Bamboo Innovator

Path to a stronger financial system still strewn with dangers

Path to a stronger financial system still strewn with dangers

Fri, Dec 20 2013

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – “What a week”, tweeted European Union financial services chief Michel Barnier on Thursday after securing an agreement on how to wind up failed banks without making the region’s taxpayers foot the bill. Read more of this post

Bond Sales Slump to 2002 Low in Europe as Banks Cut Debt Piles

Bond Sales Slump to 2002 Low in Europe as Banks Cut Debt Piles

Bond sales dropped to the least since 2002 in Europe this year, with financial institutions curbing issuance as they cut debt to meet capital demands from regulators. Read more of this post

Banks Said to Snitch on FX Competitors in Race to Avoid EU Fines

Banks Said to Snitch on FX Competitors in Race to Avoid EU Fines

Banks are racing to betray their competitors to avoid possible European Union fines for rigging foreign-exchange markets, according to a person with knowledge of the EU’s preliminary investigation. Read more of this post

As stocks hit record highs, so do profit warnings; There are 10 companies warning of a profit shortfall per each positive call

As stocks hit record highs, so do profit warnings

Adam Shell, USA TODAY7:54 a.m. EST December 12, 2013

Even though CEOs are warning of profit misses at a pace not seen since 2001, Wall Street pros say cautious CEO guidance won’t derail the mighty bull.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Profit warnings spike; on track for worst showing since 2001

There are 10 companies warning of a profit shortfall per each positive call

Wall Street takes note, but says market won’t be derailed by CEO profit confessions Read more of this post

A bull market without buyers

A bull market without buyers

Dan McCrum

| Dec 16 13:34 | 1 comment | Share

A particular kind of buyer, at any rate. Talk of corporate cash piles has become cliché, while private equity has been turning a corner for so long it has entered some sort of fee-paying mobius strip. But it remains the case that stock markets have gone up without many purchases of companies in their entirety.

Read more of this post

Index Effect Raises New Concerns

Index Effect Raises New Concerns

Paul Amery

December 05, 2013

In the 1970s an economic advisor to the Bank of England defined a rule that is still used. According to Charles Goodhart, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”. Read more of this post

How Turkey’s Troubles Could Spread in Emerging Markets

DECEMBER 20, 2013, 7:32 PM

How Turkey’s Troubles Could Spread in Emerging Markets

By LANDON THOMAS JR.

As Turkey struggles to contain its latest political crisis, fears of a run on its currency — dormant since the summer — have quickly re-emerged. After arrests this week of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political and economic allies, the Turkish lira has plunged. The dollar reached a high of 2.092 against the lira, as foreign investors sold Turkish stocks and bonds and Turks shifted their savings into dollars. Read more of this post

Fidelity’s feverish fee cuts a bid to cure market share woes; How low will it go? Battle against Vanguard becomes a war of basis points

Fidelity’s feverish fee cuts a bid to cure market share woes

How low will it go? Battle against Vanguard becomes a war of basis points

By Jason Kephart   |  December 6, 2013 – 11:54 am EST

“Vanguarditis,” the asset manager infection that leads to fee cuts and happier advisers, has worked its way into the heart of the Boston Behemoth. Over the past few weeks, Fidelity Investments has made strategic fee cuts and launched new products to ensure that its products are the cheapest in two categories in which the Vanguard Group Inc. has been eating their lunch for a decade. Read more of this post

Christmas trees are a small but highly profitable part of the timber industry, where profit can be decades in coming

December 20, 2013

How Lucrative Thy Branches

By PAUL SULLIVAN

Chris Botek, a tree grower in Leighton, Pa., is used to people being shocked by how much his Christmas trees cost. “People come from the city and they’re used to paying $150 to $200 a tree,” he said. They look at you and say, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” Mr. Botek gets $6.25 a foot — that’s $50 for a fresher version of that eight-foot tree sitting on an urban sidewalk. Read more of this post

Investment Fads and Themes, 1996-2013

Investment Fads and Themes, 1996-2013

Joshua M Brown

December 12th, 2013

Another year in the books and I’ve updated my Investing Fads and Themes by Year guide accordingly. It begins with 1996 because that was my first summer working on The Street and my earliest exposure to the market. I do this every December because I agree with the eminent philosopher Bob Marley when he reminds us “If you know your history, then you would know where you’re coming from.” If we don’t keep tabs and learn from the lunacy that grips us from year to year, then how can we truly say that we’ve grown as investors? Read more of this post

Death of the contrarian

Death of the contrarian

Dan McCrum

| Dec 19 16:30 | 3 comments | Share

It has been a year to jump on a bandwagon sailing with the wind at the heart of the pack. Momentum, baby. Let Citi paint you a picture: A two-year, 40 per cent rally in global equities is not the time to be a contrarian (unless you were the bold type calling for it back in the dog days of 2012). Still, Citi warns that the contrarians do tend to do well in January, and they won’t give up: Read more of this post

Bursting the Stock-Market-Bubble Bubble

Bursting the Stock-Market-Bubble Bubble

JUSTIN LAHART

Dec. 15, 2013 1:46 p.m. ET

No, stocks are not in a bubble. But that doesn’t mean investors must like them. With the S&P 500 up a blistering 25% this year, and with stocks like Tesla MotorsTSLA +1.79% sporting valuations that strain belief, the word “bubble” has been getting batted around a lot lately. Case in point: Over the past three months, a Factiva search returns 391 news articles with “bubble” in close proximity to “stock market”, up from 130 over the same period last year. Read more of this post

Is the stock market still a playground for the rich? Everyday investors are wary of stock investing

Dec. 13, 2013, 6:15 a.m. EST

Is the stock market still a playground for the rich?

Opinion: Everyday investors are wary of stock investing

By Howard Gold

As stocks keep hitting new milestones, more and more pundits worry we’re in another stock market bubble.

They cite record margin debt, euphoria over initial public offerings like that of Twitter (NYSE:TWTR)  , and, of course, the big run we’ve already seen in the major indices. Read more of this post

How Government Policies and Processes Are Hurting Innovation in China

How Government Policies and Processes Are Hurting Innovation in China

Dec 20, 2013 Strategic Management Asia-Pacific China

While China’s development over the last 30 years has been widely characterized as catching up to other, more advanced economies, some observers suggest that continued growth going forward will depend on the country’s capacity to innovate. According to Ernst & Young’s 2012 report, China’s Productivity Imperative, China’s total factory productivity fell from 4.7% during 2001-2007 to 2.8% during 2008-2010. As the opportunities for increased employment of capital and labor decrease — according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the size of the country’s labor force shrank for the first time in 2012 — economic theory suggests that sustained growth rates can be achieved only through increased productivity or a higher value produced per unit of input. Read more of this post

The journey of an Indian onion: Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco have been knocking on India’s door, without much luck. The route of an onion from field to shopping bag shows why they are needed

The journey of an Indian onion: Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco have been knocking on India’s door, without much luck. The route of an onion from field to shopping bag shows why they are needed

Dec 14th 2013 | LASALGAON, MAHARASHTRA | From the print edition

NITIN JAIN is the big man in Lasalgaon, a dusty town a day’s drive from Mumbai that boasts it has Asia’s biggest onion market. With a trim moustache and a smartphone stuck to his ear he struts past a thousand-odd tractors and trucks laden with red onions. Farmers hurl armfuls at his feet to prove their quality. A gaggle of auctioneers, rival traders and scribes follow him, squabbling and yanking each other’s hair. Asked why onion prices have risen so much, Mr Jain relays the question to the market. “Why?” he bellows. His entourage laughs. He says that the price of India’s favourite vegetable is a mystery that no calculation can explain. Read more of this post

From Jugaad to Justice: Endemic Corruption and the Possibility of an Indian Spring

From Jugaad to Justice: Endemic Corruption and the Possibility of an Indian Spring

Dec 20, 2013 Law and Public Policy Latin America

Jugaad is a term that needs no introduction in common Indian parlance. It literally means an improvised arrangement or work-around used to overcome a lack of resources. “For decades India has survived, and sometimes thrived, by turning muddle and adversity into success,” observed the columnist John Elliott in The Independent’s blogs section. Indian ingenuity has certainly led to economic dynamism, but there also is a less appealing side to jugaad which has to do with the innovations devised by the common citizen to work around the everyday obstacles the government puts in place. Read more of this post

Not Exactly Silicon Valley: China’s Distinct Brand of Entrepreneurship

Not Exactly Silicon Valley: China’s Distinct Brand of Entrepreneurship

Dec 20, 2013 Asia-Pacific China

Most observers believe that China’s remarkable economic performance over the past three decades is due primarily to large, state-owned companies. While those organizations are, indeed, key players, the country’s entrepreneurs have long been overlooked. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, nearly 25% of the adult population are entrepreneurs, twice as many as in the U.S. Working with limited resources and against intense competition, these individuals have played a major role in the country’s unprecedented growth. Read more of this post

Asia or Bust: Why Japanese Firms Must Succeed in Asia to Survive

Asia or Bust: Why Japanese Firms Must Succeed in Asia to Survive

Dec 20, 2013 Strategic Management Asia-Pacific

As Japan’s economy grew significantly from the 1960s through the 1980s, Japanese firms across all industries relied heavily on increasing domestic consumer spending and exports to the U.S. and Europe. Following the collapse of the economic bubble in the early 1990s and the lost decade (some would argue two decades) that ensued, it has become clear that these firms must increase sales in Asia’s developing markets if they are to survive, let alone thrive. Read more of this post

Help Wanted: New Strategies Are Necessary to Increase Entrepreneurship in France

Help Wanted: New Strategies Are Necessary to Increase Entrepreneurship in France

Dec 20, 2013 Europe

The past few years have been challenging for the global economy. Instability has been high, economic growth has stagnated, and employment opportunities for youth in particular have suffered. Global economic players such as the U.S., the U.K., China, and Germany have been mastering the challenges of the economic downturn resiliently. With an ongoing fragility in the economic markets and stagnating growth rates, however, even historically strong global players such as France are facing increasingly serious structural problems, raising questions about whether one of the continent’s largest and most sophisticated economies may become the next sick man of Europe. Read more of this post

Private Sector Innovation? Think South Carolina, Not Silicon Valley

Private Sector Innovation? Think South Carolina, Not Silicon Valley

Dec 20, 2013 Strategic Management North America

In the U.S. innovation is synonymous with Silicon Valley, not South   Carolina, and is driven by the private sector, not the government. The South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) confounds both perceptions. It is an independent, not-for-profit public entity that is run as a private organization. It focuses on providing R&D services to public and private clients in sectors ranging from national security and automotive to biotechnology and healthcare. It also provides venture funding for startups in these areas. In just 30 years, an initial infusion of US$0.5 million and 1,400 acres of land has yielded US$15.3 billion of impact on South Carolina’s economy, attracting investment from all over the world. Read more of this post

Berlin: A Window into Germany’s Future?

Berlin: A Window into Germany’s Future?

Dec 20, 2013 Law and Public Policy Real Estate Europe

Sixty years ago, the great philosopher Martin Heidegger published his landmark “Bauen, Wohnen, Denken” (“Building, Inhabiting, Thinking”). In this pivotal essay he stressed the central role of housing for speakers of German, a language in which even the words for “being” and “freedom” are intrinsically intertwined with “dwelling” and “building.” For Germanophones, even the terms for the “poor” and “vagrants” are closely related to the lack of a roof under which to take shelter. Housing’s central role is even present in the original German constitutional rights and is, to this day, explicit in the city of Berlin’s constitution, which goes so far as to put the burden on the state to provide “living space.” Read more of this post

An Interview with Pete Miller, CEO of National Oilwell Varco

An Interview with Pete Miller, CEO of National Oilwell Varco

By Taylor Muckerman | More Articles | Save For Later
December 13, 2013 | Comments (9)

With operations in over 1,160 locations worldwide, National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV  )  is a leading provider of equipment and services to the oil and gas industry through its three segments; Rig Technology, Petroleum Services & Supplies, and Distribution & Transmission. CEO Merrill “Pete” Miller has held a number of senior executive positions with NOV, beginning in 1996. Miller also serves on the boards of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK  ) , Offshore Energy Center, Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association, and Spindletop International. Read more of this post

Status Quo Revisited: The Evolving Ties Between China and Myanmar

Status Quo Revisited: The Evolving Ties Between China and Myanmar

Dec 20, 2013 Law and Public Policy Asia-Pacific China

In Burmese, pauk phaw means “fraternal” or “kinsfolk.” Historically, this is how China and Myanmar have referred to their relationship. However, they remain an unequal pair, with China’s overall GDP nearly 160 times that of Myanmar’s, a per capita GDP roughly five times as large, and a population nearly 26 times greater than that of its neighbor. On top of these imbalances, the recent political and economic reforms following Myanmar’s general elections in 2010 have further challenged bilateral relations, forcing the countries to re-evaluate the status quo of their relationship. Read more of this post