Worldcrunch
BEIJING — The recent government shutdown in the United States prompted a chorus of comparisons in China of the two countries’ political systems. The general sentiment? “The American model of democracy is not the only way. The Chinese style may be another option.” But the comparison is inappropriate because it is based on two false […]
KUWAIT CITY — Juan Valdez coffee shops, as familiar in some Latin American cities as Starbucks is elsewhere, opened their first franchise shop in Kuwait this month. The inauguration heralds the firm’s arrival in the cash-rich market of the Middle East, a region also believed to be key in cultural and branding terms. The chain […]
DUSSELDORF — The air is ice cold without a hint of wind. As night falls over Düsseldorf, they come flocking from all directions: thousands of ring-necked parakeets. They land on the plane trees that line the luxury Königsallee shopping street. Men in expensive suits and women in fur coats look up in amazement. A little […]
BEIJING — China’s automobile market is now expected to see double-digit growth by the end of this year, after two consecutive years’ of relatively low growth. According to data published last week by the China Automobile Association, for the first 10 months of 2013, China’s car sales totaled 17.8 million vehicles, with a growth rate […]
LONG SINGU — Lost in the Malaysian forest, the village of Long Singu — on the Island of Borneo — is engaging in righteous resistence. Between 200 and 300 Penan people are refusing to leave their land to make way for the Murum dam. “We want to keep our village and our forest,” is the […]
TEL AVIV — Every army needs its boots. In Israel, where the military has always played a central role in society, footwear for the troops has proudly been supplied locally since the country’s founding in 1948. But that may be about to change. Shimon Horowitz, head of the military division for Brill Company, which manufactures […]
BEIJING — It took just three days after its recent third plenum meeting for the Chinese Communist Party to issue its blueprint for major reforms in the country. The fact that the content of the resolution it had agreed upon was released so quickly demonstrates both the importance of major economic reforms here and the […]
Some 100 million people have emerged from poverty since the 1980s. Is that enough?
Pleyel pianos, founded in 1809, built pianos for Chopin and other masters. In the end, it couldn’t find a new business strategy to survive against Asian competition.
Orange diamonds, Francis Bacons, Twitter shares and Chinese singles help us see the world in numbers over the past seven (7) days…
Chinese business leaders have everything, except for their health.
HONG KONG — While migrating to Hong Kong has become trendy for certain Chinese middle-class families, a wavelet of Hong Kong’s own middle class seems to be moving off the wealthy island. According to data from Hong Kong’s Security Bureau, some 3,900 people emigrated in the first half of this year. Though this is still […]
BEIJING — The Chinese capital likes to dazzle visitors with the biggest and best projects in the world. Consider, for example, the Olympic Park built for the 2008 games. It is spread over nearly 12 square kilometers, intersected by a canal that, seen from above, resembles a dragon. The park is an exhibition of the […]
Over the past 30 years, while China opened up to the outside world, the Chinese business community has gradually accumulated more and more knowledge of the world as well. Access to the World Trade Organization and modern information technology also helped speed along that process of global understanding. Still, there are limits. Since the vast […]
The American retailer already has a presence in China, but its aim now is to develop shopping malls in smaller Chinese cities, where its community supermarkets can serve as anchors.
Thailand saw a record of capital infusion from abroad in 2012, but the country needs critical upgrades, as it remains totally dependent on technology from outside its borders.
NEW DELHI — He wears a badge, and his slightly wrinkled light blue uniform has epaulettes. But the security guard casually seated on a chair at the entrance to this jewelry store in a New Delhi mall, old gun in hand, doesn’t exactly look like the deterrent type. In the shop window, display busts have […]
The Arctic, where Russia has dispatched military resources, is the last disputed area of such massive proportions. It’s a region where the interests of Moscow and Washington collide, an excellent stage for a Cold War parody.
ATHENS — Over the past three years, the European country most affected by the global economic crisis is without doubt Greece. Today, almost six in 10 young people are unemployed, 58.8% of those under 24. Many have also moved abroad since the country has struggled to recover from the recession. The “troika” (the International Monetary […]
Moscow’s goal be an exporter of manufactured goods must be done in the face of major political and financial uncertainties.
The explosion of digital technologies and other techonological advances will continue to draw casualties from a surprisingly wide array of employment sectors.
BEIJING — When recently visiting four Central Asian countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the starting point of the ancient Silk Road by which China exported its silk, china and jade to Europe was his own hometown of Xi’an. He suggested that China and the Central Asia countries, with a total population of 3 […]
SHANGHAI — The annual rush in Apple stores all over the world started Sept. 20 when the Cupertino, Calif.-based company released its new iPhones 5S and 5C. Outside Fifth Avenue in New York, the queue was the longest in store history. Similarly, in China, people went en masse to buy the latest smartphone, but for […]
PARIS — Will the yuan dethrone the dollar one day? The Chinese currency may have just moved a step further in that direction with the October 10 signature between the European Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China (the country’s central bank) for the establishment of a “currency swap” mechanism. The terms of the […]
BEIJING — The “Hierarchy of Needs,” an influential psychological theory put forth by American psychologist Abraham Maslow, tells us that humans have different levels of needs. From the most basic physiological necessities such as water, food and sex, to love, belonging and self-actualization. It is notable that security comes in second on the hierarchy after […]
GENEVA — Imagine yourself in the office of a senior executive of a big company, such as Nestlé or UBS. But instead of typing on his computer’s keyboard, the man just sits still, chin resting on his fist and gazing as if lost in thought. Like a modern thinker, he invokes Aristotle and reflects on […]
To satisfy Russian apetites, frozen shipments of the low-end *red caviar* have come in from Alaska. Not all are pleased.
BISHKEK — Russia has reached a deal with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to provide military aid to the two Central Asian nations. Though the details are still being hammered out, Moscow appears to have netted a deal with potentially major geopolitical implications. “We have agreed with our colleagues regarding the delivery of weapons, […]
TEL AVIV — A record number of undergraduate students will get their degrees this year. But what awaits them isn’t pretty: job insecurity, bosses who are indifferent to what they studied, a shortage of jobs that match their education and talents, and big debts accumulated during their years at university. All of this suggests that […]
BELGRADE – Clean shaven, impeccably dressed in a dark suit and tie, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is back in business. On Sept. 17, France’s former Finance Minister and disgraced head of the International Monetary Fund officially accepted a post as economic adviser to the Serbian government. DSK’s hosts in Belgrade had a hard time hiding how proud […]
Online business is booming in China. According to data from iResearch, an Internet market research firm, the current scale of China’s e-commerce is similar to that of the United States, at $206 billion. A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that by 2020 China’s e-commerce market will exceed $1 trillion. What tangible effects […]
BASEL — Niklaus Blumer is an architect by training, and his partner Pascal Wirth is an economist. These two men from the Swiss city of Basel are the unlikely creators of Idilio Origins, a brand that specializes in pure, designated-origin Grand Cru chocolate. They tell of prospecting in Latin America in search of a cacao […]
ARRANMORE — The battle is not totally over, and total victory remains uncertain. But the fishermen from Arranmore have managed to make Brussels sway. This handful of diehard Irish fishermen is slowly managing to lift Europe’s fishing ban, which has been stifling the economy of this remote island for the past seven years. Arranmore is […]
PARIS – The United States woke up Tuesday to a rather expected, but nonetheless stunning government shutdown after Congress failed to agree on a new budget by the midnight deadline in a political standoff over Republican attempts to reverse President Obama’s landmark health care reform. The government is forced to put an end to non-essential […]
BEIJING — In October, a tour group of 20 of China’s top tycoons will be paying a different kind of luxury visit to America. The tour is organized by Gopher Asset, an asset management firm, and the aim is for these Chinese super-rich to investigate how Single Family Offices (SFOs) operate in the United States. […]
PARIS — Five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, it seems that we are passing through an unprecedented layer of thick fog. We see one country suddenly accelerating while its neighbor suffers a “sudden stop.” But this isn’t the first time. The world was consumed by the same sort of uncertainty five years after […]
OSLO — It’s still too early to predict how Norway’s Prime Minister-elect Erna Solberg, who was elected earlier this month, will tweak the oil policy developed by outgoing Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. During his eight-year tenure — even as Norway was in the process of building its wealth — the government adopted standards for managing […]
-Editorial- BEIJING – At the recent International Investment Forum, Justin Lin Yifu, the former World Bank chief economist, was asked how he personally invested his money. “All my money is in the bank, in fixed deposits,” he said, before adding with a smile, “When I sleep at night, they are still earning interest for me, […]
PARIS – Between 2004 and 2005, Zheyun Ye knocked on the door of almost every professional soccer club in Belgium. By introducing himself as a timely investor, this Chinese expat managed to convince the board of the penniless Lierse SK club to accept a check worth 370,000 euros ($500,000). Except that Zheyun Ye was not […]
-OpEd- BEIJING — Apple released the iPhone 5c and 5s in Beijing last week, marking the first time ever that Apple has chosen the world’s biggest market for a launch. The company seems to hope that the two new smartphones will help the brand here, where it hovers alternately between fifth and sixth place in […]