Institutional Investor (June 19)
“Income potential and low interest rates are fueling pension fund interest in commercial real estate.” Fund managers struggling to find “investments that can match long-term liabilities and fight inflation” are finding “some measure of calm” in real estate.
Tags: Fund managers, Income, Inflation, Interest rates, Investments, Liabilities, Pension funds, Potential, Real estate
Washington Post (April 4)
Prime Minister Abe is not the only one worried about empowering women. Companies should be just as worried. Equal Pay Day falls on Tuesday, April 8, symbolizing how far into 2014 women must work to earn what men earned in 2013. “Lip service isn’t enough. Corporate policy matters, too. As long as firms are resistant to changes that will help attract and retain female talent—like more flexible work arrangements, which can actually boost worker productivity—they will be limiting their own potential as well as that of female workers.
Tags: Abe, Attract, Change, Companies, Corporate policy, Equal Pay Day, Flexible work arrangements, Lip service, Potential, Retain, Talent, Women, Worker productivity
Euromoney (February Issue)
Those who quickly dismiss Bitcoin and other digital currencies may be overlooking their potential. “In theory, Bitcoin could serve two understated purposes: facilitating mobile transactions in emerging markets and, in the process, being a weapon in the so-called global currency war…. In fact, in some countries, as many as a fifth of respondents claimed that virtual-currency investments were a safer long-term bet than stocks and property.”
Tags: Bitcoin, Currency war, Emerging markets, Investments, Long term, Mobile transactions, Potential, Property, Respondents, Safety, Stocks, Virtual-currencies
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
