New version of Quotations from Chairman Mao, the world’s second most published book, to hit Chinese shelves in November

Mao’s Little Red Book to get revamp

New version of Quotations from Chairman Mao, the world’s second most published book, to hit Chinese shelves in November

Tania Branigan in Beijing

The Guardian, Friday 27 September 2013 15.54 BST

Chinese singers perform with their copies of the Little Red Book in hand in 1971. Photograph: Frank Fischbeck/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

It will not be especially little, and the cover will be only partly red. But a new version of the world’s second most published book is due to appear on Chinese shelves, decades after it fell from favour with the end of Maoism. The re-emergence of Quotations from Chairman Mao – better known as the Little Red Book – comes amid an official revival of the era’s rhetoric.China‘s leader, Xi Jinping, has embraced Maoist terminology and concepts, launching a “mass line rectification campaign” and this week even presiding over a televised self-criticism session. Read more of this post

China’s ChiNext Board, a Nasdaq-style index tailored for growth enterprises, is facing increasing bubble risk in a profit frenzy

ChiNext faces bubble risk

English.news.cn   2013-10-10 14:09:57

BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) — China’s ChiNext Board, a Nasdaq-style index tailored for growth enterprises, is facing increasing bubble risk in a profit frenzy, the China Business News reported on Thursday. During Wednesday’s trading, the ChiNext Index hit a historical high of 1,418.48 points before retreating slightly to close 2.03 percent up at 1,415.83 points. Compared to the start of the year, the index has increased more than 98 percent. Read more of this post

China Shadow Banking Sector may Hit $3.35Trl, Says Govt. Think Tank; JPMorgan’s chief China economist estimates China’s shadow banking sector is as large as 36 trillion yuan ($5.86 trillion)

China Shadow Banking Sector may Hit $3.35Trl, Says Govt. Think Tank

10-09 14:23 Caijing

The figure equals to 40 percent of gross domestic products and 16 percent of total banking assets in China. China’s shadow banking sector could be valued at 20.5 trillion yuan ($3.35 trillion) at the least at the end of last year, compared with an official figure of 14.6 trillion yuan ($2.39 trillion), according to a government think tank report. The size of the shadow banking sector has been expanding quickly since 2010, said the report, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Tuesday. Read more of this post

China is raising the hurdles for foreign banks, more than tripling the amount of capital that new entrants to the country must post and limiting the derivatives operations of those already on the ground

October 9, 2013 10:19 am

China raises hurdles for foreign banks

By Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

China is raising the hurdles for foreign banks, more than tripling the amount of capital that new entrants to the country must post and limiting the derivatives operations of those already on the ground. But at the same time, the Chinese regulator also has offered foreign lenders much-desired clarification about how they can sell bonds in the domestic market, issue credit cards and offer overseas investment products to their clients on the mainland. Read more of this post

Myanmar Unrest Raises Stakes for Growing Tourist Industry

Myanmar Unrest Raises Stakes for Growing Tourist Industry

By Agence France-Presse on 5:12 pm October 7, 2013.
Thandwe. Recent anti-Muslim bloodshed close to Myanmar’s most popular tourist beach raises the stakes for an industry dependent on the former pariah state’s fluid transition to democracy. Several days of tension spilled into bloodshed on Tuesday in the western state of Rakhine, where Buddhist mobs killed six Muslims and burned dozens of homes in the latest outburst of violence in the strife-torn region. Read more of this post

Time to trim back the hedge funds

October 8, 2013 6:12 pm

Time to trim back the hedge funds

Thanks to institutional interest, the sector is too big

Astriking feature of the post-crisis period has been the resilience of the hedge fund industry. In spite of their exorbitant fee structure and less than stellar performance – the average fund has returned just 4.5 per cent per annum since 2009, according to Hedge Fund Research – these investment vehicles continue remorselessly to expand. They now boast some $2.4tn under management, more than on the eve of the crisis six years ago. Read more of this post

The great diversification bait and switch: We’ve been looking recently at the false promises of a zombie hedge fund industry

The great diversification bait and switch

Dan McCrum

| Oct 09 15:10 | 10 comments | Share

We’ve been looking recently at the false promises of a zombie hedge fund industry. Now let’s widen the lens a little to take in asset management more broadly, and the self-interested warping of a concept at the heart of investing. Start with this terrific piece from Bloomberg, about how investors have been gulled by the supposedly respectable brokers of Wall Street selling investment products known as managed futures. Read more of this post

Food stamp recipients fret as stimulus boost ends

Food stamp recipients fret as stimulus boost ends

This Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 photo shows Jennifer Donald, whose family receives money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as food stamps, helping her sleeping son Donovan, 4, out of her minivan in Philadelphia. Families already buffeted by difficult economic times will see their food stamps benefits drop Nov. 1 as money allocated by the 2009 federal stimulus plan runs out. The average family of four will see benefits drop by $36 a month, a tough hit at a time when child poverty is climbing and Congress is debating a major cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

2 hours ago  •  By RIK STEVENS

A temporary increase in food stamps expires Oct. 31, meaning for millions of Americans, the benefits that help put food on the table won’t stretch as far as they have for the past four years. Food stamps _ actually the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program _ go to 47 million Americans a month, almost half of them children and teenagers. “Every week is a struggle as it is,” said Heidi Leno, 43, who lives in Concord with her husband, 9-year-old daughter and 5-year-old twins. “We hate living paycheck to paycheck and you have to decide what gets paid.” Read more of this post

IMF: Premature Fed Exit Could Fuel $2.3 Trillion in Global Bond Losses

October 9, 2013, 8:59 a.m. ET

IMF: Premature Fed Exit Could Fuel $2.3 Trillion in Global Bond Losses

IAN TALLEY

WASHINGTON—A premature exit by the U.S. Federal Reserve from its easy-money policies could cause $2.3 trillion in global bond portfolio losses, the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday. Although the IMF assumes in its latest economic forecasts that the U.S. central bank will unravel its policies at a tempered pace, the fund said the market’s volatile reaction to Fed exit comments earlier this year show there is still a risk of moving too fast. Read more of this post

How a Treasury Default Could Trigger a Money Market Meltdown

Oct 9, 2013

How a Treasury Default Could Trigger a Money Market Meltdown

MICHAEL J. CASEY

If, God forbid, the U.S. Treasury is forced to default on its obligations next week, the first ripples in a rapidly expanding financial crisis will be felt in an obscure but giant sector of the short-term credit markets. There, in the $5 trillion-a-day repo market – more formally known as the securities repurchase market – Treasury securities are treated as the equivalent of currency. In tapping it, large Wall Street dealer banks work on the assumption that they can turn their inventory of U.S. government bonds into cash at any given moment, simply by offering the bonds up as collateral to money-market funds and other lenders that participate in this giant short-term funding market. If for just one of those securities this liquidity is turned off, those assumptions go out the window. The ramifications are enormous. Read more of this post

Brazil hikes interest rates fifth time to 9.5%, no sign of stopping

Brazil hikes interest rates fifth time, no sign of stopping

7:43pm EDT

By Luciana Otoni

BRASILIA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Brazil raised interest rates for the fifth straight time on Wednesday and gave no indication of backing off its battle with high inflation even as Latin America’s largest economy struggles to pick up speed. The central bank raised its benchmark Selic interest rate to 9.5 percent from 9.0 percent as expected by all but two of the 65 economists polled by Reuters last week. Read more of this post

Indonesia Takes Some Small Steps Toward Hollywood

October 9, 2013, 7:00 p.m. ET

Indonesia Takes Some Small Steps Toward Hollywood

Though No. 4. in Population Globally, Long a Cinematic Lightweight Regionally.

ARMANDO SIAHAAN

Over the past few years, Indonesia’s profile in Hollywood has been growing slowly but surely, and martial arts are fighting to further the momentum. Justin Lin’s “Fast & Furious 6,” this year’s entry in the Vin Diesel muscle-car franchise, includes a supporting-villain turn for Indonesian judo-champion-turned-actor Joe Taslim, while Iko Uwais, an Indonesian actor known for the traditional martial art pencak silat, is featured in the martial-arts film “Man of Tai Chi,” a China-U.S. co-production directed by Keanu Reeves. Read more of this post

Coffee Market Braces for Venti Bags; Rule Change Expected to Further Suppress Arabica Prices

October 9, 2013, 4:34 p.m. ET

Coffee Market Braces for Venti Bags

Rule Change Expected to Further Suppress Arabica Prices

LESLIE JOSEPHS

For hundreds of years, coffee beans have made their way around the world in gunny sacks. Now the use of these burlap bags, small enough to be hoisted by one person and a symbol of coffee’s artisanal character, is giving way to the modern demands of global trade. IntercontinentalExchange Inc., ICE -0.37% home to the world’s most heavily traded coffee contract, last week said it would allow bean shipments to its certified warehouses to arrive in lined cargo containers, or “supersacks.” These plastic woven sacks often hold a metric ton of coffee, or enough beans to make about 125,000 shots of espresso. Read more of this post

Yum Concedes Missteps in China; More Innovation Was Needed After KFC Chicken-Safety Scare

Yum Concedes Missteps in China

More Innovation Was Needed After KFC Chicken-Safety Scare

LAURIE BURKITT and JULIE JARGON

Updated Oct. 9, 2013 1:40 p.m. ET

A lack of innovation and other missteps by Yum Brands Inc. YUM -6.76% in China are accelerating the slide of what was long one of the most successful foreign businesses in the world’s biggest emerging market. Yum executives acknowledged Wednesday that consumer fears over food safety have had a longer-lasting effect on China sales than expected—especially at its 4,463 KFC outlets in the country—and that its business there hasn’t been innovative enough with its menu offerings. Read more of this post

Asia’s Warning About Basel Bonds

Updated October 9, 2013, 3:38 p.m. ET

Asia’s Warning About Basel Bonds

A supposed crisis-prevention measure confuses investors.

Some people think a proliferation of novel, hard-to-value credit-linked securities that behaved unpredictably in a crunch contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Silly them! The Basel committee of central bankers and regulators knows better, and has now decreed that more such securities are the way to avert another crisis. We’re joking, but the so-called Basel III capital standards for banks are all-too serious. And Asian banks are becoming guinea pigs in one of the bigger Basel III experiments. Read more of this post

Change Flies Into Japan: JAL’s Airbus order shows economic transformation is happening anyway, even as grand plans falter in Tokyo

Change Flies Into Japan

JAL’s Airbus order shows economic transformation is happening anyway, even as grand plans falter in Tokyo.

JOSEPH STERNBERG

Oct. 9, 2013 12:29 p.m. ET

The case for optimism about Japan’s economic future, such as it is, is that change has to come eventually. Demographic decline at home and economic changes abroad will make the old ways unsustainable, at which point the Japanese will have to change course. And wouldn’t you know it, but this week Japan Airlines 9201.TO +1.25% , of all companies, offered further evidence that the theory is true. Read more of this post

A giant US asset manager is banking on the US not paying its bills on time

A giant US asset manager is banking on the US not paying its bills on time

By Matt Phillips @MatthewPhillips 2 hours ago

As we’ve been saying, there are plenty of signs that investors have been dumping US Treasury bills set to mature during around the time the US will hit the debt ceiling. And here’s one solid example: giant US money manager Fidelity Investments says it is one of those investors. Portfolio managers at the Boston-based firm have been selling of short-term Treasury bills over the last couple of weeks, according to Nancy Prior, president of Fidelity’s Money Market Group, who told the Associated Press. Sell-offs by Fidelity and others have resulted in the sharp rising in yields on one-month US Treasury bills recently. Read more of this post

Manila Casinos Taking on Singapore Hinges on Tax: Southeast Asia

Manila Casinos Taking on Singapore Hinges on Tax: Southeast Asia

Macau casino mogul Lawrence Ho said gambling revenue in the Philippines “could easily” double to $4 billion in a couple of years, setting the stage to challenge Singapore as Asia’s second-biggest gaming hub. To ensure success, the Philippines will have to decide how to tax casino developers and operators, Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (MPEL) co-Chairman Ho said in an interview in Manila yesterday. In April, the nation’s tax bureau ordered all casino operators to pay income tax on their gaming earnings, removing an exemption provided for by the licenses given to four operators developing casinos in the capital. Read more of this post

Yunnan Tin Chairman Arrested in Bribery Probe, State Media Says

Yunnan Tin Chairman Arrested in Bribery Probe, State Media Says

Lei Yi, chairman of the world’s largest producer of refined tin, Yunnan Tin Co., was arrested and charged with accepting 20 million yuan ($3.3 million) in bribes, China’s state-owned Yunnan Info Daily reported. Lei received bribes from four people, including Li Hongtao, the chairman of Leed International Education Group, the report said. Li paid the bribes in order to secure a majority stake in a private college partially owned by Yunnan Tin, the newspaper reported. Read more of this post

Sausage ceasefire may not end war between China’s noodle kings

Sausage ceasefire may not end war between China’s noodle kings

5:34pm EDT

By Alice Woodhouse

HONG KONG (Reuters) – It started with a sausage. A three-inch, complimentary ham sausage, to be precise. The price war for China’s $8.8 billion instant noodle market sparked last year by Uni-President China Holdings Ltd’s (0220.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) porcine giveaways soon escalated into free drinks, extra seasonings and other gifts as incumbent heavyweight Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holdings Corp (0322.HK: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), owner of the Master Kong brand, sought to defend its patch. Read more of this post

Free-Trade Speculation Rally Spreads From Tianjin to Qingdao

Tianjin Companies Rally on Free-Trade Optimism: Shanghai Mover

Tianjin Port Co. (600717) rallied by the daily limit for a second day, leading gains in companies based in the city southeast of Beijing, on speculation it will follow Shanghai in gaining approval for a free-trade zone. Tianjin Port, Tianjin Quanye Bazaar (Group) Co. (600821), a department store operator, and Tianjin Marine Shipping Co. (900938) all jumped 10 percent at the 11:30 a.m. break in Shanghai. Volumes for the stocks were at least 25 percent higher than 20-day average for this time of day. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) dropped 0.1 percent. Tianjin is awaiting approval from the central government to set up a free-trade zone in the Dongjiang Bonded Port Area, Radio Television Hong Kong reported Sept. 30. China’s markets were shut for a week from Oct. 1 for holidays. Companies with the word Shanghai in their name surged since Aug. 22, when the Commerce Ministry said the government approved a free-trade area in the coastal city. “The proposed free-trade zone in Tianjin is likely to give a significant boost to the local economy with several companies likely to benefit,” Gerry Alfonso, a trader at Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. in Shanghai, said by e-mail. “There are buy and hold opportunities in the sector but there is going to be some volatility.” Shanghai International Port Group Co. surged 126 percent since Aug. 22. The stock has fallen 17 percent over the past five trading days as the zone was opened.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Allen Wan in New York at awan3@bloomberg.net

China Food-Safety Woes Soar

October 9, 2013, 2:13 PM

China Food-Safety Woes Soar

Chinese leader Xi Jinping chided New Zealand about food safety over the weekend in a move many Internet users found laughable. Maybe he should have addressed his comments to China’s national airline instead. Air China601111.SH 0.00% is in the public cross-hairs this week after more than 30 passengers on board on Oct. 6 flight suffered a mix of stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhea after consuming beef-filled pastries that passengers allege were past their consume-by dates.

Read more of this post

Newcrest, Australia’s largest gold producer, to Replace CEO, Chairman After A$6.2 Billion Asset Writedowns triggered a regulatory probe

Newcrest to Replace CEO, Chairman After Asset Writedowns

Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM), Australia’s largest gold producer, named Sandeep Biswas as chief executive officer in a boardroom clean out after a A$6.2 billion ($5.9 billion) writedown triggered a regulatory probe. Biswas, formerly CEO of Rio Tinto Group’s Pacific Aluminium unit, will replace Greg Robinson in the second half of 2014. Don Mercer, chairman since October 2006, will be replaced in December by Peter Hay, the Melbourne-based company said today in a statement. Read more of this post

Bank Indonesia Regulates Currency Hedging for Stable Rupiah

Bank Indonesia Regulates Currency Hedging for Stable Rupiah

Bank Indonesia said it will regulate currency hedging by individuals and companies, including state-owned firms, to help stabilize Asia’s most-volatile currency. The central bank will require Indonesians and corporations to present documents to show underlying economic activity, such as international trade, foreign debt and investments, to conduct hedging transactions with lenders, it said in a statement posted on its website today. The amount and duration of the hedges will be limited by the underlying activity, it said. Read more of this post

Wal-Mart breaks up with Indian partner Bharti Enterprises

Wal-Mart breaks up with Indian partner Bharti Enterprises

By Charles Riley  @CRrileyCNN October 9, 2013: 2:41 AM ET

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Wal-Mart has reached an agreement to terminate its joint venture with Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises, the final blow to a collaborative effort that never quite gave Wal-Mart the toehold it desired on the subcontinent.

Arkansas-based Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) will acquire Bharti’s stake in the venture. Both companies say they will now strike out on their own and pursue independent retail operations. Although the partnership was announced to much fanfare in 2007, it had been on the rocks for some time, a casualty of India’s shifting policy landscape and evolving rules concerning foreign direct investment. Read more of this post

Sun Pharmaceutical Billionaire Seeking Deals as Rivals Founder: Corporate India

Sun Billionaire Seeking Deals as Rivals Founder: Corporate India

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Asia’s largest generic drugmaker by market value, is seeking to acquire makers of injectable to oral liquid medicines to help it exceed industry growth estimates. The Indian manufacturer of antibiotics to cancer drugs may also buy producers of branded ophthalmology products, said billionaire Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi in an interview. The company this year sought to acquire Swedish drugmaker Meda AB, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sun, which evaluates three to four acquisition targets every month, isn’t close to announcing any deal, Shanghvi said. Read more of this post