Bloomberg (June 9)
“Every day, Tokyo’s subway and trains carry out one of the world’s largest logistical operations, getting a metropolis of 38 million people to work, many commuting for hours. The closer they get to the center, the more congested the carriages become.” While the “system may appear to be straining at the seams, it’s preparing for an even bigger challenge, as the city transforms to welcome its first Olympic Games since 1964.”
Financial Times (June 7)
“’Shock revelation. Investors do read annual reports and base their investment decisions on what they find there,’ was the gist of a dismal report by the Financial Reporting Council last week into the quality of accounts of small public companies.” The report found that many companies did not, but really ought to, sufficiently prioritize their annual reports. “The FRC is right. Informative and comprehensive explanations of how the corporate year has shaped up are critical to keeping investors onside.”
Tags: Annual reports, Comprehensive, Explanations, FRC, Informative, Investment decisions, Investors
New York Times (June 7)
“In a welcome development, businesses are asking world leaders to do more to address climate change. This week, the top executives of six large European oil and gas companies called for a tax on carbon emissions.” Implementation will face stiff resistance, but “world leaders, who will meet in Paris later this year to negotiate a climate change agreement, cannot give up in the face of this opposition. Carbon taxes are one of the best policies available to solve this global problem.”
Tags: Businesses, Carbon emissions, Carbon taxes, Climate change, Climate change agreement, Oil and gas, Resistance
The Economist (June 6)
“At last Japan has introduced corporate-governance reforms that will make a difference.” It will be neither a sudden or complete transformation. “Japan’s corporate-governance revolution has had many false dawns.” Nevertheless, there are finally “reasons to think that real change is under way.”
Tags: False dawns, Governance, Japan, Real change, Reforms, Transformation
The Guardian (June 5)
“Try telling Sepp Blatter we live in a post-American world.” Talk of a “multipolar world” can be overdone. The role of the U.S. in taking on FIFA and deposing its long time leader “is a stark and very public reversal of the familiar narrative of America losing its clout in global affairs. All of a sudden, talk of a post-American world seems less convincing.”
Tags: Clout, FIFA, Global affairs, Multipolar, Post-American world, Sepp Blatter, U.S.
Financial Times (June 4)
“With inflation stuck at zero, and the BoJ’s attempts to fly looking more like Wendy’s than Peter Pan’s, Mr Kuroda has taken every opportunity to reinforce his commitment to future inflation…. In Neverland, whatever Peter Pan wanted, he got. In his determination to end Japan’s deflation, Mr Kuroda may be the same.”
Washington Post (June 4)
“The tragic sinking of a cruise ship on the Yangtze River on Monday night produced a reflexive reaction from China’s communist authorities: censorship.” This could backfire. “Mr. Xi’s attempt to impose Stalinist-style information controls may not work in 21st-century China. His regime would foster more trust were it to follow the examples of neighbors such as South Korea and Taiwan, which live-streamed video of rescue efforts after recent disasters and encouraged debate about what went wrong. In attempting to shield the regime from criticism, Beijing’s censors are only adding to public embitterment.”
Tags: Censorship, China, Debate, Disasters, Rescue, Sinking, South Korea, Stalin, Taiwan, Tragic, Xi, Yangtze
Wall Street Journal (June 3)
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to restart productivity growth and unlock value in Japanese companies is toppling the shibboleths of Japan Inc.” His corporate governance reforms seem to mark “a turning point. Japan’s corporate chieftains must realize that as Japan’s population ages, it will draw down savings. That means companies need to attract foreign capital and go abroad to seek new markets. Both require global best practices of corporate governance.”
Tags: Abe, Foreign capital, Global best practices, Governance, Growth, Japan, Markets, Population, Productivity
New York Times (June 1)
“A forced Greek exit from the euro would create huge economic and political risks, yet Europe seems to be sleepwalking toward that outcome…. There’s a definite 1914 feeling to what’s happening, a sense that pride, annoyance, and sheer miscalculation are leading Europe off a cliff it could and should have avoided.”
Bloomberg (May 31)
“Recent scandals at Takata (deadly airbags) and Toshiba (dodgy accounting), and Sharp’s ongoing angling for a government rescue when it should be shedding unprofitable businesses, are a reminder of how far Japan still needs to go.” Despite recent governance reforms, “Japan remains 30 years behind its peers in how its companies are run. Corporate Japan still indulges in cross-shareholdings and permits itself male-dominated boards, and the country’s timid media does little to hold it to account.” Still, progress is being made. “Some companies are starting to display the behavior Abe wants, and for which” overseas fund managers have “been agitating.”
Tags: Abe, Accounting, Airbags, ata, Boards, Cross-shareholdings, Fund managers, Governance, Japan, Media, Reforms, Sharp, Toshiba, Unprofitable
