Beware the Market Whiplash of Geopolitics; Ukraine’s crisis illustrates the risks of short-term investing in many emerging markets

Beware the Market Whiplash of Geopolitics

By JEFF SOMMERMARCH 8, 2014

Investing is hard enough when you’re focused on fundamentals like earnings, debt loads and cash flow.

But when you add geopolitics and military skirmishes to the mix, it turns into something else entirely: gambling. And that’s usually treacherous, even if it’s occasionally extraordinarily rewarding. Read more of this post

When You Evaluate a Fund Manager, Look Beyond Results

When You Evaluate a Fund Manager, Look Beyond Results

By PAUL SULLIVANMARCH 7, 2014

THIS Sunday will be five years to the day since the low point for the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock-index during the Great Recession. Since bottoming out on March 9, 2009, at 676.53, the index has risen some 170 percent. Read more of this post

The once and future currency: A new book examines the world’s love-hate relationship with the dollar

The once and future currency: A new book examines the world’s love-hate relationship with the dollar

Mar 8th 2014 | From the print edition

“LUMPY, unpredictable, potentially large”: that was how Tim Geithner, then head of the New York Federal Reserve, described the need for dollars in emerging economies in the dark days of October 2008, according to transcripts of a Fed meeting released last month. To help smooth out those lumps, the Fed offered to “swap” currencies with four favoured central banks, as far off as South Korea and Singapore. They could exchange their own money for dollars at the prevailing exchange rate (on condition that they later swap them back again at the same rate). Why did the Fed decide to reach so far beyond its shores? It worried that stress in a financially connected emerging economy could eventually hurt America. But Mr Geithner also hinted at another motive. “The privilege of being the reserve currency of the world comes with some burdens,” he said. Read more of this post

The brains of the party: As the task of governing China has become more complex, so too has the question of how ideas filter to the top

Chinese politics

The brains of the party

Mar 10th 2014, 2:34 by G.E. | BEIJING

FEW people have heard of the journalInternal Reference of Ideology and Theory. It is published in such secrecy by the Central Party School in Beijing that only several dozen people read it. They just happen to be the most powerful people in China. Nicknamed the “express train”, it is one of a few vehicles trusted to carry ideas directly to the desks of President Xi Jinping and his colleagues on the Politburo. Read more of this post

Barely Stearns in China

Barely Stearns in China

David Keohane | Mar 10 08:06 | 1 comment | Share

A Texas sharpshooter and a China analyst walk into a bar…

Last week’s default of little Chaori 11, China’s first onshore corporate default, brought with it some analyst hyperbole which has been rightly called out. Leaving aside for a moment this was BofAML’s second Bear Stearns call this year, their point was that Chaori 11 would be the moment that the market started to seriously re-assess financial risk in China. So far, not so much. Read more of this post

Wanxiang chairman builds empire spanning various sectors

Wanxiang chairman builds empire spanning various sectors

Staff Reporter

2014-03-10

Wanxiang Group founder and chairman Lu Guanqiu in Beijing, November 24, 2013. (Photo/Xinhua)

Wanxing Group, China’s leading auto parts maker, recently returned to the public spotlight in a high profile manner after finalizing an overseas deal in February, according to Guangzhou’s Time Weekly. Read more of this post

It takes $290,000 in cash to rent an apartment in Seoul

It takes $290,000 in cash to rent an apartment in Seoul

By Matt Phillips @MatthewPhillips 5 hours ago

Many Koreans who rent apartments don’t actually pay rent.

You read that right. They don’t make monthly rent payments.

Don’t start planning your move to Seoul just yet. There’s a catch. To get one of those apartments, on average, you need to plunk down the equivalent of almost $300,000. Read more of this post

Flight MH370: Stolen passports shine light on Bangkok’s role as global haven for criminals

Flight MH370: Stolen passports shine light on Bangkok’s role as global haven for criminals
(03-10 20:04)

Thailand’s role as a hub for criminal networks using false documents is in the spotlight after two passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 used passports stolen in the country, sparking fears of possible a terrorist attack.
(Pictured, policemen in Bangkok display 2 million methamphetamine pills seized in Lampang province in a 2012 seizure).  Read more of this post

Volvo-Geely’s Li Shufu: If international companies are to succeed in China, they must learn locally to prosper globally; Volvo, like other western car firms, has learned that you cannot just be present in China to succeed

If international companies are to succeed in China, they must learn locally to prosper globally

Volvo, like other western car firms, has learned that you cannot just be present in China to succeed

By Li Shufu

9:00PM GMT 09 Mar 2014

When the global auto industry gathered in Geneva last week to show off its latest products for 2014, the impact of China on sales, output and profitability was a common theme. Read more of this post

Snack-maker Graze.com, which manufactures and delivers letterbox-sized parcels of healthy snacks to subscribers, has reported “unprecedented” growth in the US, traditionally the graveyard for small British firms

Snack maker Graze.com smashes US targets

Snack-maker Graze.com, which manufactures and delivers letterbox-sized parcels of healthy snacks to subscribers, has reported “unprecedented” growth in the US, traditionally the graveyard for small British firms.

Graze.com now boasts more than 100,000 subscribers across the US.

By Rebecca Burn-Callander, Enterprise Editor

7:00AM GMT 10 Mar 2014

Graze.com launched into the American market in December last year. Within a week, the company had signed up 30,000 subscribers across 48 states. Three months on, the company has smashed its first quarter targets, with 100,000 customers signed up. Read more of this post

SK’s global projects adrift with boss jailed

2014-03-09 18:18

SK’s global projects adrift with boss jailed

Na Jeong-ju

Just a decade ago, SK Group’s major revenue sources were limited to domestic telecommunications, energy and construction markets. Read more of this post

The degradation of the outside director system is all the more lamentable, when considering that the nation introduced it in 1998 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis to check wayward chaebol and its top managers

2014-03-10 17:04

Watchdog or lapdog?

When Tongyang Group committed a series of managerial mistakes and wrongdoings in 2012, few of its outside directors tried to oust its chairman, Hyun Jae-hyun. Most of them helped to keep the problems secret or lobbied to defend Korea’s 38th-largest conglomerate and its owner. Had they fulfilled their duty to follow proper checks and balances, some 50,000 individuals might not have seen their investments go up in smoke.  Read more of this post