More than half of China’s most powerful officials have links to tax havens. Now what?

More than half of China’s most powerful officials have links to tax havens. Now what?

By Heather Timmons @HeathaT

4 hours ago

Five current and recent members of the Chinese Communist Party’s most powerful group, the Politburo Standing Committee, have family members who are stashing assets in overseas tax havens, according to a wide-ranging report published Jan. 21 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Read more of this post

Pollution From China Is Hitting America’s West Coast

Pollution From China Is Hitting America’s West Coast

REUTERS

JAN. 21, 2014, 6:34 AM 65,529 71

Los Angeles received at least an extra day of smog a year from nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide from China’s export-dependent factories. BEIJING (Reuters) – Pollution from China travels in large quantities across the Pacific Ocean to the United States, a new study has found, making environmental and health problems unexpected side effects of U.S. demand for cheap China-manufactured goods. Read more of this post

Private equity lessons from the pig factory; Financiers could play a transformational role at China’s SOEs

January 21, 2014 10:35 am

Private equity lessons from the pig factory

By Paul J Davies

Financiers could play a transformational role at China’s SOEs

When Shuanghui International lists in Hong Kong sometime in the next few months it will give the world a novel beast: a sino-US pork giant worth up to $12bn. But this beast almost certainly would not have been created without the push of private equity. Read more of this post

Struggling hotels in China cut star ratings to woo customers following Beijing’s crackdown on government excess

Struggling hotels in China cut star ratings to woo customers

Staff Reporter

2014-01-22

A total of 56 Chinese hotels have lowered or done away with their ratings to survive following Beijing’s crackdown on government excess, reports the state-run China News Service, citing Chen Miaolin, vice president of the China Tourism Association and chairman of the Zhejiang-based New Century Tourism Group. Read more of this post

China’s Sina, Baidu and Other Big Websites Are Hit With Disruptions

Jan 21, 2014

China’s Sina, Baidu and Other Big Websites Are Hit With Disruptions

PAUL MOZUR

A large portion of Internet traffic in China on Tuesday was redirected to servers run by a small U.S. company.  The company, which publicly opposes China’s efforts to control Internet content, says it wasn’t at fault. Read more of this post

Milk Reaches Record as U.S. Exports Climb Amid Drought

Milk Reaches Record as U.S. Exports Climb Amid Drought

Milk futures in Chicago jumped to the highest on record, signaling higher costs for consumers, as exports surge and a record drought threatens output in California, the nation’s top producer. Read more of this post

Brazilian shampoo, Italian ice cream, and Vietnamese detergent: Unilever’s take on consumer trends

Brazilian shampoo, Italian ice cream, and Vietnamese detergent: Unilever’s take on consumer trends

By Jason Karaian @jkaraian

January 21, 2014

There are few better barometers for global consumer goods demand than Unilever, given its uniquely diverse product range and sprawling geographic presence. So when the Anglo-Dutch company reports results, analysts comb its financial statements and parse its executives’ comments for clues on broader spending trends. Read more of this post

The Canadian company that runs the popular bike-sharing schemes in New York, London and Sydney has gone bankrupt, after two US cities withheld C$5.6m in payments amid widespread software glitches

January 21, 2014 7:43 pm

Public Bicycle-Sharing Company wobbles into bankruptcy

By Robert Wright in New York

The Canadian company that runs the popular bike-sharing schemes in New York, London and Sydney has gone bankrupt, after two US cities withheld C$5.6m in payments amid widespread software glitches. Read more of this post

Why hasn’t Japan’s massive government debt wreaked havoc (yet)?

Why hasn’t Japan’s massive government debt wreaked havoc (yet)?

Charles Yuji Horioka, Takaaki Nomoto, Akiko Terada-Hagiwara, 21 January 2014

Japan’s sovereign debt-to-GDP ratio is higher than any country in Europe and more than twice the OECD average. This column explains why Japan’s massive government debt did not wreak havoc in the past. Robust domestic saving and a temporary inflow of foreign capital caused by the Global Crisis have prevented a crisis thus far. As both of these factors become less applicable the government faces pressure to reduce debt-to-GDP ratio can be brought under control quickly. Read more of this post

Goldman’s Matsui Turns Abe to Womenomics for Japan Growth

Goldman’s Matsui Turns Abe to Womenomics for Japan Growth

When her sister graduated from Harvard University in 1981, Kathy Matsui’s father gave her a choice: Get accepted, or get ready for a lifetime of labor raising roses.

From the farm in Salinas, California, to Harvard and Goldman Sachs (GS) Group Inc. in Tokyo, the family work ethic has underpinned a career that lifted Matsui to the top of her profession. Now, 14 years after publishing her ideas on how to upend gender roles in the Japanese workforce under a doctrine known as womenomics, Matsui has the ear of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who made her research into a plank of his growth plan. Read more of this post

Japan’s centenarian companies survive by adapting

Centenarian companies survive by adapting

Wednesday, Jan 22, 2014

The Japan News/ Asia News Network

The business environment surrounding companies remains difficult despite the positive signs in the nation’s economy brought about by the Abenomics economic policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Read more of this post

Strife Sends Cumin to the Fore in India; Speculators and Indian Farmers Are Attracted to Profits From the Yellow-Brown Spice

Strife Sends Cumin to the Fore in India

Speculators and Indian Farmers Are Attracted to Profits From the Yellow-Brown Spice

BIMAN MUKHERJI

Jan. 21, 2014 7:35 p.m. ET

VANOD, India—Traders and Indian farmers alike are reaping an unlikely windfall from unrest in Syria: a booming cumin market. Syria was India’s biggest rival in exports of the yellow-brown spice, which is a crucial ingredient in Middle Eastern, Asian and Mediterranean cuisines and adds a dash of flavor for kitchens in the West. But the truckloads of cumin that once regularly left Syria for the Mideast spice hub of Dubai have slowed to a trickle since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. Read more of this post

Indian Companies Sell Assets to Ease Debt; Rising Non-Performing Loans Prompt Banks to Pressure Borrowers

Indian Companies Sell Assets to Ease Debt

Rising Non-Performing Loans Prompt Banks to Pressure Borrowers

KENAN MACHADO

Jan. 21, 2014 7:49 a.m. ET

Indian firms are selling their assets to raise cash, as banks are tightening the screws on loan repayments to help stem rising bad debt. Several companies sold pieces of their business last year, and bankers say more are likely to do so in the coming year, as the Indian economy continues to be sluggish and interest rates remain high. Read more of this post

India’s bootleg luxury industry may be growing twice as fast as its real one

India’s bootleg luxury industry may be growing twice as fast as its real one

By Lily Kuo @lilkuo

January 21, 2014

India’s promise as the world’s next big luxury market has disappointed many a peddler of couture. In 2011, Hermès only managed to sell six of its much-hyped 28 limited-edition saris in the country. Today, the country accounts for just a fraction of the global market’s luxury sales. Read more of this post

‘Anarchist’ Delhi Chief Ends Protest as Tactics Questioned

Delhi ‘Anarchist’ Chief Minister Ends Sit-In as Tactics Queried

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ended a sit-in that sought to gain control over the Indian capital’s police force after officers were put on leave and amid questions it might hurt his party’s general election prospects. Read more of this post

Thaksin corruption claims stoke Thai protest outrage

Thaksin corruption claims stoke Thai protest outrage

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 – 23:21

AFP

Corruption allegations against former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra are at the centre of an anti-government campaign by protesters who say that while graft is endemic his billionaire family overstepped the mark. Read more of this post