Football economics: why it is better to win than host the World Cup

Football economics: why it is better to win than host the World Cup

Published 12 June 2014 13:07, Updated 12 June 2014 15:12

Tim Harcourt

We are just a day away from kickoff at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the most-watched sporting event in the world. Like the Olympics, it happens every four years and this time the event has been controversial because of protests by local Brazilians and allegations of corruption in FIFA’s decision to hand the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Most economists are fans and have been analysing the economic impact of the World Cup, especially as they have to justify watching the games on television over the next four weeks or so. Read more of this post

Economic Nationalism Drumbeat Grows Louder Before Presidential Election

Economic Nationalism Drumbeat Grows Louder Before Presidential Election

By Agence France-Presse on 11:45 am Jun 12, 2014

1.  Indonesia’s two presidential candidates are outdoing each other with hardline policies to rein in foreign firms and control the resources sector, risking a lurch towards nationalism in Southeast Asia’s top economy, analysts say.

Frontrunner Joko Widodo and ex-general Prabowo Subianto have said they will favor domestic companies in the lucrative oil and gas industry and have pledged to stick with a controversial mineral ore export ban ahead of the July 9 polls. Read more of this post

Behind Simple Majority, a Complex Spread

Behind Simple Majority, a Complex Spread

By Jakarta Globe on 09:33 am Jun 12, 2014

Candidates must have strong support in more than half of all provinces for a legitimate poll win. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)

Jakarta. By most accounts, Joko Widodo is the favorite to win Indonesia’s presidential election July 9, with various polls giving him anything from 32 percent to 51 percent. Read more of this post

US Most Polarized in Decades: Pew Research Center

US Most Polarized in Decades: Pew Research Center

By Agence France-Presse on 10:05 pm Jun 12, 2014

Washington. The political middle ground is shrinking and the partisan gulf in Washington — and the rest of America — is getting wider, according to extensive findings unveiled Thursday by Pew Research Center.

Growing ideological uniformity on both sides is leading an increasing number of Americans to see followers of the other party as a “threat to the nation’s well-being,” the report said. Read more of this post

Indonesia Plans to Reduce Number of SOEs From 139 to 120 to Boost Efficiency

Indonesia Plans to Reduce Number of SOEs From 139 to 120 to Boost Efficiency

By Tito Summa Siahaan on 09:10 pm Jun 12, 2014

1.  The government has called on the country’s state enterprises to consolidate for the sake of greater efficiency and governance.

Indonesia had a total of 139 state-owned enterprises as of Jan. 1 this year, with combined assets of Rp 4,082 trillion ($345 billion).

State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said on Thursday that the government planned to reduce the number of state-owned enterprises to 120. Read more of this post

Speculation Abounds on Question of Indonesia’s Next Cabinet

Speculation Abounds on Question of Indonesia’s Next Cabinet

By Erwida Maulia on 10:12 pm Jun 12, 2014

1.  The campaign season for Indonesia’s presidential election enters a new phase this week with the media and observers alike speculating on who may occupy key cabinet posts, whichever candidate wins the race.

The strikingly different campaign teams behind the two tickets vying for the presidency offer a glimpse of which supporting members are most likely to become cabinet officials for the 2014-2019 period, in line with previous elections that saw the winners recruit most of their ministers from the very teams responsible for their victory. Read more of this post

Keep in Mind Next President’s Powers; surveys suggest that we may see many familiar faces in the new govt, whoever wins. There’s a general acceptance of ministerial posts being awarded to people in exchange for political support

Editorial: Keep in Mind Next President’s Powers

By Jakarta Globe on 10:08 pm Jun 12, 2014

Indonesia’s president, as head of state and head of government, has significant powers, including the right to name and remove ministers. This is an important aspect to keep in mind ahead of the election, because not only will we select our top leader for the next five years, the winner will also have to form a functional government. Read more of this post

Singapore Confronts Peril of Please-All Economics

Singapore Confronts Peril of Please-All Economics

By Andy Mukherjee on 10:33 am Jun 12, 2014

Singapore. Singapore is confronting the perils of please-all economics. Aging citizens are pushing the government for bigger nest eggs and more subsidized health care and housing. There is also popular resentment against letting more foreigners in, and not much appetite for increasing the 7 percent consumption tax. Squaring this fiscal circle will be a long-term challenge. Read more of this post

Asean conglomerates do better than those in the West: study

PUBLISHED JUNE 13, 2014

Asian conglomerates do better than those in the West: study

Robust international strategies become critical as their economies mature

MICHELLE QUAH

MICHQUAH@SPH.COM.SG   @MichelleQuahBT

Conglomerates in Asia are more successful than most of their Western counterparts, defying conventional wisdom that such entities are anachronistic in the current business landscape and are ripe for break-up – PHOTO: SPH Read more of this post

Add COOs to the Endangered Species List; Waning Demand for Operating Chiefs Means Just 35% of Big Companies Have One

Add COOs to the Endangered Species List

Waning Demand for Operating Chiefs Means Just 35% of Big Companies Have One

RACHEL FEINTZEIG

Updated June 12, 2014 7:42 p.m. ET

Is the chief operating officer becoming an endangered species in American corporations? Read more of this post

FASB to Tweak Accounting for Inventories and Income Statements

June 11, 2014, 12:41 PM ET

FASB to Tweak Accounting for Inventories and Income Statements

EMILY CHASAN

U.S. accounting rule makers decided this week to start two, short-term projects aimed simplifying Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

The projects will streamline inventory measurement techniques and to reduce extraordinary items in corporate income statements, the Financial Accounting Standards Board said. Read more of this post

Rule Makers Tighten Accounting for ‘Repos’; Under New FASB Rule, to Take Effect in 2015, Most Repos Will Be Treated as Borrowings

Rule Makers Tighten Accounting for ‘Repos’

Under New FASB Rule, to Take Effect in 2015, Most Repos Will Be Treated as Borrowings

MICHAEL RAPOPORT

Updated June 12, 2014 5:45 p.m. ET

Rule makers on Thursday closed a loophole in the accounting for a key form of financing used by securities firms and that both Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and MF Global Holdings Inc. used to make themselves appear healthier before they collapsed. Read more of this post

Modern Shakespeare for a Theater-Mad Chinese Crowd; “In China, the people who go to the theater are exactly the opposite of who goes in the Western world. It’s really popular among the younger generation.”

Modern Shakespeare for a Theater-Mad Chinese Crowd

Tim Robbins brings his Los Angeles production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to Beijing and Shanghai.

ALYSSA ABKOWITZ

June 12, 2014 6:40 p.m. ET

Humor doesn’t always get lost in translation.

That is what Academy Award-winner and the Actors’ Gang ensemble founder Tim Robbins discovered while directing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in China. “There’s so much heart in this play,” Mr. Robbins told the audience, who whistled and yelled “Bravo!” at the end of the opening-night performance. “I’m so thrilled and honored and blessed to hear you react this way.” Read more of this post

Thai Generals and Corruption; A modest proposal to privatize Thailand’s state enterprises

Thai Generals and Corruption

A modest proposal to privatize Thailand’s state enterprises.

Updated June 12, 2014 10:25 p.m. ET

The Thai junta sent out its spokesman, Colonel Werachon Sukondhapatipak, on Wednesday to tell foreign journalists to stop calling last month’s “military intervention” a coup. Also, he reminded the press corps that Thailand doesn’t have political prisoners, just people who have been invited to enjoy the military’s comfortable accommodations. Read more of this post

Indonesia’s Candidates: July’s election could be a lost opportunity for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Indonesia’s Candidates

July’s election could be a lost opportunity for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Updated June 12, 2014 10:25 p.m. ET

At first glance, Indonesia’s July 9 presidential election offers voters a clear choice. The two candidates, Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, promise very different governing styles—populist humility from one, military-style efficiency from the other. Read more of this post

Japan’s First Lady Launches Talk Show “Abe Akie no Shiawase-no Katachi” (Akie Abe’s Shape of Happiness) on Web that will feature guest speakers exchanging their thoughts on “what happiness is” with her

Jun 13, 2014

Japan’s First Lady Launches Talk Show on Web

JUN HONGO

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife Akie is launching a web-based talk showthat will feature guest speakers exchanging their thoughts on “what happiness is” with her.

The program, titled “Abe Akie no Shiawase-no Katachi” (Akie Abe’s Shape of Happiness), will be shot at the prime minister’s residence with volunteer staff. It will “invite guests from a variety of backgrounds and ask them what happiness means to them,” Mrs. Abe explains in opening remarks, before adding that she hopes to “make this a fun and happy program.” Read more of this post

Stock-Trade Winds Don’t Blow Wall Street’s Way

Stock-Trade Winds Don’t Blow Wall Street’s Way

JOHN CARNEY

June 12, 2014 3:41 p.m. ET

“A perfect storm” is what sailors call a disastrous concurrence of perilous weather events. Wall Street, by contrast, has experienced in the second quarter what might be better described as “a perfect calm.”

Banks often get a revenue boost from jittery investors shifting portfolios in more volatile times. Trading desks benefit from both higher volume and wider spreads—or the difference between what one investor will sell for and what another will pay—that tend to accompany price swings, as long as they aren’t too sudden or abrupt. Read more of this post

Hedge Funds Get Stung by Slow Markets; Louis Bacon and Paul Tudor Jones Are Among Prominent Investors Losing Money on Bad Bets

Hedge Funds Get Stung by Slow Markets

Louis Bacon and Paul Tudor Jones Are Among Prominent Investors Losing Money on Bad Bets

GREGORY ZUCKERMAN, ROB COPELAND and JULIET CHUNG

Updated June 12, 2014 7:13 p.m. ET

Some of the biggest investors on Wall Street are losing money with wrong-way bets in markets around the globe, a surprising black eye amid a rise in stock and bond prices.

Hedge-fund managers including Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon and Alan Howardare among those who have misread broad economic and financial trends. Some have lost money as Japanese stocks fell, while others have been upended by the surprising resilience of U.S. bonds. Read more of this post