Bamboo Innovator

China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

China’s central bank barred financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions, moving to regulate the virtual currency after an 89-fold jump in its value sparked a surge of investor interest in the country. Bitcoin plunged more than 20 percent to below $1,000 on the BitStamp Internet exchange after the People’s Bank of China said it isn’t a currency with “real meaning” and doesn’t have the same legal status. The public is free to participate in Internet transactions provided they take on the risk themselves, it said. Read more of this post

China Said to Consider Bitcoin Regulations After Investor Losses

China Said to Consider Bitcoin Regulations After Investor Losses

China is considering requiring Bitcoin exchanges to disclose large transactions and confirm the identity of users after investors lost money through a fake platform, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The People’s Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission and other regulators have held discussions about drafting rules for trading platforms that facilitate the buying and selling of the virtual money, said the people, who were not authorized to speak because the information is not public. The Bitcoin exchanges may be forced to inform authorities about sizable or suspicious transactions, they said. Read more of this post

China’s Bigger Innovation Problem; It’s not just about money for R&D. Innovators have to want to live there, too

China’s Bigger Innovation Problem

It’s not just about money for R&D. Innovators have to want to live there, too.

KEN MILLER

Dec. 4, 2013 12:24 p.m. ET

Last month’s Third Plenum meeting of Chinese leaders seemed to signal Beijing’s intention to experiment with more economic and financial freedom. Leaders now acknowledge the old model of cheap inputs—inexpensive labor, low-cost capital for state-owned enterprises, and the socialization of environmental costs—no longer works. Read more of this post

Banks Cut Raw-Materials Staff to Fewest Since ’09: Commodities

Banks Cut Raw-Materials Staff to Fewest Since ’09: Commodities

The biggest banks are employing the fewest commodity traders, salespeople and analysts in at least four years as tighter regulations and the second drop in prices since 2001 spur cutbacks. Total headcount in commodity units at the 10 largest banks, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Barclays Plc, stood at 2,290 at the end of September, about 4 percent less than at the end of 2012, according to data starting in 2009 from Coalition, the London-based analytics company. Pay for those workers may drop 13 percent on average this year, a fourth straight decline, said Options Group, a recruitment company. Read more of this post

Large investors turn cold on commodities

December 5, 2013 9:00 am

Large investors turn cold on commodities

By Gregory Meyer in New York

After two years at the helm of the world’s worst-performing asset class, managers of commodities funds could be forgiven for feeling unloved. Wall Street analysts, big-picture strategists and powerful consultants have turned cold on oil, metals and grain futures as a decade-long rally peters out. And investors are listening, with many now reluctant to commit further funds. Some are heading for the exits. Read more of this post

Billionaires Chase Growth for Dabur in Villages: Corporate India

Billionaires Chase Growth for Dabur in Villages: Corporate India

Dabur India Ltd. (DABUR), the household goods maker controlled by the billionaire Burman family, is expanding in the rural market of the world’s second-most populated nation to revive sales that grew at the slowest pace in two years. The company increased its rural network to cover 36,000 villages as of October from 14,000 in March 2012, Dabur said in an e-mail. That helped the maker of Hajmola digestive candy boost sales in villages to 50 percent of revenue in the year ended March 31 from 40 percent in 2009. Revenue from Indian operations in the quarter ended Sept. 30 grew 10.6 percent, the slowest pace since the same quarter in 2011. Read more of this post

BJP India Opposition Set to Win State Elections Before 2014 Vote

BJP India Opposition Set to Win State Elections Before 2014 Vote

India’s main opposition party is set to win four of five state elections held over the past month, wresting power from the ruling Congress party in one area and giving it momentum ahead of national voting next year. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which picked Narendra Modi as its choice for prime minister, is set to retain two states, take power from Congress in another and win the most seats in the capital New Delhi, according to an exit poll yesterday conducted by C-Voter and broadcast on the Times Now television channel. Official vote counting in the states, home to about a sixth of India’s 1.2 billion people, will take place on Dec. 8. Read more of this post

Gold Smuggling Increases 7x In India And Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade

Gold Smuggling Increases 7x In India And Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade

Tyler Durden on 12/04/2013 22:12 -0500

Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

The absurd “War on Gold” that India has launched this year has been covered many times on this site. From the moment I read about it, it was obvious that if Indians want their gold, the Indians will have their gold. You can’t break thousands of years of tradition and culture because of the ignorant whims of a few bureaucrats. Read more of this post

India is out of the woods but a long way from safe

December 4, 2013 5:18 pm

India is out of the woods but a long way from safe

By David Pilling

The optimism of recent years when Indians talked of growing faster than China is of another era

New Delhi is no longer in panic mode. After a few really dicey months this summer when the rupee was sinking and the government was taking measure after ineffective measure to hold the line, an uneasy calm has been restored in India. The currency is 10 per cent above its September lows and stocks are 15 per cent higher. Read more of this post

India Proves Hard to Crack for VW as Swift Outshines Polo

India Proves Hard to Crack for VW as Swift Outshines Polo

For Volkswagen AG (VOW), the route to being the world’s top carmaker was meant to go through India.

Instead, auto sales in the country are headed for their first annual drop since 2002, the German carmaker has captured only a third of the 10 percent market share it’s targeting and factories are producing about 40 percent of the cars they are capable of making. Not only are Volkswagen-badged vehicles typically more expensive than other brands, they also compete against models from sister marque Skoda. Read more of this post

In Big Reversal, Yen Poised To Finish as Weakest Major Currency

Dec 4, 2013

In Big Reversal, Yen Poised To Finish as Weakest Major Currency

By Ira Iosebashvili

If there was an award for the most bi-polar currency, the yen would be a shoo-in. Assuming price levels don’t change much in what’s left of 2013, the yen will have been either the weakest or the strongest major currency against the dollar in each of the last six years, according to research by Deutsche BankDBK.XE -0.98%. It’s down about 18% this year thanks to a strong dollar and Japan’s attempts to finally end years of chronic deflation and lackluster economic growth. Read more of this post

Thaksin’s homecoming hopes dashed as Thai crisis reignites

Thaksin’s homecoming hopes dashed as Thai crisis reignites

4:04pm EST

By Martin Petty

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s political future is cloudier than ever, but one thing is for certain – self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra won’t be coming home soon. The chances of another round of political conflict seemed slim a few months ago as the government of Thaksin’s sister, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, entered its third year in office after a fairly smooth ride, much to do with outwardly cordial ties with her brother’s enemies, among them generals, royal advisers and opposition politicians. Read more of this post

Why the Dollar Dominates, and Why That’s Not All Good

Why the Dollar Dominates, and Why That’s Not All Good

Lack of Rivals to Greenback Keeps It on Top—and Enables U.S. Government Dysfunction

DAVID WESSEL

Updated Dec. 4, 2013 2:42 p.m. ET

In an interview with WSJ’s David Wessel, Cornell’s Eswar Prasad, author of a forthcoming book, “The Dollar Trap: How the U.S. Dollar Tightened Its Grip on Global Finance,” explains why the U.S. currency remains so dominant despite all the nation’s woes. Read more of this post

U.S. vice president urges Chinese to challenge their leaders

U.S. vice president urges Chinese to challenge their leaders

10:50am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden encouraged Chinese visa applicants to “challenge their government” during a brief meeting at the U.S. embassy in Beijing on Wednesday. Biden, accompanied by Ambassador Gary Locke, waved and greeted hundreds of Chinese queuing at the visa hall. “Innovation can only occur when you can breathe free, challenge the government, challenge your teachers, challenge religious leaders,” Biden said. Biden is visiting the Chinese capital at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Li Yuanchao, though he is also meeting President Xi Jinping. Top of the agenda on his trip is China’s new air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, which has rattled Washington, Tokyo and Seoul. Biden has sought to reach out to ordinary Chinese before, visiting a noodle restaurant for lunch during a visit to Beijing in 2011. “If you come to Washington, tell them you spoke to me here and I promise you’ll be able to get to see me,” Biden added, to laughter from the waiting visa applicants.

The Wal-Mart of the ETF World is Raking In the Assets

The Wal-Mart of the ETF World is Raking In the Assets

Ultra-low prices. Increasing market share. Frustrated competitors.

Those category-killing attributes make Vanguard Group Inc. the Wal-Mart of exchange-traded funds. Since 2010, its market share has grown from about 15 percent to 20 percent, while that of its big rivals, BlackRock’s iShares and State Street’s SPDRs, has slightly declined. And while all three have gained new assets this year, Vanguard leads with $51 billion, or 32 cents out of every dollar invested in an ETF, up from 28 cents last year. It has seen 21 of its 67 ETFs grow by at least $1 billion in 2013. The unique structure and low cost of its products suggest the momentum will continue. Read more of this post

Standard Chartered Suffers Emerging Problems

Standard Chartered Suffers Emerging Problems

U.K. Lender’s Bias to the Developing World Finds It Out of Favor

ANDREW PEAPLE

Updated Dec. 4, 2013 1:19 p.m. ET

When you fall out of fashion, it’s hard to get back. Standard Chartered proved a good bet for investors after the financial crisis: Its heavy exposure to emerging markets enabled it to outperform its more Western-focused peers. Read more of this post

SEC Considers More Oversight as Proxy Advisers’ Influence Grows

SEC Considers More Oversight as Proxy Advisers’ Influence Grows

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing whether proxy advisers have grown so influential in corporate elections that regulators should impose rules to make their business more transparent. The roles of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. LLC in shareholder voting will be debated by institutional investors, brokers, business groups and unions tomorrow at a meeting hosted by the SEC. ISS and Glass Lewis dominate the market for providing recommendations for votes on topics such as executive pay, nominees for boards of directors, and corporate mergers. Read more of this post

Rajoy to Rescue Highway Billionaires Who Bet on Boom

Rajoy to Rescue Highway Billionaires Who Bet on Boom

Spanish taxpayers have bailed out banks and power companies. Next up are highway operators and their billionaire owners. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government is considering a 5 billion-euro ($6.7 billion) plan to take over and guarantee the debt of about 364 miles (585 kilometers) of roads, according to two people familiar with the matter who declined to comment because no final decisions have been made. Read more of this post