2012년 11월 29일 목요일

Useful Economists

Steve Tadelis of Berkeley and Florian Zettelmeyer of Northwestern demonstrate that detailed information for used cars actually boosts up sales, probably by boosting their trust and confidence in products.

Tadelis also showed that narrowing choices for consumers can actually boost sales, and his findings are now applied on eBay.

Economists at Google use search terms like "job," "benefits," and "solitaire," that correlate closely with unemployment claims to help policy.

2012년 11월 28일 수요일

Data Dump Nov. 29th

- Kuwait's Investment Dar is selling its 50% stake in Aston Martin

- Blackrock launches its global infrastructure debt

- Branded bars are being tried in Latin America by brewers like AmBev

- DR Congo's president asks for a chapter 7 U.N. mandate in response to the M23's capture of Goma

- Samsung admits to violations of labor laws in China. Ericsson sues Samsung for IP infringement

- Israel's defense minister Ehud Barak quits.

EU's Two Functions

1. A legal framework to solve problems

2. Waiting room for the people who want to join the Eurozone.

Biting criticisms from Wolfgang Munchau who says that "the marginalization of the EU at the expense of the eurozone also has implications for other policies...by insisiting on an EU budget freeze, Mr. Cameron is ultimately doing the eurozone a favor. By undermining the EU, he provides further incentives for the eurozone to grasp its collective interest. I support him" -FT Commentary

Problem with "Sending Party Pays" Systems

The International Telecommunications Union, which operates under the auspices of the U.N. is holding discussions over how the internet should be regulated, or not regulated. One of the proposals, forwarded by India and Middle Eastern countries and Africa, involves companies like Google and Facebook paying for telecoms networks carrying their traffic. This is problematic, because then the dissemination of information will be selective to profit-yielding ones, and discourage public investment in infrastructure. Fronts, such as securing quality of the internet, can also be used as a disguise for censorship of information.

System of Aportionment Taxation

Taxes are based on what share of a company's total activity took place within a region. The most notable being the "Massachusetts formula," it gives equal weight to sales, payroll, and assets. Applying this standard on a global scale, John Kay argues, is an effective method of taxation that will reduce avoidance.

The Falling Sun

Undergraduate enrollment of Japanese students in US universities has fallen by more than 50$ since 2000. In the last six years, there have been seven prime ministers.

Data Dump Nov.28

- The growth rate in administrators at U.S. universities from 1993 to 2009 is 60% (CAGR 3%).

- BP's $4.5 bn. settlement will be paid out over five years. Criminal fine of $1.26 bn. will be paid out to the Justice Department, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for cleanup, NAS for research and some to the

- Worldwide M&A deal volume has plunged 53% since 2007, average deal size 25% -to $149mn.

- The time during which India suffered from massive

- The African Union has agreed to send troops to battle Islamist extremists who have taken over northern Mali

- Rance lost its triple A rating from Moody's

- Jeffries is now ownd by Leucadia

- Apple and HTC ended their legal issues by going into a 10-year licensing agreement.

- A period of severe and widespread hunger in India was called a period of "ship-to-mouth" because many depended on the sale of America's surplus grain for sustenance.

The Issue of Chaebols

Facts:

- The top 10 chaebol make up more than half the value of of the 1,779 companies on the Korea Stock Exchange.

- Cross-holdings of subsidiaries make ownership structures opaque.

Case against unwinding them:
- "To outsiders, it may seem like the economy is doing relatively well, but here are people stuck in the cracks of society where chaebol wealth was supposed to trickle down" -Kim Woo Chan, a prof. at Korea University Business School

- The chairman of Hanhwa group killed a man in 2008 by striking him with a steel pipe and received a pardon. Accusations of embezzlement are made against some chaebol owners.

Chaebols' defense:
- Limiting or banning cross-shareholdings would make them vulnerable to foreign takeovers,

2012년 11월 22일 목요일

Data Dump Nov. 23, 2012

- Beijing prints maps showing the South China Sea, including Taiwan, as belonging to China on its passports.

- Matteo Renzi, currently the mayor of Florence uprooting the dinosaurs of Italy's left "Democratic Part,"uses Fun's We Are Young as the his campaign theme song. "set the world on fire," the song says.

- Autonomy booked products sold at losses as marketing costs.

- Kasab, the last remaining gunman of the 26/11 attack on India in 2008 has been hanged.

- Khamenei called on the parliament not to question Ahmadinejad over the fall of rials.

- Wolfgang Schauble, dubbed "cheerful Sissyphus," tops the FT ranking for finance ministers for the second time.

- Egypt needs $4.3bn from the IMF

2012년 11월 19일 월요일

Three FC's

What's pushing investors into fixed income?

- Financial Crisis
- Flash Crashes
- Fiscal Cliff