Chicago Tribune (January 2)
“Who said: ‘Find out what the other team wants to do. Then take it away from them.’ Could have been Uber’s CEO, but no, it was George Halas, founder of the Bears.” As the Chicago Bears look for a new coach, it’s worth contemplating “heavy industries, or digital startups… business and sports share immutable truths about organizational ability and consequential success. Much of work life is a competition, right? Good bosses, like good coaches, are strategists and motivators who build strong teams. Games like football teach those lessons in fundamental ways that are useful in every field, including non-contact sports like accounting.”
Tags: Accounting, Bears, CEO, Chicago, Coach, Competition, Digital startups, Halas, Heavy industries, Motivators, Sports, Strategists, Uber
The Economist (March 2)
The planned $30 billion merger between Deutsche Börse (DB) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) “had been billed as a bridge between Europe’s two main financial hubs.” In tatters, the merger now stands as “a symbol of their growing competition—and of the uncertainty into which Brexit has plunged the EU’s markets.”
Tags: Brexit EU, Competition, Deutsche Börse, Europe, Financial hubs, LSE, Markets, Merger, Tatters, Uncertainty
The Economist (April 23)
With a dominant European market share, Google has come under fire from the European Commission. Google deserves to profit from its acumen, but this “has to be balanced against the need to inspire innovations that might complement Android or Google Search—or even displace them. It is now up to Google to demonstrate that its mobile strategy does not harm competition, and thus consumers.”
Tags: Android, Competition, Consumers, Dominant, Europe, European Commission, Google, Innovation, Market share, Mobile strategy, Profit, Search
The Economist (March 26)
There is “a corrosive lack of competition” among big firms in the U.S. “The naughty secret of American firms is that life at home is much easier: their returns on equity are 40% higher in the United States than they are abroad. Aggregate domestic profits are at near-record levels relative to GDP. America is meant to be a temple of free enterprise. It isn’t.”
Tags: Competition, Corrosive, Domestic profits, Free enterprise, GDP, ROE, U.S.
Bloomberg (January 26)
“Why are economists so willing to declare to the world that free trade is good?” Their consensus flies in the face of popular opinion and “powerful evidence that industries and regions that have been more exposed to Chinese import competition since 2000—the year China joined the World Trade Organization—have been hit hard and have not recovered.”
Tags: China, Competition, Consensus, Economists, Evidence, Free trade, Imports, Industries, Popular opinion, Regions, WTO
Wall Street Journal (January 3)
Not just one, but “two U.S. companies have landed a rocket safely after space flight.” This major breakthrough “could make space commuting for commerce and exploration a reality.” This “is also a sign of America’s continuing economic vitality.” The competition between two private sector companies “should lead to more rapid innovation, and the development of private U.S. rocketry will make the country less dependent on Russian rockets for various government or commercial purposes.”
Tags: Breakthrough, Commerce, Competition, Economic vitality, Exploration, Innovation, Private-sector, Rocket, Russia, U.S.
Bloomberg (August 25)
Despite China’s promising long-term fundamentals, global automakers are facing “an oversupply time bomb” as China’s economy cools. Already, some import car dealers are holding nearly 150 days of supply. “If cutthroat competition for volume sales persists, exacerbated by weakness in the other once-promising BRICS markets, automakers could be headed toward a massive pileup in China.”
Tags: Automakers, BRICS, China, Competition, Economy, Fundamentals, Oversupply, Supply
Wall Street Journal (April 13)
“We need to get used to slower Chinese growth,” writes former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. He adds that “if, as Beijing has promised, the slowdown is accompanied by deep and serious structural reform that opens up new growth opportunities, such as allowing the private sector to compete against state monopolies in service sectors like banking and telecommunications, then China will still grow robustly compared with all other major economies.”
Tags: Banking, Beijing, China, Competition, Growth, Monopolies, Paulson, Private-sector, Slowdown, Structural reform, Telecommunications
South China Morning Post (December 1)
Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating by one notch from Aa3 for to A1. “Despite the rating cut, Moody’s noted that Japan was not in a disastrous situation.” The Post explains that “Japan, which once led the world in innovation, is facing stiff competition from emerging nations including China, while a falling number of working-age people is shrinking its tax base even as soaring ranks of seniors strain the public purse.”
Tags: China, Competition, Credit rating, Downgrade, Emerging nations, Innovation, Japan, Moody's, Seniors, Tax base
Financial Times (May 23)
“India has a new prime minister; and each of Asia’s four most powerful nations is now led by a combative nationalist.” India’s Modi, Japan’s Abe, Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi make up the four “nationalist horsemen” who will transform Asia and perhaps the world. “The multilateralist assumptions of the postwar order are giving way to a return to great power competition. Nationalism is on the march, and nowhere more so than in the rising east.”
Tags: Abe, Asia, Assumptions, China, Combative, Competition, India, Japan, Modi, Multilateralist, Nationalist, Postwar order, Power, Prime minister, Putin, Russia, Xi
