Wall Street Journal (July 20)
“The Lee family that controls the Samsung conglomerate won its showdown with minority shareholders on Friday, but the vote still represents a watershed for corporate governance in the world’s 14th-largest economy. Though Samsung won, the bell is tolling for South Korea’s chaebol system of corporate control.” The shareholder fight marked “a step forward for corporate reform in Asia” where “a new shareholder class has been mobilized.”
Tags: Asia, Chaebol, Conglomerate, Corporate governance, Lee, Minority shareholders, Samsung, South Korea, Watershed
The Economist (July 4)
“Shale matters. The industry has become huge—listed firms have invested over half a trillion dollars of capital…. Shale firms owe almost as much debt as Greece. After drilling beneath much of Texas and North Dakota, they account for 5% of global oil output. The health of shale firms affects people around the world, from Western drivers and Saudi Arabia’s sheikhs to Asia’s consumers.”
Tags: Asia, Capital, Consumers, Debt, Drilling, Greece, North Dakota, Oil, Output, Saudi Arabia, Shale, Texas
Washington Post (July 3)
“As the Islamic State, Iran and Greece occupy the attention of the Western world, China marches forward, except now it is not just building its economy but also a new geopolitics in Asia.”
Tags: Asia, China, Economy, Geopolitics, Greece, Iran, Islamic State, West
Washington Post (May 27)
“China is attempting to steal a march on its neighbors by rapidly constructing airstrips, ports and other infrastructure on reclaimed land in one of the most sensitive maritime areas in Asia—one with multiple overlapping sovereignty claims. While it probably cannot be stopped, the project should be fully exposed—and China’s attempts to restrict air and sea traffic near its installations decisively rejected.”
Tags: Airstrips, Asia, China, Infrastructure, Ports, Reclaimed land, Sovereignty claims
The Economist (April 18)
“Fears are rising that, after three soaring decades, China is about to crash. That would be a disaster. China is the world’s second-largest economy and Asia’s pre-eminent rising power.” But the fears of the pessimists are overstated. “China is not only more economically robust than they allow, it is also putting itself through a quiet—and welcome—financial revolution.”
Bloomberg (April 16)
“Japan overtook China as the top foreign holder of U.S. government debt for the first time since the global financial crisis amid signs of economic and policy shifts in Asia’s two largest economies.”
Washington Post (March 26)
“Japan has been the forgotten ally in recent years. But Abe’s goal of a stronger Japan, anchored to the United States, would make for a more stable Asia.”
Washington Post (March 22)
Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew “was the democratic world’s favorite dictator.” Despite his virtues, he was “demonstrably unwise about democracy in Asia. While he was touting supposedly unique Asian values incompatible with liberal Western norms, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia became robust democracies and prospered economically.”
Tags: Asia, Democracy, Dictator, Indonesia, Lee Kuan Yew, Prospered, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Values, Virtues, Western
The Economist (December 3)
“If Thailand’s economy could be said to belong to any foreign country, it would be Japan. After floods devastated Thailand in 2011, Japanese firms poured in nearly $30 billion to rebuild their favourite production base in Asia. That is more investment in three years than everything that American firms have poured in since the Vietnam war, plus everything Chinese firms have ever invested on top.”
Tags: Asia, China, Economy, Floods, Investment, Japan, Production base, Thailand, U.S., Vietnam
New York Times (October 9)
“Large parts of the world seem to be on the verge of a recession. In many countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, economic growth has already stalled.” Nevertheless, too many officials “are unwilling or ill prepared to respond.” German officials “continue to insist that countries that use the euro meet restrictive fiscal rules” and “officials in Japan, meanwhile, have hurt that economy by raising a sales tax too fast.
Tags: Asia, Economic growth, euro, Europe, Germany, Japan, Latin America, Officials, Recession, Stalled, Tax
