USA Today (November 12)
“Thanks to computers and smartphones, Americans are more dependent than ever on electricity. But the nation’s 20th century power grid is incompatible with its 21st century economy and increasingly extreme weather.” For days and even weeks, thousands were left in the dark following hurricane Sandy. “The utilities are not powerless. They can bury more key lines, harden substations and protect cellular communications, a vital link when disaster strikes.”
Tags: Disaster, Extreme weather, Power grid, Sandy, Smartphones, U.S., Utilities
Financial Times (November 11)
According to preliminary figures released by Japan’s Cabinet Office, the domestic economy contracted by 0.9% during the July to September period, amid falling exports and dwindling stimulus from rebuilding efforts. “As many economic indicators have deteriorated further since September, it seems likely that the country has entered its fifth technical recession – two consecutive quarters of contraction – of the past 15 years.”
Tags: Cabinet Office, Economy, Exports, Japan, Rebuilding, Recession, Stimulus
The Economist (November 10)
“Greece will remain a disaster until it gets the treatment given to heavily indebted poor countries in the past.” Short-term rescue loans won’t work. “The experience of dozens of debt-ridden countries in Latin America and Africa holds lessons that Greece’s rescuers ought to heed…. The most indebted started to recover only when their debts, including those owed to official creditors, were slashed.”
Wall Street Journal (November 9)
Amidst concern over the ongoing diplomatic dispute between Japan and China, “a dose of realism is in order about what the China market does and doesn’t mean to Japanese automakers…. To the extent a Chinese boycott is further depressing Japanese auto sales, of course it will hurt the carmakers’ bottom lines in a significant way. But it turns out China is simply an important market, not a uniquely important market.”
Tags: Automakers, China, Diplomatic dispute, Japan, Market, Sales
Washington Post (November 8)
“It’s still about jobs. What will determine the core success of President Obama’s second term is progress — or the lack thereof — in reducing long-term unemployment. We know this from exit polls, which ranked the economy as the top issue (selected by about 60 percent of voters) and, more important, from common sense.”
Chicago Tribune (November 8)
After two years of fighting, the score in Washington looks just the same: a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. “Guaranteed gridlock? Not necessarily.” The Tribune is hopeful status quo will actually provide the momentum to overcome the looming fiscal cliff. “With Washington’s power equation constant, this is, surprisingly, the ideal moment to take unpopular steps and rescue our government from potential doomsdays — the first of them scheduled for Jan. 1, less than eight weeks away…. This lame-duck Congress and re-elected president could give the American people a marvelous holiday present.”
Tags: Congress, Democrats, Fiscal cliff, Gridlock, Republican, Washington
New York Times (November 6)
“President Obama’s dramatic re-election victory was not a sign that a fractured nation had finally come together on Election Day. But it was a strong endorsement of economic policies that stress job growth, health care reform, tax increases and balanced deficit reduction — and of moderate policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage.”
Tags: Economic policies, Health care, Jobs, Obama, Re-election, Taxes
Financial Times (November 5)
“In a landmark case that could pave the way for legal action in Europe,” an Australian judged ruled that “Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro’s wholesale banking division.” The “damning verdict” marked “the first time a rating agency has stood a full trial over a structured finance product.” The court concluded that any “reasonably competent” rating agency would “not have given a triple A rating to the securities,” which were “grotesquely complicated.”“In a landmark case that could pave the way for legal action in Europe,” an Australian judged ruled that “Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro’s wholesale banking division.” The “damning verdict” marked “the first time a rating agency has stood a full trial over a structured finance product.” The court concluded that any “reasonably competent” rating agency would “not have given a triple A rating to the securities,” which were “grotesquely complicated.”
Tags: ABN Amro, Australia, Court, Derivatives, Rating agency, S&P, Structured finance, Verdict
Barron’s (November 5)
“It has been an eventful year in Brazil, though perhaps not in the way investors would have liked. The country’s growth has stalled to an expected 1.5% this year—a figure not exactly befitting an emerging market, especially one that not so long ago had been growing at four times that rate.” Despite the bad economic news, however, four experts assembled at a Barron’s roundtable believe Brazil investors have “reason for optimism.”
Tags: Brazil, Emerging market, Growth, Investors, Optimism
New York Times (November 3)
“Washington needs to be more responsive to legitimate Okinawan concerns. It should impose stricter limits on its troops’ behavior and more effective training and oversight. And it should move swiftly to lighten its presence on Okinawa, by shifting troops to Guam, Hawaii and elsewhere in Japan. Okinawans will feel safer and less aggrieved only when they believe that Japan and the United States are taking their objections seriously.”
