Scourge of Money Politics Raises Concerns Ahead of Indonesia’s Legislative Election

Scourge of Money Politics Raises Concerns Ahead of Indonesia’s Legislative Election

By Josua Gantan & Vita A.D. Busyra on 08:35 am Apr 02, 2014

Jakarta. Violations of campaign regulations are on the rise as Indonesia’s legislative election approaches. Read more of this post

Japan Reaches a Keynesian Cul-de-Sac; Japan hurtles toward fiscal cliff as money printing can’t make up for an economy’s decrepitude.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014

Japan Reaches a Keynesian Cul-de-Sac

By RANDALL W. FORSYTH | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Japan hurtles toward fiscal cliff as money printing can’t make up for an economy’s decrepitude. Read more of this post

Did Someone Front Run Michael Lewis? Unusual trading in shares of the Nasdaq suggests investors foresaw “Flash Boys” controversy

TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2014

Did Someone Front Run Michael Lewis?

By STEVEN M. SEARS | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Unusual trading in shares of the Nasdaq suggests investors foresaw “Flash Boys” controversy. Read more of this post

Acra sharpens focus on errant directors; Acra will roll out a directors’ compliance programme, said DPM Tharman, who was speaking at a dinner yesterday to mark Acra’s 10th anniversary

PUBLISHED APRIL 02, 2014

Acra sharpens focus on errant directors

JAMIE LEE

[SINGAPORE] The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) will push out more initiatives with the view to strengthen the competencies of company directors, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Read more of this post

Singapore’s troubled LionGold banking on Daim Zainuddin’s son

Troubled LionGold banking on Daim Zainuddin’s son

Wira Dani Abdul Daim is exec deputy chairman as well as exec director of firm Read more of this post

China PX plant protests spread to provincial capital Guangzhou

April 1, 2014 12:08 pm

China PX plant protests spread to provincial capital Guangzhou

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong Kong

Opposition to a chemical plant in China’s Guangdong province spread to Guangzhou on Tuesday as several hundred protesters demonstrated in the provincial capital. Read more of this post

Passport to an Indian success; “Entrepreneurship is like a bug. Your mind is always churning, looking around, observing things, observing people.”

Passport to an Indian success

By Avantika Chilkoti

International retailers are watching Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl’s progress in developing online retail in India

Kunal Bahl’s plans as a young graduate to work in the US for a few years were dashed in 2007, while he was working at Microsoft. The US government refused to renew his visa and he was forced to return home to Delhi. But that was just the push he needed, he says, to fulfil longstanding dreams. Read more of this post

Founder quits Russia’s largest social network, cementing the control of Kremlin-loyal tycoon Alisher Usmanov over a key platform amid moves by Putin’s government to tighten control over the country’s media

April 1, 2014 6:54 pm

Founder quits Russia’s largest social network

By Kathrin Hille in Moscow

Pavel Durov, the eccentric founder of Russia’s largest social network Vkontakte, has quit as the company’s chief executive, cementing the control of Kremlin-loyal tycoon Alisher Usmanov over a key platform amid moves by president Vladimir Putin’s government to tighten control over the country’s media. Read more of this post

Big pharma’s rise in China not held back by scandals

April 2, 2014 3:38 am

Big pharma’s rise in China not held back by scandals

By Andrew Ward in London and Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai

When Chinese authorities accused GlaxoSmithKline last summer of being the “godfather” at the centre of a network of corruption, big pharma braced for a prolonged period of turmoil in one of the world’s fastest-growing drugs markets. Read more of this post

Why investors in China houses shouldn’t throw stones; Lack of accountability and transparency is growing in the west

Why investors in China houses shouldn’t throw stones

By Paul J Davies in Hong Kong

In dealing with China, companies and politicians have often overlooked its shortcomings in human and democratic rights and problems with corruption. Financiers and investors in Asia, in fact, even admire the way in which the dominant one-party regime “gets stuff done” in contrast to India’s chaotic democracy – it is one of the biggest arguments against a hard landing, or policy paralysis for the economy. Read more of this post

iShares chief scorns global listing plan for Chinese equities; “Not until you have capital account liberalisation does it make any sense for our clients”

April 13, 2014 5:08 pm

iShares chief scorns global listing plan for Chinese equities

By Josh Noble in Hong Kong

The head of iShares – the world’s top provider of exchange traded funds – has poured cold water on plans from MSCI and FTSE to include mainland Chinese equities on their global indices, which are tracked by trillions of dollars of assets. Read more of this post

Slowdown puts 1bn middle class at risk

April 13, 2014 7:07 pm

Slowdown puts 1bn middle class at risk

By Shawn Donnan and John Burn-Murdoch in London

Almost a billion people in the developing world are at risk of slipping out of the ranks of a nascent middle class, according to FT analysis, raising questions about the durability of the past 30 years’ remarkable march out of poverty. Read more of this post

Africa must invest borrowings wisely; Corruption and mismanagement remain major problems

April 13, 2014 7:33 pm

Africa must invest borrowings wisely

Corruption and mismanagement remain major problems

South of the Sahara desert economic growth has flourished over the past decade. It is a remarkable transformation. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, sub-Saharan Africa was mired in seemingly endless rounds of painful defaults and debt relief negotiations. Today it is a magnet for international investors. Read more of this post

Jokowi embarks on ‘political safari’ to seek Indonesia coalition

April 13, 2014 10:37 am

Jokowi embarks on ‘political safari’ to seek Indonesia coalition

By Ben Bland in Jakarta

Indonesian presidential favourite Joko Widodo embarked on a scramble to find coalition partners over the weekend after his Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) failed to secure a decisive victory in Wednesday’s legislative elections. Read more of this post

Beware the market’s tendency to kill its darlings; Investors are by nature fickle and easily disappointed, writes Ruchir Sharma

April 13, 2014 6:03 pm

Beware the market’s tendency to kill its darlings

By Ruchir Sharma

Investors are by nature fickle and easily disappointed, writes Ruchir Sharma Read more of this post

Fidelity star manager Anthony Bolton: ‘I was wrong about the market in China’

April 13, 2014 3:06 am

Anthony Bolton: ‘I was wrong about the market in China’

By Bradley Gerrard

Star manager Anthony Bolton has admitted he was wrong about the Chinese stock market, as he hung up his fund management hat after 35 years.

Mr Bolton, who is best known for his stellar performance while managing Fidelity’s flagship Special Situations fund for 28 years, will now become a member of the board but will no longer run any money. Read more of this post

Analysis: A slippery ladder; The first of a series on the precarious rise from poverty of millions in the emerging world

April 13, 2014 6:43 pm

Analysis: A slippery ladder

By Shawn Donnan, Ben Bland and John Burn-Murdoch

The first of a series on the precarious rise from poverty of millions in the emerging world

Muljoko, a 27-year-old cleaner who works in one of Jakarta’s gleaming office towers, has all the trappings of a newly minted member of the middle class. He owns a motorcycle, slings a Sony smartphone and has a futuristic-looking phone-watch strapped to his wrist that he uses to text friends during working hours. Read more of this post

China’s shadow banks at risk of a property crash; Capital outflows and falling property values could create cascading losses; “Everyone focuses on the government’s ability, not its willingness, for bailouts. We are all too complacent.”

China’s shadow banks at risk of a property crash

By Henny Sender

Capital outflows and falling property values could create cascading losses Read more of this post

Paradox awaits a Prime Minister Modi; Success with the economy demands a readiness to wield power

The paradox that awaits a Prime Minister Modi

By Arvind Subramanian

Success with the economy demands a readiness to wield power, writes Arvind Subramanian Read more of this post

Debt troubles within the Great Wall; Credit cannot outgrow GDP forever, even in China. The question is how it will stop

Last updated: April 1, 2014 6:58 pm

Debt troubles within the Great Wall

By Martin Wolf

Credit cannot outgrow GDP forever, even in China. The question is how it will stop Read more of this post

Factoring in China’s Machinery Maker Blues; Chinese heavy equipment maker Zoomlion is suffering as customers delay making good on what they’ve bought. Now the banks want a piece too

Factoring in China’s Machinery Maker Blues

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA

Updated April 1, 2014 5:40 a.m. ET

At the foundation of China’s investment-driven economy lies concrete. So it doesn’t bode well that the makers of concrete and other construction equipment continue to suffer. Read more of this post