Bamboo Innovator

The fears over the housing ‘transaction cliff’ are looming and jeonse crunch will likely deepen in S Korea as the government’s property-boosting measures of transfer and acquisition tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2013

Fears over ‘housing transaction cliff’ reemerge

Ko Jae-man, Baek Sang-kyung

2013.12.25 17:51:05

The fears over the so-called housing ‘transaction cliff’ are looming and jeonse crunch will likely deepen in South Korea as the government’s property-boosting measures of transfer and acquisition tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year. Jeonse is a house rental system unique to Korea, based on a lump sum deposit paid by a tenant to a landlord at the start of a rental contract.  Read more of this post

New framework needed for trading Singapore corporate bonds; A good example is the 25 per cent plunge experienced by Olam perpetuals when the company was mauled by short-seller Muddy Waters in November last year

New framework needed for trading corporate bonds

Wednesday, Dec 25, 2013

Goh Eng Yeow

The Straits Times

Retail investors frustrated by bank deposit rates and the flatish stock market are often tempted by bonds but anomalies around some Genting issues show that it can be a perplexing game. The casino operator issued two tranches of perpetuals – a bond-like instrument that offers a fixed payout but no shareholder rights – last year. Read more of this post

It is important to prevent the Singapore housing bubble from getting out of hand, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan

Housing bubble must be kept in check: Khaw

Thursday, Dec 26, 2013

Rachel Au-Yong

The Straits Times

It is important to prevent the housing bubble from getting out of hand, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in a Facebook post on Monday. So despite the unhappiness which declining prices could lead to, cooling measures are needed, he added. “We cannot eliminate (the) property cycle but we can try to keep bubbles less bubbly. “This means taking away the punch bowl when the party is getting hot, much to the unhappiness of sellers and developers. But this is the right thing to do.” Sharing a link to a New York Times article on the housing slump in Ireland, where home prices have halved since its peak in 2007, he said “the bubble and its inevitable bust bring huge misery to many”. Read more of this post

Women Take on Philippine Rebels for Peace to Unlock $300 Billion

Women Take on Philippine Rebels for Peace to Unlock $300 Billion

Of the more than a dozen women Philippine President Benigno Aquino appointed to senior administration posts since gaining power in June 2010, one of the most diplomatically sensitive was Miriam Coronel-Ferrer. Read more of this post

Valuations at Extremes Making Winner of Losing Trade: Currencies

Valuations at Extremes Making Winner of Losing Trade: Currencies

Foreign-exchange managers who sold currencies as they became overvalued beat both trend-seekers and traders analyzing interest-rate differentials this year, the first time they’ve won out against these strategies since 2005. Read more of this post

The Gold Rush Spreads From China And India To Saudi Arabia

The Gold Rush Spreads From China And India To Saudi Arabia

Tyler Durden on 12/24/2013 19:59 -0500

In the “west”, the higher the price of gold rose, the more demand there seemingly was by momentum-chasing gamblersinvestors, if only for paper certificates claiming to represent gold, or GLD as the case may be. Conversely, once the momentum turned, the same investors couldn’t be bothered with gld (sic) even at 30% lower. At the same time, in the “east” the higher the price of gold rose, the lower the demand was for physical, which for that extinct breed of deranged gambler known as “value investor” is a familiar concept.”  And now that gold’s price is not only back to early 2011 levels, but is essentially below production costs, demand out of China is off the charts. Demand in India – traditionally the greatest in the world – continues to also at unprecedented levels, although now that official purchases of gold are regulated and limited through capital controls, it is forcing the local population to smuggle in gold through the most innovative of schemes. Read more of this post

Soaring compliance costs clip wings of Mideast, African banks

Soaring compliance costs clip wings of Mideast, African banks

2:07am EST

By David French

DUBAI (Reuters) – While it may be the most common given name in the world, the global banking system seemingly can’t cope with Mohammed and its various different spellings. Read more of this post

Islamic Banks, Stuffed With Cash, Explore Partnerships in West

DECEMBER 25, 2013, 7:11 PM

Islamic Banks, Stuffed With Cash, Explore Partnerships in West

By NATHANIEL POPPER

A noted Muslim law scholar, Yusuf DeLorenzo, recently pored through the books of Continental Rail, a business that runs freight trains up and down the East Coast. Along with examining the company’s financial health, Mr. DeLorenzo sought to make sure that the rail cars didn’t transport pork, tobacco or alcohol. He was brought in by American investment bankers who want to take rail cars bought by Continental Rail and package their leases into a security. The investment is being built for banks that are run according to Islamic law, which, among other things, prohibits investments in those three commodities. If the cars are acceptable, or halal, the deal will be one of the first in the United States to be completed in compliance with Islamic law. Read more of this post

Dirty money: Rich smell; The forum for rich countries issues an overdue mea culpa

Dirty money: Rich smell; The forum for rich countries issues an overdue mea culpa

Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

THE leakage of wealth from poor countries through tax evasion, money laundering and other misdeeds is becoming an ever bigger worry for those who want poor countries to get rich. Global Financial Integrity calculates that such “illicit financial flows” have increased sharply over the past decade and may now be $1 trillion a year or more. Even experts who question the campaigning group’s methodology accept that outflows probably exceed incoming aid and investment combined. Read more of this post

Five Lessons of 2013, Guaranteed to Be Forgotten

Five Lessons of 2013, Guaranteed to Be Forgotten

It’s that time of year when journalists let their creativity run rampant to produce 10-Best and 10-Worst lists, revisit the year’s biggest whoppers (look no further than the Oval Office), and offer prognostications for the coming year. With that in mind, I’ve gleaned the five most important lessons from 2013, which are all but guaranteed to be forgotten next year. Read more of this post

China to keep controls on property market in 2014: minister

China to keep controls on property market in 2014: minister

5:14am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will maintain controls on its property market in 2014 while increasing the land and housing supply in cities facing big home-price prices, the housing minister said, in a sign authorities will not relax efforts to stabilize housing costs. Home prices in big Chinese cities have repeatedly set records despite a four-year long government campaign to cool the market, adding to the threat of a price bubble and social unrest as housing becomes unaffordable. Read more of this post

China Confronts Workforce Drop With Retirement-Age Delay

China Confronts Workforce Drop With Retirement-Age Delay

China plans to raise the retirement age for the first time since the 1950s, as policy makers confront the prospect of a shrinking workforce that damps economic growth. The age will rise gradually, Hu Xiaoyi, a vice minister of human resources and social security, said this month. China’s compulsory retirement ages, now 50 for most women and 60 for men, are likely in 2020 to be about five years higher than they are now, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Read more of this post

Ulsan has been the richest city in Korea for four years in terms of personal income

Ulsan remains top city for per capita income

Dec 24,2013

BY SONG SU-HYUN [ssh@joongang.co.kr]

Ulsan has been the richest city in Korea for four years in terms of personal income, a government report said. According to Statistics Korea yesterday, per capita income of Ulsan citizens was 18.31 million won ($17,257) last year, 24 percent higher than the national average of 14.77 million won. Seoul was second (17.52 million won), followed by Busan (15.05 million won). South Jeolla was the poorest region with a per capita income of 12.49 million won, the report showed. In terms of private consumption, Seoul was on top at 17.51 million won, followed by Ulsan with 14.13 million won. The total personal income of 16 cities and provinces reached 739 trillion won, up 3.1 percent from 2011. Seoul achieved 289 trillion won, the largest regional gross domestic product. The total GDP of the 16 cities and provinces of the country stood at 1,275 trillion won last year, up 2.7 percent. However, adjusted for inflation, the total figure rose 1.9 percent, slowing from a 3.3 percent growth a year earlier.
Gyeonggi was second to Seoul in terms of GDP with 251 trillion won. Last-place Jeju produced about 12 trillion won. The total GDP of Seoul metropolitan areas stood at 600 million won, up 2.4 percent from 2011. The proportion of Seoul metropolitan areas to the total GDP declined 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 47.1 percent. By industry, agricultural and fisheries accounted for 16.5 percent of the regional economy of North Gyeongsang. Mining and manufacturing businesses prevailed in Gyeonggi, representing 23 percent of GDP.

The eco-friendly next-generation industrial zone in Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, also known as “carbon valley,” was witnessing the foundation of a string of carbon fiber material related companies

Fiber cities revive on industrial new material

2013.12.24 17:43:07

The eco-friendly next-generation industrial zone in Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, also known as “carbon valley,” was witnessing the foundation of a string of carbon fiber material related companies Monday. The industrial zone already houses 35 companies including DACC, which makes high-performance aircraft brake disks by using carbon fiber composites, and CNF, a specialist in carbon fiber production and related equipment design. Jeonju, which used to be the heart of Korea’s prominent textile companies such as Samyangsa and Taihan Textile in 1980s, found an opportunity in the crisis. The city audaciously walked away from the apparel textile business as it slid down the value chain and switched to industrial textile. Jeonju attracted many carbon fiber research and development facilities, an emerging material in the car and aerospace sectors for its high intensity and lightweight, and established pilot carbon fiber production facilities for the first time in the country in 2007. Industrial fiber as new material is also emerging as a next-generation growth driver of Daegu and Busan used to be conventional hubs of the textile industry. Daegu and North Gyeongsang province are searching for a breakthrough in the “super fiber.” The flagship example is Ukseong Chemical, a textile snow chain manufacturer based in Seongju-gun in the province. Ukseong Chemical used to make textile for shoes, but confronted with a huge challenge from Chinese competitors, the company turned to industrial textile products since 2007 and successfully developed textile-based snow chains. Meanwhile, the number of textile companies in Busan is projected to skyrocket from 3,704 in 2010 to 5,835 by 2020, said the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade.