December, 2017

• 25 December

  ‘Detroit-like bankruptcy may benefit China’

  

  Bloomberg A Chinese central bank official said China should allow local governments to go bankrupt to help rein in regional authorities’ excessive borrowing. A case like the bankruptcy of Detroit would convince investors that the central government is really determined to dispel beliefs of an implicit guarantee for regional authorities, Xu Zhong, head of research bureau at the People’s Bank ...

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• 25 December

  A peek into central banks’ views on cryptocurrencies

  

  Bloomberg Almost nine years since the birth of bitcoin, central banks around the world are increasingly recognising the potential upsides and downsides of digital currencies. The guardians of the global economy have two sets of issues to address. First is what to do, if anything, about the emergence and growth of the private cryptocurrencies that are grabbing more and more ...

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• 25 December

  Economists lose credibility when they’re too certain

  

  Every society runs on trust. This is even more true of complex, scientific modern societies than it is of tiny hunter-gatherer bands. Whenever you drive over a bridge, you trust that the engineers who designed based it on sound principles. When you take an antibiotic, you trust that the doctor who prescribed it did so for sound medical reasons. There ...

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• 25 December

  This one factor could tell how far bitcoin will plunge

  

  While the sharp drop in bitcoin — 25 percent, or nearly $4,000, overnight (and 33 percent from the beginning of the week) — has some predicting the bubble is starting to burst, it may also provide evidence of the cryptocurrency’s longevity. The critical issue is transactions. And if you are looking for where the bottom could be to bitcoin’s plunge, ...

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• 25 December

  Xiaomi worth $100bn? Definitely the silly season

  Xiaomi Corp. is set to pull in revenue of $17 billion to $18 billion this year, ahead of its own target, Reuters reported, citing the company’s comments to bankers. That’s impressive, but believable. Xiaomi has had a great year. Stretching the credibility scale, though, are estimates that net income could hit $1 billion. They’re banker projections, Reuters notes, not necessarily ...

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• 25 December

  China should let its workers roam free

  Over the past few weeks, people here in Beijing have been riveted by the so-called migrant ‘clean-out’ — the government’s attempt to evict tens of thousands of migrant workers from their homes in the poorer parts of the city. What’s not being discussed, however, is how the crackdown could threaten one of the government’s other main priorities: managing debt. In ...

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• 25 December

  Proposals to upgrade eurozone’s sovereign crisis miss the mark

  

  Large bank failures in recent years have led to reforms that strengthen crisis prevention and give regulators and banks the tools for dealing with crises that do occur. Similar policy measures can be helpful in dealing with sovereign crises — when governments run out of money and credit. Unfortunately, the European Commission misses the mark in its recent proposals to ...

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• 25 December

  CBA’s scams make it Livingstone’s biggest test yet

  There’s no better way to cap a storied business career than a stint atop one of the world’s largest banks. That’s more or less the future that was mapped out for Catherine Livingstone when she was appointed chairman of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) in January. The former state-owned lender was then world’s 10th largest by market capitalization, and most ...

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• 25 December

  Jeff Bezos, Ian Read — we have your 2018 M&A horoscopes

  

  It’s that time again, when we scan the stars for clues about the year ahead in mergers. What follows is our second annual Gadfly compilation of dealmaker horoscopes: 12 CEOs and top executives across a variety of industries—matched with their zodiac signs—who appear destined for mergers and acquisitions in 2018. Capricorn: Jeff Bezos, chairman and CEO of Amazon.com Inc. Capricorn, ...

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• 25 December

  Swiss watch exports to US drop, surge in China

  

  Bloomberg The US economy is booming, unemployment is low and the White House is occupied by a president synonymous with ostentatious luxury. Why, then, have Americans stopped buying expensive watches? Swiss watch exports to the US fell 0.4 percent in November, extending the decline for the year so far to 4 percent after a 9 percent drop in 2016. By ...

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