Wall Street Journal (March 17)
“Unlike most U.N. documents,” the report on human rights abuse in North Korea “demands action.” Much credit is due retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, who chaired the commission that wrote the report. By chronicling widespread abuse with “evidentiary rigor,” they created a report with “striking emotional power.”
Tags: Abuse, Australia, Human rights, Michael Kirby, North Korea, Report, U.N.
Bloomberg (January 22, 2014)
Bloomberg released its annual rankings of the best countries for business in 2013 and these were 1. Hong Kong, 2. Canada, 3. U.S., 4. Singapore, 5. Australia, 6. Germany, 7. United Kingdom, 8. Netherlands, 9. Spain and 10. Sweden. Japan slid from #3 in 2012 to #12, but still finished ahead of South Korea (#13) and China (#28).
Tags: Australia, Business, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Ranking, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, U.S., UK
Financial Times (December 21, 2013)
The UK is set to adopt “funny money,” abandoning paper currency for polymer. In 2016 the Bank of England “will begin introducing plastic notes that can be wiped clean and are difficult to tear. These are expected to last two-and-a-half times as long as the cotton and linen variety, which can quickly become ragged and soiled.” The UK will be following Australia, where paper currency was eliminated in 1996, resulting in a significant decrease in counterfeiting.
Tags: Australia, Bank of England, Counterfeiting, Currency, Paper, Plastic, UK
The Australian (October 10)
“As Sydney gears up for what could be its hottest October day on record, a landmark study warns that such extremes will be the norm in just 25 years.” The predicted climate departure dates for Australia range “from 2038 in Sydney to 2049 in Adelaide.” West Papua will get hit much earlier (2020) and Anchorage much later (2071), with Tokyo sandwiched in the middle (2041).
Tags: Adelaide, Anchorage, Australia, Climate departure, Extreme temperatures, Sydney, Tokyo, West Papua
Wall Street Journal (August 21)
The senseless killing of an Australian exchange student by 3 Oklahoma teenagers should leave Americans wondering just how to fix “a culture that produces teenagers for whom the prospect of shooting an innocent man in the back on a Friday evening apparently raised not a scintilla of conscience.”
Tags: Australia, Conscience, Culture, Exchange student, Innocent, Killing, Oklahoma, Senseless, Shooting, Teenagers
“New York Times (April 7, 2013)
U.S. regulators like FINRA need to confront today’s changing market where trading “has increasingly migrated away from public exchanges, like the New York Stock Exchange, to private trading venues, mostly operated by big banks.” With approximately 40% of trades being handled through dark pools and internalizers, markets are losing transparency and may become more susceptible to crashes and manipulation. Canadian and Australian regulators have already taken steps to protect their markets. U.S. regulators need to get with the program. “The market cannot be efficient if many orders never see the light of day. An inefficient market is neither fair nor stable, which makes a strong regulatory response to protect investors imperative.”
Tags: Australia, Canada, Dark pools, Efficient markets, FINRA, Investors, NYSE, U.S.
Financial Times (March 17)
“Net buying of Japanese equities by overseas investors amounted to slightly more than Y1tn in the first week of March – the highest weekly figure in Tokyo Stock Exchange records going back to 1982.” IPOs have also shot to top position in Tokyo and now rank second globally. “As investors have warmed to the pro-growth policies of Shinzo Abe, prime minister, since the beginning of January, newcomers to Japan’s markets have raised Y181bn ($1.9bn) – more than issuers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia combined.”
Institutional Investor (February Issue)
“Talk of currency wars is once again in the air, making foreign exchange potentially a major component of investment returns.” Last year, “the dollar underperformed all major currencies except the yen.” In 2013, the Norwegian krone, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar are likely to benefit if the dollar’s slide continues.
Tags: Australia, Currency, Dollar, Forex, Investment, Krone, New Zealand, Norway, U.S., Yen
Financial Times (November 5)
“In a landmark case that could pave the way for legal action in Europe,” an Australian judged ruled that “Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro’s wholesale banking division.” The “damning verdict” marked “the first time a rating agency has stood a full trial over a structured finance product.” The court concluded that any “reasonably competent” rating agency would “not have given a triple A rating to the securities,” which were “grotesquely complicated.”“In a landmark case that could pave the way for legal action in Europe,” an Australian judged ruled that “Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro’s wholesale banking division.” The “damning verdict” marked “the first time a rating agency has stood a full trial over a structured finance product.” The court concluded that any “reasonably competent” rating agency would “not have given a triple A rating to the securities,” which were “grotesquely complicated.”
Tags: ABN Amro, Australia, Court, Derivatives, Rating agency, S&P, Structured finance, Verdict
Advanced Trading (September 27)
Despite several major incidents upsetting markets, “U.S. regulators have been slow to act” to regulate high-frequency trading. Germany, Canada, Australia, the EU and other countries, however, are moving ahead. Approaches include transaction fees and minimum time requirements before orders can be cancelled. These countries “think that by acting now, they can protect their markets against the types of technological disruption we’ve seen here. Let’s wait and see if it works.” High-frequency trades now account for 65% of U.S. stock trading and 45% of European stock trading.
Tags: Australia, Canada, Germany, High frequency trading, Regulators, the EU, U.S.
