Wall Street Journal (February 27)
“Economics 101 teaches that international trade is all about comparative advantage.” Specialization and trade result “in everyone getting more of everything.” This theory “no longer guides global trade. Instead, what’s happening looks more like portfolio theory. Countries are no longer maneuvering to maximize gains. They’re diversifying to minimize losses. The risk they’re hedging against? The U.S.”
Tags: Comparative advantage, Diversifying, Economics, Hedging, International trade, Maximize gains, Minimize losses, Portfolio theory, Risk, Specialization, U.S.
Reuters (May 2)
“Diversifying abroad looks attractive to many Japanese companies given weak home markets” as demonstrated by Astellas recent $5.9 billion acquisition of Iveric Bio. “For the $28 billion drugmaker, which already earns the bulk of its revenue from overseas, exceptionally low borrowing costs at home may have boosted its offshore appetite even more.”
Tags: Acquisition, Astellas, Attractive, Borrowing costs, Diversifying, Drugmaker, Home markets, Iveric Bio, Japanese, Offshore appetite, Overseas, Revenue, Weak
Institutional Investor (May Issue)
“The secret weapon of Abenomics” is the rebalancing of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF). “The GPIF is diversifying at a pace that’s astonishing for a fund of its size…. In the last six months of 2014, while slashing its JGB holdings, the fund increased its exposure to Japanese stocks by ¥5 trillion, to foreign equities by ¥7 trillion and to foreign bonds by ¥4 trillion.”
Tags: Abenomics, Bonds, Diversifying, Equities, GPIF, Japan, JGBs, Rebalancing, Stocks
