LA Times (December 10)
“The emerging sharing economy poses a challenge for government because it doesn’t fit neatly into existing regulatory structures. Individuals put their personal cars, homes and other assets to commercial use on an irregular basis, with the help of companies such as Uber and Airbnb that connect them to customers.”
Tags: Airbnb, Assets, Cars, Challenge, Government, Homes, Regulatory structures, Sharing economy, Uber
Washington Post (June 20)
Iraq’s unraveling poses a “confounding” challenge for the U.S. “Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has put sectarian interests above national goals, so to join him in beating back the terrorist challenge might only widen the country’s divide. But… an al-Qaeda-style ‘caliphate’ stretching from Syria into Iraq would be too dangerous for the United States and its allies.” By sending aid and military advisers, President Obama’s modest steps toward engagement “represent a judicious start.”
Tags: Advisors, Aid, Al-Qaeda, Challenge, Engagement, Iraq, Judicious, Maliki, Obama, Sectarian, Syria, Terrorists, U.S.
The Economist (December 7, 2013)
Despite frequent assertions, there is no evidence that genetically modified (GM) crops are bad for people. On the other hand, copious evidence demonstrates how GM crops “benefit the health of the planet. One of the biggest challenges facing mankind is to feed the 9 billion-10 billion people who will be alive and (hopefully) richer in 2050. This will require doubling food production on roughly the same area of land, using less water and fewer chemicals.” GM crops provide the hope that we will be able to meet this challenge.
Investments & Pensions Europe (November Issue)
Awareness has grown “that institutional investors who define their job as beating the peer group benchmark are being irresponsible.” With that realization, responsible investment has reached the first stage. Today, “the challenge for ESG 2.0 is to learn to manage the modern risks that are linked to long-horizon stewardship investing.”
Tags: Awareness, Benchmark, Challenge, ESG 2.0, Institutional investors, Irresponsible, Long-horizon, Peer group, Responsible investment, Risks, Stewardship investing
Euromoney (October Issue)
Warning some stock exchanges could face downgrades, ratings agency S&P cautioned that they “have become more prone to operational risk.” Fragmentation is one key challenge. “There are now 16 SEC-registered securities exchanges in the US and more than 50 alternative trading systems, whereas before 2005 the equities market was dominated by NYSE and Nasdaq. It is this interconnectivity that is fueling operational risk. When Nasdaq halted trading in August, for example, other stock exchanges, including NYSE, Bats and Direct Edge, were also forced to stop trading in Nasdaq-listed securities.”
Tags: BATS, Challenge, Direct Edge, Downgrades, Fragmentation, Interconnectivity, Nasdaq, NYSE, Operational risk, S&P, SEC, Securities, Stock exchanges, Trading, U.S.
Bloomberg (July 1)
Hong Kong has long been ambivalent about mainland China and now “faces perhaps its biggest challenge: China’s wobbly economy. A downturn on the mainland threatens to erode Hong Kong’s AAA credit rating, and to alienate the city’s population once and for all…. If it’s not careful, China may lose 7 million votes of confidence, too.”
Tags: Challenge, China, Confidence, Credit rating, Downturn, Economy, Hong Kong
