The Cult of Vitamix

The Cult of Vitamix

By Joshua Green December 19, 2013

The Vitamix 5200 high-performance blender is squat, black, and rubberized, loud as a leaf blower and powerful enough to pulverize a steer. Its 2-horsepower engine approaches the strength of a lawn mower. At 11 pounds, it’s as heavy as a cannonball. The weight and a sheath of thick thermoset plastic damp vibrations and keep the blender from flying off the counter. A Vitamix blender is a symphony of precision engineering, with motor, container, and blades working in powerful harmony. The container is curved at the bottom to create a vortex that pulls food through the blades, which are surprisingly dull. That’s because a Vitamix doesn’t chop or slice, as we imagine blenders do. Instead, the angled blades, which travel at speeds up to 240 miles per hour, simply obliterate whatever is inside. The process creates enough friction to boil soup. “They are essentially bashing the materials to death,” says Greg Moores, the company’s vice president for engineering, “breaking down the cell walls to emulsify them at a molecular level. Theoretically, this is healthier for you because it emulsifies plant matter more than your teeth can by chewing it.” The 5200, which retails for $449, is actually one of the cheaper models. All told, Vitamix expects to sell 1.4 million blenders this year. Read more of this post

Holy Smokes: E-Cigarette Ads Debut on TV

Holy Smokes: E-Cigarette Ads Debut on TV

MIKE ESTERL

Dec. 26, 2013 7:00 p.m. ET

Electronic cigarettes turn nicotine-laced liquid into vapor, representing an alternative to conventional cigarettes. Getty Images

The electronic-cigarette industry has big television advertising plans for 2014—if they’re not snuffed out first. The Food and Drug Administration is expected as early as January to propose curbs on the battery-powered devices amid calls from politicians and anti-tobacco groups to regulate them like traditional smokes, which haven’t been allowed in TV commercials since 1971. Read more of this post

Harry Potter and the Moneymaking Magic of Pop Culture Stamps

Harry Potter and the Moneymaking Magic of Pop Culture Stamps

By Claire Suddath December 03, 2013

It took two years and no small amount of controversy before Harry Potter received his very own U.S. postage stamp, but the official cultural gatekeepers of the American stamp world finally gave the fictional British wizard his due and sales have been magical so far. Read more of this post

Does Big Soap Have Clean Hands?

Does Big Soap Have Clean Hands?

Soap companies don’t seem to think soap really gets people, or dishes, clean. About half the liquid soaps they sell in the U.S. are fortified with bacteria-killing chemicals.

Soap companies say an abundance of evidence shows that these products kill more germs than ordinary soap does. That’s debatable, but it’s not even the point. There’s no benefit to killing germs unless the result is less illness. And there is no good evidence that antimicrobials protect people’s health. And increasing evidence suggests they may help make germs more powerful. Read more of this post

Millions of Tons of Metals Stashed in Shadow Warehouses

Millions of Tons of Metals Stashed in Shadow Warehouses

TATYANA SHUMSKY

Dec. 26, 2013 6:14 p.m. ET

The world’s metal is slipping into the shadows.

Banks, hedge funds, commodity merchants and others are stashing tens of millions of tons of aluminum, copper, nickel and zinc in a hidden system of warehouses that span the globe. These facilities are known to some in the industry as “shadow warehouses” because they are unregulated and don’t disclose their holdings. Read more of this post

Food prices; a bricks and mortar problem for Indian economy

Food prices; a bricks and mortar problem for Indian economy

4:06pm EST

By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Aditi Shah

GURGAON, India (Reuters) – Three months since journeying more than 700 milesfrom his village in central India to take a job in this bustling city near the capital, New Delhi, Charan is already looking forward to a 10 percent pay rise. He isn’t an engineer or programmer. He hauls bricks and sand at a local construction site for less than $100 a month. Read more of this post

For Indian Stocks, the Answer Is Blowing in the Political Wind; On average since 1989, the Sensex index has risen 38% in the 12 months after a general election, as investors get some resolution of uncertainty about the outlook

For Indian Stocks, the Answer Is Blowing in the Political Wind

A Victory by Narendra Modi Could Offer a Boost

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA 

Dec. 26, 2013 11:34 a.m. ET

After a year of economic jolts, investors in India’s stock market looking forward to 2014 have politics in mind, and one politician in particular: opposition candidate Narendra Modi. They shouldn’t get too excited. Read more of this post

Abenomics Drives Japanese Hedge Funds to World’s Best Performers

Abenomics Drives Japanese Hedge Funds to World’s Best Performers

Japanese hedge funds are heading for record returns this year as investors bet that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policies will succeed in reviving the world’s third-largest economy. Stratton Street Capital LLP’s warrant fund returned more than 300 percent, while the Hayate Japan Equity Long-Short Fund almost doubled. The Eurekahedge Japan Hedge Fund Index, which tracks about 80 funds, returned 24 percent in the 11 months through November, heading for the best year since the Singapore-based researcher began compiling data in 2000. Read more of this post

Toyota will probably become the first automaker in the world to build 10 million vehicles in a single year

Toyota nears 10 million car annual output

KYODO

DEC 26, 2013

NAGOYA – Toyota Motor Corp. will probably become the first automaker in the world to build 10 million vehicles in a single year, its global data through November indicate. Read more of this post

Korean toy, Tobot, defeats Lego

2013-12-26 17:23

Korean toy, Tobot, defeats Lego

By Kim Tae-jong

Lee Jeong-mi, a mother of a 4-year boy, had to search all the big shopping centers and department stores near her house as well as online shopping malls to buy her son a Christmas present even a week before the holiday. The toy that her son wanted was so popular that almost every store put “sold-out” sign for it long before the holiday. “The prices of the toy I looked for were more than doubled at some online shopping malls due to its huge popularity,” she said. “In the end, I managed to buy one at a toy store that not many people visit, at a slightly higher price.” Read more of this post

Who will dare be Korea’s Mandela?

2013-12-13 16:13

Who will dare be Korea’s Mandela?

By Jason Lim
In some ways, Nelson Mandela was a large part of my life. I don’t mean that I ever met him or even considered him my personal hero growing up. But I remember that a large part of the socially conscious background noise of my generation had to do with boycotting companies doing business with the apartheid South Africa and signing Amnesty International petitions calling for Mandela’s release from prison. Read more of this post

8½ Things That Went Right in 2013

8½ Things That Went Right in 2013

By Peter Coy December 19, 2013

It was a year of cronuts and pretzel buns, green eggs and ham, of Syria and Mali and the East China Sea, of Edward Snowden and Pope Francis, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un. Jeff Bezos showed off a package-delivering drone. Twitter (TWTR) tweeted its own IPO announcement. Stocks went up, housing revived, unemployment fell, and banks got fined. American Airlines (AAL) and US Airways merged, and a solar-powered airplane hopscotched across the U.S. We can’t discern much of a pattern here. But in the spirit of the holidays, here’s a look on the bright side—a list of the things that went right in 2013, sometimes unexpectedly. It is short, admittedly, but sweet. May 2014 be better yet. Read more of this post

Bond Downgrades Escalate With Leverage Highest Since 2007

Bond Downgrades Escalate With Leverage Highest Since 2007

Credit quality for U.S. companies is showing signs of weakening as issuers from Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) to Apple Inc. borrow unprecedented amounts of money to expand and reward shareholders. Read more of this post

Insurers may be at the centre of the next big crisis; As banks are finding some business too costly, insurers are moving in

December 26, 2013 7:14 pm

Insurers may be at the centre of the next big crisis

By Patrick Jenkins

As banks are finding some business too costly, insurers are moving in, writes Patrick Jenkins

It would make a good pub quiz question: what was the most costly bailout of the 2008 financial crisis?Royal Bank of Scotland? Citigroup? Many assume so. Of course, the biggest failure of them all was not a bank at all, but insurer AIG. Read more of this post

Mexico’s Economic Reform Breakout; More than two million jobs have been created in Mexico since early 2010. Illegal immigration to the U.S. may soon be history

Mexico’s Economic Reform Breakout

More than two million jobs have been created in Mexico since early 2010. Illegal immigration to the U.S. may soon be history.

PIERPAOLO BARBIERI And NIALL FERGUSON

Dec. 26, 2013 7:22 p.m. ET

For much of the last decade, Mexico and Brazil were a study in contrasts. “Brazil Takes Off” was a typical magazine cover, depicting Rio’s huge statue of Christ literally blasting off. The equivalent story for Mexico was “The War Next Door: Why Mexico’s Drug Violence is America’s Problem Too.” Read more of this post

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. Historians still argue whether Europe’s plunge into war was an accidental outcome or inevitable

2013-12-18 16:57

The concert of Asia

By John Burton 
Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. Historians still argue whether Europe’s plunge into war was an accidental outcome or inevitable. But what is indisputable is that the events of August 1914 did mark the sudden collapse of a system that had kept Europe largely peaceful for the previous century.  Read more of this post

Restoring Ranch Land for a Profit, and a ‘Trout Dividend’; Sporting Ranch Capital Management raises money from investors to buy ranches that it can fix up and resell

DECEMBER 26, 2013, 7:24 PM

Restoring Ranch Land for a Profit, and a ‘Trout Dividend’

By SARAH MAX

From the road skirting its property line, Freestone River Ranch looks like a flat, cattle-trodden pasture flanked by rolling hills. But Jay Ellis, founder of the private equity firm Sporting Ranch Capital Management, sees something sparkling in the distance. He slams on the brakes and jumps out of his rented sport utility vehicle to get a closer look at one of the dozens of natural springs spilling out from small aqueducts. “You could fill up your water bottle and drink it,” he says excitedly. “It’s that pure.” Read more of this post

Tale of Two Polish Mines Shows Biggest EU Producer’s Woes

Tale of Two Polish Mines Shows Biggest EU Producer’s Woes

Stock markets aren’t usually a subject of discussion when you’re a kilometer underground, yet Dariusz Batyra isn’t a typical Polish miner. “I check the share price each day,” said Batyra, 39, a senior foreman at the mine run by Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA, one of three coal companies in Poland not controlled by the government. “Everybody does in here.” Read more of this post

Turkish prime minister loses aura of invincibility

December 26, 2013 7:41 pm

Turkish prime minister loses aura of invincibility

By Andrew Finkel in Istanbul

Just two weeks ago – before the emergence of a bribery and corruption scandal that has rocked his government – Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared as he has for much of his last decade in power: invincible. Read more of this post

Curbs Following Singapore Riot Criticized; Security Measures Imposed on Ethnic Indian District Have Divided Public Opinion

Curbs Following Singapore Riot Criticized

Security Measures Imposed on Ethnic Indian District Have Divided Public Opinion

CHUN HAN WONG

Dec. 25, 2013 10:46 p.m. ET

A notification of the suspension of sale and consumption of alcohol in the Little India district in Singapore.

SINGAPORE—Even as weekend crowds return to Singapore’s ethnic Indian district, where foreign workers staged a rare riot this month, the security measures imposed on the area have divided public opinion over the country’s treatment of its large migrant workforce. Read more of this post

China has adopted a slew of policies aimed at boosting its long-suffering blue-chip stocks, mired at depressed valuations, but analysts say it will take years to change an investment culture focused on speculation in small caps

Regulators in uphill battle to boost blue chips as retail investors dominate

2:03am EST

By Lu Jianxin and Gabriel Wildau

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China has adopted a slew of policies aimed at boosting its long-suffering blue-chip stocks, mired at depressed valuations, but analysts say it will take years to change an investment culture focused on speculation in small caps. Read more of this post

China’s Xi notes Mao’s ‘mistakes’ on 120th anniversary

China’s Xi notes Mao’s ‘mistakes’ on 120th anniversary

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 18:58

AFP

SHAOSHAN, China – Communist China’s president Xi Jinping acknowledged Thursday its founding father Mao Zedong made “mistakes”, as admirers celebrated the 120th anniversary of the late leader’s birth with noodles and fireworks. Read more of this post

Schroeders to Julius Baer Avoid Singapore: Southeast Asia

Schroeders to Julius Baer Avoid Singapore: Southeast Asia

Schroders Plc and Baring Asset Management Ltd. are avoiding Singapore stocks, the cheapest in Southeast Asia, as slower economic growth in the region and cuts to Federal Reserve stimulus drive capital outflows. Read more of this post

Pettis on Debt, Malinvestments, Hidden Losses, and China’s GDP

Pettis on Debt, Malinvestments, Hidden Losses, and China’s GDP

Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:24 PM PST

Heading into 2014, Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets remains adamant that growth estimates for China are too high and that rebalancing (while necessary), implies lower growth than most expect. Via email …

It is widely acknowledged that perhaps the most important reason to change the Chinese growth model is its excessive reliance on debt to generate growth. Debt has soared in recent years, to the point where many economists simply look at credit growth in the current quarter in order to determine what GDP growth over the next few quarters are likely to be. Read more of this post

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed questioned the wisdom behind the government’s decision to increase the prices of goods and services at a time when people were suffering a financial pinch

Dr M questions Malaysian government decisions to increase prices

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 17:31

The Star/Asia News Network

PETALING JAYA – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed questioned the wisdom behind the government’s decision to increase the prices of goods and services at a time when people were suffering a financial pinch. Read more of this post

Yudhoyono braces for election turmoil

Yudhoyono braces for election turmoil

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 15:10

Ina Parlina

The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

INDONESIA – The recent meetings between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and presidential hopefuls Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto and Yusril Ihza Mahendra have caused speculation about possible political turbulence ahead of the 2014 elections. Read more of this post

Jakarta warns local leader who blocked runway

Jakarta warns local leader who blocked runway

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 03:00

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja

The Straits Times

JAKARTA – A local leader in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province, angry that he could not get an airline ticket to fly home, ordered a blockade at his airport to prevent the plane from landing. Read more of this post

Thailand’s political unrest major risk to investors if unresolved

Thailand’s political unrest major risk to investors if unresolved

Thursday, Dec 26, 2013

The Nation/Asia News Network

The Securities Analysts Association (SAA) says political unrest will be a risk for investing |in the equity market next year, and if the dispute cannot be resolved, the forecast for growth in gross domestic product could be lowered from the currently anticipated 4 per cent. Read more of this post

Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence

Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence

6:47am EST

By Bate Felix and Paul-Marin Ngoupana

BANGUI (Reuters) – Mariam watched in horror as militiamen burst through the gate of her home in Central African Republic’s capital Bangui and demanded her husband say whether he was Muslim. When he said yes, they shot him dead. Read more of this post

Beijing slum residents hold out hope for change

Slum residents hold out hope for change

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 03:00

Esther Teo

The Straits Times

BEIJING – In the heart of Beijing’s modern central business district, a tiny shanty town bustles, seemingly frozen in time, sticking out like a sore thumb amid – or some say refreshing respite from – the uniformly glass-clad skyscrapers towering over it. Mr Sun Jiake, 60, is one of the residents in this shanty town. Read more of this post