The Economist (July 9)
“Smaller rivals are assaulting the world’s biggest brands” causing some to wonder if billion dollar brands remain a viable strategy. Though “they make some of the world’s best-loved products,” large consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are under assault. “For a time, size gave CPG companies a staggering advantage,” but their advantages are weakening and in some cases becoming Achilles heels. “The lumbering giants are finding it hard to keep up with fast-changing consumer markets.”
Tags: Advantage, Brands, Consumer markets, Consumer packaged goods, Fast changing, Lumbering, Rivals, Size, Strategy, Weakening
Bloomberg (July 8)
“Since its commercial introduction in 2007, the Airbus A380 has brought a long-lost sense of glamour back to travel…. Financially speaking, it’s a disaster of similarly grand proportions.” Airbus has “acknowledged it will never recoup the €25 billion ($32 billion)” of initial development costs. If production falls below 30 planes a year, there’s also a chance production could go back into the red, after only one year of profitability. “Axing the A380 outright” still remains “hard to do. Besides the embarrassment of admitting defeat on the program,” write downs that would ripple through the company and much of Europe.
Tags: A380, Airbus, Development costs, Disaster, Embarrassment, Europe, Glamour, Planes, Production, Profitability, Recoup, Write-downs
Dallas Morning News (July 8)
“Our hearts are broken. For the dead and wounded Dallas officers. For their loved ones, friends and colleagues.” Snipers shot 11 officers, killing five. “These were police officers who had earlier posed for photos with the demonstrators, shaken their hands and provided security for their rally. Throughout the evening, mutual respect was visible between the two groups.” The unfathomable has happened. “Dallas must awake from this nightmare united.”
Tags: Dallas, Dallas. Snipers, Dead, Demonstrators, Nightmare, Police officers, Rally, Security, Unfathomable, Wounded
USA Today (July 7)
Recent shooting deaths of minorities by police, most recently in Minneapolis, have highlighted the need for significant reforms and better policing. “With a lack of national standards among our nation’s estimated 17,000 police agencies, individual officer and organizational competencies range from outstanding to notoriously bad. There is far too much variation and lack of agreement on what constitutes ‘good’ policing.”
Tags: Deaths, Minneapolis, Minorities, National standards, Officers, Police, Policing, Reforms, Shooting, U.S.
New York Times (July 6)
“The financial strains from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union are starting to show, as worries ripple through the country’s real estate market” causing three real estate funds to suspend withdrawals. Ultimately, “the reverberations could test whether, since the global financial crisis, officials have put in place the necessary measures to protect the broader system from a shock.”
Tags: EU, Financial, Financial Crisis, Funds, Officials, Real estate, Reverberations, Strains, UK, Withdrawals
Wall Street Journal (July 5)
The downfall of former Politburo member Ling Jihua may mark the end of “paramount leader Xi Jinping’s purge of political rivals under cover of an anticorruption campaign.” It’s not likely to end the intrigue. “While the ‘tiger hunt’ for top-level cadres may be over, that doesn’t mean Mr. Xi has consolidated power. China’s political struggle continues in other guises. This will make government policies unpredictable and risks conflict spilling out into public view in ways not seen since 1989.”
Tags: Anticorruption, Conflict, Downfall, Ling Jihua, Politburo, Power, Purge, Risks, Rivals, Unpredictable, Xi Jinping
Institutional Investor (July 4)
Post-Brexit “uncertainty has smacked executives at the London Stock Exchange Group and Deutsche Börse in the face. Europe’s two leading exchange operators are pressing ahead with their proposed $30 billion merger even though the referendum result poses a huge and uncertain political risk to the deal’s completion.”
Tags: Brexit, Deutsche Börse, Exchanges, LSE, Merger, Political risk, Uncertainty
The Independent (July 3)
“The economic threat facing the world is bigger than Brexit…. Something remarkable, and disturbing, has happened in recent days that carries a worrying message about the future of the world economy: the plunge in yields. They are lower now than they have ever been before – yes, ever – and they keep on falling. And the message they carry is that there will be a world-wide recession.”
The Economist (July 2)
“It is now a week since voters narrowly opted for Brexit, and the country has seldom looked so wildly off the rails. The prime minister has handed in his notice. The leader of the opposition is struggling to survive a coup. The pound hit a 31-year low against the dollar and banks lost a third of their value, before stabilising. Meanwhile there is talk in Scotland and Northern Ireland of secession.”
Tags: Banks, Brexit, Dollar, Northern Ireland, Opposition, Pound, Prime minister, Scotland, Secession, UK, Voters
Bloomberg (June 30)
“In total, Toyota recalled 3.4 million vehicles worldwide on Wednesday…. Kind of a big deal, but you won’t find a hint of it on the company’s investor relations site, or its global corporate newsroom or SEC filings.” While “Toyota is doing right by its customers” and notifying them of these problems, “it’s letting its shareholders down by making that information so difficult to quantify at a company level.” Toyota isn’t even “the most egregious offender.” That distinction arguably goes to Takata, but Toyota certainly has an opportunity to improve information disclosure.
Tags: Customers, Egregious, Information disclosure, Investor relations, Newsroom, Offender, Recall, SEC filings, Shareholders, Takata, Toyota, Vehicles
