MP shocked – S’porean faculty staff in tertiary institutions are minority

MP shocked – S’porean faculty staff in tertiary institutions are minority

10:292014

👤by Andrew Loh 13 Comments

In Parliament earlier in March, Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC, Seah Kian Peng expressed shock at the number of foreigners who have staffed the faculties in Singapore’s tertiary institutions. Read more of this post

For Deal Makers, China Is a Drag; Major global mergers are being held up by several months because China’s antitrust authority has a relatively small staff and an unusually broad mandate

For Deal Makers, China Is a Drag

Major Mergers Are Being Held Up for Months

TOM FAIRLESS, BRENT KENDALL and CYNTHIA KOONS

March 31, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

For deal makers, China has emerged as a great wall to vault. Read more of this post

What Do Indians Care About? Not Just The Economy, Stupid; India’s BJP Says Economy Would Be First Priority

Mar 31, 2014

What Do Indians Care About? Not Just The Economy, Stupid

NIHARIKA MANDHANA

The Congress party’s prospects have plummeted because Indians are unhappy with the economy, right?

Well, not exactly. A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds a majority of Indians – 57% – think the economic situation today is good. And this assessment is stronger in northern India, where the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its standard bearer Narendra Modi are expected to win big.  Read more of this post

Bags of Mountain Air Offered in Smog-Addled Chinese City

Mar 31, 2014

Bags of Mountain Air Offered in Smog-Addled Chinese City

Proving that China’s fight against pollution has moved decisively into the realm of parody, bags containing mountain air were shipped into one particularly smog-addled city over the weekend. Read more of this post

China Big 5 Banks Step Up Bad Loan Disposals; Write-Offs Highlight Mounting Debt Risks for Cooling Chinese Economy

China Big 5 Banks Step Up Bad Loan Disposals

Write-Offs Highlight Mounting Debt Risks for Cooling Chinese Economy

March 31, 2014 8:41 a.m. ET

China Construction Bank is one of five large Chinese lenders that wrote off and moved off their books billions of yuan in nonperfoming loans. Reuters Read more of this post

China’s New Wager: Pulling Energy From the Ocean

China’s New Wager: Pulling Energy From the Ocean

Lengthy Coastline, Pollution Make Country a Prime Testing Ground in Joint Ventures With Western Firms

SIMON HALL

March 31, 2014 12:15 p.m. ET

HONG KONG—A race is under way to unlock one of the world’s biggest untapped sources of clean energy—the ocean—with China emerging as an important testing ground. Read more of this post

Samsung Electronics’ mobile head paycheck hits $5.8 million, beating Apple’s Cook; Samsung didn’t disclose remuneration details of J.Y. Lee; pay details hidden by non-executive titles

Samsung Electronics’ mobile head paycheck hits $5.8 million, beating Apple’s Cook

8:16pm EDT

Seoul (Reuters) – The head of Samsung Electronics Co’s mobile business, J.K. Shin, received a $5.8 million compensation package last year, beating the paycheck of his counterpart at U.S. rival Apple Inc, the South Korean firm said on Monday in its first such disclosure under new regulations. Read more of this post

Suntory’s spirited strategy

Suntory’s spirited strategy

Monday, March 31, 2014 – 16:46

Jaime Ee

The Business Times

They’re smoky. Stuffy. Chaotic. Elbow room is a luxury, social niceties an afterthought and the food deliberately oversalted. But when spirits are high – in more ways than one – such things don’t matter to a Japanese salary man whose sole intention is to pack his daytime persona as straight-laced, subservient model employee back into his manbag so that his real self can come out to play. Read more of this post

Bubbling ambitions in China’s ‘hot pot city’; paramount leader Deng Xiaoping treated officials to hot pot in the late 1970s while strategising the Reform and Opening overhaul that would transform the country

Bubbling ambitions in China’s ‘hot pot city’

Monday, March 31, 2014 – 13:50

AFP

CHONGQING, China – Thousands of vats of hot pot seasoning thicken the air around Nie Ganru’s home with a miasma of chili as flame-red paste, thick with oil, bakes in the sun. Read more of this post

Weir Group in talks with Metso for $14.17 billion deal to expand its industrial pumps and valves market

Weir Group in talks with Metso for $14.17 billion deal: media

8:20pm EDT

(Reuters) – London-listed engineering company Weir Group (WEIR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is said to be in talks to takeover its Finnish rival Metso Oyj (MEO1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in a 8.5 billion pounds ($14.17 billion) deal to expand its industrial pumps and valves market, the Times reported early Tuesday. Read more of this post

Ex-president Jiang urges Beijing to curb anti-corruption drive; Jiang sent a message saying “the footprint of this anti-corruption campaign cannot get too big” in a warning to Xi not to take on too many of the powerful families

March 31, 2014 4:08 pm

Ex-president Jiang urges Beijing to curb anti-corruption drive

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing and Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese president, has urged the current leadership to rein in the toughest anti-corruption campaign in decades, which is threatening the interests of some Communist party elders. Read more of this post

Investing in India: A Value Investor’s Guide to the Biggest Untapped Opportunity in the World by Rahul Saraogi

Investing in India, + Website: A Value Investor’s Guide to the Biggest Untapped Opportunity in the World (Wiley Finance)[Hardcover]

Rahul Saraogi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2014 | ISBN-10: 1118756096 | ISBN-13: 978-1118756096 | Edition: 1

A practical, real-world guide to investing in India

India’s rapid economic growth offers obvious opportunities for foreign investors, but making wise investing decisions can be difficult for any investor without a deep knowledge of the country and its culture. With a vibrant democracy and an active press, India can be a complex and chaotic place in which investors can find it difficult to make investing decisions with confidence. This book offers an on-the-ground perspective on India from one of India’s most successful value investors. Looking deeply into the internal realities that impact India’s investment climate, Investing in India helps investors both inside and outside the country cut through the noise and find the facts that truly matter for anyone who wants to invest there. Read more of this post

Moats Drive Auto Dealerships; Parts and Service Create Pricing Power and Good ROIC

Moats Drive Auto Dealerships

By David Whiston, CFA, CPA, CFE | 03-31-14 | 06:00 AM | Email Article

Many investors believe the automotive industry lacks competitive advantages, but we contend that each of the public auto dealership companies we cover has a narrow economic moat. The dealers may be off some investors’ radar because of their relatively small market caps, but we think their moats are quite strong. Moreover,  Group 1 Automotive (GPI) and  Sonic Automotive (SAH) are both undervalued, in our opinion. We see the public dealers as long-term beneficiaries of continued consolidation among franchised dealers as smaller players continue to exit, enabling more market share gains, scale, and intangible advantages from the service business and optimal inventory allocation. Read more of this post

The First Russian Casualty: World’s Largest Aluminum Company, Rusal, Warns It May Default

The First Russian Casualty: World’s Largest Aluminum Company, Rusal, Warns It May Default

Tyler Durden on 03/28/2014 15:50 -0400

While it is easy to blame western sanctions for the recent tribulations at the world’s largest aluminum company, Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal, the reality is that the industry specific issues plaguing aluminum makers, certainly including former Dow Jones Industrial Average member Alcoa, which involve a fair share of manipulation of physical inventories at assorted global warehouses are much more responsible than some theatrical rhetoric flaring up between the West and East in the past month. Regardless of the cause, as FT reports, Rusal just announced it is on the verge of insolvency after it warned of “material uncertainty” about its future, and that it has asked its creditors to delay repayment on a maturity from its $10 billion debt pile due next month. Read more of this post

Why Are Rich Countries Democratic?

RICARDO HAUSMANN

MAR 26, 2014

Why Are Rich Countries Democratic?

CAMBRIDGE – When Adam Smith was 22, he famously proclaimed that, “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.” Today, almost 260 years later, we know that nothing could be further from the truth. Read more of this post

China has become the first international market to reach more than $3 billion in movie sales despite rampant piracy

Motion picture industry continues to stagger under piracy with mere record-breaking income

Cory Doctorow at 10:00 pm Thu, Mar 27, 2014

Once again, the “piracy-stricken” motion picture association has had a banner year, with box office revenue breaking all records (as they’ve done in most recent years). The biggest gains this year come from China — a market condemned by the studios as a hive of piracy. Read more of this post

The 100 wealthiest bosses in Australia

BRW Executive Rich list 2014: the 100 wealthiest bosses in Australia

Published 31 March 2014 09:04, Updated 31 March 2014 14:11

Allan Xavier

If it feels like your boss is becoming rich more quickly than you are, then you are probably right. The BRW Executive Rich list of the 100 wealthiest bosses of ASX-listed companies shows that the people running big companies are growing their wealth at a much faster rate than other shareholders. Read more of this post

Battle of three brothers rattles Hyosung Group

Battle of three brothers rattles Hyosung Group

‘There is an extremly intense competition going on under the surface.’

Mar 31,2014

Cho Hyun-moon, the 46-year-old former heir apparent of Hyosung Group, recently expressed his distress over the succession struggle within his family, despite the the fact that he packed up and left a year ago.  Read more of this post

Down on their luck, more people turn to gosiwon; The dormitories, once for students, are now taken over by the poor

Down on their luck, more people turn to gosiwon

The dormitories, once for students, are now taken over by the poor

Mar 31,2014

In Korean society, once a person has fallen into poverty, it can be hard to transcend it. And often those who spiral down from the middle class or higher have no choice but to turn to gosiwon for temporary lodging or even long-term shelter. Read more of this post

Samsung under grand transition for creative innovation

Samsung under grand transition for creative innovation

Sohn Jae-gwon

2014.03.30 18:06:24

Samsung Electronics will make a drastic change in its corporate policy toward ‘Samsung for creative innovation’ from the previous ‘Samsung under management.’  Read more of this post

Up to 14 conglomerates that owe large debts to the financial sector including Hyundai Group, Halla Group, and Daesung Industrial will be put under management of their creditor group this year

Hyundai, Halla, Daesung Industrial to go under control of creditors

2014.03.31 10:38:39

Up to 14 conglomerates that owe large debts to the financial sector including Hyundai Group, Halla Group, and Daesung Industrial will be put under management of their creditor group this year.  Read more of this post

President Park’s Full Speech at Dresden University of Technology

Posted : 2014-03-28 21:15

Updated : 2014-03-28 21:21

An Initiative for Peaceful Unification on the Korean Peninsula

Dresden – beyond division, toward integration
Professor Hans Mueller-Steinhagen, former Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere, students and faculty members of the Dresden University of Technology, ladies and gentlemen. Read more of this post

Deregulatory frenzy in Koreah is as bad as, or worse than, too little

Posted : 2014-03-28 17:18

Updated : 2014-03-28 17:18

Deregulatory frenzy

Too much is as bad as, or worse than, too little
Barely a week after the seven-hour-long discussion at Cheong Wa Dae, the government has come up with follow-up deregulatory steps. “Strike while the iron is hot” seems to be the slogan of the Park Geun-hye administration in its war against bureaucratic red tape.  Read more of this post

Meaning of Dresden Declaration; Groundwork for unification

Read more of this post

Is Canada Tarring Itself? Oil development is changing the country’s political life

Is Canada Tarring Itself?

By JACQUES LESLIEMARCH 30, 2014

START with the term “tar sands.” In Canada only fervent opponents of oil development in northern Alberta dare to use those words; the preferred phrase is the more reassuring “oil sands.” Never mind that the “oil” in the world’s third largest petroleum reserve is in fact bitumen, a substance with the consistency of peanut butter, so viscous that another fossil fuel must be used to dilute it enough to make it flow. Read more of this post

War Marx Right? While Marx’s prediction of our political future was finally discredited with the fall of communism, is his view of our economic future being validated?

Was Marx Right?

INTRODUCTION

In the golden, post-war years of Western economic growth, the comfortable living standard of the working class and the economy’s overall stability made the best case for the value of capitalism and the fraudulence of Marx’s critical view of it. But in more recent years many of the forces that Marx said would lead to capitalism’s demise – the concentration and globalization of wealth, the permanence of unemployment, the lowering of wages – have become real, and troubling, once again. Read more of this post

Pizza Hut goes premium in Korea; Korea’s largest pizza franchise to differentiate itself; Special prizes motivate Pizza Hut employees

Posted : 2014-03-30 14:15

Pizza Hut goes premium

Korea’s largest pizza franchise to differentiate itself

Lee Seung-il, managing director of Pizza Hut Korea
By Chung Hyun-chae
The buzz phrase in the food service industry these days is to “go premium” as restaurants realized it is difficult to stay in business by offering only conventional products and services. Read more of this post

Sea change for commodities as Arctic melt transforms trade routes; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expected to reveal that warmer sea temperatures by 2050 could open up new channels across the Arctic Northern Sea Route

Sea change for commodities as Arctic melt transforms trade routes

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expected to reveal that warmer sea temperatures by 2050 could open up new channels across the Arctic Northern Sea Route

Global warming could mean that at current rates the NSR will remain open to shipping for around 125 days per year, up from an average of about 50 days at the moment. Photo: Alamy Read more of this post

Welcome to China’s political gamble of the century; President Xi Jinping has put the burden of modernisation squarely on the single ruling party. It is quite an experiment

Welcome to China’s political gamble of the century

President Xi Jinping has put the burden of modernisation squarely on the single ruling party. It is quite an experiment

Timothy Garton Ash in Beijing

The Guardian, Sunday 30 March 2014 20.30 BST

As export-hungry Europeans have feted president Xi Jinping on his imperial progress across the continent over the past week, how many have realised just how extraordinary is the political experiment he is leading back home? In essence, he is trying to turn China into an advanced economy and three-dimensional superpower, drawing on the energies of capitalism, patriotism and Chinese traditions, yet all still under the control of what remains, at its core, a Leninist party-state. He may be a Chinese emperor but he is also a Leninist emperor. This is the most surprising and important political experiment on the face of the earth. No one in the 20th century expected it. No one in the 21st will be unaffected by its success or failure. Read more of this post

In Thailand, Copyright Enforcement Comes as a Shock

In Thailand, Copyright Enforcement Comes as a Shock

Copyrights Come Into Fashion as Music Publisher Seeks Fees; Rap on Ownership

JAMES HOOKWAY

March 30, 2014 10:31 p.m. ET

PHRA PRADAENG, Thailand—The land of fake Rolex watches, knockoff DVDs and counterfeit Viagra is now discovering copyright, and it is coming as a bit of a shock for many Thais. Read more of this post