New York Times (March 21)
“The lessons of the last financial crisis are clear. Less clear is whether regulators have the tools and the willingness to apply what they have learned to new circumstances and new threats.” The surge of money from China into the U.S. “far outpaced growth in the overall economy last year, a sign that too much money may be chasing too few good opportunities and that lenders may be compromising standards.” There are clear reasons for concern. “The system is still too opaque, and resistance to regulation remains fierce.”
Tags: China, Financial Crisis, Growth, Lenders, Opaque, Opportunities, Regulators, Resistance, Standards, Threats, U.S.
The Economist (March 19)
“Companies are abandoning functional silos and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. But the transition to “a network of teams” in place of conventional hierarchy has hardly been smooth. Managing teams is “hard” and research routinely uncovers lapses. And even when teamwork is well managed, things can be taken too far. “Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.”
Tags: Cross-disciplinary teams, Customers, Employees, Functional silos, Hierarchy, Individual, Network, Open-plan offices, Problems, Products, Research, Social networks, Teamwork
Bloomberg (March 18)
Mercari Inc. just “became the first Japanese startup worth at least $1 billion,” making it Japan’s only unicorn. “Though the valuation is an accomplishment for Mercari, it also highlights the dearth of major private startups in the world’s third-largest economy.” Of the 155 unicorns worldwide, 92 are in the U.S., 25 in China, seven in India and only one in Japan. “Japan has suffered from a lack of venture capital and a risk-averse culture where the best and brightest strive for stable jobs at big companies and then stay for life.”
Tags: China, India, Japan, Mercari, Risk-averse culture, Startup, U.S., Unicorn, Valuation, Venture-capital
Time (March 17)
“Global temperatures in February were the most above average since weather record keeping began nearly 150 years ago, bringing the world the closest it has ever been to what scientists consider dangerous levels of warming.” As if that’s not enough bad news, “climate scientists have already predicted that 2016 will trump last year as the warmest on record.”
Tags: Climate, Dangerous levels, February, Global warming, Records, Scientists, Temperatures, Weather
Bloomberg (March 17)
“Even with the dollar’s rally since 2014, U.S. manufacturing is benefiting from the world’s strongest rate of productivity, a flexible labor market, cheap energy and from having a big domestic market.” The lingering belief that it’s radically cheaper to move production to China is a misconception. “Labor costs adjusted for productivity in China are only 4 percent cheaper than in the U.S.”
Tags: China, Dollar, Energy, Flexible, Labor market, Manufacturing, Productivity, Rally, U.S.
Institutional Investor (March 16)
All eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Not because anybody expects them to change interest rates at today’s meeting, but because everybody wants a glimpse of the future. “Concerns over volatility around the globe and fragility in some sectors, notably energy and industrials, suggest that the Fed may signal a moderation of the pace of tightening…. A slower path for rates seems plausible as core inflation appears to be manageable.”
Tags: Concerns, Core inflation, Energy, Fed, Fragility, Industrials, Interest rates, Moderation, Tightening, Volatility
Financial Times (March 16)
“Some look at surging domestic mergers and a record Y10tn of outbound deals in 2015 and are convinced that the ministry, now known as Meti (the ministry of economy, trade and industry), has indeed recaptured some of its old magic. To them, recent talks to merge the PC units of Fujitsu and Toshiba, and Osaka Steel’s takeover of rival Tokyo Kohtetsu, show the ministry is running Japan Inc once again.”
Tags: Domestic mergers, Fujitsu, Japan Inc., METI, Osaka Steel, Outbound deals, Surging, Tokyo Kohtetsu, Toshiba
Washington Post (March 15)
“The Obama administration is moving toward what could be a dangerous showdown with China over the South China Sea…. What makes this dispute so explosive is that it pits an American president who needs to affirm his credibility as a strong leader against a risk-taking Chinese president who has shown disregard for U.S. military power and who faces potent political enemies at home.”
Tags: China, Credibility, Dangerous, Disregard, Military power, Obama, Risk-taking, Showdown, South China Sea, Strong leader, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (March 14)
“Few days go by now without at least one mass-casualty terrorist attack somewhere in the world. Two such attacks on Sunday, in the Ivory Coast and Turkey, killed 39 people combined.” This was just another “average terror Sunday.”
Tags: Average, Ivory Coast, Mass casualty, Sunday, Terror, Terrorist attack, Turkey
New York Times (March 13)
“Civilization is at last turning green, albeit only pale green.” Our focus needs to shift toward preserving biodiversity, rather than merely protecting the physical environment. “The global conservation movement is like a surgeon in an emergency room treating an accident victim: He has slowed the bleeding by half. Congratulations, we might say—even though the patient will be dead by morning. Unless we wish to pauperize the natural world drastically and permanently,” we “must take more serious action to preserve the rest of life.”
