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NYT: Singapore’s Angry Migrant Workers; The government must ensure higher pay and an end to the abuse.

December 27, 2013

Singapore’s Angry Migrant Workers

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Frustration among Singapore’s unappreciated and underpaid migrant workers has been building in recent years as their numbers have grown faster than the country can accommodate them. Tensions boiled over earlier this month, after a 33-year-old Indian migrant worker was killed by a bus in the Little India neighborhood. A crowd of fellow workers from South Asia gathered at the scene. Their anger quickly escalated, with some 400 people pelting stones, attacking emergency responders and setting fire to vehicles. It was the worst riot to hit Singapore, one of the world’s most orderly countries, since 1969. Read more of this post

How Singapore can learn from Silicon Valley’s problems

How Singapore can learn from Silicon Valley’s problems

December 27, 2013

by John Fearon

In recent times, Singapore’s burgeoning startup scene has been constantly compared to Silicon Valley. There are plenty of similarities: the presence of clusters of game-changing startups, heavyweight tech corporations, and wealthy investors. While it is playing catch up, Singapore is in a great position to learn, grow and hopefully avoid the pitfalls of its more illustrious counterpart. Read more of this post

Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun – Founder and controlling shareholder of Berjaya Group

Updated: Saturday December 28, 2013 MYT 11:40:58 AM

Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun – Founder and controlling shareholder of Berjaya Group

WHILE Vincent Tan has handed over the reins of his sprawling Berjaya Group to his son Datuk Robin Tan, the elder Tan remains the man to watch next year, both on the corporate front and the sporting pages. Read more of this post

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary – Shareholder of MMC Corp and DRB-Hicom Bhd

Updated: Saturday December 28, 2013 MYT 11:22:58 AM

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary – Shareholder of MMC Corp and DRB-Hicom Bhd

INVESTORS would do well to keep an eye on Syed Mokhtar. After a spate of privatisations over the past two years, the tycoon could be close to floating some of his assets on the market to pare down his debts.

Read more of this post

Ringgit in Longest Stretch of Losses Since 1993 on U.S. Tapering

Ringgit in Longest Stretch of Losses Since 1993 on U.S. Tapering

Malaysia’s ringgit fell for a 10th week, its longest losing streak in almost 21 years, after U.S. economic data bolstered the case for the Federal Reserve to further cut stimulus that has buoyed emerging markets. Read more of this post

Tesla: value components; It is not quite right to say that the US carmaker is now bigger than Fiat

December 27, 2013 11:59 am

Tesla: value components

It is not quite right to say that the US carmaker is now bigger than Fiat

Tesla had an amazing ride in 2013 – its shares rose more than 300 per cent. But has Elon Musk’s electric carmaker really become a larger company than Italian automakerFiat as many headlines have asserted? Its market capitalisation of $17bn, compared with Fiat’s of less than $10bn, indicates so. But investors should recognise that equity value gives an incomplete picture of a company’s worth. It does not account for all the claims on a company’s assets and profits that would collectively give the correct indication of the business’s size. Read more of this post

Slovenian beer turns sour as state fire sale looms

Slovenian beer turns sour as state fire sale looms

Thu, Dec 26 2013

By Zoran Radosavljevic

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) – A decade ago, with Slovenia cruising towards membership of the European Union, a local brewery called Union caught the eye of Belgian beer giant Interbrew. Read more of this post

Retirement: Extended life cycles; As countries raise their pension ages, more people are rethinking their working lives

December 27, 2013 7:43 pm

Retirement: Extended life cycles

By Emma Jacobs and Norma Cohen

As countries raise their pension ages, more people are rethinking their working lives

Lifting, carrying, digging. That is how Derek Wardlaw characterises his work as a road-digger in Dunfermline in the Scottish lowlands. The job, he muses, is not getting any easier. “It’s physically taxing and gets harder as you get older,” says the 51-year-old. “The physical wear-and-tear on your body, the injuries, they take their toll.” Read more of this post

Pimco Turns Wildcatter as OGX Creditor Losses Reach 99%

Pimco Turns Wildcatter as OGX Creditor Losses Reach 99%

Pacific Investment Management Co. (OGXP3) and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) are set to take over Eike Batista’s failed oil ambitions as creditors accept losses as deep as 99 percent on $5.8 billion of debt in return for ownership stakes. Read more of this post

Moguls Rent South Dakota Addresses to Dodge Taxes Forever

Moguls Rent South Dakota Addresses to Dodge Taxes Forever

Among the nation’s billionaires, one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate right now is a quiet storefront in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A branch of Chicago’s Pritzker family rents space here, down the hall from the Minnesota clan that controls the Radisson hotel chain, and other rooms held by Miami and Hong Kong money. Read more of this post

March of state companies resets global trading patterns

March of state companies resets global trading patterns

10:47am EST

By Jonathan Leff and Dmitry Zhdannikov

LONDON (Reuters) – As U.S. and European banks drop out of commodity trading, Russian, Chinese and Gulf state firms are filling the gap in an attempt to exert greater control over the pricing of the raw materials on which their economies so heavily depend. Read more of this post

Latin America’s Rout Seen Extending Into Next Year: Currencies

Latin America’s Rout Seen Extending Into Next Year: Currencies

Foreign investors are betting the worst rout in Latin American currencies since 2008 will extend into next year as commodity export prices slump and rising U.S. bond yields lure money out of the region. Read more of this post

Global Shrimp Crisis Is Hitting Menus Everywhere

Global Shrimp Crisis Is Hitting Menus Everywhere

ALEXANDRA BARKER, MARKETPLACE.ORG
DEC. 27, 2013, 5:54 PM 2,756

In October, Jamie’s Italian, a British restaurant chain owned by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, pulled shrimp linguine from its menu. In the U.S., Red Lobster scrimped too: Its all-you-can-eat “Endless Shrimp” special lasted just six weeks this year instead of three months. Read more of this post

Foreigners Unload Turkey Bonds as Probe Tarnishes Erdogan Growth

Foreigners Unload Turkey Bonds as Probe Tarnishes Erdogan Growth

Foreigners are dumping Turkish bonds at the fastest pace in two years, deepening a selloff that’s putting a blot on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s image as the architect of the country’s economic turnaround. Read more of this post

Turkey Lira Plunges to Record as Stocks Drop on Political Crisis

Turkey Lira Plunges to Record as Stocks Drop on Political Crisis

The lira plummeted to a record and Turkish stocks slumped the most in the world as a showdown between the government and judicial powers triggered uncertainty over the country’s political stability. Read more of this post

Brazilians to Pay More to Shop Abroad as ATM Tax Surges 1,600%

Brazilians to Pay More to Shop Abroad as ATM Tax Surges 1,600%

Brazil will boost levies on withdrawals abroad to restrain a widening current account deficit and prevent a six-percentage point gap in tax levels from reducing the use of credit cards. The measure takes effect tomorrow and raises the so-called IOF tax on some operations, including the use of debit cards abroad, to the 6.38 percent rate already charged on credit cards, the Finance Ministry said in a statement today. Boosting the rate from the current 0.38 percent also will increase revenue by an estimated 552 million reais ($236 million) a year, according to the statement. “This measure prevents one payment method from being undermined by others because of the tax structure,” the ministry said on its website. Brazilians have increased annual spending abroad by almost tenfold in the past decade to more than $23 billion in November, according to central bank data. The government raised the tax on credit cards in March 2011 as consumer spending outside the country helped widen a current account gap that surpassed $80 billion this year for the first time on record. The real gained 0.7 percent to 2.3383 per dollar today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Woods in Santiago at rwoods13@bloomberg.net

Bond-Yield Rise Means Borrowers Will Pay More; U.S. Treasury Bond Yield Climbs Past 3% for the First Time in More Than Two Years

Bond-Yield Rise Means Borrowers Will Pay More

U.S. Treasury Bond Yield Climbs Past 3% for the First Time in More Than Two Years

MIN ZENG and MIKE CHERNEY

Updated Dec. 27, 2013 7:10 p.m. ET

Growing confidence in the economy pushed a widely followed U.S. Treasury bond yield above 3% on Friday for the first time in more than two years. The benchmark 10-year note’s yield rose to 3.004%, pushing the price down 4/32 from Thursday’s close. While the yield already had more than doubled since sinking to a record low in July 2012, many analysts saw the 3% mark as a test of investors’ faith in the economic rebound’s staying power. Read more of this post

Aussie Bank Asks “Will Bitcoin Replace The Dollar?”

Aussie Bank Asks “Will Bitcoin Replace The Dollar?”

Tyler Durden on 12/27/2013 19:59 -0500

Bitcoin is rapidly becoming part of the everyday lexicon. Following David Woo’s investigation, National Australia Bank’s Emma Lawson looks at its creation, use, and quality as “currency,” and find that Bitcoin meets most, but not all the conditions required to be a currency. Lawson concludes Bitcoin may not be the most efficient monetary system, given the costs to create, and that the supply set-up can be seen as both an advantage (hyperinflation is not possible) but also a disadvantage (there are conditions which may create deflation). But, if enough people believe in it, and use it, it may be here to stay as a payment system. Simply put, its success (or failure) will depend on establishing trust and adoption. Via National Australia Bank’s Emma Lawson, Read more of this post

Audi Plans $30.3 Billion in Investments to Challenge BMW

Audi Plans $30.3 Billion in Investments to Challenge BMW

Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Audi division, the world’s second-biggest maker of luxury cars, plans to spend 22 billion euros ($30.3 billion) through 2018, pushing models such as electric autos to gain the top spot in the premium segment. Read more of this post

An emergency federal program that acts as a lifeline for 1.3 million jobless workers will end on Saturday, drastically curtailing government support for the long-term unemployed and setting the stage for a major political fight

December 27, 2013

Benefits Ending for One Million Unemployed

By ANNIE LOWREY

WASHINGTON — An emergency federal program that acts as a lifeline for 1.3 million jobless workers will end on Saturday, drastically curtailing government support for the long-term unemployed and setting the stage for a major political fight in the new year. Read more of this post

Amid Record Rally, Stock Picker Keeps Focus on the Basics; Sam Eisenstadt, a Pioneer at Value Line, Remains Bullish

Amid Record Rally, Stock Picker Keeps Focus on the Basics

Sam Eisenstadt, a Pioneer at Value Line, Remains Bullish

MARK HULBERT

Dec. 27, 2013 3:29 p.m. ET

Sam Eisenstadt, who devised Value Line’s much-admired stock-selection system, at home with his wife, Edith. Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal

Few people listen to Sam Eisenstadt anymore. And that is a shame, since—even at 91—he still has a lot to say. Until he was fired four years ago, he had for more than two decades been head of research at Value Line, VALU +2.63% the research firm founded in 1931 that pioneered individual stock analysis. Mr. Eisenstadt remains a close student of the markets, often emailing institutional investors and journalists to report the latest results of his research. (Value Line didn’t respond to requests for comment.) Read more of this post

Academics Who Defend Wall St. Reap Reward

December 27, 2013

Academics Who Defend Wall St. Reap Reward

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

Signs of the energy business are inescapable in and around Houston — the pipelines, refineries and tankers that crowd the harbor, and the gleaming office towers where oil companies and energy traders have transformed the skyline. And in a squat glass building on the University of Houston campus, a measure of the industry’s pre-eminence can also be found in the person of Craig Pirrong, a professor of finance, who sits at the nexus of commerce and academia. Read more of this post

From Abe to Zhou: The Inaugural Naked Awards

From Abe to Zhou: The Inaugural Naked Awards

By William Pesek on 12:20 pm December 26, 2013.
It’s only when the tide goes out, as Warren Buffett famously said, that you learn who’s been swimming naked. Well, 2013 has been a banner year for skinny-dipping among Asian leaders, central banks and business people. In Japan and South Korea, talk of epochal change from two newish leaders was shown to be empty. China’s supposedly peaceful rise was laid bare by aggressive actions. Hopes that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would rediscover his reformist roots proved barren. Supposedly omnipotent Dear Leader Kim Jong-un executed his uncle and No. 2 for allegedly brewing a coup. Australia’s new leader found his approval ratings to be bottomless. As the year draws to a close, all too many would-be emperors in Asia were revealed to have all too few clothes. The most shameless top our first Naked Awards: Read more of this post

Argentina’s socioeconomic statistics: Still lying after all these years; Official figures paint a rosy picture. So why are Argentines rioting?

Argentina’s socioeconomic statistics: Still lying after all these years; Official figures paint a rosy picture. So why are Argentines rioting?

Dec 21st 2013 | BUENOS AIRES | From the print edition

FOR years the IMF turned a blind eye as Argentina doctored its inflation index and plumped up its numbers for economic growth. Then last February the fund steeled itself and censured the country, warning it to improve its statistics by September or face potential suspension or expulsion. This threat was unprecedented in the fund’s history. Yet it seems it was a largely empty one. On December 9th the IMF board met to review Argentina’s progress on a new inflation index. It declared that, although the country had not adopted the measures the fund wanted, it “recognised” the government’s “ongoing work” and deferred further action until March. Read more of this post

Defenceless? Austerity is hollowing out Europe’s armies

Defenceless? Austerity is hollowing out Europe’s armies

Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

HOW quickly the need to cut deficits is reducing the European Union’s military ambitions. When EU leaders held a summit to discuss defence five years ago there was heady talk of being able to deploy 60,000 troops within 60 days. Today the objective is to get overstretched troops home from Afghanistan as budgets are cut. The EU is meant to have two “battle groups” of 1,500 men apiece ready to deploy at short notice, but it can barely muster one—and none has ever been used. Read more of this post

Here’s why Canada’s big banks keep on winning; There are was a lot of talk at the start of the year about the Great White Short, as some hedge funds bet against the Canadian banks. That didn’t work out so well

Here’s why Canada’s big banks keep on winning

John Shmuel | December 27, 2013 | Last Updated: Dec 27 2:53 PM ET
Better luck next year to those who shorted Canadian banks.

There are was a lot of talk at the start of the year about the Great White Short, as some hedge funds bet against the Canadian banks on the expectation that a slowing Canadian economy would hit financials hard. Read more of this post