Xi Touts Communist Party as Defender of Confucius’s Virtues

FEBRUARY 13, 2014, 12:44 AM  10 Comments

Xi Touts Communist Party as Defender of Confucius’s Virtues

By CHRIS BUCKLEY

Xi Jinping wants you to memorize “The Analects” of Confucius. China’s Communist Party chief says that the homegrown thoughts of the ancient sage offer an antidote not just for his own country’s ills, but also for Western societies whose faith in capitalism has been battered by the economic slump. Read more of this post

Pimco’s El-Erian: U.S. Could Become Japan

February 14, 2014, 8:30 A.M. ET

Pimco’s El-Erian: U.S. Could Become Japan

By Jack Otter

Mohamed El-Erian, the outgoing CEO and co-CIO at Pimco, said at a conference Thursday that the U.S. was in danger of “becoming Japan” if Congress cannot get over its dysfunction and take action to spur growth. El-Erian, speaking with CBS business analyst Jill Schlesinger at a LinkedIn conference in Manhattan, warned that the U.S. economy cannot be supported forever by the Federal Reserve alone. Read more of this post

Even Among the Richest of the Rich, Fortunes Diverge; our 0.1 percent household made about 206 times, and our 1 percent household about 41 times, what our average household did.

Even Among the Richest of the Rich, Fortunes Diverge

By ANNIE LOWREYFEB. 10, 2014

WASHINGTON — YES, we know the economic fortunes of the 99 percent and 1 percent have diverged over the last three or four decades. But the fortunes of the 1 percent and the 0.1 percent, or the 0.01 percent, or the 0.001 percent, have diverged even more. Economists have taken to calling it “fractal inequality.” It is not just that the rich have pulled away from the average American. It is that the richer you are, the more you have pulled away. Read more of this post

A World Unprepared, Again, for Rising Interest Rates

A World Unprepared, Again, for Rising Interest Rates

FEB. 11, 2014

Eduardo Porter

MEXICO CITY — I was living in São Paulo in 1997 when, out of the blue, aninvestment banker I knew in London called to ask about Brazilian cocktails. He didn’t want one. He needed a name for a potential economic crisis, in the vein of Mexico’s Tequila affair in 1994 and Thailand’s Tom Yum Kung debacle, which was unfolding at the time. Read more of this post

When Investor Websites Get Duped; Seeking Alpha’s policy of granting anonymity to writers of stock stories can have troubling consequence

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2014

When Investor Websites Get Duped

By JOHN KIMELMAN | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Seeking Alpha’s policy of granting anonymity to writers of stock stories can have troubling consequences.

In recent years, Website Seeking Alpha has emerged as a watering hole for both positive and negative stories about stocks. Read more of this post

$1.8 trillion in trust products may be headed for default this year

$1.8 trillion in trust products may be headed for default this year

By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros February 13, 2014

Last month, China’s banking sector dodged a potential catastrophe when a mystery group stepped in at the 11th hour to pay investors in the now-infamous “Credit Equals Gold #1, a defaulted $495-million trust product. Barely two weeks have passed and now another trust product has failed to pay back investors. Read more of this post

Property speculators in Wenzhou hit by plummeting prices

Property speculators in Wenzhou hit by plummeting prices

Staff Reporter

2014-02-14

The resale market for housing in Wenzhou was badly hit following the government’s second round of cooling measures announced in September 2010, with the city having posted the country’s sharpest decline in prices after recording the highest appreciation, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reports. Read more of this post

Unaffordable cities: Singapore workers tread water on millionaires’ island; With 17% of city state’s residents worth S$1m, those who serve, drive and treat them may as well live on another planet

Unaffordable cities: Singapore workers tread water on millionaires’ island

With 17% of city state’s residents worth S$1m, those who serve, drive and treat them may as well live on another planet
Marc Nair in Singapore

theguardian.com, Thursday 13 February 2014 07.00 GMT

It is a balmy Saturday afternoon in the suburbs of Singapore. Patricia, 21, and her partner Sham, 28, share their first meal of the day: a box of chicken nuggets at McDonald’s. “It’s getting much harder to survive in Singapore,” Patricia says between bites. “I love my job, but my pay doesn’t match up to the cost of living here. But what choice do I have?” Read more of this post

Korea’s CJ billionaire chairman gets 4 years in jail, $24 million fine

CJ chairman gets 4 years in jail, $24 million fine

Feb 15,2014

	CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun leaves the Seoul Central District Court yesterday in a wheelchair after being fined and sentenced to four years behind bars. [NEWSIS]

A Seoul court yesterday sentenced CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a 26 billion won ($24.4 million) fine for massive embezzlement, tax evasion and breach of trust, disappointing the country’s 14th-largest conglomerate and signaling that courts will continue to play hard ball with business moguls breaking laws.
“The defendant avoided paying taxes amounting to 26 billion won by wielding his influence as the biggest shareholder [in CJ Group],” said presiding judge Kim Yong-gwan during a verdict deliberation at the Seoul Central District Court.
The judge added that Lee created slush funds worth nearly 60.3 billion won for personal use through misappropriation of company funds in a systematic and secretive way. The court also accepted the prosecutors’ claim that Lee created paper companies offshore to transfer his illegally amassed fortune to their accounts in order to avoid paying taxes.  Read more of this post

Certified public accountants lose former prestige in S. Korea

Certified public accountants lose former prestige in S. Korea

Yong Hwan-jin

2014.02.14 17:58:34

South Korea is about to have 20,000 certified public accountants (CPAs). The country has 16,000 CPAs in total now, according to the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The number of accountants more than tripled from 5,000 CPAs in 2004. Given that the number of CPAs rises nearly 1,000 every year, 20,000 people are forecast to have the CPA licenses in 2016. 
CPA licenses have lost their earlier charm. An entry-level CPA earns about 38 million won ($35,802), lower than 40 million won a counterpart earns at Samsung Electronics. In the 1990s, an entry-level CPA made 40 million won, overwhelmingly larger than 18 million won a counterpart received at the tech company.  Read more of this post

Why China’s banking system is in so much trouble; The full transcript of the Telegraph interview with China expert Charlene Chu

Why China’s banking system is in so much trouble

The full transcript of the Telegraph interview with China expert Charlene Chu

By Harry Wilson, Banking Editor

3:31PM GMT 14 Feb 2014

How bad are the problems in the shadow banking sector?

I’ve been pretty concerned at what’s going on in China since the start of the global crisis and the start of the credit boom. One of the facts that has always been an issue is that more and more credit is being extended through shadow banking channels, the trust companies being the most prominent of those.  Read more of this post

Is Aldi doing to Tesco what Ryanair did to British Airways? The growth of Aldi and Lidl looks to be a permanent change in the way Britain shops, rather than a blip

Is Aldi doing to Tesco what Ryanair did to British Airways?

The growth of Aldi and Lidl looks to be a permanent change in the way Britain shops, rather than a blip

By Graham Ruddick

6:39PM GMT 13 Feb 2014

Deepdale, the home of Preston North End, is a football ground steeped in history thanks to its association with the former England winger Sir Tom Finney. But from December, the area has also provided a glimpse into the future for Britain’s supermarkets. Read more of this post

S.E.C.’s Review of Stock Trading Will See Some of Its Own Work; The agency may have helped create the problem it is now hoping to solve

FEBRUARY 11, 2014, 5:32 PM  1 Comment

S.E.C.’s Review of Stock Trading Will See Some of Its Own Work

By STEVEN M. DAVIDOFF

There are now at least 58 stock exchanges in the United States, many of them dark pools where the trades can be made anonymously. Withinstitutional investors claiming they are outgunned by high-frequency traders, and individual investors adrift in fragmented markets, it’s no wonder that Mary Jo White, the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is moving to review and overhaul how stocks are traded. The issue is that the S.E.C. may have created the problem it is now hoping to solve. Read more of this post

Why India’s emerging market is in trouble

Why India’s emerging market is in trouble

February 11, 2014: 1:01 PM ET

The nation’s central bank recently blamed the U.S. Federal Reserve for its economic problems, but India’s challenges run deeper than monetary policy.

By Sanjay Sanghoee

FORTUNE — In the wake of a global stock market selloff driven by worries over slower growth in emerging markets, the head of India’s central bank, Raghuram Rajan, criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve as it pressed on with plans to dial back its monthly bond purchases: “International monetary cooperation has broken down,” said Rajan, who added that “the U.S. should worry about the effects of its polices on the rest of the world.” Read more of this post

Wayne LAU Run-wei Trends – (Spore) – Raising the alarm on suspicious trading in Singapore; Australia formalised a Suspicious Activity Reporting law that broadly follows the rules described earlier but is more detai

Raising the alarm on suspicious trading

Business Times

12 Feb 2014

R. Sivanithy

IT’S probably not that widely known, but stockbrokers and trading representatives (TRs) are obliged under current Singapore Exchange (SGX) rules not only to refrain from indulging in suspicious trades but also to report such trades to the authorities. Given that there have often been calls for regulators to do more to stamp out market manipulation and rigging, it is necessary to remind the broking community of this duty. Read more of this post

Unpaid Rice Farmers Protest as Thai Government’s Problems Mount

Unpaid Rice Farmers Protest as Thai Government’s Problems Mount

By Aukkarapon Niyomyat & Amy Sawitta Lefevre on 3:40 pm February 10, 2014.
Bangkok. Hundreds of farmers rallied outside Thailand’s justice ministry on Monday to protest against the state’s failure to pay them for rice bought under a controversial subsidy scheme that the caretaker administration in Bangkok is struggling to fund. Read more of this post

James Montier’s Annotated CAPE Chart Is Brilliant

James Montier’s Annotated CAPE Chart Is Brilliant

SAM RO MARKETS  FEB. 14, 2014, 9:22 PM

Stock market volatility has made a big comeback in 2014. After a steady climb to all-time highs in 2013, we’ve seen the S&P 500 tumble 6% before recovering most of those losses.

However, many experts continue to expect at least a 10% sell-off before we can see longer-term gains again.  Others are looking for an outright crash. Read more of this post

The real titans of finance are no longer in the banks

February 13, 2014 6:25 pm

The real titans of finance are no longer in the banks

By Gillian Tett

So-called ‘alternative asset managers’ now matter as much as the banks

If the mighty J Pierpont Morgan were reincarnated in New York today, who might he be? Jamie Dimon, the man who is now chief executive of JPMorgan, the bank that shares the great man’s name? Or might Morgan prefer to return as Stephen Schwarzman or Leon Black, respectively the heads of Blackstone and Apollo, two gigantic private equity firms? Read more of this post

China: Funds on the edge; The country’s hedge funds are producing spectacular returns but foreign investors remain wary

February 13, 2014 7:11 pm

China: Funds on the edge

By Paul J Davies and Simon Rabinovitch

The country’s hedge funds are producing spectacular returns but foreign investors remain wary

Liu Yijun runs the most successful, oldest and biggest hedge fund that almost no one has ever heard of: Prime Capital Management.

From offices high in a gold-coloured Shanghai tower, the highly secretive manager controls more than $3bn. He invests exclusively in Chinese companies selected by a disciplined team of researchers who are among the best paid in the country. Read more of this post

Graves of empire tell of India’s troubled past

Graves of empire tell of India’s troubled past

7:02am EST

By Angus MacSwan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – By the side of a crowded Delhi highway with buses thundering by and hawkers touting their wares lies a small, walled cemetery.

It holds the graves of hundreds of British citizens and other foreigners who, for better or worse, played roles in India’s colonial past. Soldiers, missionaries, traders and officials rest here, the cracked tombstones giving only hints of their lives. Read more of this post

Old Propaganda Habits Die Hard

Feb 14, 2014

Old Propaganda Habits Die Hard

By Yiyi Lu

A plethora of recent reports in Chinese media suggests Beijing’s new anti-corruption and “mass-line” campaigns have gone a long way toward reforming some of the worst political practices that typically take place during Chinese New Year. But the persistence of one perennial holiday story suggests Beijing is still having trouble divorcing itself from politics as usual. Read more of this post

A Big, Bad World for America Inc.

A Big, Bad World for America Inc.

JUSTIN LAHART

Feb. 12, 2014 4:44 p.m. ET

Trouble in emerging markets is unlikely to hurt the U.S. But America’s companies may not be as lucky.

It has been a rough year so far for developing economies. Several, including Turkey, Argentina and South Africa, have seen sharp slides in their currencies. The Federal Reserve’s reining in of its bond-buying program is causing fits elsewhere, and worries about capital flight have contributed to some central banks’ recent decisions to raise interest rates. Signs that China’s growth is softening, along with worries about the stability of the country’s “shadow banking” system, have added to the mix. Read more of this post

China Trusts’ Road to Bust

China Trusts’ Road to Bust

AARON BACK

Feb. 13, 2014 7:03 a.m. ET

Sooner or later, someone in China’s trust-products universe is going to lose real money.

Weeks after a hasty bailout was arranged for a troubled Chinese trust product, another shadow lender, Jilin Trust, has failed to make payments on tranches of an investment product that came due over the past few months. Jilin is set to miss another payment next week. Once again the product in question is linked to a troubled coal miner, and was sold to investors by one of China’s big four state banks, in this case China Construction Bank.601939.SH +0.25% Read more of this post

Small is the next big thing in Asia aviation

Small is the next big thing in Asia aviation

7:44am EST

By Siva Govindasamy and Anshuman Daga

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – After flying under the radar for many years, manufacturers of smaller jet and propeller-driven passenger aircraft are finding a bigger market in the Asia-Pacific with a slew of orders at the Singapore Airshow. Read more of this post

Myanmar’s first census in more than three decades risks further inflaming communal tensions, a report from the International Crisis Group warned

Myanmar Census Plan Draws Fire

Results Could Spur Buddhist Extremists to Violence, Report Says

SHIBANI MAHTANI

Feb. 13, 2014 5:40 a.m. ET

Myanmar’s first census in more than three decades risks further inflaming communal tensions at a delicate time in the country’s democratic transition, an international group working against conflicts warned.

The 41 questions in the planned census, covering subjects from religious beliefs to ethnicity, are “overly complicated and fraught with danger,” the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a report late Wednesday. Read more of this post

OSIM’s Brookstone, known for massage chairs and travel electronics, is contemplating a possible bankruptcy protection filing in the coming weeks.

Brookstone Is Considering Bankruptcy Filing Within Weeks

Specialty Retailer in Talks With Hilco, Tiger Capital

EMILY GLAZER

Updated Feb. 13, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

Brookstone, which operates more than 250 stores, is known for a lineup of various consumer gadgets that includes these massage chairs. Tampa Bay Times/Zuma Press

Brookstone Inc., known for its wide array of consumer gadgets such as massage chairs and travel electronics, is contemplating a possible bankruptcy-protection filing in the coming weeks as talks advance with potential buyers, people familiar with the matter said. Read more of this post

In complete control of exit plan; The choice of Tan Sri Adenan Satem as Sarawak’s next Chief Minister reflects Tan Sri Taib Mahmud’s instinct for survival as he prepares to ride into the sunset.

Updated: Thursday February 13, 2014 MYT 8:29:28 AM

In complete control of exit plan

BY JOCELINE TAN

Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud (left) and Tan Sri Adenan Satem sharing a moment at a Sarawak Foundation function last year. – Filepic

The choice of Tan Sri Adenan Satem as Sarawak’s next Chief Minister reflects Tan Sri Taib Mahmud’s instinct for survival as he prepares to ride into the sunset. Read more of this post

Korea’s Lesson for Japan Seoul’s domestic reforms are leading to growth without devaluation.

Korea’s Lesson for Japan

Seoul’s domestic reforms are leading to growth without devaluation.

Feb. 13, 2014 11:59 a.m. ET

Amid the recent emerging-market turmoil, a stable exception has been South Korea. The Bank of Korea’s decision on Thursday to hold interest rates steady raised nary an eyebrow among investors, and there’s a lesson here for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Read more of this post

China’s Self-Described Losers Play a Winning Role

China’s Self-Described Losers Play a Winning Role

Consumer Underclass May be Where the Real Money Is

WEI GU 

Feb. 13, 2014 11:12 a.m. ET

Much has been made of China’s brand-conscious big spenders, but an underclass of consumers may be where the real money is for many businesses.

People who have embraced the label diaosi, a term that has come to essentially mean “loser,” are becoming a potent force in an economy where growth in sales of luxury goods is slowing and the middle class is still small and focused on basic needs such as housing and education. Read more of this post