Financial Times (May 10)
The auditing sector is undergoing a “pitch battle” with new EU regulations that require companies at least tender their audits every 10 years and change auditors every 20 years. “So far the result has been a merry-go-round of audits swapping between the Big Four—PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG—which handle 98 per cent of FTSE 350 audits and 95 per cent of those for Fortune 500 companies.”
Tags: Auditors, Audits, Big Four, Deloitte, EU, EY, Fortune 500, FTSE 350, KPMG, PwC, Regulations, Tenders
The Economist (April 4)
“Poor land use in the world’s greatest cities carries a huge cost.” There isn’t much real shortage of land in even the most heavily populated areas. Instead poor regulations stifle efficient land use. “In the West End of London,” these regulations “inflate the price of office space by about 800%; in Milan and Paris the rules push up prices by around 300%.” But the effect on economic growth is even more profound. “Lifting all the barriers to urban growth in America could raise the country’s GDP by between 6.5% and 13.5%, or by about $1 trillion-2 trillion.”
Tags: Barriers, Cities, Economic growth, GDP, Land use, London, Milan, Paris, Regulations, Shortage, U.S., Urban growth
Euromoney (June Issue)
The African Development Bank’s 50th Anniversary brought much introspection, but infrastructure is only one problem hindering “meaningful continental integration.” Non-physical barriers present another. “Rules and regulations have not been harmonized within regions. Generally speaking, African countries trade more with Europe than they do with each other; even where roads are good, rent-seeking opportunities widely plague popular trade routes, with officials hoping to benefit from bribes at the expense of their neighbours.”
Tags: African Development Bank, Bribes, Europe, Infrastructure, Integration, Non-physical barriers, Officials, Regions, Regulations, Rent-seeking, Rules, Trade
Bloomberg (December 27, 2013)
Medical implants have cleared another hurdle with a successful surgery to implant “an artificial heart that is expected to last five years.” The new heart was developed by the French startup Carmat. “Europe often leads the U.S. in bringing replacement body parts to the market — not because its researchers have much of an edge but because its health-care regulations are less cumbersome.”
Tags: Artificial heart, Carmat, Europe, France, Health care, Implant, Market, Regulations, Replacement body parts, Researchers, Surgery, U.S.
Washington Post (June 6)
The U.S. stands to benefit if Abenomics succeeds in strengthening its key ally in Asia. Prime Minister Abe’s first two arrows have hit their marks. The third yet-to-materialize arrow, however, has by far the hardest target of tackling the entrenched “source of Japan’s woes: a vast web of regulations, subsidies and trade barriers whose net effect has been to support inefficient sectors, and the voters who live off them, at the expense of growth and innovation. Japanese productivity has remained essentially flat for the past two decades, a dangerous state of affairs in a country with a shrinking labor force and a growing dependent elderly population.”The U.S. stands to benefit if Abenomics succeeds in strengthening its key ally in Asia. Prime Minister Abe’s first two arrows have hit their marks. The third yet-to-materialize arrow, however, has by far the hardest target of tackling the entrenched “source of Japan’s woes: a vast web of regulations, subsidies and trade barriers whose net effect has been to support inefficient sectors, and the voters who live off them, at the expense of growth and innovation. Japanese productivity has remained essentially flat for the past two decades, a dangerous state of affairs in a country with a shrinking labor force and a growing dependent elderly population.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Arrows, Asia, Japan, Regulations, Subsidies, Trade barriers, U.S.
Washington Post (April 15, 2013)
“The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) faces a financial death spiral. Burdened by excess infrastructure, outmoded regulations and high labor costs — not to mention facing digital-age obsolescence — USPS posted an operating loss of $15.9 billion in fiscal 2012 and is on course to lose an estimated $7.9 billion in fiscal 2013.”
Tags: Digital age, Infrastructure, Labor, Operating loss, Regulations, U.S., USPS
The Economist (March 16)
America’s “debt is rising, its population is ageing in a budget-threatening way, its schools are mediocre by international standards, its infrastructure rickety, its regulations dense, its tax code byzantine, its immigration system hare-brained—and it has fallen from first position in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings to seventh in just four years.” But “dysfunction in Washington is only one side of America’s story…. There is also another America, where things work.” The successful side of America can be seen in the improving performance of the real economy where “businesses and politicians are not waiting for the federal government to ride to their rescue.”
Tags: Businesses, Debt, Dysfunction, Government, Population, Real economy, Regulations, U.S., WEF
The Economist (September 15)
With the tighter capital requirements of Basel III and more stringent regulations, investment banking has been radically downsizing. “The financial industry in London, the world’s most international banking hub, will probably have shed 100,000 jobs by the end of this year from its peak of 354,000 in 2007.” While “some of the industry’s shrinkage is overdue” and “this is broadly a good thing,” politicians and regulators need to be careful about moving to the other extreme and “regulating too fiercely.”
Wall Street Journal (June 21)
In a move that “could add to the unease plaguing global markets,” Moody’s “downgraded more than a dozen global banks, including the five largest U.S. banks with global trading arms, to reflect declining profitability in an industry that is being rocked by soft economic growth, tougher regulations and nervous investors.”
Washington Post (January 6)
The Post declares the oil drilling industry is “in over their heads.” The industry has raced to tap deeper, riskier drilling environments without making proper adjustments in processes and technology. Released portions of a presidential report on the BP Horizon oil spill demonstrate that government regulations and oversight must be strengthened. Most of all, “every company involved in oil drilling—not just BP—must individually and in concert with others evaluate industry standards and safety research programs. And none should assume that BP’s mistakes could not occur elsewhere.”
Tags: BP, Horizon, Oil drilling, Regulations, Safety
