The hidden cost of Gangnam Style: What humanity could achieve if it weren’t galloping in front of computer screens

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

The hidden cost of Gangnam Style

Jun 3rd 2014, 13:23 by by G.S. and G.D.

What humanity could achieve if it weren’t galloping in front of computer screens

THE loony music video “Gangnam Style” surpassed two billion views on YouTube this week, making it the most watched clip of all time. At 4:12 minutes, that equates to more than 140m hours, or more than 16,000 years. What other achievements were forgone in the time spent watching a sideways shuffle and air lasso? It took 50m man-hours to complete the “supercarrier” USS Gerald Ford last year. Had people not been watching PSY—the South Korean pop star who released the song in July 2012—they could have constructed three such ships. Alternatively they could have built more than four Great Pyramids of Giza, or another Wikipedia, or six Burj Khalifas in Dubai (the world’s tallest building). The song’s nearest rival is Justin Bieber’s “Baby”, at a paltry one billion views. The opportunity cost of watching PSY’s frivolity is huge, but humanity has at least been entertained.

 

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7 Highlights From Malcolm Gladwell’s Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

7 Highlights From Malcolm Gladwell’s Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’

RICHARD FELONI STRATEGY  JUN. 4, 2014, 5:47 AM

Just about anything author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell has to say is interesting, even if you disagree with him.

He went on Reddit on Monday for anAsk Me Anything session to answer users’ questions, respond to critics, and offer insight into the way he thinks.

Here’s a look at the highlights:

On the “10,000 Rule,” which, as defined in “Outliers,” states that 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve mastery: Read more of this post

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Here’s How You Negotiate With The Chinese

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Here’s How You Negotiate With The Chinese

CONTRIBUTOR YOUR SAY  JUN. 4, 2014, 4:14 PM

It doesn’t take an economics expert to know that China is one of the global powerhouses for conducting business in.

This post is built on top of a previous article, How To Improve Your Negotiation Skills And Get Better Deals Off Suppliers. While that post offers basic negotiation skills, this article explores in-depth and detailed ‘rules’ to take note of when you negotiate with business owners in China.    Read more of this post

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Infosys Comeback Seen as Having a Long Way to Go

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Infosys Comeback Seen as Having a Long Way to Go

Ex-Chairman’s Return Brings a Vision and Boost, But Executives Leave and Growth is Slow

DHANYA ANN THOPPIL

June 10, 2014 11:04 a.m. ET

BANGALORE, India—One year after coming out of retirement to try to revive revenue growth at Indian IT outsourcing company Infosys Ltd. 500209.BY +1.78% ,N.R. Narayana Murthy still has a long way to go, analysts and investors say. Read more of this post

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Bankers Focus on Trading Firm in Search for Metals Used as Collateral; Western Bank Executives Say They Made Loans to Entities Linked to Qingdao-Based Decheng Mining

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Bankers Focus on Trading Firm in Search for Metals Used as Collateral

Western Bank Executives Say They Made Loans to Entities Linked to Qingdao-Based Decheng Mining

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ENDA CURRAN

June 10, 2014 12:26 p.m. ET

Bankers in China are focusing on the actions of a commodities-trading firm as they scramble to find metals they believed were backing loans but which appear to have been used as collateral multiple times. Read more of this post

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China Now Has More Millionaires Than Any Country but the U.S.

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Jun 10, 2014

China Now Has More Millionaires Than Any Country but the U.S.

There are now more millionaires in China than in Japan, as the wealthiest Chinese reaped huge returns from shadow-banking-related financial products, a new study revealed.

China had 2,378,000 millionaire households in 2013, a rise of 82% from the previous year and almost double the 1,240,000 millionaire households in Japan, according to the Boston Consulting Group Global Wealth 2014 report unveiled on Tuesday. Read more of this post

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Amazon.com plans to launch a marketplace for local services, a broad term that encompasses anything from babysitters to handymen to birthday clowns

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Amazon.com plans local services marketplace this year – sources

5:21pm EDT

By Deepa Seetharaman

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc later this year plans to launch a marketplace for local services, a broad term that encompasses anything from babysitters to handymen to birthday clowns, beginning with a single market, several people familiar with the matter said. Read more of this post

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Oracle’s Ellison debuts “in-memory” technology for faster databases in speeding up data analysis

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Oracle’s Ellison debuts technology for faster databases

2:39pm EDT

By Noel Randewich

REDWOOD CITY California (Reuters) – Oracle Corp (ORCL.N: Quote, Profile, Research,Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Larry Ellison on Tuesday launched “in-memory” technology for speeding up data analysis in a bid to beef up demand for his company’s software products. Read more of this post

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China’s Rehypothecation Scandal In One Chart

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

China’s Rehypothecation Scandal In One Chart

Tyler Durden on 06/10/2014 13:51 -0400

Remember how small Greece was and how it wasn’t relevant to US stocks… until suddenly it got close to breaking up the EU and the world’s markets slumped. Remember how small subprime was? Remember how Lehman was not a ‘big’ bank? We hear the same “why would that impact us?” chatter now about the China rehypothecation scandal and we suspect the outcome will be just as dramatic a “whocouldanode” moment for many. The problem, as this chart so simply explains, is “more warrants than the volume of the underlying physical commodities have been issued in the repo business” and that is a problem for every foreign bank that was tempted into China’s carry trade (which is “every” bank).

Simply put – the collateral that I promised you on my loan… I also promised to between 10 and 30 other people… but we’re good right?

image001 Read more of this post

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15 Quotes From The Founding Fathers About Economics, Capitalism And Banking

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

15 Quotes From The Founding Fathers About Economics, Capitalism And Banking

Tyler Durden on 06/10/2014 20:35 -0400

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

Why have we turned our backs on the principles that this nation was founded upon?  Many of those that founded this nation bled and died so that we could experience “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  And yet we have tossed their ideals aside as if they were so much rubbish.  Our founders had experienced the tyranny of big government (the monarchy) and the tyranny of the big banks and feudal lords, and they wanted something very different for the citizens of the new republic that they were forming.  They wanted a country where private property was respected and hard work was rewarded.  They wanted a country where the individual was empowered, and where everyone could own land and start businesses.  They wanted a country where there were severe restrictions on all large collections of power (government, banks and corporations all included).  They wanted a country where freedom and liberty were maximized and where ordinary people had the power to pursue their dreams and build better lives for their families.  And you know what?  While no system is ever perfect, the experiment that our founders originally set up worked beyond their wildest dreams.  But now we are killing it.  Why in the world would we want to do that? Read more of this post

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Disaggregating Operating and Financing Activities: Implications for Forecasts of Profitability

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Disaggregating Operating and Financing Activities: Implications for Forecasts of Profitability

Adam M. Esplin 

University of Alberta – Department of Accounting

Max R. Hewitt 

Indiana University – Kelley School of Business – Department of Accounting

Marlene Plumlee 

University of Utah – School of Accounting

Teri Lombardi Yohn 

Indiana University – Kelley School of Business – Department of Accounting
October 20, 2012
University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2014-09
2014, Review of Accounting Studies, 19 (1): 328-362 

Abstract: 
Researchers, practitioners, and standard setters emphasize the importance of disaggregating financial statements into operating and financial activities. However, there is a lack of research demonstrating that this disaggregation improves forecasts of profitability. In this study, we consider whether and when the operating/financial disaggregation improves forecasts of profitability. Contrary to the use of an ‘aggregate’ forecasting approach by most related prior research, we first show that the operating/financial disaggregation only provides forecast improvement over a benchmark model incorporating aggregate information when the ‘components’ forecasting approach is used. We also compare the operating/financial disaggregation to the unusual/infrequent disaggregation currently required by U.S. GAAP. We find that the operating/financial disaggregation yields less accurate forecasts than the unusual/infrequent disaggregation. However, when using the ‘components’ forecasting approach, we find that the co bination of both disaggregations improves forecasts of profitability. Finally, we document that the incremental usefulness of the operating/financial disaggregation relative to a benchmark model incorporating aggregate information is a function of growth and accounting conservatism. Overall, our study provides timely evidence concerning how analysts and investors might best use the operating/financial disaggregation for forecasting profitability.

 

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Everything Science Knows About Hangovers-And How to Cure Them

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Everything Science Knows About Hangovers—And How to Cure Them

BY ADAM ROGERS

05.20.14  |

Good morning, sunshine! You are so screwed.

The light coming in through the window is so … there. You’d kill for a glass of water but die if it came with food. Your guts are in full rebellion; whatever happens next is going to happen in the bathroom. You have at least a couple of the following symptoms: headache, malaise, diarrhea, loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, the shakes. You might also be dehydrated and feel generally slow—a little stupider, a little less coordinated. Read more of this post

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Thin Capitalization Rules and Multinational Firm Capital Structure

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Thin Capitalization Rules and Multinational Firm Capital Structure

Jennifer L. Blouin 

University of Pennsylvania – Accounting Department

Harry Huizinga 

Tilburg University – Center for Economic Research (CentER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Luc Laeven 

International Monetary Fund (IMF); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Gaetan Nicodeme 

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) – Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management
February 2014
CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP9830

Abstract: 
This paper examines the impact of thin capitalization rules that limit the tax deductibility of interest on the capital structure of the foreign affiliates of US multinationals. We construct a new data set on thin capitalization rules in 54 countries for the period 1982-2004. Using confidential data on the internal and total leverage of foreign affiliates of US multinationals, we find that thin capitalization rules affect multinational firm capital structure in a significant way. Specifically, restrictions on an affiliate’s debt-to-assets ratio reduce this ratio on average by 1.9%, while restrictions on an affiliate’s borrowing from the parent-to-equity ratio reduce this ratio by 6.3%. Also, restrictions on borrowing from the parent reduce the affiliate’s debt to assets ratio by 0.8%, which shows that rules targeting internal leverage have an indirect effect on the overall indebtedness of affiliate firms. The impact of capitalization rules on affiliate leverage is higher if their application is automatic rather than discretionary. Furthermore, we show that thin capitalization regimes have aggregate firm effects: they reduce the firm’s aggregate interest expense bill but lower firm valuation. Overall, our results show than thin capitalization rules, which thus far have been understudied, have a substantial effect on the capital structure within multinational firms, with implications for the firm’s market valuation.

 

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Corporate Scandals and Household Stock Market Participation

June 13, 2014 2 Comments

Corporate Scandals and Household Stock Market Participation

Mariassunta Giannetti 

Stockholm School of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); Swedish House of Finance

Tracy Yue Wang 

University of Minnesota – Twin Cities – Carlson School of Management
January 16, 2014
European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) – Finance Working Paper No. 405/2014

Abstract: 
We show that after the revelation of corporate fraud in a state, the equity holdings of households in that state decrease significantly both in the extensive and the intensive margins. Using an exogenous shock to fraud detection and exogenous variation in households’ lifetime experiences of corporate fraud, we establish that the impact of fraud revelation in local companies on household stock market participation is causal. Even households that did not hold stocks in the fraudulent firms decrease their equity holdings, and all households decrease their holdings in fraudulent firms as well as non-fraudulent firms. As a consequence of the decrease in local households’ demand for equity, firms headquartered in the same state as the fraudulent firms experience a decrease in valuation and in the number of shareholders.

 

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Pension reforms gather pace as demands grow

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Pension reforms gather pace as demands grow

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – 22:59

Jamie Lee

The Business Times

SINGAPORE – The search for retirement adequacy is a global one – the raging debate over Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) system comes amid recent reviews of pension systems by countries around the world that underscore themes of risk and return, personal responsibility, and macroeconomic prudence.

In Asia, Europe and the US, pension systems have been put in focus.

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Japan this week completed a review of its public pension fund – the world’s largest – and is expected to boost returns by raising the risk taken by its nearly 130 trillion yen (S$1.59 trillion) pension fund. Read more of this post

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Thai army chief and songwriter: Prayuth opens his heart

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Thai army chief and songwriter: Prayuth opens his heart

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – 10:23

AFP

The show, aired on all digital TV channels last Friday, has become the talk of the town and left people asking this question: Who is the producer?

Prayuth did not look stiff like he did when he last appeared on television. He seemed relaxed and one could sense his aura of power, his command and confidence. Read more of this post

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Former journalist CK Moon, a political novice, named South Korea’s new PM; Moon has “long tried to correct the wrong practices and deep-rooted evils in our society through rational solutions and a cool-headed critical mind.”

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Park Nominates Former Journalist as New South Korean Premier

South Korean President Park Geun Hye nominated a former journalist as prime minister to lead a government shakeup prompted by public anger over the Sewol ferry sinking.

Moon Chang Keuk, who worked at JoongAng Ilbo newspaper and teaches journalism at Seoul National University, was picked to replace Prime Minister Chung Hong Won, presidential spokesman Min Kyung Wook said today at a televised briefing. Chung offered his resignation to assume responsibility for the April 16 sinking that left about 300 people dead or missing, most of them high school students on a field trip. Read more of this post

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Johor housing Bill amended after uproar over sultan’s powers

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Johor housing Bill amended after uproar over sultan’s powers

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 – 04:00

Yong Yen Nie

The Straits Times

Johor Menteri Besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin yesterday amended a controversial housing Bill that would have given powers to the Johor sultan to intervene in housing and property matters, following an uproar from law experts, politicians and the media that it could be unconstitutional. Read more of this post

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Former SEC Chair Cox Declares IFRS “Bereft of Life”; The former chairman of the SEC declares that full-scale adoption of IFRS in the United States is no longer possible, but his European counterparts disagree

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

June 10, 2014

CFO.com | US

Former SEC Chair Cox Declares IFRS “Bereft of Life”

The former chairman of the SEC declares that full-scale adoption of IFRS in the United States is no longer possible, but his European counterparts disagree.

Vincent Ryan

In 2008, addressing an audience of accountants who were worried that the United States would adopt global accounting standards too fast, Christopher Cox said the end of U.S. GAAP and the full-scale adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards wouldn’t happen for “many, many years.” Read more of this post

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Does ‘Could’ Lead to Good? Toward a Theory of Moral Insight

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Does ‘Could’ Lead to Good? Toward a Theory of Moral Insight

Ting Zhang 

Harvard Business School

Francesca Gino 

Harvard University – Harvard Business School

Joshua D. Margolis 

Harvard University
June 2, 2014
Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper No. 14-118
Harvard Business School Organizational Behavior Unit Working Paper No. 14-118

Abstract: 
We introduce the construct of moral insight and study how it can be elicited when people face ethical dilemmas – challenging decisions that feature tradeoffs between competing and seemingly incompatible values. Moral insight consists of discovering solutions that move beyond selecting one conflicting ethical option over another. Moral insight encompasses both a cognitive process and a discernible output: it involves the realization that an ethical dilemma might be addressed other than by conceding one set of moral imperatives to meet another, and it involves the generation of solutions that allow competing objectives to be met. Across four studies, we find that moral insight is generated when individuals are prompted to consider the question “What could I do?” in place of their intuitive approach of considering “What should I do?” Together, these studies point toward a theory of moral insight and important practical implications.

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UberBay: Dissecting Uber’s valuation case

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

UberBay

Dan McCrum Author alerts | Jun 10 10:29 | 11 comments | Share

An online service that matches buyers and sellers you say? Worth $18bn? Well, there are a lot of taxis in the world.

We have seen this one before though, so $18bn is entirely possible, if not necessarily sensible.

Consider this chart of the original dot com network effect superstar, eBay.

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What Uber needs to do to justify its $18.2bn price tag

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

What Uber needs to do to justify its $18.2bn price tag

Richard Waters | Jun 08 06:22 | 6 comments | Share

Without seeing Uber’s financials, it’s impossible to say whether its amazing post-money valuation of $18.2bn is deserved. But even if its business is starting to take off, as seems to the case, it still has a long way to go to live up to the hype generated by its latest fund-raising.

Start with revenue and growth. A leaked internal report late last year showed thatthe company’s billings had reached an annualised rate of more than $1.1bn, suggesting net revenue of something north of $200m. That pointed to an acceleration in its business compared to the $125m full-year revenue excepted earlier in 2013. Read more of this post

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Déjà vu: echoes of pre-crisis world mount

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

June 10, 2014 6:07 am

Déjà vu: echoes of pre-crisis world mount

By John Plender

But missing credit bubble indicates next crash is not imminent

An occupational hazard of observing markets is a recurring sense of déjà vu. Even so, 2014 is proving a vintage year for echoes of the pre-crisis world.

First, we have the return of the Great Moderation, that period of eerie stability before 2007 which economists and central bankers hailed as the harbinger of a new era of non-inflationary growth. Today market volatility has again collapsed across all asset classes. Ten-year US Treasuries, the global bond market benchmark, have been trading in a relatively narrow range all year. Read more of this post

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Nearly 10,000 descendants of Song general Yue Fei in Anhui

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Nearly 10,000 descendants of Song general Yue Fei in Anhui

Staff Reporter

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2014-06-10

Around 200 descendants of Yue Fei pay their respects to the Song general in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province. (Photo/CNS)

Nearly 10,000 descendants of Yue Fei, a famous military general during the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279 CE), are reportedly still living in Anhui province, reports the local Anhui News. Read more of this post

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China Reminds Hong Kong of Its Control; Unusual ‘White Paper’ Warning Comes Days After Tiananmen Remembrance

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

China Reminds Hong Kong of Its Control

Unusual ‘White Paper’ Warning Comes Days After Tiananmen Remembrance

CHESTER YUNG

June 10, 2014 10:42 a.m. ET

HONG KONG—Days after tens of thousands of people held a candlelight vigil commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, China’s cabinet gave a blunt reminder to Hong Kong residents that it was in charge in the city and would fend off any intervention from an “external force.” Read more of this post

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Huawei tries to be a healthy “sapling” in competition with “big trees”: interview

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Huawei tries to be a healthy “sapling” in competition with “big trees”: interview

LOS ANGELES, June 9 (Xinhua) — Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, a Shenzhen-based Chinese telecommunication giant, is trying to get more business momentum in the U.S. market by joining hands with local partners.

“By continuously strengthening cooperation with local partners, Huawei is gradually expanding the visibility and credibility in the U.S. market”, said Shen Jingyang (Victor Shen), the CEO of Huawei Enterprise USA Inc. Read more of this post

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These questions from the 2014 Chinese college entrance exam will melt your mind! “The world belongs to you only after you stand up.” Please choose your own angle and write about your thoughts on this sentence

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

These questions from the 2014 Chinese college entrance exam will melt your mind!

Last Saturday marked first time ever that the Chinese college entrance examination, Gaokao (高考) was hosted at the same time as its US counterpart, the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test). Although two tests are in completely different formats, they both have one section in common, the essay/composition. We’ve compiled a list of Gaokao composition topics from different regions in China this year and translated them into English to give you a sense of just how damn cryptic they are. Read more of this post

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China Tries to Electrify Clean Car Market as Consumers Yawn

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Jun 10, 2014

China Tries to Electrify Clean Car Market as Consumers Yawn

From next year, Chinese owners of electric cars will be able to zip from Beijing to Hong Kong, stopping off en route at charging stations, according to media reports.

But even as the number of new initiatives aimed at addressing the country’s lack of charging stations for electric cars increases, more data has emerged that suggests electric vehicles may becoming even less popular among Chinese consumers. Read more of this post

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New Zealand’s Orr: One of the World’s Most Innovative Investors

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

New Zealand’s Orr: One of the World’s Most Innovative Investors

05 JUN 2014 – LOCH ADAMSON

When Adrian Orr left New Zealand’s central bank in February 2007 to run the country’s fledgling sovereign wealth fund, he knew he was taking a calculated risk. An economist by training, Orr had never led an asset management team or overseen a diversified investment portfolio. As deputy governor and head of financial stability at the Wellington-based Reserve Bank of New Zealand, he’d been closely involved in managing reserves, assessing macroeconomic risk and participating in policy discussions — and he liked the idea of using his skills to help build a lasting institution for New Zealand. But he had no inkling of the size of the challenge he was about to face. Read more of this post

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Betting on boring brings stock outperformance in 2014

June 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Betting on boring brings stock outperformance in 2014

7:12am EDT

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Largely ignored during much of last year’s 30 percent rally in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the stocks leading the U.S. market this year rank among its usually sleepiest components.

The best sector in 2014 is utilities, including Consolidated Edison, about as staid a group as one can get. They’re up 14.5 percent on a total return basis this year, compared with 6.4 percent for the S&P 500 as a whole. Read more of this post

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