Chuyên mục: Global economy

Warren Buffett’s shifting Asian portfolio

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Geopolitics push ‘Oracle of Omaha’ to move away from China and invest in Japan

asia.nikkei.com

KENJI KAWASE, Nikkei Asia chief business news correspondentMAY 24, 2023 04:30 JST

OMAHA, U.S. — For Antonius Budianto, an independent stock investor from Indonesia, it was a dream come true to be in Omaha, Nebraska for the first time.

Traveling from East Java with his wife and 14-year-old daughter, Antonius was standing in a queue in front of Omaha’s CHI Health Center at 3 a.m. to grab a seat at the annual general shareholders meeting of investment company Berkshire Hathaway on May 6. Antonius said they wanted to be “as close as possible” to the podium as his two business idols — Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger — sat and took questions from shareholders in the audience and around the world.

Antonius has been investing in listed stocks in Indonesia for over 20 years, faithfully following the Buffett method: focus on a few companies with strong earnings, handsome dividend payments and sound corporate governance, and hold on to them, sometimes for decades. At Berkshire, this strategy has been distilled into the oft-repeated maxim: “Just hold the goddamn stock,” as Munger put it that day.

For his part, Antonius has been making a living as a full-time professional investor since 2010.

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Japan’s quiet leadership as it hosts the G7 summit in Hiroshima

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brookings.edu

Mireya Solís, director of the Center for East Asian Policy Studies at Brookings, explains the significance of Japan hosting the G7 summit in Hiroshima, and how Tokyo centers its foreign policy on promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region. “This is Japan’s grand strategy,” Solís says, “this is really the roadmap that Japan has charted to achieve its security and prosperity.”

Mireya Solís, director of the Center for East Asian Policy Studies at Brookings, explains the significance of Japan hosting the G7 summit in Hiroshima, and how Tokyo centers its foreign policy on promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region. “This is Japan’s grand strategy,” Solís says, “this is really the roadmap that Japan has charted to achieve its security and prosperity.”

TRANSCRIPT

[music]

DOLLAR: Hi, I’m David Dollar, host of the Brookings Trade podcast Dollar and Sense. Today, my guest is Mireya Solís, director of the Center for East Asian Policy Studies here at Brookings. Mireya is a leading expert on Japan’s trade and economic diplomacy, and she has a book coming out this summer on Japan’s quiet leadership. And one aspect of this quiet leadership, or maybe not so quiet right now, is Japan will be hosting the G7 summit in Hiroshima starting on May 19. That’s the main thing we’re going to talk about.

Because of the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, we’re going to push back production one week. So, the next episode will come out on June 5th.

So, welcome to the show, Mireya.

SOLÍS: Thank you so much, David. It’s a pleasure to be here.

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Big Oil’s Big Lies: How the industry denied global warming – 2 parts

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Big Oil’s Big Lies: How the industry denied global warming – Part 1 | People and Power

Big Oil’s Big Lies: How the industry denied global warming – Part 2 | People and Power

Al Jazeera English – 9-2-2023

More than 40 years ago, the world’s largest and most profitable oil companies began to understand the effects their products were having on our climate. Their own scientific research told them so – well before it became common knowledge.

But for the next four decades – time we could have better spent transitioning to greener forms of energy – they sought to discredit and downplay evidence of global warming and the calamities it would lead to; wildfires, rising sea levels, extreme storms and much else besides. Tiếp tục đọc “Big Oil’s Big Lies: How the industry denied global warming – 2 parts” →

The New Industrial Age

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America Should Once Again Become a Manufacturing Superpower

foreignaffairs.com

By Ro Khanna

January/February 2023

Taylor Callery

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For many citizens, the American dream has been downsized. In recent decades, the United States has ceased to be the world’s workshop and become increasingly reliant on importing goods from abroad. Since 1998, the widening U.S. trade deficit has cost the country five million well-paying manufacturing jobs and led to the closure of nearly 70,000 factories. Small towns have been hollowed out and communities destroyed. Society has grown more unequal as wealth has been concentrated in major coastal cities and former industrial regions have been abandoned. As it has become harder for Americans without a college degree to reach the middle class, the withering of social mobility has stoked anger, resentment, and distrust. The loss of manufacturing has hurt not only the economy but also American democracy.

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The Global Energy Crisis 2021-2023 and Political Upheaval: Could It Get Worse?

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energytracker.com

What started as a sharp post-pandemic rise in energy prices in mid-2020 has turned into a full-blown global energy crisis. How is this affecting the political stability of countries?

17 January 2023 – by Heba Hashem

Last updated on 24 January 2023

The world is going through a global energy crisis. Fuel costs affect many parts of daily life, including energy for heating and lighting, individual travel and commodities transportation.

The world is now facing a cost-of-living catastrophe. Millions of households are struggling to cover basic needs after energy prices spiked to levels not seen in decades.

Is There a Global Energy Crisis Today in 2023?

Actually, there is a global energy crisis. From Indonesia to the UK and Peru, people across the globe have taken their anger to the streets. As many as 92 countries witnessed protests against high fuel prices between January and September 2022. These include developed European countries like France, Spain and the UK.

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Asia’s ticking debt bomb: Sri Lanka crisis sounds alarm bells across region

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Disaster looms in Laos, Bangladesh and elsewhere as China seems reluctant to take losses on Asian loans

asia.nikkei.com

A customer hands over Sri Lankan rupee banknotes at an open market in the capital, Colombo. The country is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades.    © Getty Images

CHANDANA POKUNA, Sri Lanka — Every day after 4 p.m., residents in this quiet, leafy village listen for the putt-putting of motorbikes on the sandy road next to their homes. When they hear it, they know to shut their doors and turn off their lights. Their children are instructed to run inside and not let anyone in.

A motorbike is the vehicle of choice for local debt collectors, who fan out through places like Chandana Pokuna, some 500 brick-faced, rundown houses in Sri Lanka’s rice-farming north central district of Polonnaruwa. The motorcycle men, agents of microlending companies, start work in the late afternoon, when they know residents will be at home.

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Nghèo đừng chơi sang

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XÊ NHO 08/08/2022 16:41 GMT+7

TTCT – Rất lạ – Mỹ tăng lãi suất để chống lạm phát là chuyện nước họ; thế mà nước nào cũng lo nền kinh tế của mình bị ảnh hưởng. Thậm chí tờ Washington Post, trong một podcast, đặt vấn đề theo hướng: Vì sao lãi suất ở Mỹ có thể kéo theo khủng hoảng đói kém toàn cầu?

Nghèo đừng chơi sang - Ảnh 1.

Dân Sri Lanka xếp hàng đợi đổi bình gas nấu ăn. Nợ nần đã khiến ngân khố cạn kiệt. Ảnh: The Telegraph

Để độc giả dễ hình dung, tờ này ví von: Bạn mua nhà, trả góp 30 năm – hằng tháng phải đều đặn trả một khoản tiền. Giả dụ tiền mua nhà trả bằng đôla Mỹ, trong khi thu nhập của bạn tính bằng đồng peso, nên phải đổi từ peso sang đôla mới có tiền trả góp. 

Giả định mỗi năm bạn làm ra 100 peso và tiền trả góp mua nhà là 5 USD, nếu đồng đôla lên giá gấp đôi, bạn phải để ra số peso nhiều gấp đôi mới đủ trả nợ. Thế nên tiền đi chợ, tiền thuốc men… hụt đi, khả năng đói kém hiển hiện.

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Has China given up on state-owned enterprise reform?

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lowyinstitute.org

Rather than allowing the private sector more space, Beijing wants a tool for the implementation of government policy.

The Tonghua Iron and Steel Mill in Tonghua, Jilin province, China, in 2016, one of many state-run steel mills that struggled to modernise (Qilai Shen/In Pictures via Getty Images Images)The Tonghua Iron and Steel Mill in Tonghua, Jilin province, China, in 2016, one of many state-run steel mills that struggled to modernise (Qilai Shen/In Pictures via Getty Images Images)Published 15 Apr 2021 10:00   0 Comments   

Outside observers have all but given up hope that China will engage in meaningful state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform. There is a pervasive sense that rather than shrinking SOEs, China’s leaders are committed to increasing their prominence within the economy.

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Germany to invest billions to bring semiconductor production back to Europe

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euractiv.com

By Oliver Noyan | EURACTIV.de | translated by Daniel Eck

 3 Sept 2021 (updated:  0:16)

Europe is not just trailing behind in terms of numbers, but also with respect to quality. Most advanced microchips, which are used in smartphones, computers and other high-tech devices, are currently produced almost exclusively in Asia. [SCHUTTERSTOCK/genkur]

Languages: Deutsch

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Giá thép tăng cao do đâu?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

BNEWS Xu hướng diễn biến giá cả nguyên liệu và thép thành phẩm trên thế giới trong năm 2021 sẽ có nhiều biến động, có thể sẽ thiết lập một mặt bằng giá mới như thời kỳ hậu khủng hoàng tài chính 2008Xu hướng diễn biến giá cả nguyên liệu và thép thành phẩm trên thế giới trong năm 2021 sẽ có nhiều biến động, có thể sẽ thiết lập một mặt bằng giá mới như thời kỳ hậu khủng hoàng tài chính 2008. Ảnh minh họa: TTXVN

Giá thép tăng nhanh thời gian gần đây, khiến cho nhiều chủ đại lý và các chủ thầu xây dựng gặp khó khăn trong hoạt động kinh doanh. Nhiều ý kiến đặt nghi vấn có sự bắt tay giữa các công ty thép hay có hiện tượng đầu cơ nâng giá mặt hàng này. Tuy nhiên, theo các bộ ngành và doanh nghiệp, đây là động thái hết sức bình thường của thị trường.
Khảo sát thông tin giá thép trên thị trường, anh Ngô Khánh, Chủ đại lý sắt thép tại Hà Nội cho hay, hiện giá thép nhập vào ngày hôm nay (6/5) đã ở mức 18.200 đồng/kg, cao hơn 2.000 đồng/kg so với nửa tháng trước và tăng khoảng 5.000 đồng so với hồi đầu năm.

Tổ chức ngầm thao túng thị trường thực phẩm toàn cầu

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ 1 bình luận

antg – 22:48 01/10/2019

Năm 2018, chính phủ Ấn Độ đã từng phải nhượng bộ các công ty thực phẩm lớn và hoãn quyết định cho dán nhãn cảnh báo đỏ lên các bao bì thực phẩm có hại cho sức khỏe người tiêu dùng.

Đồng thời, để xoa dịu dư luận chỉ trích hành động trên, chính phủ Ấn Độ cũng thành lập một ủy ban thẩm định hệ thống dán nhãn cảnh báo thực phẩm đang trong giai đoạn đề xuất. Nếu hoàn thiện và đưa vào vận hành hệ thống dán nhãn này, Ấn Độ sẽ trở thành quốc gia đi đầu thế giới trong cuộc chiến chống béo phì đang diễn ra hết sức cam go.

Nhưng người được chọn làm lãnh đạo ủy ban (có 3 thành viên) này lại là một người khiến dư luận càng bất bình nhiều hơn. Đó là tiến sĩ Boindala Sesikeran, một chuyên gia dinh dưỡng kỳ cựu từng làm cố vấn dinh dưỡng cho tập đoàn Nestlé.

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Emerging from the pandemic, Vietnam must position itself for recovery

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By Bruce Delteil, Matthieu Francois, and Nga Nguyen
It’s been two months since the last known case of community transmission of the coronavirus in Vietnam, enabling the country, hailed recently as one of the 11 outperformers among emerging economies, to be among the first to fully reopen its domestic economy.While recurrence remains an ever-present threat, Vietnam’s government is now turning its attention to repairing a damaged economy. Vietnam has fared better economically than many countries, but it has not been completely spared. GDP growth in the first quarter was at its lowest level since 2010, although it was still in positive territory at 3.8 percent. With exports and tourism severely affected, domestic consumption has been (and is expected to continue to be) critical to hold the economy together.

Staying afloat in 2020, largely thanks to spending on essentials

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The coronavirus will not be fatal for China’s Belt and Road Initiative but it will strike a heavy blow

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SCMP

Projects face delays as the coronavirus prevents Beijing from supplying goods and people. And project resources will be diverted as China focuses on its own recovery. But the biggest casualty may be a loss of faith in Chinese-style connectivity

Illustration: Craig Stephens
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Suddenly, a highly infectious virus has become China’s most prominent export. What began on January 3, when China

reported

44 cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, has become the Covid-19 global pandemic. Wuhan, the manufacturing centre that helped to power China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, has become the epicentre of a health crisis

shutting down

many of those projects.

The corridors that facilitate the flow of goods can be conduits for pathogens and disease. As Covid-19 spreads, is the Belt and Road Initiative at risk of becoming an infection thoroughfare?

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World Bank Predicts Sharpest Decline of Remittances in Recent History

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worldbank.org

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2020 — Global remittances are projected to decline sharply by about 20 percent in 2020 due to the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown. The projected fall, which would be the sharpest decline in recent history, is largely due to a fall in the wages and employment of migrant workers, who tend to be more vulnerable to loss of employment and wages during an economic crisis in a host country. Remittances to low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are projected to fall by 19.7 percent to $445 billion, representing a loss of a crucial financing lifeline for many vulnerable households.
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Forecasting the world in 2020

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

FT.com

Brexit was not stopped, populists made smaller gains than expected in May’s European parliament elections, and the S&P 500 beat our — and most other people’s — expectations. Along with Brazilian growth falling below the year before, the FT’s forecasting team got those predictions wrong for 2019, though Philip Stephens last year admitted he offered his forecast that Brexit would be reversed “as much in hope as expectation”.

Though the world may seem ever more unpredictable, four wrong answers was an improvement on our dismal eight the year before. And aside from Brexit, readers in our annual competition generally made the same mistakes we did — more than 70 per cent of you got the same three questions wrong. For a third straight year, though, the top-scoring readers beat the FT. Three tied on 19 correct answers out of 20. Tiếp tục đọc “Forecasting the world in 2020” →