Financial Times (May 20)
“The plunge in yields on corporate and sovereign bonds in Europe and Asia — the value of bonds with a negative yield is nearly $10tn, according to Fitch — has sent investors racing into the US market.” This surging demand “has allowed companies to issue debt at lower yields, though US yields are still more attractive than in other parts of the world.”
Tags: Asia, Bonds, Corporate, Debt, Demand, Europe, Fitch, Investors, Negative yield, Plunge, Sovereign, U.S., Yields
Wall Street Journal (May 19)
“If the U.S. had not come to the aid of the Korean people, or if we in the South had lost the war, I would not be standing here.” Kwon Oh-joon, CEO of steel manufacturer Posco, made this comment when he received the Korea Society’s Van Fleet Award in New York.
Tags: CEO, Kwon Oh-joon, New York, Posco, South Korea, Steel, U.S., War
Chicago Tribune (May 18)
“The danger of pot is commonly exaggerated.” Four years ago when Colorado legalized marijuana, there were all sorts of fears regarding negative consequences. These haven’t materialized. “Legalization has been remarkable for how unremarkable it’s been.”
Tags: Colorado, Consequences, Danger, Exaggerated, Fears, Legalization, Marijuana, Negative, Pot, Unremarkable
New York Times (May 17)
“Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest, expanded at the fastest pace in a year during the first quarter on stronger private consumption and exports, complicating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision on whether or not to delay a planned sales tax increase next year.”
Washington Post (May 16)
The rapidly deflating Hanergy is being called China’s Enron. “The question now, though, is how much the rest of China’s economy has come down with Hanergy syndrome, papering over problems with debt until they can’t be anymore. And the answer might be a lot more than anyone wants to admit.”
Bloomberg (May 16)
“Never before has the Bank of Japan done so much to achieve so little. Even after arranging a record stimulus program and reducing a key interest rate to less than zero, the central bank has failed to boost inflation to its goal of 2 percent…. A central bank using up its policy tools doesn’t bode well for a nation with the world’s largest debt burden.”
Tags: BOJ, Central bank, Debt burden, Goal, Inflation, Interest rate, Policy tools, Stimulus
Reuters (May 15)
“Fears policy makers are out of ammunition has led a growing number of overseas investors to speculate the BOJ might resort to helicopter money,” but this remains unlikely. “Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda likes to keep markets guessing by saying one thing and doing another, but… officials and close associates say he almost certainly means it” when he rules out using helicopter money to reinvigorate the economy.
Tags: Ammunition, BOJ, Economy, Fears, Guessing, Helicopter money, Kuroda, Markets, Overseas investors, Policy makers
The Economist (May 14)
The mess that has followed the once hopeful Arab spring, “is not so much a clash of civilisations as a war within Arab civilisation. Outsiders cannot fix it—though their actions could help make things a bit better, or a lot worse. First and foremost, a settlement must come from Arabs themselves.”
Tags: Arab, Arab spring, Civilisations, Clash, Outsiders, Settlement, War
Wall Street Journal (May 12)
“There’s zero reason to apologize for the atomic bombing, which forestalled invasion and saved lives…. Mr. Obama, as well as his Japanese hosts, should appreciate that Truman authorized the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both major military-industrial targets, to help win the gruesome Pacific War as quickly as possible and with the loss of the fewest American lives—and, as it turned out, the loss of the fewest Japanese lives.”
Tags: Apologize, Atomic bombing, Bombing, Gruesome, Hiroshima, Invasion, Japan, Lives, Nagasaki, Obama, Pacific War, Truman, U.S.
New York Times (May 11)
“With his decision to speak beneath that famous dome, Mr. Obama is taking a step 11 of his predecessors avoided. Merely by showing up in Hiroshima, he will have no choice but to navigate a minefield of conflicting memory, in Japan and in the United States.”
