Warren Buffett’s shifting Asian portfolio

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

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

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?

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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China’s corporate debts

See more: STATE-OWNED FIRMS BEHIND CHINA’S CORPORATE DEBT

qz.com

Published October 28, 2021Last updated July 21, 2022

China has a massive amount of corporate debt. At $27 trillion, it boasts a debt-to-GDP ratio of 159%, almost 60% higher than the global rate and nearly twice that of the US, according to research published this month by S&P Global Ratings.

“China’s growth has been largely driven by two contours: One is credit, and the other is carbon,” says Eunice Tan, one of the report’s lead authors and head of credit research for S&P Global Ratings’ Asia-Pacific region.

Beijing now wants to tame both those economic engines—credit and carbon—while maintaining stability and control, and while continuing to hit GDP growth targets. On the carbon front, it has released a high-level policy framework outlining a path to peaking carbon emissions by 2030. On the credit front, the central bank has sought to tame debt in the property sector and shield banks from exposure to troubled developers.

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

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

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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China is still the ultimate prize that Western banks can’t resist

edition.cnn.com

Analysis by Laura HeCNN Business

Updated 1041 GMT (1841 HKT) January 14, 2022

Jamie Dimon on China joke: 'I regret and should not have made that comment'

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

Hong Kong (CNN Business)For many companies, doing business in China is getting trickier by the day. But Western banks and asset managers are more than willing to up their bets on the world’s second biggest economy, convinced that the opportunities remain too good to pass up.Major banks in recent weeks have inked deals to expand their footprint in China — or are otherwise attempting to take greater control of their businesses there — after years of being forced to enter the market via joint ventures. That’s despite fraught geopolitics, a slowing economy and an increasingly hostile environment for private business.Late last month, HSBC (HBCYF) received approval from Chinese regulators to take full control of its life insurance joint venture, which was created in 2009 in equal partnership with a Chinese company under rules that were rolled back in 2020. The bank said the move underscored its “commitment to expanding business in China.”

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Germany to invest billions to bring semiconductor production back to Europe

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?

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

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

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

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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5 shocking facts about inequality, according to Oxfam’s latest report

weforum.org

  • Oxfam’s Time To Care report looks at wealth inequality and how it’s partly driven by the burden placed on women to provide unpaid – and underpaid – care work.
  • The charity proposes six solutions to “close the gap between care workers and the wealthy elite”.

“Governments around the world can, and must, build a human economy that is feminist and benefits the 99%, not only the 1%.”

That’s the message from Oxfam, the aid and development charity, in its latest report on the state of global inequality, Time To Care.

It focuses on the impact that unpaid and underpaid care work has on the prospects and livelihoods of women and girls across the world – and how that’s driving growing inequality.

Oxfam lists six recommendations to “close the gap between care workers and the wealthy elite who have profited most from their labour”, from ending extreme wealth to challenging harmful norms and sexist beliefs. Tiếp tục đọc “5 shocking facts about inequality, according to Oxfam’s latest report”