German precedent gives Korea jitter; South Koreans came to consider unification as a kind of monster that would destroy the national economy, not a key to future prosperity

German precedent gives Korea jitter
Mar 22,2014

President Park Chung Hee, the father of incumbent President Park Geun-hye, visited the Berlin Wall on Dec. 11, 1964. Looking at the barbed-wire fence, he commented, “I saw North Korea through the Berlin Wall.” Provided by the Blue House
Early this year, President Park Geun-hye put the issue of unification on her agenda. She pledged to “build up the groundwork for an era of unification on the Korean Peninsula in order to reduce social friction and cost due to division.” Read more of this post

The Timidity Trap: Policy makers have good ideas in principle for tackling terrible economic conditions, yet they consistently go for half-measures in practice and kill all hope

The Timidity Trap
MARCH 20, 2014
Paul Krugman
There don’t seem to be any major economic crises underway right this moment, and policy makers in many places are patting themselves on the back. In Europe, for example, they’re crowing about Spain’s recovery: the country seems set to grow at least twice as fast this year as previously forecast. Read more of this post

The UK is transforming from a nation of shopkeepers into a country full of kitchen table entrepreneurs. Technology enables wave of British kitchen table start-ups

March 21, 2014 2:59 pm
Technology enables wave of British kitchen table start-ups
By Jonathan Moules, Enterprise Correspondent
The UK is transforming from a nation of shopkeepers into a country full of kitchen table entrepreneurs.
Research by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has calculated that 2.9m businesses operate from homes around the country, equivalent to one in every 10 households. Read more of this post

Thailand in limbo after election annulled; economy suffering

Thailand in limbo after election annulled; economy suffering
8:42am EDT
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday annulled last month’s general election, leaving the country in political limbo without a full government and further undermining a prime minister faced with impeachment over a failed rice subsidy scheme. Read more of this post

New Owner Gives Wings to Pilgrim’s Pride Turnaround; Brazil’s JBS Plucks Record Profit Just Four Years After Bankruptcy

New Owner Gives Wings to Pilgrim’s Pride Turnaround
Brazil’s JBS Plucks Record Profit Just Four Years After Bankruptcy
DAVID KESMODEL
March 20, 2014 5:34 p.m. ET

ATHENS, Ga.—A system of rotating metal blades slicing into chicken legs at Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.’s sprawling plant here helps illustrate why the company is carving out record profits four years after emerging from bankruptcy. Read more of this post

Latest Insider-Trading Case Highlights Law Firms’ Risks

Latest Insider-Trading Case Highlights Law Firms’ Risks
JENNIFER SMITH
March 20, 2014 8:23 p.m. ET
Clients rely on big law firms to safeguard all manner of secrets, from intellectual property to confidential information about big-ticket mergers. Read more of this post

Paul Lountzis 2013 Letter To Investors: The Future Of Berkshire Hathaway Without Warren E. Buffett

Paul Lountzis 2013 Letter To Investors
by VW StaffMarch 19, 2014, 4:19 pm
Excerpted from a great value investor. Below is commentary from Paul Lountzis 2013 Letter To Investors (dated February 15, 2014)
The stock market had one of the strongest years in its history in 2013 continuing its strong performance since the equity markets hit bottom in March 2009. Read more of this post

Lease Accounting Standard Inches Forward; Despite disagreements about how to report leases, standard setters held firm on putting all of them on the balance sheet.

March 20, 2014
CFO.com | US
Lease Accounting Standard Inches Forward
Despite disagreements about how to report leases, standard setters held firm Wednesday on putting all of them on the balance sheet.
David M. Katz
Rather than going back to the future, the Financial Accounting Standards Boardapparently moved closer to the completion of a final new standard governing lease accounting by stepping forward to the past. Read more of this post

olding CEO and CFO Roles Is a Tightrope Act; Why you shouldn’t hold both roles at once – and what to do if you have to (on an interim basis)

March 20, 2014
CFO.com | US
Holding CEO and CFO Roles Is a Tightrope Act
Why you shouldn’t hold both roles at once — and what to do if you have to (on an interim basis).
Marielle Segarra
Last month, publicly held California newspaper publisher Daily Journal Corp. announced that it needed more time to finish its audit and submit its 10-Q statement for last quarter. The firm is two quarters late on its financial reports. It also received a notice (its second one in the last year) that it is not in compliance with NASDAQ filing rules. Read more of this post

Avoid Those Rose-Colored Dividends; Don’t let investor communication objectives stand in the way of making sound dividend policy decisions during a downturn

March 20, 2014
CFO.com | US
Avoid Those Rose-Colored Dividends
Don’t let investor communication objectives stand in the way of making sound dividend policy decisions during a downturn.
Gregory V. Milano
Although there are numerous dividend-related metrics, including dividend yield and dividend-payout ratio, any thorough discussion of dividend policy should focus heavily on the signaling effects of dividends. Dividend proponents seek a steady stream of regularly increasing dividends per share to reveal a healthy company to the markets. Indeed, many investors use such signals as one of their criteria for deciding where to invest. Read more of this post

In the past six years, Compustershare founder Chris Morris has sold $155 million worth of scrip, equivalent to 27% of his holding, and ploughed the proceeds into a dizzying array of hospitality-related ventures

Brewery an insurance against headaches for Computershare’s Chris Morris
March 21, 2014
Adele Ferguson

Computershare founder Chris Morris. Photo: Eddie Jim
Pubs, clubs, a farm, a brewery and an island – these things cost money, as Computershare founder and chairman Chris Morris has discovered. In the past six years Morris has sold $155 million worth of Computershare scrip, equivalent to 27 per cent of his holding, and ploughed the proceeds into a dizzying array of hospitality-related ventures. Read more of this post

China yuan band widening a sign of caution, not reform zeal

China yuan band widening a sign of caution, not reform zeal
5:03pm EDT
By Kevin Yao
BEIJING (Reuters) – Paradoxical as it may sound, China’s move to give the yuan more wiggle room is a sign of caution and deepening concern about the slowing economy rather than a promise of Beijing’s vigorous pursuit of market reforms, government economists say. Read more of this post

Hong Kong-listed Kerry Logistics Network is open to the idea of mounting a secondary listing here, despite turning down this option last year

Logistics firm not ruling out secondary listings here

Friday, Mar 21, 2014
Jonathan Kwok
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE – Hong Kong-listed Kerry Logistics Network is open to the idea of mounting a secondary listing here, despite turning down this option last year.

Kerry Logistics floated its stock in Hong Kong last December, and in the lead-up, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) had asked the company to consider a secondary listing here, said chairman George Yeo, a former Cabinet minister, on Tuesday. Read more of this post

R&D in China: Research and embezzlement

R&D in China: Research and embezzlement
Mar 20th 2014, 7:58 by Y.O. | BEIJING
Among China’s high-profile corruption cases, an investigation of provincial science administrators would not seem the most consequential. But one case in Guangdong province hints at the scale of corruption and waste that plague China’s state-led science and technology system. Compared to China’s rigid education system corruption is an under-appreciated—but perhaps as important—obstacle to innovation. Read more of this post

Investing in infrastructure: The trillion-dollar gap; How to get more of the world’s savings to pay for new roads, airports and electricity

Investing in infrastructure: The trillion-dollar gap; How to get more of the world’s savings to pay for new roads, airports and electricity
Mar 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

IF YOU have been to New York’s La Guardia airport recently, taken a train during London’s rush hour, tried to drive in Lagos or endured one of India’s ubiquitous power cuts, you will have first-hand knowledge of the world’s infrastructure deficit. According to the World Economic Forum, global spending on basic infrastructure—transport, power, water and communications—currently amounts to $2.7 trillion a year when it ought to be $3.7 trillion. The gap is almost as big as South Korea’s GDP. And it is likely to grow fast. Read more of this post

The great transition: The government is right to reform the “hukou” system, but it needs to be braver

The great transition: The government is right to reform the “hukou” system, but it needs to be braver
Mar 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

CHINA’S future is now firmly urban. Already around 54% of its people live in cities—and the proportion is rising fast as ever more jobs are created in offices, factories and construction sites, luring ever more people from the countryside. There are now around 250m rural migrants living in cities. Despite many wobbles, in the property market (see article) and elsewhere, this extraordinary revolution has been surprisingly smooth: there are, for instance, very few shanty towns of the sort you see in Brazil or India. Yet at the heart of prosperous, urban China sits an enormous inequality, based upon the hukou system of household registration. Read more of this post

The Secret Trading Strategy From The 1930s That Hedge Funders Don’t Want You To Know About

PRESENTING: The Secret Trading Strategy From The 1930s That Hedge Funders Don’t Want You To Know About
MATTHEW BOESLER MARKETS MAR. 20, 2014, 3:24 AM
“The large operator does not, as a rule, go into a campaign unless he sees in prospect a movement of from 10 to 50 points. Livermore once told me he never touched anything unless there were at least 10 points in it according to his calculations.” Read more of this post

In the wake of a recently exposed insider trading scandal, Acer Inc. (宏碁) founder and President Stan Shih (施振榮) issued an apology yesterday to the public via an open letter

Acer president apologizes to investors amid scandal
By John Liu ,The China Post
March 20, 2014, 12:05 am TWN
TAIPEI, Taiwan — In the wake of a recently exposed insider trading scandal, Acer Inc. (宏碁) founder and President Stan Shih (施振榮) issued an apology yesterday to the public via an open letter. Read more of this post

Timing just not right for ‘mini-HK’; It is no secret that Leung Chun-ying wants to expand Hong Kong’s reach in the Pearl River Delta region.

Timing just not right for ‘mini-HK’
Mary Ma
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
It is no secret that Leung Chun-ying wants to expand Hong Kong’s reach in the Pearl River Delta region.
Even before being elected chief executive, he talked about how the SAR could play a bigger role in the mainland.
Thus, when it was reported the government was studying the possibility of leasing land in Nansha or Hengqin to build a “mini-Hong Kong” to allow industries to expand, it didn’t surprise many people in political circles.

Read more of this post

Big but not strong: China still can’t compete with the US

Big but not strong: China still can’t compete with the US
Tseng Fu-sheng
2014-03-20
Since the launch of economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world’s second-largest economy, the largest merchandise trader and the largest manufacturer, with forex reserves topping US$3.8 trillion, including US$1.2 trillion of US government bonds, for a share of 9%, making it the US’ largest creditor. Read more of this post

Defective market structure overshadows China’s trust industry

Defective market structure overshadows China’s trust industry
Staff Reporter
2014-03-20
Due to the reliance of the Chinese economy on the momentum deriving from investments and exports, the country’s trust industry has concentrated the assets under their custody on investing in fields featuring high security and high yields, such as the government sector and infrastructural facilities. The concentrated investments, however, have led to excessive supply and rapidly rising risks, overshadowing the industry’s development prospects, according to the Chinese-language Economic Observer.

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Olam – Is it a bailout using public funds?

Olam – Is it a bailout using public funds?
Chua Chin Leng aka redbean March 20th, 2014

Olam’s stock prices from 21 Sep 2012 to 20 Dec 2012
The acquisition of Olam by Temasek is raising eyebrows and frowns from many quarters.Kenneth Jeyaratnam has commented negatively on it. Below is Christopher Balding’sarticle on the buyout of Olam. Temasek seems to be very bullish in this commodity trading company. It came out in full support when it was shorted down by Muddy Waters a year ago. Now it is making an offer with the possibility to buying over the company at a high price of $2.23 when it could have had the company for a song when it was under attack. Why? Why buy at such a huge premium and not when it was about 90c? Another case of buying high? OPM?

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Himatsingka Seide: Spinning a Success Story; Dinesh Kumar Himatsingka and son Shrikant’s focus on design and technology has ensured their company remains on a fast growth trajectory

Himatsingka Seide: Spinning a Success Story
by Debojyoti Ghosh | Mar 20, 2014
Dinesh Kumar Himatsingka and son Shrikant’s focus on design and technology has ensured their company remains on a fast growth trajectory
There is no monopoly on good taste. It is this epiphany—combined with the business acumen that has driven the Marwari community for generations—that has spawned a home-grown textile success story in the erstwhile pensioner’s paradise of Bangalore. Read more of this post

Giant robots officially fly the flag for cool Japan

Giant robots officially fly the flag for cool Japan
BY TIM HORNYAK
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES
MAR 20, 2014
Silent defender: Giant robots, such as this 18-meter-high Gundam in Tokyo’s Odaiba, are the subject of a government white paper. | AP

With its mountains of public debt, a nuclear meltdown to mop up and the 2020 Olympics bill, you’d think the last thing the Japanese government would be spending taxpayer money on is a study on robots in science fiction.

Read more of this post

South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally declared a ‘war against regulation.’

Park pledges to combat regulation
Kim Seon-gul, Lee Jae-cheol
2014.03.20 17:58:30
South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally declared a ‘war against regulation.’
“Regulation reform is the extraordinary measure needed for the Korean economy,” said the President at the Presidential Office Thursday as she presided the first ministerial and private-public meeting on regulation reform.

Read more of this post

Religious Leaders Accused of Misleading, Abusing Followers

Religious Leaders Accused of Misleading, Abusing Followers
By Jakarta Globe on 10:22 pm Mar 19, 2014
Ellya Rossa’s search for a traditional healer to treat a chronic heart ailment brought her to Guntur Bumi, an ustad, or Islamic cleric, who has often appeared in television commercials plugging his “alternative healing” clinic.

Read more of this post

The New Face of Indonesian Democracy

The New Face of Indonesian Democracy
By Derwin Pereira on 08:33 pm Mar 19, 2014
Indonesia’s democratic consolidation took a step forward with the nomination of Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as the presidential candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The presidential election, which will be held in July following parliamentary elections next month, could be expected to entrench the political gains made in the vast archipelagic state since the downfall of the autocrat Suharto in 1998.

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