China’s property developers face uphill battle; Among the 117 developers listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, 61 posted shrinking profits or even losses for the first three months

China’s property developers face uphill battle

05-08 21:10 Caijing

Among the 117 developers listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, 61 posted shrinking profits or even losses for the first three months Read more of this post

Industrial Policy Reconsidered

ANDRÉS VELASCO

Andrés Velasco, a former presidential candidate and finance minister of Chile, is Professor of Professional Practice in International Development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has taught at Harvard University and New York University, and is the author of numerous studies on international economics and development. Read more of this post

Boom times for bank trading have gone, and may never come back

Boom times for bank trading have gone, and may never come back

11:40am EDT

By Jamie McGeever

LONDON (Reuters) – The boom years of financial market trading, when banks made unprecedented profits from bonds, currencies and commodities, may be over for good as financial firms realize there will be no cyclical upswing on their dealing desks. Read more of this post

Canada’s next housing bubble: real estate agents

Canada’s next housing bubble: real estate agents

Garry Marr | May 9, 2014 | Last Updated: May 9 6:12 PM ET
The housing boom has not only resulted in record real estate prices, it has spawned an unprecedented number of realtors. Read more of this post

Banking secrets in jeopardy? Landmark ruling threatens financial industry’s confidential dealings

Banking secrets in jeopardy? Landmark ruling threatens financial industry’s confidential dealings

Theresa Tedesco | May 9, 2014 | Last Updated: May 9 9:16 PM ET
The impenetrable cloak of confidentiality between Canada’s major financial institutions and the country’s top financial watchdog is in jeopardy in the wake of a decision by a Quebec court that could dramatically alter the regulatory regime. Read more of this post

Harim, Korea’s largest poultry processing firm, goes global

Updated : 2014-05-11 15:17

Harim goes global

Poultry processing firm expands in US, China, Southeast Asia
By Lee Hyo-sik

Harim, Korea’s largest poultry processing firm, has been pursuing a two-track growth strategy . Read more of this post

Bank must burst housing bubble

Bank must burst housing bubble

Force buyers to find bigger deposits, says OECD think tank, to slow booming market that could put economic recovery at risk

Would-be housebuyers should have to put down bigger deposits and George Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme should be cut back, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said Read more of this post

‘Conglomerates should lead K-food drive’

Updated : 2014-05-09 18:33

‘Conglomerates should lead K-food drive’

By Kwon Ji-youn
Food “hallyu” (Korean wave), or K-food, has only just begun, according to star chef Edward Kwon.
“And this is going to be a long battle,” Kwon told The Korea Times in a recent interview. “It’s not something a chef can do on his or her own.” Read more of this post

Chinese investors are rushing to open accounts with Korean banks on Jeju Island

Updated : 2014-05-09 17:15

Chinese investors eye Jeju Island

By Yi Whan-woo
Chinese investors are rushing to open accounts with Korean banks on Jeju Island.
Real estate developers from the world’s second-largest economy are attracted by a series of land development projects on Korea’s southernmost resort island. Read more of this post

Major Korean conglomerates are realigning their businesses to cope with the increasing risk and unpredictability of the rapidly changing global market

Updated : 2014-05-09 17:15

Conglomerates realign businesses

By Yi Whan-woo
Major Korean conglomerates are realigning their businesses to cope with the increasing risk and unpredictability of the rapidly changing global market. Read more of this post

Korean food firms going global; More than 70 percent of overseas sales made by the country’s top five food companies were made in Asian countries last year

Updated : 2014-05-08 18:57

Food firms going global

By Park Ji-won
More than 70 percent of overseas sales made by the country’s top five food companies were made in Asian countries last year, according to a research firm, Tuesday. Read more of this post

Malaysia’s jet, Korea’s ferry tell larger stories

Malaysia’s jet, Korea’s ferry tell larger stories

BY WILLIAM PESEK

MAY 5, 2014

There are no ideologues in a financial crisis, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke once said. Clearly the same doesn’t hold true for political crises, as a comparison of Malaysia and South Korea very quickly reveals. Read more of this post

Is Modi too big a man for India?

Is Modi too big a man for India?

BY KEVIN RAFFERTY

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

MAY 5, 2014

OSAKA – There is the widespread notion in India and abroad that, although voting goes on until May 12, it is all over bar the counting and the celebratory announcement of the results: Narendra Modi, the controversial leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and chief minister of Gujarat state, is all set to become the next prime minister of India. Read more of this post

Chinese cities’ four modernizations

Chinese cities’ four modernizations

BY WILLIAM ANTHOLIS

MAY 5, 2014

Among the most significant developments driving China’s economic growth and rising living standards is the shift from a rural, agricultural society to a modern, urban one. Read more of this post

Don’t count on bubbles, wage hikes for more Asian growth

Don’t count on bubbles, wage hikes for more Asian growth

MAY 4, 2014

At least for the past decade, a great deal of hope was placed on the continued economic growth in the Asian region despite some political disturbances while the industrialized economies have suffered from slow rates of growth. Read more of this post

‘Intrapreneurship’: new growth engine

Updated : 2014-05-11 15:51

‘Intrapreneurship’: new growth engine

Chris Khang
Companies are constantly looking for new ways to stimulate growth and create new opportunities. Large companies especially cannot compete in the new business environment by resorting to their old ways and formulae for success. They are exploring to examine their management strategies and corporate cultures in order to find ways of developing a spirit of “intrapreneurship.” Read more of this post

Cross-border M&A must for Korean firms

Cross-border M&A must for Korean firms

By Steven Jeong
With globalization, we are continuously moving toward a smaller world with greater cross-border business opportunities. According to PwC corporate finance practice, cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) accounted for approximately 35 percent of all transactions globally in 2013. Though cross-border deals dropped in value close to 11 percent in 2013 compared to 2012, quarter to quarter deals is a rising trend, registering the fourth quarterly increase to $255.3 billion, as we speak. Read more of this post

The economic fallout from the sinking of the ferry Sewol seems more serious and far-reaching than was initially thought

Updated : 2014-05-11 16:04

Fallout from disaster

The economic fallout from the sinking of the ferry Sewol seems more serious and far-reaching than was initially thought.
According to a report submitted by the finance ministry to a meeting chaired by President Park Geun-hye Friday, sales at department stores dropped 1.9 percent in April. At large discount stores, the performance was even worse with sales dipping 9.8 percent. Read more of this post

Rogue trader: most illicit deals unnoticed; Less than 5 percent of unauthorized financial trading cases may be getting reported, said Toshihide Iguchi, whose trading losses led to the 1995 shutdown of Daiwa Bank’s U.S. operations

‘I’m no criminal,’ says man who cost Daiwa $1 billion

Rogue trader: most illicit deals unnoticed

BLOOMBERG

MAY 7, 2014

Toshihide Iguchi, a former trader at Daiwa Bank Ltd., is interviewed in Hong Kong on April 29. | BLOOMBERG Read more of this post

Lee’s health may affect Samsung

Updated : 2014-05-11 19:05

Lee’s health may affect Samsung

By Kim Tae-jong
The health problem of Lee Kun-hee, the head of Samsung Group, has emerged as a major stumbling block to the group’s move to realign businesses for organizational reform and power transfer. Read more of this post

S. Korea’s economy and the elderly

S. Korea’s economy and the elderly

Declining workforce, graying of society severely burdens welfare programs

BY MINORU MATSUTANI

STAFF WRITER

MAY 11, 2014

The South Korean economy has shown positive signs recently, but prospects may not be so bright due to the increasing costs of handling an aging society, five South Korean think tank researchers met at a recent symposium in Tokyo to discuss issues facing South Korea. Read more of this post

Industry 4.0: Germany rethinks manufacturing

Industry 4.0: Germany rethinks manufacturing

BY JOCHEN LEGEWIE

MAY 10, 2014

Last month, the chief executive officer of one of the country’s largest manufacturers spoke in a closed-door meeting to a group of Japanese executives on his company’s global strategy. Remarkably, he spend 20 percent of his time praising German companies, from traditional heavyweights such as Siemens and Thyssen- Krupp to young up-and-comers such as SAP and Infineon. Read more of this post

More than 100 billionaires living in Britain; Britain has more billionaires than any other country, as the number based in the UK has tripled in the last ten years

More than 100 billionaires living in Britain

Britain has more billionaires than any other country, as the number based in the UK has tripled in the last ten years

By Agencies

7:29PM BST 10 May 2014

The number of billionaires living in Britain has risen to more than 100 for the first time, a study has found. Read more of this post

SEC probing brokerages over handling of retail orders

Published: Wednesday May 7, 2014 MYT 8:31:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday May 7, 2014 MYT 8:34:14 AM

SEC probing brokerages over handling of retail orders

NEW YORK: The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent out subpoenas and demands for records to brokerage companies as part of a probe into how retail customers’ orders are routed, executed and filled, according to several people familiar with the matter. Read more of this post

The long arms of the law: Across Asia, judges are having too much say in politics

The long arms of the law: Across Asia, judges are having too much say in politics

May 10th 2014 | From the print edition

AFTER nearly three years, Yingluck Shinawatra’s stint as prime minister of Thailand drew this week to its inevitable close. The end came not with the bang of a people-power revolution that at one point seemed likely to unseat her; nor with the muted rumble of tanks in a coup like the one that toppled her brother Thaksin from the same job in 2006; still less with the raucous clamour of a contested election, though one had been called for July 20th. Rather, it petered out in the whimper of a court order. Not for the first time the Thai judiciary has intervened to solve a problem that a broken political system could not fix. And not for the first time its intervention was to the Shinawatras’ detriment. Read more of this post

Thailand’s politics: Out of luck; A court ousts Yingluck Shinawatra, pushing the country further towards political breakdown

Thailand’s politics: Out of luck; A court ousts Yingluck Shinawatra, pushing the country further towards political breakdown

May 10th 2014 | BANGKOK | From the print edition

AFTER 1,000 days in power, Yingluck Shinawatra’s time as prime minister came to an abrupt end on May 7th at the hands of the country’s Constitutional Court. Its judges ruled that she had abused her office and had to step down, together with nine of her cabinet ministers. And so the court succeeded where months of street protests had failed in ousting the leader of the Pheu Thai party and younger sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister removed in a military coup in 2006 whose shadow still falls over Thailand. The court’s decision only widens divisions in the country’s politics. Divining a peaceful way out of the present crisis is not easy. Read more of this post

A century of capital structure: The leveraging of corporate America

A century of capital structure: The leveraging of corporate America

John R. Graham, Mark T. Leary, Michael R. Roberts, 6 May 2014

During the recent financial crisis, not much attention has been paid to the indebtedness of non-financial corporations, as little is known about what drives their financing. This column looks at financial policies of non-financial corporations over the last century. It shows evidence that a primary factor affecting the amount of corporate borrowing is the amount of borrowing by the government. Government borrowing crowds out the ability of the corporate sector to borrow. Thus, policymakers should be cautious in altering government policies in an attempt to reduce corporate debt usage. Read more of this post

Blame the media, China property edition

Blame the media, China property edition

David Keohane | May 07 11:07 | 7 comments | Share

The bank that brought “adaptive pricing” to the China property euphemism table just two weeks ago is getting quite a bit blunter.

We’ll spare you more charts today, but here’s a chunk or two from Citi’s Oscar Choi and Marco Sze who have been forced into a shower of scare quotes by weaker than expected April data (emphasis in original): Read more of this post