Bloomberg (October 4)
“The U.S. doesn’t deserve Asia’s money, not with half of its government in financial jihad mode…. The biggest economy has long taken its reserve-currency status for granted, but the events of recent days raise Washington’s hubris to entirely new levels…. The more the U.S. plays with fire with its Aaa rating, the more Asia will find an alternative.”
Tags: Aaa rating, Asia, Economy, Government, Hubris, Reserve currency, U.S., Washington
Euromoney (August Issue)
“Singapore’s long drive to become the world’s leading centre for private asset management is gaining momentum as Asia’s wealthy exert greater influence and overseas investors flock to the city state.” Singapore is now a “legitimate rival to Switzerland,” with estimates the island state will overtake the Alpine nation in terms of assets under management by 2015.
Tags: Asia, Asset management, AUM, Influence, Investors, Momentum, Singapore, Switzerland, Wealthy
Financial Times (August 13)
“Japan’s public diplomacy hovers between the ludicrous and the sinister. In recent months, the country has specialised in foreign policy gaffes that seem designed to give maximum offence to its Asian neighbours while causing maximum embarrassment to its western allies.” Japan’s newly unveiled naval destroyer, which looks a lot like an aircraft carrier, is the most recent offense. It shares the name “Izumo” with “a Japanese warship that took part in the invasion of China in the 1930s.”
Tags: Aircraft carrier, Allies, Asia, China, Destroyer, Diplomacy, Embarrassment, Foreign policy, Gaffes, Invasion, Izumo, Japan, Warship
Euromoney (July Issue)
Suntory Beverage “successfully completed an almost $4 billion IPO, Asia’s largest this year” by listing on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. “Encouragingly for the wider market, Suntory’s story is not unique. In Japan, the opening–day share prices for more that 20 recent IPOs have exceeded their pre-market fixed prices as retail investors pile into companies in the firm belief that Japan’s growth path is assured. In fact, with the much-reported liquidity problems in China, Japan is emerging as something of a bright spot in Asia at exactly the right time.”
Tags: Asia, China, IPO, Japan, Liquidity, Retail investors, Share price, Suntory Beverage, TSE
Washington Post (July 21)
Prime Minister Abe’s strong mandate is promising for Asia, and could help reduce tension. ”A healthy U.S.-Japan alliance is the region’s best hope for stability. That alliance, in turn, depends on a prospering Japanese economy and on at least cordial relations between Japan and other U.S. friends in Asia, most notably South Korea. Thanks to Japanese fatigue with the instability of the past decade, and to Mr. Abe’s political skills, he now has the best chance in a long time to deliver on those goals.”
Tags: Abe, Alliance, Asia, Economy, Japan, Mandate, Prime minister, South Korea, Stability, U.S.
Bloomberg (July 18)
Japan needs to mend relationships with its neighbors. After the upper house Diet elections, “LDP leaders would be wise to focus their resources on overcoming opposition to the most difficult structural reforms. That doesn’t mean Japan can’t take measures it deems necessary to bolster its defenses, such as increasing its military budget, or even making cosmetic changes such as renaming its military the ‘National Defense Forces.’ Such decisions should be based on strategic concerns, not a desire to fire up patriotic fervor. They should be communicated to Beijing quietly but transparently, well in advance.”
Tags: Asia, China, Communication, Defense, Diet, Elections, Japan, LDP, Military, Relationships, Resources, Structural reforms
Washington Post (June 6)
The U.S. stands to benefit if Abenomics succeeds in strengthening its key ally in Asia. Prime Minister Abe’s first two arrows have hit their marks. The third yet-to-materialize arrow, however, has by far the hardest target of tackling the entrenched “source of Japan’s woes: a vast web of regulations, subsidies and trade barriers whose net effect has been to support inefficient sectors, and the voters who live off them, at the expense of growth and innovation. Japanese productivity has remained essentially flat for the past two decades, a dangerous state of affairs in a country with a shrinking labor force and a growing dependent elderly population.”The U.S. stands to benefit if Abenomics succeeds in strengthening its key ally in Asia. Prime Minister Abe’s first two arrows have hit their marks. The third yet-to-materialize arrow, however, has by far the hardest target of tackling the entrenched “source of Japan’s woes: a vast web of regulations, subsidies and trade barriers whose net effect has been to support inefficient sectors, and the voters who live off them, at the expense of growth and innovation. Japanese productivity has remained essentially flat for the past two decades, a dangerous state of affairs in a country with a shrinking labor force and a growing dependent elderly population.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Arrows, Asia, Japan, Regulations, Subsidies, Trade barriers, U.S.
The Economist (January 5)
Japan’s “dangerously nationalistic new cabinet is the last thing Asia needs” and “rings alarms” on the domestic front, as well, due to the shortage of “economic modernizers.” One half of the cabinet positions went to “MPs who inherited Diet seats from their families. Worse, its members are gripped by a backward-looking, distorted view of history that paints Japan as a victim.”
Tags: Asia, Backward-looking, Cabinet, Diet, Economy, Japan, Nationalistic
Barrons (January 3)
During the 2012 “ebb and flow of fortunes,” several shifts took place among ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals. UHNW individuals have a net worth of $30 million and up, and their numbers increased by 0.6% to 187,380 in 2012. Their $25.8 trillion in combined wealth “is roughly double the U.S.’s GDP.” In general, UHNW individuals did better during 2012 in the U.S., where fortunes were up, than in Asia, which lost 2.1% of its UHNW members and 6.8% of its collective net worth. Australia, New Zealand and the rest of Oceania witnessed “the highest percentage of growth in its UHNW population, up an impressive 5.9%,” with overall wealth rising 4.4%.
Wall Street Journal (December 27)
“Some Americans, viewing China as Asia’s future and Japan as its past, consider the alliance with Tokyo as anachronistic—or even a liability in a transformed world. But it would be a mistake to write off Japan as a friend. It remains America’s strongest ally in Asia, with world-class capabilities that make it a serious player in the global balance of power.”
