Bloomberg (July 25)
“With a young population, an expanding middle class and one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies, Vietnam is an alluring market for Aeon, Takashimaya Co. and Seven & i Holdings Co. The reason: China is slowing and growth is flat-lining at home.”
Tags: Aeon, China, Economies, Fastest-growing, Growth, Japan, Market, Middle class, Population, Seven & i, Southeast Asia, Takashimaya, Vietnam, Young
USA Today (May 28)
“Despite what politicians say,” entrepreneurs don’t create many jobs. “Successful entrepreneurs almost always create real value in the economy and grow the economic pie for all of us,” but they “do not always create enormous numbers of jobs, particularly for the middle class.” In fact, “the creative destruction that accompanies entrepreneurship today often destroys middle-class jobs.”
Tags: Creative destruction, Economy, Entrepreneurs, Jobs, Middle class, Politicians, Value
The Economist (September 14)
“More growth, not less, is the best hope for averting a sixth great extinction.” As individuals reach the middle class they start to think more seriously about protecting the environment. In rich countries, conditions “are, by and large, improving, and endangered creatures are moving away from the edge of the cliff.”
Tags: Conditions, Endangered creatures, Environment, Extinction, Growth, Hope, Middle class, Rich countries
The Economist (June 29)
“Over the past few weeks, in one country after another, protesters have risen up with bewildering speed. They have been more active in democracies than dictatorships. They tend to be ordinary, middle-class people, not lobbies with lists of demands. Their mix of revelry and rage condemns the corruption, inefficiency and arrogance of the folk in charge.” Whether it’s Brazil, Turkey, Sweden, Bulgaria, India or elsewhere, politicians should beware.
Tags: Brazil, Bulgaria, Corruption, Democracies, Dictatorships, India, Inefficiency, Middle class, Politicians, Protesters, Rage, Revelry, Sweden, Turkey
Euromoney (March Issue)
“Investors are probably being too bullish about the size and buying power of Africa’s middle class.” Following a 2011 African Development Bank (ADB) report which pegged the middle class at 313 million, “it has become commonplace to hear wonderful things about the rise of Africa’s middle class.” The ADB’s figure, however, is misleading as it includes individuals making between $2-5 per day. Using a more conservative definition of those making $10-20 per day, Africa’s middle class would probably number less than a quarter of the ADB’s estimate. “Africa has vast potential, but investor sentiment today is pricing in a level of progress towards it that is not yet backed up by facts.”
Tags: ADB, Africa, Investors, Middle class, Misleading, Potential, Sentiment
Economist (June 23)
On July 1, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turns 90. Despite this milestone, the CCP’s future looks uncertain. “The inevitable slowing in economic growth,” will strain relations between the middle-class and the CCP. Moreover, “tensions between China’s prosperous middle classes and its poor will make it a harder country to govern.” The CCP may feel forced to repress an increasingly restive middle class, further worsening relations. “In other Asian countries a taste for democracy has risen with income; and repression would mean withdrawing freedoms from people used to their liberty gradually increasing.” The CCP is in for a bumpy ride. The next 90 are far from assured.
Tags: CCP, China, Economic growth, Middle class, Tension
