Bloomberg (October 6)
“Eleven days into the Umbrella Revolution, it’s clear Beijing won’t back down. President Xi Jinping won’t accede to the movement’s universal suffrage proposal or sacrifice Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to ease tensions.” Unless the students “face reality and plot an endgame,” they risk becoming “irritants” to average Hongkongers. If, however, they can win a few concessions, the students “can demonstrate that they gave Goliath a good fight and achieved something substantial.”
Tags: Beijing, Concessions, Endgame, Hong Kong, Leung Chun-ying, Risk, Students, Tensions, Umbrella Revolution, Universal suffrage, Xi Jinping
Bloomberg (September 30)
“The most violent protests in Hong Kong in almost 50 years pose a dilemma for President Xi Jinping: clear the streets and risk embedding anti-China sentiment in a city that has prized its relative freedom, or make concessions and appear weak at home.”
Tags: Anti-China sentiment, Concessions, Freedom, Hong Kong, Protests, Risk, Violent, Xi Jinping
Bloomberg (July 29)
We need to treat climate change like fire. “You insure your house against fire not because you are certain it will burn down but to guard against the risk that it might. Yes, climate change involves various costs known with reasonable confidence—but it also creates big risks. It’s only rational to insure against them.
Tags: Climate change, Confidence, Costs, Fire, Insurance, Rational, Risk
The Economist (May 31)
It has been 25 years since China stepped back from the abyss that was Tiananmen. This led to China’s longest stretch of stability “since the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911.” Nonetheless, “it is still wise to be cautious about the cohesion of Chinese politics.” While there is no immediate cause for alarm, “political risk is as important to bear in mind as the wobbles that are causing growing numbers of observers to worry about China’s economy.”
Tags: Cautious, China, Cohesion, Collapse, Economy, Politics, Qing dynasty, Risk, Stability, Tiananmen
Washington Post (May 27)
The EU’s many achievements have been “accompanied by an ever-expanding bureaucracy and a loss of any purpose higher than crisis management, as if the powers that be in the European Union see ‘Europe’ as an end in itself, independent of its actual impact on the daily lives of ordinary people.” It is this disconnect that must be fixed, “otherwise, the very real benefits that union has brought will be at risk.”
Tags: Achievements, Benefits, Bureaucracy, Crisis management, Daily lives, Disconnect, EU, Fix, Higher purpose, Impact, Risk, Union
Salon (March 6)
“Someday, not all that far in the future, sea level rise is going to drown our coastal cities. And it’s not only our homes and livelihoods that are at risk, but also our culture.” Of 720 UNESCO World Heritage sites, a new study asserts 136, including the Statue of Liberty and Sydney’s famed Opera House, might be left underwater. Other losses will likely extend to Venice, the Tower of London, the leaning tower of Pisa, Westminster Abbey and central Bruges, Naples, Riga and St. Petersburg.
Tags: Bruges, Culture, Naples, Opera House, Pisa, Riga, Risk, Sea level, St. Petersburg, Statue of Liberty, Sydney, Tower of London, Unesco, Venice, Westminster Abbey, World Heritage sites
The Economist (March 1)
Businesses can never fully eliminate fraud, but directors and executives must “treat it like any other unavoidable risk, and manage it professionally.” This means listening carefully to whistleblowers. “Three times as many frauds are discovered by tip-offs than by any other method…. Firms with fraud hotlines, which staff can call anonymously, suffer smaller losses from fraud, and cut by seven months the ‘exposure gap’ between the start of an illicit scheme and its discovery.”
Tags: Anonymous, Businesses, Directors, Discovery, Executives, Exposure gap, Fraud, Hotlines, Losses, Risk, Staff, Tip-offs, Whistleblowers
Wall Street Journal (January 9, 2014)
“Recent numbers and announcements out of Beijing suggest that one of the biggest global risks for 2014 is a Chinese economic slowdown. Five years after unveiling the most massive economic stimulus program the world has ever seen, the bills are coming due. And while a crash remains unlikely, deleveraging could uncover some nasty surprises in the financial system.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Crash, Deleveraging, Economic stimulus, Financial system, Risk, Slowdown
Financial Times (November 19, 2013)
Are Japan and China on a collision course? As the Senkaku dispute festers and both countries move to create National Security Councils, it still remains difficult “to believe that either China or Japan actually wants a war. The bigger risk is that military posturing around the islands will lead to an accidental clash – and that the governments of both nations would then be trapped by their own nationalist rhetoric, making it very hard to climb down.”
Tags: Accidental clash, China, Dispute, Governments, Japan, Military posturing, National Security Council, Nationalist rhetoric, Risk, Senkakus
Euromoney (November Issue)
“Janet Yellen is eminently well qualified to lead the Federal Reserve. But investors should not assume that continuation of policy as normal comes without risk. Her dovish stance on inflation is worth noting and hedging against.”
Tags: Dovish, Federal Reserve, Hedging, Inflation, Investors, Janet Yellen, Policy, Qualified, Risk
