Chicken Sales Plummet in China, Hong Kong After Bird Flu Returns

Chicken Sales Plummet in China, Hong Kong After Bird Flu Returns

Tyler Durden on 12/22/2013 21:23 -0500

The last time China’s birdflu epidemic dominated the ether, and internet, was in April, when news of numerous casualties led many to believe that the epidemic was on the verge of breaching all local containment measures. And then, suddenly, all media coverage of China’s H7N9 story disappeared as if by Department of Truth (and propaganda) magic. Naturally, the quick popular response was to assume that all was again well since the government no longer made it a notable topic – just like the Japanese government did with Fukushima. However, as in the case of Fukushima, it turns out all may not have been well. As Japan’s NHK reports, H7N9 bird flu strain is once again spreading in southern China, claiming the 148th victim of the vicious flu virus. Or perhaps instead of “once again” it was simply “constantly.” Read more of this post

An Obscure Melon Could Save The US Soda Industry

An Obscure Melon Could Save The US Soda Industry

MARINA LOPES, REUTERS
DEC. 22, 2013, 3:50 PM 4,320 1

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An obscure melon once cultivated by Buddhist monks in China to sweeten tea could give the $8 billion U.S. diet soda industry a shot at winning back consumers concerned about artificial ingredients. Read more of this post

Thai Businessman of the Year: Tos Chirathivat boldly leading Central retail chain overseas

BUSINESSMAN OF THE YEAR

Tos Chirathivat boldly leading central retail chain overseas

The Nation
December 23, 2013 1:00 am

The Chirathivat family has continued to strengthen its retail empire ever since the first Central store opened in 1957, but overseas expansion has become remarkable only recently thanks to the vision of Tos Chirathivat from the clan’s third generation. Read more of this post

Samsung Life Insurance bought a chunk of Samsung Card from a host of the group’s other finance-related subsidiaries in what analysts see as a signal that Samsung is restructuring itself

Samsung group moves suggest a restructuring

Dec 16,2013

Samsung Life Insurance bought a chunk of Samsung Card from a host of the group’s other finance-related subsidiaries in what analysts see as a signal that Samsung is restructuring itself.  Read more of this post

Hard times for Korean banks and employees; Branch closures, work reassignments promise an unhappy new year

Hard times for banks and employees

Branch closures, work reassignments promise an unhappy new year

BY LEE TAE-KYUNG, AND JEONG SEON-EON [angie@joongang.co.kr]

Dec 16,2013

A manager nicknamed Mr. A, who is an employee at Shinhan Bank with 20 years of experience, feels anxious these days. Thinking he has built a good career by working at different branches and headquarters, Mr. A was hoping he would get a promotion next year to become a branch head. However, the bank decided to close 50 underperforming branches early next year and open only five to 10 new ones. Read more of this post

HK Homebuyers waiting for 20pc slide

Homebuyers waiting for 20pc slide
Karen Chiu
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Nearly three out of five people would buy next year if secondary home prices fell around 20 percent, a survey by Midland Realty shows. Of 830 people polled last week, a quarter believed prices would decline further next year. And of the homeowners among them, almost half said they want to sell their units due to likely interest rate hikes and the imposition of more government curbs. Read more of this post

Bitcoin Finds Itty-Bitty Market in Indonesia

Bitcoin Finds Itty-Bitty Market in Indonesia

By Faisal Maliki Baskoro on 3:55 pm December 21, 2013.

Though the total market share of bitcoin in Indonesia is less than 1 percent, the weakening rupiah and the prospect of the digital currency as an investment may encourage its development in the archipelago. Read more of this post

Top Infosys Executive, Seen as Future CEO, Resigns

Top Infosys Executive, Seen as Future CEO, Resigns

By Agence France-Presse

 on 9:01 pm December 22, 2013.
Atop executive of Infosys, tipped as a future chief executive of the outsourcing giant has resigned, the latest in a string of departures since co-founder Narayana Murthy returned to lead the company. Read more of this post

Retail chain Robins Kitchen collapses, Melbourne icon Dimmeys on the brink

James Thomson Editor

Retail chain Robins Kitchen collapses, Melbourne icon Dimmeys on the brink

Published 18 December 2013 11:07, Updated 19 December 2013 07:47

Australia’s beleaguered retail sector has received an unwanted Christmas gift: the major Queensland retailer Robins Kitchen has been placed in administration and iconic Victorian chain Dimmeys is now facing the same fate. Read more of this post

1% Spike In Yields = $200 Billion In Losses For US Firms

1% Spike In Yields = $200 Billion In Losses For US Firms

Tyler Durden on 12/20/2013 20:58 -0500

Back in May, just after the BOJ unleashed its epic QE program, which on a relative basis was about twice the size of the Fed’s own QE, and when bond yields for JGBs suddenly soared higher before a flurry of bond market halts forced the BOJ to completely take over the entire JGB market, the key question among the financial community was how big the losses for Japan’s banks would be as a result of a big jump in yields. We provided the answer: “A 100bp interest rate shock in the JGB yield curve, would cause a loss of ¥10tr for Japan’s banks.” Or, roughly $100 billion for 100 bps. Which is why the BOJ promptly decided to take away from the market the ability to set yields on the margin: after all the paradox of pushing for inflation and keeping bond rates low did not compute so might as well do away with the bond market entirely. Read more of this post

Social innovation key to economic rise, Asian business leaders say; Lawson’s Takeshi Niinami stressed freedom of speech as pivotal in creating an innovative environment. Innovation is enhanced by various viewpoints

Social innovation key to economic rise, Asian business leaders say

Pana Janviroj
Asia News Network
Hong Kong December 22, 2013 1:00 am

Asia can take the lead in social innovation, especially urbanisation, while intellectual-property enhancement will lift its countries out of the middle-income trap, business leaders said. Read more of this post

By expanding its Tommy Hilfiger brand and reuniting the Calvin Klein franchises, PVH could boost profits.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2013

Calvin Klein, Meet Calvin Klein

By JACK HOUGH | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

By expanding its Tommy Hilfiger brand and reuniting the Calvin Klein franchises, PVH could boost profits.

Calvin Klein underwear could soon feature a more flattering bottom line, with jeans to follow. Manhattan-based clothing designer PVH gained control of both product lines, the top sellers for the Calvin Klein brand, this year with a buyout of Warnaco. PVH’s rights already extended to other Calvin Klein clothing and accessory lines. The company plans to cut back on discounting the two Warnaco businesses and invest in better marketing to bring profit margins up to par with its other brands. Read more of this post

Diageo Deal for India’s United Spirits Hits Another Bump

Diageo Deal for India’s United Spirits Hits Another Bump

Diageo, United Breweries, to Appeal Court Decision

ERIC BELLMAN

Dec. 21, 2013 8:21 a.m. ET

An Indian court has annulled the sale of some shares of India’s United Spirits Ltd.532432.BY +0.71% to London-based liquor giant Diageo DGE.LN -0.31% PLC, further delaying Diageo’s big bet on India’s drinkers. Read more of this post

This Guy Makes A Living Drawing Horrible Corporate Logos For $5 Each and Is the World’s Largest Tee-Shirt Maker

This Guy Makes A Living Drawing Horrible Corporate Logos For $5 Each

AARON TAUBE

DEC. 19, 2013, 10:06 AM 47,235 3

In 2010, a graphic designer based out of California noticed a trend of local companies crowd-sourcing their logo design to anyone who’d draw them something for free. The designer, who goes by the online alias of “krs,” sensed a business opportunity. Instead of giving his work away to companies for free, he would draw the first thing that came into his head, and then sell the design for $5. And thus was born Horrible Logos, a three-year-old business through which krs provides companies with guaranteed awful logos in exchange for beer money. “It spun out of all these companies crowd-sourcing, just getting cheap logos for pretty much nothing,” krs said in an interview with Business Insider. “They would always wind up being sh—y logos. So I figured I’d just scrape the bottom of the barrel and charge $5 and give them an ultra sh—y logo.” Since then, the business has grown to the point where krs says he now receives several hundred orders a month from all over the world, all of which he draws in less than five minutes based mostly on how a company’s name sounds to him when he hears it. “It’s pretty crazy people actually pay for a sh—y logo,” krs said. “I think it’s more people trying to see what I’m going to come up with for their company, so I try to keep it creative.” After seeing his work, we asked krs to draw us up a couple “horrible” versions of our readers’ favorite companies, and krs was nice enough to comply.

Smart Beta And Tourist Investors

Smart Beta And Tourist Investors

December 16, 2013 By Rick Ferri

Wall Street is always coming up with cunning new marketing techniques to attract tourist investors. These are less-sophisticated individual investors and advisers who are easily wowed by glitzy industry trends, only to abandon them when the strategy falls short of expectations. Read more of this post

Once treated with scorn, randomised control trials are coming of age

Once treated with scorn, randomised control trials are coming of age

Dec 14th 2013 | From the print edition

IT ALL began with a white envelope. Inside, a letter from the provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offered three young economists at MIT $100,000 to spend as they wanted (those were the days). Two of them, Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, used the money to set up an organisation to run “randomised control trials” (RCTs), an experimental technique a bit like drugs trials, but for economics. To test if, say, boosting teachers’ pay improved educational outcomes, an RCT would take a collection of comparable schools, randomly assign higher wages to some teachers but not others, and see what happens. The organisation, called J-PAL (to give it its full title, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab), has just celebrated its tenth anniversary. Its methods have transformed development economics. Read more of this post

Japan Inc. builds mountain of cash

Japan Inc. builds mountain of cash

BY TORU FUJIOKA

BLOOMBERG

DEC 20, 2013

Japanese companies’ cash holdings rose to a record last quarter, highlighting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s struggle to spur the investment and wage increases needed to end a 15-year deflationary malaise. Corporate holdings of cash and deposits rose to ¥224 trillion, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, according to a Bank of Japan report released Thursday. Read more of this post

Corporate entertaining in Japan: Kanpai! Wining, dining and gift-giving are to become tax-deductible for big firms

Corporate entertaining in Japan: Kanpai! Wining, dining and gift-giving are to become tax-deductible for big firms

Dec 14th 2013 | TOKYO | From the print edition

ALREADY, confides a kimono-clad hostess at Maiko, one of the pricier nightclubs in Ginza, Tokyo’s entertainment district, the efforts to revive Japan’s economy by Shinzo Abe, the country’s prime minister, are having a positive effect. The atmosphere at Maiko is indeed buoyant, as a billionaire entrepreneur and other moguls make a late-night entrance into the establishment’s convivial salon. Things could soon get even better. The government’s latest ploy to revitalise the economy is to make corporate entertainment by large companies partially tax-deductible. Read more of this post

Jokowi & Vox Populi

Jokowi & Vox Populi

By Yanto Soegiarto on 2:46 pm December 11, 2013.
Ask a taxi driver, a street vendor, or any ordinary citizen who they’d want to have as Indonesia’s next president and the likely answer will be Joko Widodo, the current governor of Jakarta. Read more of this post

JIM ROGERS: If India Can Successfully Convince Its People To Sell Gold, Then Who Knows How Low Prices Can Go?

JIM ROGERS: If India Can Successfully Convince Its People To Sell Gold, Then Who Knows How Low Prices Can Go?

MAMTA BADKAR

DEC. 20, 2013, 12:44 PM 2,052 4

Gold has had a nice runup for over a decade now, but it has taken a beating this year. The yellow metal is currently trading at three-year lows. We reached out to commodities expert Jim Rogers for his take on what will happen next in the gold markets. Read more of this post

Indian voters in assertive mood

Indian voters in assertive mood

Shivraj Singh Chouhan (3rd R), chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, greets his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters during his swearing-in ceremony in the central Indian city of Bhopal on December 14, 2013.

Saturday, December 21, 2013 – 09:00

The Straits Times

EDITORIAL

The results of the recent Indian state elections are a clear message to the ruling Indian National Congress that it should take the perils of incumbency seriously – when voters get jaded – as it prepares for the general election in May. Read more of this post

Indian dairy milks everything for a laugh; Dr Verghese Kurien created a cooperative system that cuts out middlemen and channels profits directly to farmers, in the process turning India into a major milk-producing nation.

Indian dairy milks everything for a laugh

Amul ads have given their humorous take on topical issues for nearly 50 years

Published on Dec 21, 2013

(Above) An Amul ad doing a take on the movie Life Of Pi and its director, Lee Ang. Another Amul ad making reference to the current row between India and the United States involving diplomat Devyani Khobragade

By Nirmala Ganapathy India Correspondent In New Delhi

PROBABLY India’s oldest dairy brand, Amul butter is known for spreading not just tasty goodness but also topical humour. Read more of this post

Cost advantage of shale gas boom helps US chemicals exports

Last updated: December 9, 2013 4:09 pm

Shale gas boom helps US chemicals exports

By Ed Crooks in New York

The US chemicals industry is planning a sharp increase in its exports as a result of the cost advantage created by the shale gas boom, putting pressure on competitors in Europe and Asia. Read more of this post

Mexico to End 75 Years of Govt Control of Vast Oil Reserves

Mexico to End 75 Years of Govt Control of Vast Oil Reserves

By Adam Williams, Eric Martin & Nacha Cattan on 10:10 am December 15, 2013.
Mexico City. Mexico’s Congress approved a bill to end a 75-year state oil monopoly and generate as much as $20 billion in additional foreign investment a year. Read more of this post

Unsold: Ten Million Pounds of McDonald’s Mighty Wings

December 18, 2013, 4:34 PM

Unsold: Ten Million Pounds of McDonald’s Mighty Wings

JULIE JARGON

Some McDonald’s franchisees are in a flap over a chicken wings promotion that flopped. McDonald’s, which has been struggling to attract customers amid a sluggish economy and has suffered from some operational missteps, purchased approximately 50 million pounds of chicken wings for a limited-time promotion in the fall, according to a person familiar with the matter. Read more of this post

How Madonna’s $35 Tops Make Macy’s Unbeatable: Corporate Finance

How Madonna’s $35 Tops Make Macy’s Unbeatable: Corporate Finance

Macy’s Inc. (M) is rewarding bondholders with the retail industry’s biggest returns as the most-profitable U.S. department store boosts sales in the face of what may be the weakest holiday shopping season since 2009. Read more of this post

Xi Weakens Role of Beijing’s No. 2; Expanding His Own Remit Further, President Takes Lead on Economy, Traditionally Premier’s Turf

Xi Weakens Role of Beijing’s No. 2

Expanding His Own Remit Further, President Takes Lead on Economy, Traditionally Premier’s Turf

JEREMY PAGE, BOB DAVIS and LINGLING WEI

Dec. 20, 2013 8:20 p.m. ET

China’s President Xi Jinping, right, walks ahead of Premier Li Keqiang at a ceremony in Beijing on Oct. 1.Reuters

BEIJING—British officials were finalizing details of Prime Minister David Cameron‘s visit this month to Beijing when they received a last-minute scheduling change: President Xi Jinping would host a banquet in Mr. Cameron’s honor. Read more of this post

Lavish funerals go up in smoke as China orders frugality; official funerals had become a “platform to show off wealth and connections”

Lavish funerals go up in smoke as China orders frugality

Friday, December 20, 2013 – 11:50

AFP

BEIJING- Chinese officials have been ordered to tone down their increasingly extravagant funerals, state media said Thursday, as Beijing made clear its sweeping austerity crackdown applies even in death. Read more of this post