Reuters (July 27)
“British-based investment firms’ long-standing ability to manage billions of euros of assets elsewhere in Europe could be threatened by Brexit.” Newly issued EU guidance suggests regulators will crack down on “delegation” with the aim of preventing investment firms from “setting up ‘empty shell’ subsidiaries in an EU country, to allow them to continue serving European clients, but leaving the bulk of their management staff and operations in London.”
Tags: Assets, Brexit, Clients, Delegation, EU, Europe, Euros, Guidance, Investment, London, Shell subsidiaries, UK
The Guardian (July 2)
“As the true extent of the Brexit farce becomes more apparent, it is now open warfare between the Brexiters, while the rest of the world…look on in sympathetic bewilderment.” Amid growing “evidence for concern about Brexit-induced potential loss of trading and investment opportunities,” there are growing hopes that the “transition” may be extended indefinitely.
Tags: Bewilderment, Brexit, Farce, Investment, Loss, Opportunities, Sympathetic, Trading, Transition
The Economist (June 3)
“It is the fourth time in a year that BA’s computer systems have suffered a major crash. And debilitating IT breakdowns are becoming increasingly common” across an industry with particularly high IT demands. “The sheer quantity and complexity of the data they handle make airlines particularly vulnerable to IT disasters.” And yet, “in 2015 airlines spent 2.7% of their revenues on IT, half the norm across all industries and a lower share even than hotels.” The pressure to pressure to cut costs is strong, given the industry’s harsh competition. The cost of an IT melt down, however, is much greater. Airlines must “refrain from pruning investment in IT too far.”
Tags: Airlines, BA, Complexity, Computer, Crash, Data, Investment, IT, Quantity, Systems
Financial Times (March 31)
“On one hand, Premium Friday is a gimmicky, well-intended campaign to offset Japan’s overwork culture.” Even though less than 4% of Tokyo’s workers actually clocked out early on the inaugural Premium Friday, the campaign does represent “something fundamentally important to the next few years of Japanese investment: a defining theme of ‘working practice reform’ that will (for better or worse) penetrate all sectors of the economy.”
Tags: Economy, Gimmick, Investment, Japan, Overwork, Premium Friday, Reform, Tokyo
Institutional Investor (January 26)
“It’s not even been a week in office and the Trump administration has already managed to send shivers of excitement through the arcane world of infrastructure investment with talk of new domestic projects…. Not surprisingly, asset managers with infrastructure teams are jumping on the renewed interest in the asset class, holding press briefings and webinars to provide clarity.”
Tags: Asset class, Asset managers, Clarity, Excitement, Infrastructure, Investment, Projects, Trump
Fortune (January 23)
China’s investment in financial technology (fintech) has surged ahead of North America’s, accounting for “more than half of all fintech investments globally in the first nine months of last year…. Specifically in terms of venture capital, the country more than doubled its worldwide share of the investment category, rising to 46% of the global total versus just 19% the same period in 2015.” In contrast, the U.S. dropped from 56% to 41%.
Tags: China, Fintech, Investment, North America, U.S., Venture-capital
Financial Times (October 27)
Investment flows with China “are becoming unsustainably one-sided,” an imbalance that cannot endure. “There is no problem in Chinese companies buying abroad — but Beijing sets up big obstacles at home.” Either China will open up inward investment or the West will clamp down on China’s outward investment.
Time (October 26)
“The approval of Heathrow’s extension risks being not a symbol of Britain’s openness to global investment, but a reminder that the country is frequently hamstrung by turgid, centralized bureaucracy, deficient planning laws that act as a brake on growth, and a thornily complicated legal system that can bind up investors in court for decades.” Though the British Government approved expansion of Heathrow Airport, this is just the beginning of the process, which still requires a vote of Parliament next year and subsequent approvals from various governmental bodies. The earliest construction start for the new runway is 2021, with most experts agreeing 2030 is realistic for completion. Some, however, “think it may never be built, that the roadblocks in its way are insurmountable.”
Tags: Approval, Bureaucracy, Extension, Growth, Hamstrung, Heathrow, Investment, Openness, Parliament, Planning laws, UK
Wall Street Journal (June 15)
The yield on 10-year German bunds turned negative, a new low. “This is good for governments that want to finance spending on the cheap, but it’s not so good for the private risk-taking that drives economic growth. Negative interest rates reflect a lack of confidence in options for private investment. They also discourage savings that can be invested in profitable ventures. A negative 10-year bond is less a sign of monetary wizardry than of economic policy failure.”
Tags: Bunds, Confidence, Finance, Germany, Governments, Growth, Investment, Negative interest, Options, Risk-taking, Savings, Spending, Yield
Wall Street Journal (February 5)
“The January jobs report wasn’t as bad as the markets seemed to take it… But then it wasn’t stellar either.” New jobs didn’t rise as much as expected, but there were wage gains and the labor participation rate rose as well. “We’ll hope for the best,” though the “overriding problem continues to be a lack of business confidence and investment.” This “leads to slower growth, which gives the U.S. economy a lower margin for absorbing growth shocks from around the world.”
Tags: Confidence, Growth, Investment, Jobs report, Labor participation, Markets, Shocks, U.S., Wage gains
