Since January, more than $540 billion has passed through the tax shelters of the largely unknown island of Labuan. Here’s why the rich are increasingly hiding their money there.
Category: Economy
BOGOTA — After a long, drawn-out build-up, Starbucks has confirmed it will be coming to Colombia. The arrival of Howard Schultz’s company’s in the South America country famous for its coffee production will be the start of a very interesting showdown with local chain Juan Valdez — as well as all the small coffee shops […]
TEL AVIV — It has been a while since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pulled out some impromptu economic graph or catchy slogan. You can say he matured. Netanyahu of the third term is not the same man he was during his first or second, where he’d been drunk on victory from decimating the left […]
China currently has just one-fifth the number of robots as Japan, and just one-third as many as the United States, but as manufacturing there grows, the country is poised for big bot growth.
Things are getting nasty between Russia and bordering countries Belarus and Ukraine. And then there’s the Syrian factor.
Striking farmers in Colombia say free trade agreements are responsible for their woes. Better to look closer to home, including industrial cartels and all the contraband entering the country.
Chinese companies justify shoddy products because of fierce competition. One businessman explains why this approach is nothing but a dead end.
There’s just one place the European Central Bank’s gender requirements won’t apply…
AFP, CHINA DAILY, THE ECONOMIC TIMES (India) Worldcrunch SHANGHAI — In a bold push to reform the world’s second-largest economy and open it to cross-border business, China will allow unfettered exchange of its RMB currency in the country’s first free trade zone, according to a draft plan AFP previewed Thursday. The Free Trade Zone is […]
BERLIN — BMW plans to introduce its electric i3 car this year, which raises the question of what’s going to happen to the old batteries that, for the purpose of powering electric cars, must be discarded well before they have actually been depleted. It’s a riddle the car company is hoping to solve together with […]
LONDON — This is the fourth month that Shen has promptly received the 2,600 pounds ($4,050) from his tenants. The newfound landlord bought a London flat in January, having calculated that even if he doesn’t raise the rent, he’ll be still able to pay off the down payment in just five years. Shen is but […]
THE NEW YORK TIMES, BBC, REUTERS Worldcrunch SEATTLE — Microsoft has announced plans to purchase Nokia’s mobile phone business for $7.2 billion, a move by Microsoft to catch up to competitors Samsung and Apple on the mobile business. Nokia shares jumped by 45% on news of the deal. According to the BBC, the purchase is […]
Long flight delays have a price, but the airline industry is applying serious downward pressure on European regulators.
TEL AVIV — While we talk about a certain economic stability in Ramallah, the economy in Gaza is in free fall, which is due in no small measure to the massive closing of the tunnels used to smuggle in products across the border from Egypt. The Palestinian economy, at least in the West Bank, is […]
Properties of Saudi princes, the sultan of Brunei, billionaires from Qatar and Asia, and a few of the wealthiest people in France, Parisian palaces-turned-hotels are a high-rolling industry.
It was prepared during the global economic collapse of 2008, but it isn’t now.
REUTERS, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON — Oil prices have risen to a five-month high, stock share prices are falling, and demand for safe-haven assets has risen amid international fears about the Syrian crisis and the anticipation of U.S. and possibly European military intervention there, Reuters reports. After U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said […]
One writer outlines what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is doing right; and sees potential deep flaws in the economic policies of Japan’s Shinzo Abe.
Once a simple gold-mining camp, La Rinconada is considered the world’s highest city. But its 30,000 inhabitants live amid ice melt and endless piles debris. Can Peru finally clean it up?
After rejections by Austrian and French ski-lift companies, a Swiss competitor was set to supply Pyongyang the means to realize his Alpine fantasy. But then the state stepped in.
BEIJING — Economists rack their brains studying the nature of business. In the simplest terms, the essence of business is to make money. But in today’s China, as elsewhere, particular political, economic and social factors make a difference — and a wide range of uniquely Chinese money-making mechanisms have been developed. What Wang Lin, the […]
–Op-Ed– MUNICH — We Germans have always struggled with the euro crisis. We talk about it a lot, muse about what would happen if the euro zone split up, bitch about those nasty countries frittering our money away. But there’s one thing we don’t do: suffer from the economic crisis. On the contrary. Even if […]
THE LOCAL (Germany), LES ECHOS (France) Worldcrunch BRUSSELS – Data released Wednesday showed the economies of Germany and France grew faster than expected between April and the end of June, raising hopes for a recovery across Europe. The new figures show that Germany enjoyed its fastest growth in more than a year in the second […]
How do well-known foreign brands react when unscrupulous profiteers swipe their Chinese names?
Categories
The Game Changer For China’s Toymakers
The European Union has implemented a stringent new set of toy safety regulations, which could leave some Chinese manufacturers on the losing end.
DA LAT — It’s 30°C (or 86°F) on the high plateaus of Lam Dong in the southern central part of Vietnam. Hanoi is two-and-a-half hours away by car, and the damp heat envelops the coffee trees, their supple branches fanning out and loaded with green coffee cherries. As the second-largest global coffee producer, Vietnam lags […]
Djamel Mastouri was told as a child that he’d never walk again. He went on to become an Olympic champion and an accomplished French soldier.
Categories
Why China Is Still No Superpower
China will overtake the United States as the world’s singular superpower. This is the conclusion of a 39-country survey of public opinion conducted by the Pew Research Center. Reading this piece of news, some Chinese have responded with excitement, others with doubts. According to this survey, a majority of the public in 23 out of […]
After top tech companies were shown to be dodging taxes in several European countries, similar questions have now emerged in Israel. An exclusive from top Israeli business daily Calcalist.
LES ECHOS (France), TELEGRAPH (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch PARIS – After six straight quarters of contraction, new signs were reported Wednesday that the recession in Europe’s single-currency euro zone may be set to end. Manufacturing in the euro zone increased for the first time in well over a year, boosted by higher private sector output in […]
In the latest edition of Fortune Magazine“s “Global 500,” exactly 85 Chinese corporations have made the list. That’s an increase of 16 companies compared with last year. But let’s take a closer look at the numbers. Of the companies listed, 90% are stated-owned enterprises (SOEs), and just two of the new batch on the list […]
REUTERS Worldcrunch BEIJING– Share prices across global markets advanced towards five-year highs on Tuesday, as China’s made efforts to avoid a hard landing for its slowing economy, Reuters reports. Local media in China reported that the government was looking to increase investment in railway projects to reduce gluts in steel, cement and other materials, as […]
MUNICH – As a measure of Microsoft’s hold over the technology-driven economy, one American tabloid once published a “Countdown to World Domination” calendar in the lead-up to the company’s launch of its new operating system. That was nearly 12 years ago. Today, we are living in a completely different era as the number of PC […]
The 82-year-old “godfather” of F1 has built the motor sport into a billion-dollar business with a very Bernie-centric system. But bribery charges may force the sport to find a new formula.
Berlin-based Die Welt is not taking lightly a recent EU directive that backed French bans on imports of new models of German-built Mercedes.
–OpEd– SANTIAGO – After four long years in court, the 10 Chilean pharmaceutical executives prosecuted for colluding to raise the prices of 222 medicines can breathe easy. These business leaders from the companies Salco-Brand, Ahumada and Cruz Verde were in fact convicted, but the sentence amounted to a meager fine — the equivalent of $445,000 […]
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS Worldcrunch BEIJING – China’s top search engine Baidu is planning to buy the app store 91 Wireless for $1.9 billion in order to gain a bigger share in the very competitive mobile sector, Reuters reports. After the acquisition, Baidu will hold 57.4% of the shares of one of China’s earliest app stores, taking […]
–OpEd– BEIJING – In the past month, China’s State Council, Central Bank and Banking Regulatory Commission have all encouraged restructuring and reforming the nation’s financial institutions with private capital so that banks can take their own risks. Though the aspiration to establish private banks isn’t new, the fact that a number of top Chinese institutions […]
-Essay- BEIJING – Lately a friend of mine was particularly busy looking for a bottle of red wine of a certain year from a certain Spanish vineyard. It took him quite a lot of time and trouble and a lot of calling in favors to find the wine and get it brought back from abroad. […]
You probably have never heard of French engineer Louis Pouzin. But you might not be reading this website without him. At 82, he offers a unique perspective on Edward Snowden, and us all.