Reuters (August 6)
“Watching the slow-motion crash of Britain’s exit negotiations with the European Union is a disconcerting experience. A state that once ran a global empire is looking second-rate.” Realism has all but been abandoned. “The government’s implausible expectations about what it may be able to achieve” reveal a “dismaying lack of historical and strategic understanding about how Britain lost its clout outside the European club more than half a century ago.”
Tags: Brexit, Clout, Crash, Disconcerting, EU, Expectations, Global empire, Implausible, Negotiations, Realism, Strategic, UK, Understanding
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
Wall Street Journal (December 9)
“Rather than reform the markets, Beijing wants to inflict pain on the brokers to assuage public anger over the crash.” This sort of meddling by the government helps explain why China’s financial markets remain dysfunctional. “China’s largest brokerage is now missing six of its eight top bosses” who are widely assumed to to “have been detained by police.” Numerous others have disappeared under similar circumstances. “But political interference risks repeating the boom and boost cycle. Putting brokers in prison won’t strengthen markets unless it is part of a new commitment to consistently enforce the law.”
Tags: Beijing, Brokerage, Brokers, China, Crash, Dysfunctional, Government, Markets, Public anger, Reform
The Economist (April 18)
“Fears are rising that, after three soaring decades, China is about to crash. That would be a disaster. China is the world’s second-largest economy and Asia’s pre-eminent rising power.” But the fears of the pessimists are overstated. “China is not only more economically robust than they allow, it is also putting itself through a quiet—and welcome—financial revolution.”
Financial Times (August 26)
“China’s tottering property market presents one of the greatest threats to the global economy.” The reverberations would be felt around the globe, particularly by nations reliant on natural resource exports. “The size of China’s property boom–and therefore the fallout from any crash–is awe-inspiring. In just two years, 2011 and 2012, China produced more cement than the US did in the entire 20th century.”
Tags: Boom, Cement, China, Crash, Exports, Fallout, Global economy, Natural resources, Property market, Threats, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (July 22)
“It’s neither pleasant nor polite to say it, but the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 may have been the best thing to happen to President Obama’s policy on Ukraine in weeks.” The U.S. had taken the lead, but the crisis had been fading from the radar as Europe’s politicians tried to avoid sacrificing business interests with Russia. Now, however, “Putin has a problem he didn’t have a week ago: Europe’s politicians and public are watching.”
Tags: Business interests, Crash, Crisis, Europe, Flight 17, Malaysia Airlines, Obama, Putin, Russia, U.S., Ukraine
Wall Street Journal (January 9, 2014)
“Recent numbers and announcements out of Beijing suggest that one of the biggest global risks for 2014 is a Chinese economic slowdown. Five years after unveiling the most massive economic stimulus program the world has ever seen, the bills are coming due. And while a crash remains unlikely, deleveraging could uncover some nasty surprises in the financial system.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Crash, Deleveraging, Economic stimulus, Financial system, Risk, Slowdown
