Asia

John Browne Explains the Great Game

"Of countries that have to make something, like the Swiss – the Swiss have got a heap of granite with icing on the top of it and yet they're one of the richest countries in the world. It's the people that do this stuff. It's the people and the leadership and if they believe in something they do it, and the Germans, too. They believe in hard work but what's more, they believe that the hard work of today's citizens should be kept intact so that those hard working people, when they retire, should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The Anglo-Americans say the hell with the future, the hell with children, the hell with grandchildren. We want that money now." Continue reading →

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Extra! Extra! New daily papers arrive as Myanmar lifts press monopoly

"Privately owned daily newspapers hit Myanmar’s streets for the first time in decades on Monday under new freedoms that represent a revolution for a media shackled under military rule. Four Burmese-language titles — The Voice, The Golden Fresh Land, The Union and The Standard Time — made the transition from weekly as new rules came into effect that swept away state media’s long monopoly on daily printing. The country’s military rulers seized control of private daily papers in 1964, according to veteran journalist Thiha Saw of Open News weekly." Continue reading →

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Amazon asks for laxer online shopping rules in India

"US online retail giant Amazon said Tuesday it had asked New Delhi to consider relaxing a law that stops its Indian subsidiary from selling directly to customers. The topic was raised when Paul Misener, Amazon’s global vice president, met Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma in New Delhi. Last year the Indian government eased legislation to allow foreign retailers such as US supermarket giant Wal-Mart to set up shop in India and sell directly to Indian consumers but online retailers were left out." Continue reading →

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Samaritans in Taiwan turn plastic junk into items for the needy

"At the station operated by Taiwan’s largest charity group Tzu Chi Foundation, hundreds of volunteers help sort and recycle plastic waste along with used glass bottles and electronic appliances. Tzu Chi runs 5,400 recycling stations across Taiwan with the help of more than 76,000 volunteers and has distributed more than 460,000 blankets made from plastic bottles since 2007 for relief use at home and abroad. For the volunteers in charge of crushing the plastic bottles, who are from two nearby nursing homes for the mentally ill, the recycling work has also become part of their therapy." Continue reading →

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New demolition technique shrinks Tokyo hotel ‘in a clean manner’

"Passers-by in Tokyo’s busy Akasaka district have started to notice something odd about a 40-floor hotel — it has shrunk to about half its original height. Slowly but surely, and with none of the explosions or dust normally associated with the demolition of skyscrapers, the hotel is being torn down. Engineers reinforced the top floor with steel beams and then effectively lopped it off, keeping it in place to be used as an adjustable lid that can be lowered down the building on an external support frame. Workers at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka have brought in 15 hydraulic jacks on which this 'lid' now sits as they remove one floor at a time." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew demolition technique shrinks Tokyo hotel ‘in a clean manner’

Detlev Schlichter: Global economic policy now firmly in the hands of money cranks

"During the early honeymoon between ‘Abenomics’ and financial reality, the idea of printing yourself to prosperity is likely to have imitators, with the UK being a prime candidate. In terms of total indebtedness, the UK is the one industrialized country that can compete with Japan, meaning it is in the same supersized debt-pickle. Over at Threadneedle Street, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Paul Tucker, openly fantasized about negative interest rates recently, outgoing Governor Mervyn King voted for more QE (overruled), and Governor-elect Mark Carney promises to be, well, – flexible. Bottom line: desperation is spreading. Watch this place!" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDetlev Schlichter: Global economic policy now firmly in the hands of money cranks

City of Yokohama Mistakenly Tweets of North Korean Missile Launch

"In this environment, it's easy to make a mistake and jump the gun. And that's precisely what happened in Yokohama, Japan. On Wednesday, city officials used Twitter to warn of a North Korean missile launch — one that never had happened. At 8:11 p.m. local time, the official disaster management Twitter account of the city prematurely announced: 'North Korea has launched a missile'. As it turns out, it was just a misfired tweet that was ready in case of a real launch. The tweet stayed up for approximately 20 minutes, when the city took it down and posted an official apology (Google Translate), saying the tweet was delivered by mistake." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Will Japan’s radical gamble work?

"The BOJ says it just wants to get inflation to 2%. It says it will buy assets with money that didn't exist previously...and keep buying...until inflation reaches 2%. Then what? Well, we guess it will stop. And then what? Then, it will have an economy that has come to expect 70 billion yen in new money every month. And an economy with a monetary base of BOJ assets maybe twice what it is today. People make radical gambles now and then. Businessmen might take a chance now and then. Gamblers might go for long odds. Lovers might hope to get lucky. For a central bank to make a 'radical gamble' bespeaks desperation and lunacy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Will Japan’s radical gamble work?

Bill Bonner: Will Japan’s radical gamble work?

"The BOJ says it just wants to get inflation to 2%. It says it will buy assets with money that didn't exist previously...and keep buying...until inflation reaches 2%. Then what? Well, we guess it will stop. And then what? Then, it will have an economy that has come to expect 70 billion yen in new money every month. And an economy with a monetary base of BOJ assets maybe twice what it is today. People make radical gambles now and then. Businessmen might take a chance now and then. Gamblers might go for long odds. Lovers might hope to get lucky. For a central bank to make a 'radical gamble' bespeaks desperation and lunacy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Will Japan’s radical gamble work?

Ignorance is Strength: Kim Jong Un Edition

"For one state to respond to another state’s military aggression by killing, or threatening to kill, its civilian population is monstrous. And if it’s monstrous, it’s monstrous when anyone does it. It would also be monstrous if some purely hypothetical country, the only country in the world with atomic weapons, used them to kill several hundred thousand civilians in two Japanese cities. It would be monstrous if some purely hypothetical country with hundreds of long-range bombers had had, as its official military policy, making first use of nuclear weapons and hitting every major population center in the USSR in retaliation for a conventional incursion into Western Europe." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIgnorance is Strength: Kim Jong Un Edition