Forbes (February 28)
Japan’s Q4 6.3% GDP “plunge is a harsh wakeup call,” but the “talk of the Olympics being scrapped” is actually “an opportunity to refocus on what really matter. If Abe had used the last several years doing heavy lifting on reform rather than betting it all on Olympic glory, Japan would have greater endurance. It’s time Tokyo got to work actually creating a brighter future. Not just staging one.”
INC. (July/August Issue)
IPOs are forecast to top 200 in 2019, raising approximately $70 billion. “If companies now seem to be rushing to the IPO market, it may be they sense that the risks of waiting are rising fast. VCs are taking advantage of the best opportunity to transfer that risk—and burn rate—to public stockholders.”
Tags: $70 billion, 2019, Burn rate, IPOs, Opportunity, Risks, Rush, Stockholders, VCs
Forbes (February 27)
5G will bring “the biggest shift in telecommunications since the invention of the cellphone.” In fact, “the next major disruptive opportunity will come from 5G in changing the way we connect and power our communities.”
Tags: 5G, Cellphone, Connect, Disruptive, Invention, Opportunity, Power, Shift, Telecommunications
CNN (October 8)
“Wall Street’s top activist investors are raising lots of cash and gearing up for battle over the next year…. The group see more opportunity to disrupt the consumer discretionary sector, which includes retailers, than in any other industry.”
Tags: Activist, Cash, Consumer sector, Disrupt, Industry, Investors, Opportunity, Retailers, Wall Street
Reuters (July 17)
Following the 1986 Iceland Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the U.S. ultimately proved the victor. Three decades later, things look different. “Washington had another unparalleled opportunity,” but “the American president was outfoxed by a wily Russian leader playing from a position of unquestioned strength, toying with a deeply damaged counterpart.”
Tags: Damaged, Gorbachev, Iceland, Opportunity, Outfoxed, Putin, Reagan, Strength, Summit, Trump, U.S.
South China Morning Post (April 2)
Banks and regulators in China have engaged in a delicate dance between reducing non-performing loans (NPLs) and maintaining profits. “That’s why the NPL ratios of the nation’s key banks all hover at about the same level–now around 1.7 per cent of loans,” though “Fitch estimates that the real ratio could be as high as 20 per cent, implying total NPLs of 19 trillion yuan (US$3 trillion).” But the regulator is now becoming more demanding in NPL reduction and unforgiving of gimmicks previously employed to hide NPLs. “Given Beijing’s focus on the stability of the financial system, the flow of NPLs into the market should pick up considerably in the next two to three years, providing ample opportunity for new investors.”
Tags: Banks, China, Fitch, Gimmicks, Investors, Market, NPLs, Opportunity, Profits, Regulators
Council on Foreign Relations (September 7)
“Congress, again, should take the lead” in Asia. “Not only has the White House paid relatively little attention to growing crises in mainland Southeast Asia but those crises are quickly spiraling out of control.” There is an opportunity “for Congress, rather than the White House, to develop a tough approach to the growing climate of repression in Cambodia” and solve other issues like the crisis affecting the persecuted Rohingya fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh.
Tags: Asia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congress, Crises, Lead, Myanmar, Opportunity, Repression, Rohingya, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (January 19)
“Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office on Friday facing unprecedented opposition but also an extraordinary opportunity. He confronts the paradox of a country skeptical that he has the personal traits for the Presidency but still hopeful he can fulfill his promise to shake up a government.”
Tags: Government, Oath, Opportunity, Opposition, Paradox, Presidency, Promise, Promise http://www., Skeptical, Traits, Trump
The Economist (August 6)
Japan is approaching “peak death,” which may arrive before 2040 when annual deaths near 1.7 million. Until then, “the funeral industry and other companies not hitherto associated with end-of-life issues sense an opportunity—a rare growth sector” in Japan where the death and dying industry approaches ¥2 trillion ($20 billion).
Tags: End-of-life issues, Funeral, Growth sector, Japan, Opportunity, Peak death
Financial Times (July 23)
The Toshiba and Olympus accounting scandals suggest “that Japanese companies are prone to manipulating their accounts. But foreign investors should not give up and go home.” Instead investors have an opportunity to “short shares in companies that will be struck by scandal next, to buy those that will be forced to change their ways, or to do both these things in turn.”
Tags: Accounting, Investors, Japan, Olympus, Opportunity, Scandals, Short, Toshiba
