Financial Times (February 17)
“Forty governments are signatories to the anti-bribery convention adopted in 1997 by the Paris-based OECD…. So it was reprehensible for Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former prime minister, to state last week that bribery in pursuit of international contracts was not an offence. It would be unfair on Italian companies to play by rules scorned by competitors, he declared.” Italy is a signatory to the OECD convention.
Tags: Anti-bribery, Competitors, Contracts, Italy, OECD, Prime minister, Signatories, Silvio Berlusconi
The Economist (February 16)
“Exotic but useful metals such as tantalum and titanium are about to become cheap and plentiful.” Prices of neodymium, tungsten and vanadium may also drop if a new revolutionary production process utilizing electrolysis fulfills its promise. To date, costly and cumbersome production processes have kept prices of these metals prohibitively high, limiting their applications. “The idea that steel itself might one day be displaced by titanium is a long shot, but it is no longer inconceivable.”
Washington Post (February 15)
“The United States sits atop seas of natural gas, a fuel that drives electric turbines, warms homes, heats water and even powers some big trucks. Much of this gas is in unconventional deposits that drillers have only begun to tap. Now that they have, the price of the fuel has plummeted and the United States has gone from a gas importer to a potential exporter, with decades of supply left…. The country can’t use natural gas forever, because it still produces some carbon dioxide. But gas can, for a time, serve as a low-cost alternative to dirtier fossil fuels in a program to steadily green the economy.”
Tags: CO2, Economy, Environment, Fossil fuels, Green, Natural gas, Supply, U.S.
Institutional Investor (February 14)
The “flood of institutional money” flowing into the European property safe havens of France, Germany and the U.K. could impact the markets, potentially increasing asset prices, lowering yields, and leading ultimately to a correction. “Since the 2008 collapse of Lehman brothers Holdings triggered the global economic downturn, these three countries have accounted for about 70% of the $100 billion or so a year of European commercial real estate purchases made by investors, well above the long-term average of about 50 percent.”
Tags: Europe, France, Germany, Property, Real estate, Safe havens, U.K.
New York Times (February 14)
“The mega-merger is back.” Big deals were out for five years. “Wall Street deal makers and chief executives, brought low by the global financial crisis, lacked the confidence to strike the audacious multibillion-dollar acquisitions that had defined previous market booms.” In 2013, the cycle changed with the announced takeover of Heinz and the proposed merger of US Airways and American Airlines. “Merger activity has suddenly roared back to life.”
Tags: American Airlines, Heinz, M&A, Market cycle, US Airways, Wall Street
Euromoney (February Issue)
“The European Central bank’s announcement that 278 eurozone banks repaid €137.2 billion of their long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) borrowings on January 30 was seized upon by the market as supporting evidence for a broad range of contradictory positions….Indeed, there was a general sense of confusion after the ECB’s announcement and very little consensus emerged as to what the repayments actually meant….. Attempting to extrapolate much from the figure could turn out to be a fool’s errand.”
Financial Times (February 12)
“China must halt North Korea’s folly….For nearly two decades, North Korea has regularly scared the world with its determination to become a fully fledged nuclear weapons state. Yesterday it took another decisive step on that road.” North Korea’s third underground nuclear test should result in a clear line. Beijing “needs to respond to this week’s test with punitive measures that force Pyongyang to rethink its nuclear folly.”
Tags: Beijing, China, North Korea, Nuclear test, Pyongyang
Boston Herald (February 10)
“From Maine to Connecticut, snowbound New Englanders began the back-breaking job of digging out from as much as 3 feet of powder yesterday.” Heavy snow and gusty winds from blizzard Nemo left about 650,000 homes without power. New York City was spared the worst of the storm. A few places set snowfall records, among them Portland, Maine with 31.9 inches.
Wall Street Journal (February 9)
“To show they are making it big, the Chinese have turned to faking it big.” Great architectural counterfeits are popping up all over China. “The copies are built as monuments to China’s technological prowess, affluence and power. The Chinese have seized on the icons of Western architecture as potent symbols for their own ascension to—and aspiration for—global supremacy.”
Tags: Architecture, China, Counterfeits, Monuments, Supremacy
The Economist (February 9)
“Even as another nuclear provocation looms, hope glimmers for the world’s most oppressed people…. a revolutionary force is rising from below: a new class of traders and merchants. Capitalism is seeping through the bamboo curtain.” The North Korean state has repeatedly tried and failed to stamp out this developing class. “North Korea’s capitalists are here to stay” and they are creating cracks from within and deserve the world’s support. “Nothing is more potent than exposing people to the prosperity and freedoms of the world around them.”
Tags: Capitalism, Freedom, Merchants, North Korean, Nuclear, Prosperity, Traders
