Financial Times (June 6)
“The world’s trading system needs to ditch its paper trail.” The current global trading system “is suffocating under a mountain of billions of paper documents.” A recent survey “found 35 per cent of UK companies trading internationally say bureaucracy is a barrier to their business overseas. At the same time, 65 per cent said they will remove paper as soon as laws enable them to do so.” Estimates show that removing paper barriers to trade in the Commonwealth alone, “would deliver $1.2tn in economic growth by 2026. It would also reduce trade transaction costs by 80 per cent and enable more SMEs to participate. If combined with customs digitalisation, this number increases to $2tn.”
Tags: $1.2tn, Barrier, Bureaucracy, Commonwealth, Customs digitalization, Economic growth, Global, Laws, Overseas, Paper documents, Suffocating, Trading system, Transaction costs, UK companies
Reuters (May 6)
The SEC and its Chair Gary Gensler have refused to “make clear how existing securities laws apply to digital assets.” From their perspective, “there’s little upside in breaking the silence.” If they state digital assets are securities, “Gensler would have to show his reasoning, opening the SEC up to more costly legal battles that it could lose.” By refusing to rule make, “the agency can keep firing off enforcement actions.”
Tags: Costly, Digital assets, Eforcement actions, Gensler, Laws, Legal battles, Reasoning, Refusing, Rule make, SEC, Securities, Silence, Upside
Wall Street Journal (October 30)
“Recent cases show that foreign companies need to be more cognizant of Chinese laws and the nuances of the country’s political system.” Two weeks ago, China detained 18 employees from Crown Resorts Ltd., but authorities “have declined to give details, and no charges have been made public.” More aggressive enforcement has some business consultants “advising foreign executives to steer clear of mainland China for now.”
Tags: Aggressive, Authorities, Charges, China, Crown Resorts, Detained, Enforcement, Executives, Laws, Political system
New York Times (July 1)
“Sometimes the bottom line matches the common good.” In the U.S., corporations are increasingly taking the lead as “agents of what’s practical, wise and even right.” The companies are interested in ensuring “that laws and local customs don’t prevent them from attracting and retaining the best work force” as they seek to strengthen their brands. These self-interested efforts “have produced compelling recent examples of companies showing greater sensitivity to diversity, social justice and the changing tides of public sentiment than lawmakers often manage to.”
Tags: Bottom line, Common good, Corporations, Diversity, Lawmakers, Laws, Right, Social justice, U.S., Work force
New York Times (April 2)
America’s immigration policy lies in tatters with one state’s ad hoc measures often at odds with those of others. There needs to be a sensible and unified policy, which recognizes that “laws and policies that deny rights and promote exclusion have been the source of shame and regret throughout American history. Integration and assimilation are the core values of a country that is in danger of forgetting itself.”
Tags: Assimilation, Deny rights, Exclusion, Integration, Laws, Policies, Shame, U.S. Immigration
Wall Street Journal (December 23, 2013)
To avoid the stagnation that has afflicted Japan, the U.S. should embrace immigration reform. Reform could lead to a younger population, innovation and entrepreneurship. “If Japan, a rapidly aging country with famously prohibitive immigration laws, teaches us anything, it is this: If you want to avoid a “lost decade,” open your doors to immigrants.”
Tags: Aging, Entrepreneurship, Immigrants, Immigration, Innovation, Japan, Laws, Lost decade, Population, Reform, Stagnation, U.S.
