The Next Problem: Too Much Profit? America’s profit-margin miracle has gone on for so long that rather than cheering it on, investors might want to ask what companies are actually doing to keep it going

The Next Problem: Too Much Profit

JUSTIN LAHART

March 27, 2014 4:05 p.m. ET

America’s profit-margin miracle has gone on for so long that rather than cheering it on, investors might want to ask what companies are actually doing to keep it going. Read more of this post

S. Korea’s robot technology rapidly catching up with developed nations

S. Korea’s robot technology rapidly catching up with developed nations

Won Ho-sup

2014.03.27 17:51:14

South Korea jumped into research in robots about 30 years later than the US or Japan. Korea’s development of the first generation robots working in the manufacturing sector began as late as in 1990s. But the country’s robots, an achievement of many scientists, are evolving and rapidly catching up with those of developed countries.  Read more of this post

Australia has ‘lost pioneering spirit’: outgoing BCA president

Australia has ‘lost pioneering spirit’: outgoing BCA president

Published 28 March 2014 11:09

Michael Smith

The Business Council of Australia’s ­outgoing president, Tony Shepherd, warns the nation has become “boring and conservative” as it ­abandons its pioneering spirit and loses its competitive edge. Read more of this post

Kathmandu outdoor clothing retailer bound for North America

Kathmandu outdoor clothing retailer bound for North America

Published 25 March 2014 12:54, Updated 26 March 2014 10:55

Sue Mitchell

Outdoor clothing retailer Kathmandu is eyeing the North American adventure wear market as part of an international expansion plan that promises to drive a new era of growth once its Australian and New Zealand business starts to mature. Read more of this post

China’s New IPO Regime — Manipulation or Emancipation?

China’s New IPO Regime — Manipulation or Emancipation?

2014-02-24 18:05:39

Peter Fuhrman

Chairman and CEO China First Capital

In English we use the phrase ” bee in one’s bonnet” to explain someone with an obsession for a particular point of view. In Chinese, a similar idiom is 挥之不去, meaning you can’t wipe out the stain. Read more of this post

CITIC Group to List in HK by Reversing into CITIC Pacific

CITIC Group to List in HK by Reversing into CITIC Pacific

03-27 15:19 Caijing

China’s state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group is planning to list in Hong Kong by reversing into its CITIC Pacific unit.

China’s state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group is planning to list in Hong Kong by reversing into its CITIC Pacific unit. Read more of this post

Taiwan will lose if trade pact not approved: central bank head

Taiwan will lose if trade pact not approved: central bank head

CNA

2014-03-29

Perng Fai-nan speaks at the association council meeting. Mar. 27. (Photo/Yen Chien-lung) Read more of this post

Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future: China’s history is not a thing of the past and eminent historian Jonathan Spence explains why

03.28.2014 18:37

Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future

China’s history is not a thing of the past and eminent historian Jonathan Spence explains why

By staff reporters Huang Shan and Long Zhouyuan Read more of this post

Property firms increase bank investments over liquidity concerns in China

Property firms increase bank investments over liquidity concerns in China

Staff Reporter

2014-03-28

More Chinese property companies have been investing in banks since late last year, with more than 30 property firms getting involved in the banking industry including China Vanke and Evergrande Group, due to their concerns over liquidity risks, the Shenzhen-based Securities Times reports. Read more of this post

Make whey: Mengniu benefits from Fonterra’s decline in China

Make whey: Mengniu benefits from Fonterra’s decline in China

Staff Reporter

2014-03-29

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Co-operative Group has seen declining profits after botulism-causing bacteria was discovered in its products, while China Mengniu Dairy Company has reported rising revenue because of price hikes and acquisitions, Shanghai’s National Business Daily reports. Read more of this post

The End of Chinese Central Planning

STEPHEN S. ROACH

MAR 27, 2014

The End of Chinese Central Planning

BEIJING – “Isn’t it now time for China to abandon the concept of a growth target?”

That was the question I asked Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei this week at the 15th annual China Development Forum, which brings together top Chinese officials and an international delegation of academics, leaders of multilateral organizations, and business executives. Having attended the CDF since former Premier Zhu Rongji initiated it in 2000, I can attest to its role as one of China’s most important platforms for debate. Zhu welcomed the exchange of views at the Forum as a true intellectual test for China’s reformers. Read more of this post

Citigroup hurt by negligent auditing on failed stress test: Financial Times

Citigroup hurt by negligent auditing on failed stress test: Financial Times

Fri, Mar 28 2014

(Reuters) – Weaknesses in auditing led to Citigroup Inc failing the U.S. Federal Reserve capital assessments, fueling fears that there is negligence in controls at the U.S. bank, the Financial Times reported on Friday citing executives and others sources familiar with the matter. Read more of this post

On Tuesday, April 1, people in some provinces will be able to watch digital television for the first time in the Thai Kingdom’s history

The arrival of digital TV will be a game-changer across the board

Pradon Sirakovit
Special to The Nation March 29, 2014 1:00 am

On Tuesday, April 1, people in some provinces will be able to watch digital television for the first time in the Kingdom’s history. Read more of this post

Singapore has many key attributes that few others can speak of: PM

PUBLISHED MARCH 29, 2014

Singapore has many key attributes that few others can speak of: PM

The Republic has a First World system in a complicated part of the world

LEE U-WEN

WHEN asked during a dialogue to describe Singapore’s USP – or unique selling point – to the world, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described the country as having many key attributes that few others can speak of – PHOTO: ST Read more of this post

Indonesia’s Population Boom Unsustainable, Experts Warn

Indonesia’s Population Boom Unsustainable, Experts Warn

By Josua Gantan on 09:21 pm Mar 27, 2014

1.  When the National Population and Family Planning Board, or BKKBN, held its annual meeting on Monday, there was a palpable tension in the room.

Read more of this post

Indonesia Presidential Election May Not Answer Investors’ Prayers

Indonesia Presidential Election May Not Answer Investors’ Prayers

By Andy Mukherjee on 12:24 pm Mar 28, 2014

1.  The 10 percent jump in Indonesia’s stock market this year is a case of investors’ hopes triumphing over experience.

Read more of this post

Amid Social Media Push, Television Is Still the King in Indonesia

Amid Social Media Push, Television Is Still the King

By Kennial Caroline Laia on 11:40 am Mar 29, 2014

1.  Indonesians have long been famous for their embrace of social media platforms — Jakarta was last year identified as the Twitter capital of the world, and Indonesia is the fourth most active country on Facebook.

Read more of this post

The great Indian election – It’s about jobs

The great Indian election – It’s about jobs

PATNA, India: Old enough to vote for the first time, student Sheeba Shamim, the daughter of a middle class family, and young construction workers sweating on a nearby building site are impatient for a government in India that delivers jobs and hope for the future. Read more of this post

Malaysia’s Asia File zooms in on M&A potential; “We are more of a European business than a Malaysian one now, as two-thirds of our turnover comes from the European market.”

Published: Saturday March 29, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday March 29, 2014 MYT 7:23:45 AM

Asia File zooms in on M&A potential

BY LIZ LEE

Lim: ‘We are quite integrated now.’

FIVE years since it first went into the European market, stationery maker Asia File Corp Bhd continues to be bullish on the potential for growth there, whether organically or through acquisitions, and its focus now is in continental Europe. Read more of this post

Auditing the auditors: Is the MIA’s latest report a clear snapshot of audit quality in Malaysia?

Published: Saturday March 29, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM

Auditing the auditors

BY ERROL OH

Is the MIA’s latest report a clear snapshot of audit quality in Malaysia?

IT’S easy to be sceptical about self-assessment exercises. How many people can be wholly critical and objective when evaluating what they see in the mirror? And surely fewer still are secure and honest enough to share the full results with the rest of the world. Read more of this post

Accounting Trick Helps Banks Dodge Capital Pain

Accounting Trick Helps Banks Dodge Capital Pain

JOHN CARNEY

March 28, 2014 2:43 p.m. ET

Wall Street is a romantic place these days.

Read more of this post

Seoul’s Missing Ingredient: Chefs; Many of South Korea’s family-owned, down-to-earth restaurants specialize in a single dish that are based on recipes laid down by family matriarchs, but don’t have chefs who create their own sauce base

Mar 25, 2014

Seoul’s Missing Ingredient: Chefs

JEYUP S. KWAAK

Head Chef Hooni Kim with patrons at his inside New York restaurant, Danji

Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

Korean cuisine arouses so much national pride that some South Koreans reach into their own pockets to advertise a single dish on major U.S. newspapers. So why are South Korean restaurants often ignored by food critics? Read more of this post

The Myth of Cheaper ETFs; Open-end index funds often charge lower fees-and are at least as tax-efficient

The Myth of Cheaper ETFs

Open-end index funds often charge lower fees—and are at least as tax-efficient.

MARK HULBERT

Updated March 28, 2014 5:47 p.m. ET

Here is a surprise for most investors: Exchange-traded funds aren’t always cheaper than traditional open-end mutual funds. Read more of this post

Loyalty to India’s Gandhis Wavers; India’s Ruling Party and its Leading Clan Struggle with Economic Discontent Before Vote

Loyalty to India’s Gandhis Wavers

India’s Ruling Party and its Leading Clan Struggle with Economic Discontent Before Vote

NIHARIKA MANDHANA

March 28, 2014 8:11 p.m. ET

JAGDISHPUR, India—For decades, the farming communities that stretch out around this northern Indian town have elected Gandhis—generations of them. Read more of this post

Stephen Roach: Is This End Of Chinese Central Planning?

Stephen Roach: Is This End Of Chinese Central Planning?

Tyler Durden on 03/28/2014 20:53 -0400

Authored by Stephen Roach (author of Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China), via The Jewish Business News,

“Isn’t it now time for China to abandon the concept of a growth target?” Read more of this post

SEC says shuts cloud computing scam targeting Asians, Hispanics

SEC says shuts cloud computing scam targeting Asians, Hispanics

2:56pm EDT

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said it has shut down a worldwide pyramid scheme that falsely promised fast gains to tens of thousands of Asian-American, Hispanic and foreign investors from cloud computing services. Read more of this post

China’s Shadow Banking Malaise

China’s Shadow Banking Malaise

By PETER BOONE and SIMON JOHNSON

Peter Boone is chairman of the charity Effective Intervention and a research associate at the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Simon Johnson is a professor at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Read more of this post

Failing Stress Test Is Another Stumble for Citigroup

Failing Stress Test Is Another Stumble for Citigroup

By MICHAEL CORKERY and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

MARCH 27, 2014, 9:01 PM  4 Comments

Something didn’t quite seem right toCitigroup earlier this week.
The banking behemoth could show that it had enough capital to ride out an economic storm, but a regulator was refusing to approve its plan to increase dividends and stock buybacks, steps intended to please shareholders and build confidence in the bank’s turnaround. Read more of this post

Overseas success of S Korean music and TV opens doors for fashion

March 28, 2014 9:26 am

Overseas success of S Korean music and TV opens doors for fashion

By Simon Mundy in Seoul

A stream of 15 stern, spindly Korean women stride on five-inch high heels through a blizzard of artificial snow, parading flowing white dresses and quilted romper suits amid throbbing house music. Read more of this post