Why is it so expensive to build a bridge in America? The answer: Our greedy and undemocratic political culture

Why is it so expensive to build a bridge in America?

The answer: Our greedy and undemocratic political culture

By Ryan Cooper | March 10, 2014

It’s become commonplace to note that U.S. infrastructure costs are very high. What is less appreciated is the staggering scale of the difference between American infrastructure costs and those of other nations. Like our health care, U.S. infrastructure isn’t just a tad higher than the next most expensive country — we pay something like twice as much as our closest peer (usually the U.K., which is itself a very expensive place). And when you compare America to, say, Spain, we’re talking order-of-magnitude differences. Read more of this post

How Finance Gutted Manufacturing

How Finance Gutted Manufacturing

Since the 1980s, financial market pressures have driven companies to hive off activities that sustained manufacturing

Monday, March 10, 2014

In May 2013 shareholders voted to break up the Timken Company—a $5 billion Ohio manufacturer of tapered bearings, power transmissions, gears, and specialty steel—into two separate businesses. Their goal was to raise stock prices. The company, which makes complex and difficult products that cannot be easily outsourced, employs 20,000 people in the United States, China, and Romania. Ward “Tim” Timken, Jr., the Timken chairman whose family founded the business more than a hundred years ago, and James Griffith, Timken’s CEO, opposed the move. Read more of this post

As Stock Picking Comes Back In, ETF Use Goes Out

Mar 13, 2014

As Stock Picking Comes Back In, ETF Use Goes Out

DAN STRUMPF

Here’s the latest evidence that stock picking is back: Investors are buying and selling fewer exchange-traded funds.

As big macroeconomic headlines recede, ETFs are falling out of favor. ETF volumes have dipped this year to about 16.5% of total equity volumes, down from 16.7% in 2013, according to analysts at Credit SuisseCSGN.VX -1.59% Trading Strategy. The data suggest that investors are increasingly favoring trades in individual stocks. Read more of this post

Celltrion plunges on delayed sales recognition

Celltrion plunges on delayed sales recognition

2014.03.12 16:58:48

Shares of Celltrion plunged Wednesday after its announce of poor earnings.
The company’s stock price declined 8.30 percent to close at 43,100 won, led by foreign investors.
The biosimilar maker said its 2013 operating profit reached 99.8 billion won ($93.26 million), down 48.9 percent from a year ago. Sales fell 35.4 percent to 226.2 billion won and net profit sank 41.3 percent to 102.5 billion won.  Read more of this post

Looming IKEA’s entry into S. Korea reshapes furniture market

Looming IKEA’s entry into S. Korea reshapes furniture market

2014.03.13 17:47:47

Global furniture behemoth IKEA will be entering South Korea eight months later. IKEA is preparing to make foray into the Korean market by offering up to 50 percent lower prices based on flat-pack, do-it-yourself (DIY) furniture, a set of separated pieces of furniture for easier mobility, and independent production and distribution network.  Read more of this post

Chaebol fear ISS proposals ahead of yearly AGMs; ISS is releasing reports opposing reappointments of many of their directors

Chaebol fear ISS proposals ahead of yearly AGMs

Morgan Stanley unit wields influence over foreign investors

BY KIM HYUN-YE [ssh@joongang.co.kr]

Mar 14,2014

Tension is growing at local companies ahead of their shareholders’ meetings as the U.S.-based International Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is releasing reports opposing reappointments of many of their directors.  Read more of this post

‘Shark processing hub’ of China sees business decline

‘Shark processing hub’ of China sees business decline

Staff Reporter 

2014-03-12

Puqi, a fishing port in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, has long been a center for the shark processing industry, but under pressure from foreign animal protection groups the port is seeing a sharp drop in its profits. Read more of this post

Local governments in China addicted to debt

Local governments in China addicted to debt

Staff Reporter 

2014-03-13

Local governments in China have incurred massive debts to fund huge infrastructural projects, a practice dubbed by scholars as an addiction which may prove difficult to wean, reports the China Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China. Read more of this post

Amit Jatia and McDonald’s 15-year Wait for Success

Amit Jatia and McDonald’s 15-year Wait for Success

by Shravan Bhat, Samar Srivastava | Mar 13, 2014

Amit Jatia and McDonald’s stuck by each other and adapted to value-conscious, vegetarian India. After 15 meagre years, they’re finally feasting Read more of this post

Self-Described Champion of India’s Poor Under Court Scrutiny; The jailed tycoon Subrata Roy faces accusations that many of his company’s investment vehicles are illegal and its investors fictitious

Self-Described Champion of India’s Poor Under Court Scrutiny

By GARDINER HARRISMARCH 13, 2014

Ink was thrown at Subrata Roy, chairman of the Sahara Group, as he arrived at India’s Supreme Court last week. CreditAssociated Press

NEW DELHI — Subrata Roy has long been one of Asia’s most flamboyant billionaires, a bejeweled, modern maharajah who lives on an opulent 270-acre estate and presides over the Sahara Group, which is, by its own account, India’s largest private employer. To his allies, Mr. Roy is an up-from-bootstraps hero who built from scratch a sprawling empire that provides vital financial services to India’s poor. Read more of this post

The clumsy bear mascot for a remote Kyushu farming region has rocketed to superstar fame and has notched up an unlikely marketing triumph in a nation obsessed with all things cute

Mascot Kumamon turns cute into bear market

BY HIROSHI HIYAMA

AFP-JIJI

MAR 12, 2014

Kumamon, the popular bear mascot of Kumamoto, draws a big crowd to a campaign event promoting food products from the prefecture in Tokyo on Feb. 23. | AFP-JIJI Read more of this post

NUS Risk Management Institute flags 16 China firms with high bond default risks

NUS unit flags 16 China firms with high bond default risks

The Business Times

13 March 2014

[SINGAPORE] Sixteen Chinese companies face a high chance of having their bonds default over the next year, given a lack

of cash and problems of overcapacity in their industry, data from National University of Singapore’s Risk Management

Institute (RMI) showed. Read more of this post