Archive for November, 2007
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Somewhat randomly the other day I started wondering whether Costco has any sort of presence in China. There are 5 Costco stores in Taiwan (the first one opened in 1997 in Kaohsiung and the latest just opened in November of this year, in TaiChung) and my aunts in Taiwan are ...
Posted in America, Consumer, Eveline Chao | 2 Comments »
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Following my post yesterday on the EU-China trade summit, which in my opinion seems to have gone smashingly, but in everyone else's opinion seems to have gone poorly, I read two more articles, from sources I take seriously, that seem to disagree with me:
The Economist (a subscription to which was ...
Posted in RMB, economy, Bradley Gardner | No Comments »
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
So the EU met with China about RMB appreciation... but I must say I'm baffled by the news coverage of it.
Yesterday Zhou Xiaochuan, the oh so dashing governor of the PBOC, met with European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet; Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who is also chairman of the ...
Posted in RMB, economy, Bradley Gardner | 3 Comments »
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
Victor Shih has posted a lovely blog post on the recent lending freeze. It's posts like these that make me wish that Mr. Shih would be my best friend forever.
Goldman Sachs economist Hong Liang reasons that lending freeze is necessary because the 3% "safety zone" interest rate spread between the ...
Posted in economy, Bradley Gardner | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
Opinion is divided about the impact the new labor law, analysed in our November issue by our legal expert Steven Dickenson, will have but some business owners in Guangdong are clearly worried about the effect it may have on their staff. Some, such as Japanese camera manufacturer Olympus, are planning ...
Posted in Matthew Plowright, cib | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
I just received an email from an Australian-Chinese friend of mine who, it transpires, played a key role in mobilizing the Chinese community in his local Sydney constituency to vote out prime minister John Howard, who not only lost the election but also looks like he will lose his seat ...
Posted in Matthew Plowright, politics, cib | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
Big news in the past week about how the ASEAN nations got together (all making pretend nice with Myanmar) and wrote a document about how they may one day be like the European Union. The document firmly committed to every country closing their eyes, clicking their heels twice and wishing ...
Posted in Globalization, Bradley Gardner | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
China’s 100m hurdler, Olympic gold medal prospect and all-round pin-up boy Liu Xiang has just had his legs insured for USD 13.3 million. The policy, which has been donated by insurance firm Ping An of China, sponsor of the Chinese athletics team, covers the hurdler’s legs in the event of ...
Posted in insurance, PR, 2008 Olympics, Matthew Plowright, cib | No Comments »
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
Back when I worked at MSN in London, Friday was always the day when the light, fluffy stories were rolled out. A carbombing in Iraq, Blair stepping down, a crisis in NHS funding? Forget it. Fridays were all about badgers holding hands, or the incredible tale of Freddie the bull ...
Posted in Matthew Plowright | No Comments »
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
I came across this rather strange news story while I was writing briefs for next month's magazine:
Chinese drivers may have to pay an emission tax by 2010 as the government is beefing up its efforts to curb pollution, a news report said on Monday.
...
The Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation ...
Posted in environment, economy, Bradley Gardner | 1 Comment »
