Bloomberg (January 26)
“Why are economists so willing to declare to the world that free trade is good?” Their consensus flies in the face of popular opinion and “powerful evidence that industries and regions that have been more exposed to Chinese import competition since 2000—the year China joined the World Trade Organization—have been hit hard and have not recovered.”
Tags: China, Competition, Consensus, Economists, Evidence, Free trade, Imports, Industries, Popular opinion, Regions, WTO
Wall Street Journal (January 3)
Not just one, but “two U.S. companies have landed a rocket safely after space flight.” This major breakthrough “could make space commuting for commerce and exploration a reality.” This “is also a sign of America’s continuing economic vitality.” The competition between two private sector companies “should lead to more rapid innovation, and the development of private U.S. rocketry will make the country less dependent on Russian rockets for various government or commercial purposes.”
Tags: Breakthrough, Commerce, Competition, Economic vitality, Exploration, Innovation, Private-sector, Rocket, Russia, U.S.
Bloomberg (August 25)
Despite China’s promising long-term fundamentals, global automakers are facing “an oversupply time bomb” as China’s economy cools. Already, some import car dealers are holding nearly 150 days of supply. “If cutthroat competition for volume sales persists, exacerbated by weakness in the other once-promising BRICS markets, automakers could be headed toward a massive pileup in China.”
Tags: Automakers, BRICS, China, Competition, Economy, Fundamentals, Oversupply, Supply
Wall Street Journal (April 13)
“We need to get used to slower Chinese growth,” writes former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. He adds that “if, as Beijing has promised, the slowdown is accompanied by deep and serious structural reform that opens up new growth opportunities, such as allowing the private sector to compete against state monopolies in service sectors like banking and telecommunications, then China will still grow robustly compared with all other major economies.”
Tags: Banking, Beijing, China, Competition, Growth, Monopolies, Paulson, Private-sector, Slowdown, Structural reform, Telecommunications
South China Morning Post (December 1)
Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating by one notch from Aa3 for to A1. “Despite the rating cut, Moody’s noted that Japan was not in a disastrous situation.” The Post explains that “Japan, which once led the world in innovation, is facing stiff competition from emerging nations including China, while a falling number of working-age people is shrinking its tax base even as soaring ranks of seniors strain the public purse.”
Tags: China, Competition, Credit rating, Downgrade, Emerging nations, Innovation, Japan, Moody's, Seniors, Tax base
Financial Times (May 23)
“India has a new prime minister; and each of Asia’s four most powerful nations is now led by a combative nationalist.” India’s Modi, Japan’s Abe, Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi make up the four “nationalist horsemen” who will transform Asia and perhaps the world. “The multilateralist assumptions of the postwar order are giving way to a return to great power competition. Nationalism is on the march, and nowhere more so than in the rising east.”
Tags: Abe, Asia, Assumptions, China, Combative, Competition, India, Japan, Modi, Multilateralist, Nationalist, Postwar order, Power, Prime minister, Putin, Russia, Xi
Euromoney (May Issue)
Trading in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) is being transformed in a manner that’s benefiting investors and putting the squeeze on many big banks. “The move to electronic trading is accelerating; margins are getting tighter (no sign of oligopolistic pricing here), as competition and transparency grows, and the costs of maintaining a leading tech platform, once built, never go away.”
Tags: Banks, Commodities, Competition, Currencies, Fixed income, Investors, Margins, Oligopolistic pricing, Tech platform, Trading, Transparency
Institutional Investor (May Issue)
“When it comes to providing the direction that money managers find most helpful, they say, Mizuho and Nomura outpace the competition. These firms share top honors on the 2014 All-Japan Research Team, Institutional Investor’s 21st annual ranking of the country’s best sell-side analysts, by capturing 24 team positions each.”
Tags: Analysts, Competition, Direction, Honors, Japan, Mizuho, Money managers, Nomura, Ranking, Research, Sell-side
Bloomberg (March 20)
Japan is beating the Scots at their own game. “Japan has been quietly scooping up gold medals at world whisky competitions, and in 2012, the 25-year-old Yamazaki beat out 300 of the world’s single malts in an international blind tasting.” With less than a century of whiskey making history, Japan has risen to the top.
Tags: Blind tasting, Competition, Gold medals, Japan, Scots, Single malt, Whisky, Yamazaki
Euromoney (February Issue)
Asia “is seen as the growth engine for private banks, but it is not without its trials.” As regulation increases, costs rise and competition heats up, industry “consolidation among private banks in the region is inevitable.”
Tags: Asia, Banks, Competition, Consolidation, Costs, Growth engine, Industry, Private banks, Regulation
