LA Times (January 30)
“The mere idea of President Trump’s executive order suspending the entry into the country of various visitors, migrants and refugees was bad enough…. In execution, it was a disaster, plunging U.S. airports into chaos and displaying a shocking lack of forethought and planning and a deeply troubling failure of basic communication and coordination among and between federal and local authorities.”
Tags: Airports, Chaos, Disaster, Execution, Executive order, Failure, Migrants, Refugees, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (November 22)
It has become fashionable to praise long-termism and deplore the corrosive influences of short-termism, but this is simplistic. “Long-termism and short-termism both have their virtues and vices—and these depend on context. Long-termism works well in stable industries that reward incremental innovation.” In other businesses, however, long-termism “is a recipe for failure” and success goes to those who can constantly “abandon their plans and ‘pivot’ to a new strategy, in markets that can change in the blink of an eye.”
Tags: Failure, Incremental innovation, Long-termism, Markets, Pivot, Short-termism, Stable industries, Strategy, Success
Bloomberg (October 23)
“It’s easy to see why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants Japan’s $1.2 trillion government pension fund to start buying more stocks…. But attempts to game the stock market have failed to revive Japan in the past and are doomed to failure again, unless Abe puts more effort into the harder work of real reform.”
Tags: Abe, Failure, Government, Japan, Market, Pension fund, Reform, Stocks
Euromoney (September)
“The security crisis brought on by the rise of Islamic State could turn Iran from pariah to much-needed partner to the west.” This places Iran “at a crossroads.” Will the nation chose to be “a resource-rich, rejuvenated success story, returned to the international fold and relied upon by western states as a stable force in an increasingly troubled region?” Or, instead, will it continue as “a recession-hit, bad loan-addled failure still barred from western trade and getting steadily, inexorably worse?” The view in Tehran is that it could go either way.”
Tags: Crossroads, Failure, Iran, Islamic State, Pariah, Partner, Recession, Resource-rich, Security crisis, Stable force, Tehran, Western trade
Washington Post (February 3, 2014)
Rather than marking Vladimir Putin’s crowning achievement, “the Sochi Olympics are more likely to become a forum for the demonstration of how and why Putin’s rule of Russia has failed—and how his power is ebbing both abroad and at home.”
Tags: Demonstration, Failure, Power, Russia, Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin
Euromoney (August Issue)Euromoney (August Issue)
“Trust has broken down between IPO vendors and issuers and traditional investors in new stock offerings in Europe. Deal arrangers seem incapable of bridging the valuation gap between the two sides.” Issuer focus on achieving high valuation is colliding with investor expectation to buy at a discount. As a result, 50% of Europe’s large planned IPOs failed this year. The situation is only slightly better for IPOs of all sizes. “In the first seven months of this year, 143 initial public offerings were priced for European issuers, while 50 others, over one-third as many, were either announced and then postponed or launched and then pulled. That’s a very high failure rate.”
“Trust has broken down between IPO vendors and issuers and traditional investors in new stock offerings in Europe. Deal arrangers seem incapable of bridging the valuation gap between the two sides.” Issuer focus on achieving high valuation is colliding with investor expectation to buy at a discount. As a result, 50% of Europe’s large planned IPOs failed this year. The situation is only slightly better for IPOs of all sizes. “In the first seven months of this year, 143 initial public offerings were priced for European issuers, while 50 others, over one-third as many, were either announced and then postponed or launched and then pulled. That’s a very high failure rate.”
New York Times (May 24)
“With Greece in meltdown, raising fears of cascading bank insolvencies and deepening recession, Europe’s leaders failed again this week to agree on the ambitious initiatives needed to quell the crisis.” If they don’t quickly wise up and promote growth, “the consequences could be disastrous — for their countries and the rest of the world.”
The Independent (May 12)
“The Franco-German elite which rules the euro is still in denial about the failure of its core project,” but the “Euro’s day of reckoning looms.”
Reuters (April 13)
North Korea’s “highly unusual” admission over state TV of today’s launch failure raises many questions. Will embarrassment lead to a nuclear test? Does it instead signal a new openness? Nobody knows. “Although North Korea is one of the most tightly controlled states on earth, with no free media and a tight grip on its population, such a high profile failure could trigger a backlash among the country’s elite.”
Tags: Embarassment, Failure, Launch, North Korea, Nuclear text, TV
