Apple vs India's 30% Local Content Requirement

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/29/2016 05:09:00 PM
Apple and India don't mix--or rather Apple and protectionist retail policies. India remains one of the last few large economies worldwide that remain avowedly protectionist in the retail sector. Even in the modern era, lawmakers have sought to appease mom-and-pop operators from the rigors of market competition. It's a small-time mentality that the government upholds with bureaucratic ferocity. "Multibrand" retailers, or large foreign retailers in particular carrying a wide range of branded products, have been subject to restrictions on entry, foreign ownership and local content requirements. Witness the earlier travails...
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Oklahoma Thunder, the Team Fracking Built

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/25/2016 05:39:00 PM
It is with some sadness that Aubrey McClendon--the man who brought the Oklahoma Thunder to Oklahoma City--formerly the NBA title-winning Seattle SuperSonics--passed away under still-unexplained circumstances in March. At that time, of course, oil prices were still rather depressed, and he was also facing a federal antitrust indictment besides. Still, McClendon was instrumental to bringing the Thunder who appear NBA Finals-bound once more to Oklahoma, and of course funding the buildup of a very strong team. Even know, it remains the team fracking built: McClendon is credited and sometimes cursed for championing the drilling...
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Bye-Bye Berlusconi? Chinese Interest in AC Milan

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/22/2016 01:37:00 PM
AC Milan in its mid-1990s heyday. It's very far from there now. Italian club AC Milan is, in a way, emblematic of wider fortunes of its home nation. For such a long time a giant of European and hence world football, it has since fallen on hard times. I recall visiting Italy in 1994 and seeing joyful celebrations as it won not only the Serie A title but also the European Cup (today's Champions League). Its owner was of course the media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, still unaffected by the later scandals that would tarnish his image and very much the industrialist of the age. How it was back in the day! Nowadays, things are...
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High-Speed Rail: Venezuela's "Red Elephant" Project

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/20/2016 08:19:00 PM
Paraphrasing Enya: Rail away, rail away, rail away. They say that you may lend a country so much that you eventually end up owning it if it cannot pay, and this belief has interesting implications for modern-day Venezuela. It is estimated--no one knows for certain what the true amount is--that China has lent the Chavista-era socialist government $50B [!] in cash-for-oil deals. It supposedly signed up to yet another such deal recently, possibly staving of Venezuela's inevitable default under current leadership. That said, the Chinese are not totally suckers in every respect. Sure, they may eventually "own" Venezuela with...
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The End: Thailand Dumps Yingluck-Era Rice Hoard

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/15/2016 06:49:00 PM
Getting rid of Thailand's massive Yingluck-era rice stockpiles. Although political polarization has been a constant feature of Thai politics, the Shinawatra clan--big brother Thaksin and little sister Yingluck--have used above-market government purchases of rice as a way to gain support from rural voters. Unsurprisingly, spending public monies on a surefire money loser--nobody is expecting rice prices to rise anytime soon as other major rice-exporting countries like Vietnam and India ramped up production--has been a rallying cry for the royalists opposed to Shinawatra rule. Agricultural populism has its costs, they say. So...
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Bolivar Showdown: Venzuelan Gov't vs Dolar Today

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/13/2016 04:16:00 PM
The mighty dolartoday.com says it's now over a thousand bolivars to the buck. Those following goings-on in Venezuela's slow-motion descent into financial oblivion should be familiar with the website dolartoday.com. While the "official" rates posted by the Venezuelan government are regarded with deep suspicion as to their veracity--all four (or is that 40?) of them--dolartoday.com has become the more believable source on what the true exchange rate is at which real Venezuelans can change bolivars can change dollars into. The parallel market does not lie, does it? Aside from the prevailing exchange rate, I also like the...
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$1B Tech IPO: Welcome to the ($5) Hostel Japonia

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/07/2016 08:46:00 PM
Watch out eBay, Japan's Mercari is out to beat you. What's the first $1 billion startup in Japan? Judging by its national history, you'd say it's some sort of manufacturing firm, but you would be wrong. At a time when globally notable or competitive startups from Japan are quite rare, what you have instead is an e-commerce pioneer from a country largely unrecognized for minting such individuals. Enter Shintaro Yamada of Mercari, who got the idea for his service while finding $5 hostels around the world: The trip left him determined to start a company that would let people in different countries connect with each other....
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Today's PRC Pt III: Building a Creative Economy

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/03/2016 06:49:00 PM
Yes, Kung Fu Panda 3 qualifies as a PRC production. The current Chinese leadership's plans to make a transition from a manufacturing- and export-oriented economy to a services- and domestic-oriented one are well-known by now. Encouragingly, the so-called "creative economy" may be coming online just when the old-style economy appears to be faltering. So the creative economy's scale is nowhere near that of manufacture-for-export yet, but China does have to start from somewhere: The new engines of China’s economy are humming as social media, movie theaters, karaoke bars and art galleries shrug off the nation’s slowdown,...
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