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The Economist (March 22)

2014/ 03/ 23 by jd in Global News

“Global spending on basic infrastructure—transport, power, water and communications—currently amounts to $2.7 trillion a year when it ought to be $3.7 trillion. The gap is almost as big as South Korea’s GDP. And it is likely to grow fast.” To close the gap, governments need to step forward, and new ways need to be found to coax private capital investment in infrastructure.

 

Financial Times (March 20)

2014/ 03/ 22 by jd in Global News

“The Japanese government is trying to encourage the country’s companies to increase the amount they invest. This is like trying to push water uphill. Japan as a whole and in terms of business already invests too much.” As a percentage of GDP, Japan already invests more than the  U.S., Britain, France or Germany, but “the massive inefficiency of Japan’s capital investment has meant that the return on capital has also been extremely poor,” indeed the lowest of the G5 countries.

Japan, Government, Investment, U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Inefficiency, Capital, Return, G5

 

Bloomberg (March 20)

2014/ 03/ 21 by jd in Global News

Japan is beating the Scots at their own game. “Japan has been quietly scooping up gold medals at world whisky competitions, and in 2012, the 25-year-old Yamazaki beat out 300 of the world’s single malts in an international blind tasting.” With less than a century of whiskey making history, Japan has risen to the top.

 

Institutional Investor (March 19)

2014/ 03/ 20 by jd in Global News

Volatility divides. Too much and it can be catastrophic. Too little and returns shrivel.” Increasingly investors are moving beyond hedging volatility to “trading volatility itself.” While specialists have been doing this for some time, trading volatility has “become more mainstream” since 2008 and the “go-to tool” many investors use to trade volatility is now “the VIX itself.”

 

New York Times (March 19)

2014/ 03/ 19 by jd in Global News

Will Crimean exuberance over a Russian homecoming soon turn to disappointment? History suggests as much. When South Ossetia was liberated from Georgia in 2008 “people were delighted to see the Russian soldiers…. But within a few months of Russia’s recognition, shivering through the winter behind windows made of plastic sheeting, people began to wonder when the billions of rubles of aid pledged by Russia would reach them.”

 

USA Today (March 18)

2014/ 03/ 18 by jd in Global News

“It would be foolish to think that Putin — basking in record popularity and surrounded by hard-line advisers — will do anything other than press the objective he has pursued for years: restoring the historic subjugation of Ukraine to Russia’s will.” The U.S. and “Europe, which has deeper trade ties to Russia” must not mislead themselves. They “must make clear how high the price of further aggression will be.”

 

3/18 Issue

2014/ 03/ 18 by jd in IRCWeekly

For bellwether Japan and the rest of the world, the Wall Street Journal writes the key to growth amid graying demographics “will be finding new solutions to engage older Americans in the workforce.” According to the Chicago Tribune, the missing Malaysia Airlines flight should provide another clear call to action. Authorities everywhere should be availing themselves of Interpol’s passport database to verify each passenger’s identity.

Euromoney notes that just about everybody was wrong-footed at the beginning of 2014 “as new depths of pessimism about emerging markets were plumbed.” Sensing another debacle, Forbes sounds the alert that Singapore is Iceland in the making. It may just be a matter of time before “its economic bubble is punctured.”

Also looking to the future, the Financial Times writes that with Germany on board, there is now “a better chance of EU nations supporting tough sanctions if Mr Putin’s aggression escalates.” USA Today cautions that nobody should mislead themselves about Putin. “It would be foolish to think that Putin…will do anything other than press the objective he has pursued for years: restoring the historic subjugation of Ukraine to Russia’s will.”

Putin was not the only autocrat being called out for behaving poorly. The Wall Street Journal asserts that the U.N.’s report on human rights abuse in North Korea “demands action,” lauding the quality and objectivity of the report.

While the likes of Putting and Kim Jong-un might have to contend with sanctions, the LA Times reports that vulnerabilities in the nation’s electricity grid could leave the golden state, indeed the entire nation, without electricity for a year or more. And that’s just some of the illumination found in the news last week.

…..

Last week’s Global News highlights appear below and also at http://www.irken.jp/gn/ where stories for this week will soon appear. As always, links are provided to the original source so you can get further detail, but please note these are frequently updated and links that were valid at publication may later be broken.

 

Wall Street Journal (March 17)

2014/ 03/ 17 by jd in Global News

“Unlike most U.N. documents,” the report on human rights abuse in North Korea “demands action.”  Much credit is due retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, who chaired the commission that wrote the report. By chronicling widespread abuse with “evidentiary rigor,” they created a report with “striking emotional power.”

 

LA Times (March 16)

2014/ 03/ 16 by jd in Global News

“Californians may be inured to rolling blackouts that cut off their power for hours at a time, but imagine an outage that darkens the entire country — for more than a year.” A federal report, disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, shows this “nightmare scenario” could result if just nine critical substations were knocked out. Officials need to take action and “address the frightening challenges posed by the grid’s reliance on custom-fitted equipment that can take months, if not years, to replace.”

 

Financial Times (March 14)

2014/ 03/ 15 by jd in Global News

“Germany’s tough new stance towards Russia is to be welcomed. There is now a better chance of EU nations supporting tough sanctions if Mr Putin’s aggression escalates. After all, if Germany, the European economic superpower, makes the sacrifices necessary to block trade with Russia, others cannot resist.”

 

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