June, 2016

• 8 June

  US tech has disrupted global tax systems

    Greece, that hotbed of worst economic practices, has provided a perfect illustration of one of the biggest problems facing governments: In a world that’s increasingly unified by technology, the fiscal systems are still designed for 20th-century business models. The Sharing Economy A series of tax hikes went into effect on June 1 in Greece, including a one percentage point ...

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• 8 June

  Is the Japan-Russia honeymoon over before it even began?

  

    Dmitry Filippov SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on May 6 was met with positive reactions from both countries and gave grounds for cautious optimism regarding going forward with the peace treaty negotiations and making progress on the Northern Territories dispute. As I wrote of Abe’s visit: [T]he ...

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• 8 June

  Tax amnesty unlock gains in Indonesian realty stocks

  

    Bloomberg One of the biggest winners from an Indonesian tax amnesty may turn out to be the shares of real-estate developers, as funds get channeled into investments in the nation’s houses and apartments. Bank Indonesia estimates about 560 trillion rupiah ($42 billion) of undeclared income will be repatriated as a result of the reprieve. In a country where less ...

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• 8 June

  Vancouver Mayor to tax empty homes

    BLOOMBERG Vancouver’s mayor is considering a tax on empty homes to help boost supply and damp prices in North America’s hottest residential market. Owners need to be prodded to live in the properties they buy or rent them out as the city faces an acute housing shortage, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said in an interview. “We’re looking at new ...

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• 8 June

  Landlord that mirrored property boom & bust to foldup

    Bloomberg BentleyForbes once owned such renowned properties as the Watergate office complex in Washington and Bank of America Plaza, Atlanta’s tallest skyscraper. Now the company is on the verge of vanishing. C. Frederick Wehba, who co-founded the Los Angeles-based real estate firm in 1993 and was chairman until 2012, said he will announce his official separation as an adviser ...

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• 7 June

  The (false) robot invasion

  

  WASHINGTON The robots are coming — but not in numbers that would imperil most Americans’ jobs. Few subjects have inspired as much hype as robots. Consider some sample headlines: “Robots and Computers Could Take Half Our Jobs within the Next 20 years,” “Robots Could Put Humans Out of Work by 2045,” “Why the Highest-Paid Doctors Are the Most Vulnerable to ...

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• 7 June

  China must quell European pessimism

    China, which has been a top business hub over the last two decades, is now experiencing slow growth amid increasing hostile business environment and lack of political will to accelerate structural reforms, triggering pessimism among European companies. Fifty-six per cent of European firms polled by the European Chamber of Commerce in China said they are finding it more difficult ...

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• 7 June

  Mongolia’s cybersecurity cooperation

    Galbaatar Lkhagvasuren SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Mongolia has declared in its National Security Concept that it will develop friendly-neighbor relations and wide-ranging cooperation with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. Yet individuals and other groups both in China and Russia have attempted cyber attacks on Mongolia numerous times, most of which have been reported to the ...

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• 7 June

  China’s shadow banks pose systemic risk

  Of all the topics sure to be come up in Sino-U.S. economic talks this week — from the problem of excess capacity to currency controls — the health of China’s financial sector will no doubt feature high on the list. Especially worrying are the multiplying links between the country’s commercial and “shadow” banks — the name given to a broad ...

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• 7 June

  Car bomb kills 11 in Istanbul

  

    Istanbul / AFP A bomb ripped through a Turkish police bus near Istanbul’s historic centreon Tuesday, killing seven officers and four civilians in the latest of a string of attacks in Turkey’s biggest city. The car bomb targeted a bus carrying anti-riot police as it was passing through the central Beyazit district close to many of the city’s top tourist ...

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