin-hock turned his passion into a life-long career. Now the pioneering businessman is tasting success in the food atrium business well beyond his Singapore base. Read more of this post

Singapore’s Developers Move From Best to Worst: Southeast Asia

Singapore’s Developers Move From Best to Worst: Southeast Asia

Singapore’s developers posted the worst performance on the benchmark Straits Times Index (FSSTI) this year after recording the biggest gains in 2012 as property curbs drove home sales lower and slowed price gains. Read more of this post

When Fortress S’pore lost its aura

When Fortress S’pore lost its aura

Monday, December 30, 2013 – 08:52

Chua Mui Hoong

The Straits Times

If there is one word to sum up Singapore’s experience this year, it would be Vulnerability. 2013 is the year the People’s Action Party lost whatever it might have retained of the lustre of invincibility. Read more of this post

A year of maturation for S’pore

A year of maturation for S’pore

This year has been an eventful year of maturation for Singapore. The first half of the year began with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) losing its second consecutive by-election in 12 months.

BY DEVADAS KRISHNADAS –

5 HOURS 15 MIN AGO

This year has been an eventful year of maturation for Singapore. The first half of the year began with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) losing its second consecutive by-election in 12 months. Read more of this post

New Zealand’s cows come home in its own commodities boom

New Zealand’s cows come home in its own commodities boom

December 30, 2013 – 2:34PM

Michael Pascoe

It’s bad enough losing the rugby, but in 2014 Australians will have to suffer Kiwis getting uppity about their economy as well. While our economic growth is stuck around 2.5 per cent, there’s talk New Zealand could be doing double that by the middle of the year. Read more of this post

Rising cost a challenge to Malaysian property developers

Updated: Monday December 30, 2013 MYT 12:43:51 PM

Rising cost a challenge to developers

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM

PETALING JAYA: Guocoland (M) Bhd sees the rising cost of development a growing challenge that is facing many developers within the local property sector. “The external market factors and Bank Negara’s stringent lending guidelines aside, the biggest factor will be the current rising cost of development,” said managing director Tan Lee Koon. Read more of this post

Turkey’s Economic Vulnerability Exposed as Graft Divides

Turkey’s Economic Vulnerability Exposed as Graft Divides

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan enters the last week of 2013 reeling from a corruption probe that has splintered his party and highlighted economic vulnerabilities as investors unload the nation’s risk. Read more of this post

Turkey Biggest Loser in World Stocks as Erdogan Crisis Persists

Turkey Biggest Loser in World Stocks as Erdogan Crisis Persists

The mounting power struggle between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the judiciary is turning the stock market into the world’s worst performer and driving the currency to unprecedented lows. Read more of this post

Stocks $3.7 Trillion Year Beats Bonds Most Ever as Funds Revive

Stocks $3.7 Trillion Year Beats Bonds Most Ever as Funds Revive

Five years after the equity bull market started, U.S. investors returned to stocks in 2013, just in time for the best relative returns versus bonds on record. Exchange-traded and mutual funds investing in shares took in about $162 billion, the most since 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Investment Company Institute. At the same time, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) climbed 29 percent, beating government debt by 32 percentage points, the widest spread since at least 1978, according to data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Bloomberg. Read more of this post

Stockpickers await their day with Godot; Will 2014 see the end of ‘risk-on, risk-off’ sentiment?

December 29, 2013 12:55 pm

Stockpickers await their day with Godot

By John Authers

Will 2014 see the end of ‘risk-on, risk-off’ sentiment? Will 2014 see the return of a stockpickers’ market? Investment managers have been waiting for it almost as long as Vladimir and Estragon waited for Godot. Year after year, at least since the credit crisis broke out in 2007, fund manager presentations have predicted an imminent end to the top-down waves of “risk-on” and “risk-off” sentiment that have driven all stocks together. This will give stockpickers the chance to shine. But it never happens. Read more of this post

New Kind of Stress Tests Big-Bank Outlook

New Kind of Stress Tests Big-Bank Outlook

DAVID REILLY

Dec. 29, 2013 7:55 p.m. ET

What is the endgame? That question is being raised more and more by bankers trying to assess the flood of new regulation continuing to wash over their firms. They will keep asking it in 2014 as even more rules are finalized and new ones crop up.

Read more of this post

Multinationals are now laying off or plan to let go of their workers globally amid a sluggish global economy

Multinationals laying off employees in China, elsewhere

Staff Reporter

2013-12-30

International firms are now laying off or plan to let go of their workers globally amid a sluggish global economy, according to the Beijing-based Economic Observer. A man, 52, going under the pseudonym Wang Jie, was one of the first employees at his multinational telecommunications equipment company to be let go two weeks ago. He understood the difficult situation his company was facing, but was still unable to accept the fact that he was fired after having worked with the firm since 1996. Read more of this post

Italy’s Chinese garment workshops boom as workers suffer

Italy’s Chinese garment workshops boom as workers suffer

5:11pm EST

By Silvia Aloisi

PRATO, Italy (Reuters) – Shen Jianhe lost both her job and home when Italian police shut down her garment factory in the Tuscan city of Prato. By day, the 38-year-old mother of four would sew trousers at one of the nearly 5,000 workshops run by Chinese immigrants in Prato, which largely turn out cheap clothing for fast-fashion companies in Italy and across Europe. Read more of this post

Immigrants are 13% of the U.S. population, but they make up nearly 20% of the owners of small businesses

More Immigration Means More Jobs for Americans

Immigrants are 13% of the U.S. population, but they make up nearly 20% of the owners of small businesses.

JOHN DEARIE And COURTNEY GEDULDIG

Updated Dec. 29, 2013 6:24 p.m. ET

Congress may be on recess, but top Republicans are signaling that 2014 could be crucial for immigration reform. On Dec. 16, Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said in a radio interview that the U.S. immigration system is “broken” and “indefensible” and that he will support reform as long as it “maintains Republican, conservative principles.” Speaker of the HouseJohn Boehner  seems to agree: The Ohio Republican recently hired a longtime immigration advocate as an adviser, after stating in November that reform is “absolutely not” dead. Read more of this post

France’s Hollande Gets Court Approval for 75% Millionaire Tax

France’s Hollande Gets Court Approval for 75% Millionaire Tax

French President Francois Hollande received approval from the country’s constitutional court to proceed with his plan to tax salaries above 1 million euros at 75 percent for this year and next. Read more of this post

Economic fears expose Laos’ unequal boom

Economic fears expose Laos’ unequal boom

Mon, Dec 23 2013

By Aubrey Belford and Amy Sawitta Lefevre

VIENTIANE (Reuters) – For the Communists running Laos, the fruits of capitalism have never been so bountiful. The Nam Phou fountain at the heart of the torpid capital, Vientiane, has transformed from a relic into a neon-lit phantasmagoria, surrounded by expensive restaurants. On the increasingly congested roads, the elite car choice is a Range Rover or, failing that, a Lexus. Read more of this post

Bitcoin Buys Burgers to Beer as Shoppers Go Virtual

Bitcoin Buys Burgers to Beer as Shoppers Go Virtual

What do a street-van burger, a wedding bouquet and a Beatles album have in common? They’re all on a growing list of products shoppers can buy over the counter using the virtual currency Bitcoin. Read more of this post

Accounting standards: The Tower of Babel; Notion of single accounting language is not progressing smoothly

December 29, 2013 5:24 pm

Accounting standards: The Tower of Babel

Notion of single accounting language is not progressing smoothly

The Tower of Babel, with its one-tongue culture, was a good idea that ended badly. The notion of a single accounting language – which should have similar appeal for investors – has not yet incurred divine wrath. But it is not progressing smoothly, either. International Financial Reporting Standards (or their predecessor rules) arrived in the early-1970s. Their usage took a big step forward when they became mandatory for EU-listed companies eight years ago. Today, they are deployed in more than 100 countries. Read more of this post

Britain must look beyond London and put faith in manufacturing

Britain must look beyond London and put faith in manufacturing

Redressing the balance of wealth to benefit the regions beyond the south-east is a big challenge – but one that must be met

The Observer, Sunday 29 December 2013

This month has seen further confirmation of Britain’s economic recoveryand an indictment of that recovery’s composition. If 2013 has brought some form of revival, then we must wish that 2014 brings balance to it. The evidence that this country’s return to growth is out of kilter was threefold. First, never-before-seen data showed that south-west London had more mortgage debt than all of Wales. The capital is at the centre of a housing market revival that is powering the recovery, while the rest of the UK trails in its wake. Indeed, 44% of all mortgage debt in the country is held by people in London and the south-east, areas which account for nearly 40% of British GDP. Read more of this post