Bloomberg (June 15)
“If Toshiba Corp. tried to bully hedge funds through the government, that’s a bad look all around. The only parties who come off well are the activists the company allegedly aimed to suppress…. In the end, it looks like activist hedge funds aren’t so big and bad after all. They’re doing what they’re supposed to do. Now it’s open season for Japan Inc.”
Tags: Activist, Activists, Bad look, Bully, Government, Hedge funds, Japan Inc., Suppress, Toshiba
Wall Street Journal (June 11)
A report on Toshiba “harked back to the days when Japan Inc. was a popular term to describe the perceived tight linkage between big business and government in blocking foreign influence in Japan.” The company-commissioned report found that Toshiba Corp. “worked closely with Japanese government officials to block foreign-based shareholders from exercising their rights, using inappropriate threats and language such as ‘beat them up.’”
Tags: Big business, Foreign, Government, Inappropriate, Influence, Japan Inc., Linkage, Report, Rights, Shareholders, Threats, Toshiba
Financial Times (June 10)
“The depth of collusion between Toshiba, the Japanese government and the former investment head of the world’s biggest pension fund to influence board nominations last year has been laid bare by an independent probe” and “represented an attempt to unfairly restrict the exercise of shareholder rights.”
Tags: Board, Collusion, Depth, Exercise, Fund, Government, Independent, Influence, Investment, Japan, Nominations, Pension, Probe, Restrict, Shareholder rights, Toshiba, Unfairly
Reuters (June 9)
“Like the banking system, the internet looks simple from the outside but is really an elaborate patchwork. Tuesday’s outage involving Fastly (FSLY.N), a so-called content delivery network, is a reminder for people with their lives in the cloud that pieces of the puzzle can fail. And unlike with banks, there’s little government oversight and no backstop, so it’s good for users to be reminded that instant online gratification is not guaranteed.”
Tags: Banking system, Cloud, Content delivery, Elaborate, Fastly, Government, Internet, Network, Outage, Oversight, Patchwork, Simple
The Economist (May 8)
“India’s national government looks increasingly hapless. Confronted with catastrophe, the state has melted away” leaving citizens enraged. “Indians are accustomed to ineptitude and meagre support,” but “it is a sense of utter abandonment, especially among the politically noisy middle class, that is driving the anger.”
Tags: Abandonment, Anger, Catastrophe, Citizens, Confronted, Government, Hapless, India, Ineptitude, Meagre, Middle class, Support
The Guardian (April 30)
“It is time for a public inquiry. The coronavirus crisis has been an extraordinary period for the UK, and the toll substantial. More than 127,000 people have died, children have lost years of education, and we have seen the largest drop in GDP since consistent records began more than half a century ago…. While the government has done some things well – the vaccine programme is an undisputed success so far – there are sincere, legitimate questions about many of its other choices.*
Tags: Coronavirus, Crisis, Drop, Education, Extraordinary, GDP, Government, Legitimate, Public inquiry, Questions, UK, Vaccine
Reuters (January 14)
“Firms from JPMorgan to AT&T are rethinking political donations after last week’s Capitol violence…. The storming of the seat of U.S. government has spurred a sea change in corporate America. AT&T, the biggest company spender in the last election cycle… is suspending political donations to Republican lawmakers who objected without evidence to the November presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump. Others, like JPMorgan, paused their giving altogether to reassess their strategy.”
Tags: AT&T, Biden, Capitol, Donations, Election cycle, Government, JPMorgan, Republicans, Rethinking, Trump, U.S., Violence
Wall Street Journal (January 1)
“The crackdown continues in Hong Kong, and this week the Chinese government made an example of the territory’s most prominent political prisoners.” Beijing has now adopted “Soviet or North Korean behavior, and we hope that Joe Biden and his officials will speak plainly against it.”
Tags: Behavior, Beijing, Biden, Chinese, Crackdown, Government, Hong Kong, North Korean, Political prisoners, Prominent, Soviet, Territory
The Scotsman (November 8)
“It is clear that the four-nations approach that the UK government pursed at the start of the pandemic has been replaced with something far less constructive. If Mr Johnson baulks at the suggestion that he is starting to look more like a Prime Minister of England than the UK, then he should really stop acting like one.”
Tags: Baulks, Constructive, England, Four nations, Government, Johnson, Pandemic, Prime minister, UK
The Guardian (November 1)
“Here we are again. Once more, England will enter lockdown on Thursday…. Once more, the government has been far too slow to act….. What is truly depressing for many people is not lockdown in itself, but the growing conviction that this government has no exit plan, and no ability to execute one even if they stumble across it.”
Tags: Ability, Act, Conviction, Depressing, England, Exit plan, Government, Lockdown, Slow
