U.S. Authorities Investigating Western Union over money moved on its network that may have been tied to alleged fraud

U.S. Authorities Investigating Western Union

Company Says It Has Received Multiple Subpoenas Since November

ANDREW R. JOHNSON

Updated Feb. 24, 2014 6:53 p.m. ET

Western Union Co. WU +1.93% , the world’s largest money-transfer company, is being investigated by the U.S. government over money moved on its network that may have been tied to alleged fraud, according to a regulatory filing released Monday.

The Englewood, Colo.-based company said in the filing it has received multiple subpoenas since Nov. 25 from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Read more of this post

Beijing Squeezes Hong Kong’s Media; China reneges on the democracy and freedom it promised

Beijing Squeezes Hong Kong’s Media

China reneges on the democracy and freedom it promised.

Updated Feb. 24, 2014 7:14 p.m. ET

Hong Kong’s battle over press freedom is escalating, as several thousand journalists and regular Hong Kongers marched on Sunday to protest increasing government pressure on independent media. The “Free Speech, Free Hong Kong” rally is the latest sign that locals won’t quietly let Beijing renege on promises to grant the city democratic self-government by 2017. Read more of this post

China’s Premier Lays Out Corruption Fight Plan

Feb 24, 2014

China’s Premier Lays Out Corruption Fight Plan

One of the biggest obstacles China’s leadership faces in fighting corruption, according to Premier Li Keqiang, is the Chinese government.

In newly published remarks, Premier Li said the government’s broad regulatory powers over markets and business are key drivers of rampant graft.  He named bidding for construction projects, government procurement and the awarding of land-use and mining rights as areas particularly prone to corruption. Read more of this post

Beijing Choking on Air Pollution

Feb 24, 2014

Beijing Choking on Air Pollution

Despite closing dozens of factories, halting outdoor construction and sending teams to inspect factories, Beijing on Monday entered its fifth day of intense air pollution, with city officials forecasting the smog to last for at least another three days.

Since Friday, 36 companies in Beijing have suspended production, while another 75 have cut output in a bid to curb emissions and make the air more breathable, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology. Read more of this post

Taiwan Considers Tax Increase on High-Income Earners

Taiwan Considers Tax Increase on High-Income Earners

Government Also Looking at Boosting Taxes on Financial Institutions

ARIES POON And FANNY LIU

Feb. 24, 2014 6:11 a.m. ET

TAIPEI—Taiwan’s government, running a deficit budget for the sixth straight year, is considering increasing taxes on high-income earners and financial institutions, as the export-dependent economy is showing more signs of picking up.

Finance Minister Chang Sheng-ford said Monday the government is looking at raising the top rate of income tax to 45% from 40% on individuals whose annual taxable income exceeds 10 million New Taiwan dollars (US$329,161). Read more of this post

JPMorgan To Fire Thousands

JPMorgan To Fire Thousands

Tyler Durden on 02/24/2014 19:27 -0500

Following last year’s realization that mortgage origination as a product line is effectively dead (which has forced such origination dependent banks as Wells Fargo to return to subprime lending in hopes of keeping the revenue stream alive, knowing full well how it all ends), and that only investors and “all cash” buyers are keeping the myth of the housing recovery alive on their shoulders, banks fired tens of thousands of workers in the mortgage business hoping to stem the bottom line bleeding from the collapse in revenues. It turns out that they didn’t fire enough and/or that the housing market contraction was far worse than even the banks, in their most, pessimistic forecasts, had expected. Case in point: JPMorgan, which after firing 15,000 in its mortgage business, has just revealed it will fire thousands more. Read more of this post

Technology Unlocks “Economies Of Unscale” For Small Businesses

Technology Unlocks “Economies Of Unscale” For Small Businesses

Posted 7 hours ago by Hemant Taneja (@htaneja)

Editor’s note: Hemant Taneja is a partner at General Catalyst and an investor in Stripe, Snapchat and Tunein. Follow him on Twitter@htaneja.

It’s been an exhilarating time for small business owners. Twenty years ago, they lacked the tools to expand outside of their niche markets. Today, the Internet opens a flourishing global market of consumers ready and willing to engage with businesses of any size. As Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe, once told me, the company’s largest customers may not even exist today. Anyone can turn a living room idea into the next Fortune 500 company. Read more of this post

Success splitting China’s startups

Success splitting China’s startups

Staff Reporter 

2014-02-23

Kungfu Catering Management founder Cai Dabiao. (Photo/CFP)

Even if startups can make down the long road to riches, the test is not over. The increasing number of ligitations in China point to the conflict between partners in their now-profitable ventures, where solidarity meets conflicting interests and concepts. Read more of this post

Half of China’s major cities face risk of propery bubble burst

Half of China’s major cities face risk of propery bubble burst

Staff Reporter

2014-02-24

The property markets in more than half of 120 cities at prefecture level and above in China have been exposed to risks, according to a survey cited by our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

The cities at risk are facing excessive property supply and extremely imbalanced economic structures. Read more of this post

World’s largest drilling services firm Boart Longyear posts full-year net loss of 620 mln USD

Feb. 24 (Xinhua) — Boart Longyear, the world’s largest drilling services company, on Monday posted a net loss of 620 million U.S. dollars for the full year ended December 31, 2013, down from a 68 million U.S. dollar net profit in 2012.

The company said the result was hit by 461 million U.S. dollars of restructuring costs and impairments after cutting nearly 3,500 jobs in the past year.

Boart Longyear’s revenue was 1.22 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, compared to 2.01 billion U.S. dollars in 2012. Read more of this post

Tesla faces bumpy ride in China

BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) — Like Steve Jobs, the founder of Tesla Motors Elon Musk is called a genius and is highly skilled in hype. Read more of this post

The world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund is looking to more than double the number of industry specialists in its equities team as the $840bn Norwegian oil fund steps up efforts to outperform global stock markets

February 23, 2014 9:31 pm

Norway’s oil fund to double specialists

By Richard Milne in Oslo

The world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund is looking to more than double the number of industry specialists in its equities team as the $840bn Norwegian oil fund steps up efforts to outperform global stock markets.

Norway’s oil fund is one of the world’s biggest equity investors, owning on average 1.25 per cent of every listed company globally. Read more of this post

China’s State-Owned Sector Gets a New Boost

China’s State-Owned Sector Gets a New Boost

BOB DAVIS

Updated Feb. 23, 2014 6:20 p.m. ET

When China’s leaders wanted to give a boost to the domestic semiconductor industry last year, a big state-owned electronics company scooped up smaller privately owned chip-design and chip-making firms.

Beijing followed the same script to get control of the sprawling, polluting rare-earths industry: A big state-owned company purchased nine firms in December that mine the minerals used in such strategic industries as defense and telecommunications. Read more of this post

Myanmar Farmland Gets Closer to Vision as Economic Engine; Company Behind Japanese-Backed Investment Zone Prepares to Issue Shares

Myanmar Farmland Gets Closer to Vision as Economic Engine

Company Behind Japanese-Backed Investment Zone Prepares to Issue Shares

SHIBANI MAHTANI

Feb. 23, 2014 8:07 p.m. ET

THILAWA, Myanmar—A field littered with roaring tractors and herds of cows ambling in the distance doesn’t look like the future of Myanmar’s economic reforms.

But as the company behind the Japanese-backed Thilawa Special Economic Zone prepares to issue shares next month—hoping to raise $21.7 million to fund the project—the vision of this rural Yangon suburb as Southeast Asia’s next manufacturing hub is inching closer to realization. Read more of this post