How five years of rock-bottom interest rates have changed Britain

How five years of rock-bottom interest rates have changed Britain

Five years ago on Wednesday, the Bank of England slashed interest rates to a record low of 0.5% – and it’s still there. For some it’s been goods news, for others bad

by Patrick Collinson, Larry Elliott, Sean Farrell, Phillip Inman and Hilary Osborne

The Observer, Sunday 2 March 2014

Five years ago this week, on 5 March 2009, the Bank of England took the dramatic step of cutting interest rates to their lowest level in more 300 years. The previous 18 months had seen Northern Rock nationalised, RBS, Lloyds and HBOS rescued by massive taxpayer bailouts and Lehman Brothers collapse in the United States. House prices were falling, car sales plunging and Britain found itself facing a deep depression. Read more of this post

“I’m not sure if I’m making an investment or a donation”: Emerging Markets Look Appetizing.Again

Feb 28, 2014

THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

Emerging Markets Look Appetizing…Again

JASON ZWEIG

Remember emerging markets? Read more of this post

Investors Don’t Buy Corporate Yarn-Spinning; Self-serving, stretch-the-truth comments in earnings reports and press releases backfire most of the time, a study suggests

February 27, 2014

CFO.com | US

Investors Don’t Buy Corporate Yarn-Spinning

Self-serving, stretch-the-truth comments in earnings reports and press releases backfire most of the time, a study suggests. Read more of this post

Government coughers: Smoking is on course to kill 100m Chinese people this century. Will the latest anti-smoking policies curb it?

Government coughers: Smoking is on course to kill 100m Chinese people this century. Will the latest anti-smoking policies curb it?

Mar 1st 2014 | SHANGHAI | From the print edition

THE air in China can be deadly and not just because of the smog. Some 300m Chinese adults are smokers and, with over 700m people exposed to second-hand smoke, the country is paying a high price for its addiction. The prevalence of smoking is greater in countries like Austria and Russia since, although more than half of Chinese men smoke, barely 2% of women do. But China is still the world’s largest cigarette market and, on present trends, 100m people stand to die from tobacco-related illnesses this century. The resultant economic burden—estimated in the tens of billions of dollars—will soar as the economy and the cost of health care grow. Read more of this post

Mad procurement rules help explain why defence spending is so hard to cut

Mad procurement rules help explain why defence spending is so hard to cut

Mar 1st 2014 | From the print edition

AT THEIR factory in Big Rapids, Michigan, workers at Bates, a maker of military boots and shoes, can see geopolitical trends unfold before their eyes. Straight after the September 2001 terror attacks on America, the firm moved to round-the-clock shifts. The black leather boots of the cold war and its aftermath gave way to shades of beige and tan: hot-weather boots for marines, desert footwear for the infantry, mountain gear for special forces. Today the plant is evolving once more. If procurement orders are any guide, American commanders are bracing themselves for conflicts in any number of continents. Staff report much work on jungle boots and discussions of the right shades of leaf-green to use in Asia, Africa or Latin America. Read more of this post

Samsung Elec. to introduce peak wage system

Samsung Elec. to introduce peak wage system

Lee Jin-myung

2014.02.27 17:58:22

Samsung Electronics is set to adopt a peak salary system, which extends retirement age to 60 for senior workers, two years before the relevant law comes into effect.  Read more of this post

Steep Discounts Prompt Fears Property Market Faces Dark Days; Developers have started selling apartments in two eastern cities for a bargain, raising concerns that prices will start to tumble

02.25.2014 17:40

Steep Discounts Prompt Fears Property Market Faces Dark Days

Developers have started selling apartments in two eastern cities for a bargain, raising concerns that prices will start to tumble Read more of this post

Electric Car Charging Stations Powering Down; Major obstacles, including battery-charging station woes, stand in the way of China’s push to put more electric cars on the road

02.27.2014 13:31

Electric Car Charging Stations Powering Down

Major obstacles, including battery-charging station woes, stand in the way of China’s push to put more electric cars on the road

By staff reporters Li Xuena and Wu Jing

(Beijing) — As China’s annual Spring Festival approached, travel madness seized the home-bound throngs rushing through terminals to airliners at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, one of the world’s busiest. Read more of this post

Fortress Loses Millions On Bitcoin Investment

Fortress Loses Millions On Bitcoin Investment

Tyler Durden on 02/28/2014 18:52 -0500

Readers will recall that back in October, when the only way for Bitcoin seemed up, none other than the head of sophisticated hedge fund/private equity megafund Fortress Group, Michael Novogratz, recommended buying Bitcoin:  “I have a nice little Bitcoin position,” Novogratz said. “Enough that I’m smiling that it doubled… Put a little money in Bitcoin…Come back in a few years and it’s going to be worth a lot.” Read more of this post

Howard Marks: “In The End, The Devil Always Wins”

Howard Marks: “In The End, The Devil Always Wins”

Tyler Durden on 02/28/2014 15:32 -0500

In the follwoing interview with Swiss Finanz und Wirtschaft, Howard Marks, chairman of the U.S. investment firm Oaktree Capital, sees more room to run for stocks. But at the same time he warns that from now on, a higher level of caution is appropriate. The bulk of the content should be largely well-known to those who follow the long-term distressed investor, but it does have such pearls as the following: Read more of this post

Foreigners can only buy Malaysian properties costing RM1m and above from March 1

Updated: Friday February 28, 2014 MYT 5:18:58 PM

Foreigners can only buy properties costing RM1m and above from March 1

KUALA LUMPUR: The Guideline on the Acquisition of Properties by foreigners at the minimum threshold of RM1mil, as proposed in the Budget 2014, will take effect from March 1. Read more of this post

Myanmar spring: ‘Look, listen, learn and leave’; Nation undergoing financial transformation

Updated: Saturday March 1, 2014 MYT 12:35:09 PM

Myanmar spring: ‘Look, listen, learn and leave’

BY TAN SRI LIN SEE-YAN

Nation undergoing financial transformation

THESE are early days still in Myanmar, the “final frontier.”

In the 30 months since the new regime assumed power, Myanmar has undergone a remarkable transformation. Rich in oil and gas and minerals, investors are equally interested in what Myanmar does not have, which is pretty well everything else. So far, change has come largely to the centre – Yangon. Around the periphery, home to numerous ethnic groups that make up two-fifths of the population, little has changed. Read more of this post

Norway’s $840bn sovereign wealth fund turns net seller of stocks

February 28, 2014 2:41 pm

Norway’s oil fund turns net seller of stocks

By Richard Milne in Oslo

Norway’s oil fund was a net seller of equities in the fourth quarter for the first time in its history even as surging share prices pushed the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund to its second best annual performance. Read more of this post

Pimco: The man who replaced Mohamed; Doug Hodge speaks on his new role as chief of the world’s largest bond house

February 28, 2014 1:30 pm

Pimco: The man who replaced Mohamed

By Chris Newlands

Doug Hodge, the newly appointed chief executive of Pimco, the world’s largest bond manager, has taken the reins of a company in turmoil. Read more of this post

Fund risk ratings may not be all they seem; The growing use of “risk-rated” funds by advisers and platforms could lead to investors being pushed into a product which does not match their risk appetite, experts have warned.

February 28, 2014 5:27 pm

Fund risk ratings may not be all they seem

By Emma Dunkley

The growing use of “risk-rated” funds by advisers and platforms could lead to investors being pushed into a product which does not match their risk appetite, experts have warned. Read more of this post

Buffett letter could show Berkshire winning streak over

Buffett letter could show Berkshire winning streak over

6:07pm EST

By Luciana Lopez

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A five-year bull market may have finally outdueled one of the U.S. stock market’s biggest bulls, and Warren Buffett will probably tell investors on Saturday that his 43-year run of beating the Street has come to an end. Read more of this post

Falling Audit Fees May Increase Restatements: Study

February 28, 2014, 3:18 PM ET

Falling Audit Fees May Increase Restatements: Study

By Saranya Kapur

Reporter

Audit fees have sagged since the recession, and that trend may increase the possibility of misstatements going undetected, according to a study by researchers at Texas A&M University and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Read more of this post

Do ETFs Turn Investors Into Market Timers?

Do ETFs Turn Investors Into Market Timers?

MARK HULBERT

Feb. 28, 2014 9:19 p.m. ET

There is a downside to how cheap and easy exchange-traded funds make it to buy or sell broad baskets of stocks: the danger of becoming a short-term market timer, a losing proposition for most individual investors. Read more of this post

Almost Half a Billion Worth of Bitcoins Vanish; Mt. Gox Says It Lost 750,000 of Customers’ Bitcoin to Fraud

Almost Half a Billion Worth of Bitcoins Vanish

Mt. Gox Says It Lost 750,000 of Customers’ Bitcoin to Fraud

ROBIN SIDEL, ELEANOR WARNOCK and TAKASHI MOCHIZUKI

Updated Feb. 28, 2014 7:16 p.m. ET

Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles bows in apology at a news conference at the Justice Ministry in Tokyo.Associated Press

Mt. Gox, once the dominant exchange for bitcoin trading, on Friday said more than $470 million of the virtual currency vanished from its digital coffers, kicking into high gear a search for the missing money by victims and cybersleuths. Read more of this post

Five Years Later, an Over-the-Top Wall Street Blog Returns; The blog evolved naturally from the short parodies he would write that were loosely based on his friends’ conversations

FEBRUARY 28, 2014, 11:31 AM  Comment

Five Years Later, an Over-the-Top Wall Street Blog Returns

By SYDNEY EMBER

Like many in the fall of 2008, Amit Chatwani was done. Lehman Brothers had collapsed, the government had bailed out the American International Group, and the financial system was in chaos. Read more of this post

Bitcoin true believers unfazed by losses in Mt. Gox collapse

Bitcoin true believers unfazed by losses in Mt. Gox collapse

11:26am EST

By Kevin Krolicki and Nathan Layne

TOKYO (Reuters) – Like other bitcoin evangelists, Ken Shishido is ready to write off the money he lost in the bankruptcy of Tokyo-based virtual currency exchange Mt. Gox as the price of revolutionizing global finance. Read more of this post

Paper Warns of Exodus From Emerging Market Bond Funds in system-rattling “bond market tantrum,” as across the board selling by market heavyweights such as Pimco prompt others to follow suit

FEBRUARY 28, 2014, 10:36 AM  2 Comments

Paper Warns of Exodus From Emerging Market Bond Funds

By LANDON THOMAS JR.

Low interest rates have incited a craze for risky bonds in fast-growing economies, and few fund companies have been more adept in meeting this demand than Pimco, the world’s largest bond manager. Read more of this post

Chaebol and ‘owner risk’

2014-02-28 17:20

Chaebol and ‘owner risk’

The Supreme Court sent its strongest warning ever to Korea’s family-run conglomerates Thursday, upholding four-year and three-and-a-half year prison terms for two brothers who control the nation’s third-largest chaebol, SK Group.   Read more of this post

Subway bets on Korean market; Since its entry into Korea in 2007, the firm has continued on a growth trend. It posted 20 billion won in sales

2014-02-27 21:16

Subway bets on Korean market

By Park Ji-won

Subway Korea aims to expand its market presence here by diversifying its menu lineup to compete with McDonald’s and Lotteria, the company’s chief executive said. Read more of this post

‘One million buyers have never seen a rate rise’; Building society boss warns of a ‘whole generation’ who have never experienced rising mortgage costs

‘One million buyers have never seen a rate rise’

Building society boss warns of a ‘whole generation’ who have never experienced rising mortgage costs

By Nicole Blackmore

10:11AM GMT 28 Feb 2014

The chief executive of Britain’s biggest building society has made a stark warning that a “whole generation” of borrowers have never had to cope with a rise in interest rates. Read more of this post

Bitcoin ATMs Open in Singapore even as the once-dominant Mt. Gox exchange said it was filing for bankruptcy protection

Feb 28, 2014

Bitcoin ATMs Open in Singapore

By Newley Purnell and Lorraine Luk

Bitcoin machines began operating in Singapore and Hong Kong even as the once-dominant Mt. Gox exchange said Friday it was filing for bankruptcy protection. Read more of this post

For years China has been billed as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse but the nation’s massive manufacturing industry generates only thin margins due to its inability to turn out key components and parts

Lack of R&D means thin profits for China’s smartphone makers

2014-02-26

For years China has been billed as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse but the nation’s massive manufacturing industry generates only thin margins due to its inability to turn out key components and parts, as typified by the status of its mobile-phone industry. Read more of this post

China to be No.1 corporate bond market but defaults a possibiity

China to be No.1 corporate bond market but defaults a possibiity

Staff Reporter

2014-02-28

China’s economic slowdown has brought severe tests to the operation of various industries in the country, especially those featuring high-leveraged operations, notably power generation and construction materials, as their debts doubled their equity capital as of the end of September 2013. Read more of this post

Debt and a lost generation; They are happy to enjoy today, live in a comfortable home, drive a nice car and pay later.

Debt and a lost generation

They are happy to enjoy today, live in a comfortable home, drive a nice car and pay later.

Feb 28,2014

One of my college friends has always been peculiar. Although he graduated with a humanities degree, he got a banking job. He said he had a dream, which was to borrow millions, or billions if possible, and use them up and die without ever repaying them. I laughed at his joke. But then he suddenly turned dead serious. He had his own philosophy behind this bizarre so-called dream. “What is capitalism anyway?” he asked. “It breeds on credit. Credit builds when one borrows more. The credit could be limitless if one borrows and repays well. You will see. One day, everyone will live on debt. The day will come when the biggest beneficiary will be the one who manages debt well.” Read more of this post

The absence of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is likely to have a significant impact on the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, leading to what could potentially be the longest management vacancy since the group’s establishment

SK Group’s future uncertain with Chey in jail

Stock prices rose despite risk

Mar 01,2014

The absence of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is likely to have a significant impact on the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, leading to what could potentially be the longest management vacancy since the group’s establishment.
The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed a four-year prison sentence for Chey, who was convicted of embezzling corporate funds for personal gain. Read more of this post