Economist, July 13, 2013

choi

(1) Briefing  Shopping | The Emporium Strikes Back. Retailers in the rich world are suffering as people buy more things online. But they are finding ways to adapt.
("'The staff at Jessops would like to thank you for shopping with Amazon.' With that parting shot plastered to the front door of one of its shops, a company that has been selling cameras in Britain for 78 years shut down in January. The bitter note sums up the mood of many who work on high streets and in shopping centres (malls) across Europe and America. As sales migrate to Amazon and other online vendors, shop after shop is closing down, chain after chain is cutting back")

Note: A bar chart titled "Gaining Ground[;] Online retail* sales, as % of total.  * Companies to consumers) indicates in 2011 that Britain (9%), US (7.5%), Germany (7%), France (7%), Japan (5%), China (1%), India (1%). Source: Javelin Group; eMarketer; Forrester"


(2) Goat meat  | The Kids Are All Right; Why don't more Americans eat goat.

Quote:

"Some may believe it has gamy flavor. This is true of older goats, but a young cabrito has a clean, grassy, herbal flavor, sweeter and less greasy than beef. It also boasts few calories and less cholesterol than beef, chicken, pork or lamb.

"Finding reliable goat-consumption statistics is hard; the creatures are often slaughtered privately rather than in large abattoirs. But the trend is clearly up, thanks to immigration from goat-eating cultures. * * * Goat is not yet popular enough to be worth factor-farming. * * * Production is highest in the south-East, particularly Texas, but the number slaughtered is highest in New Jersey, which has large Arab, Latino and SouthAsian populations.

Note: Spanish-English dictionary:
(a) cabrito (noun masculine): "kid (animal)"
(b) cabra (noun feminine): "goat"

choi

(3) Taiwan's economic isolation |  Desperately Seeking Space; A free-trade deal is greeted by China with a surprising lack of fuss.

Quote:

"New Zealand "also sees Taiwan's market, its 10th largest, as important, notably for milk and butter.

"Meanwhile, in Wellington, New Zealand's capital, the signing ceremony bore the usual hallmark of Taiwan's diplomatic limbo. Senior officials were absent. In the agreement, Taiwan was not describe4d as the state it is, but as 'the separate customs territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei)."

My comment: Former President Chen Shui-bian insisted on Taiwan's signing FTA's as a sovereign nation, which resulted in few takers. I am describing this as a fact, as opposed to merits of this vs that approach.


(4) Women and the property market |  Married to the Mortgage; Are high house prices hurting women more than men?
(Some economists argue that competition for brides in China's marriage 'market' helps explains the punishingly high prices in its property market. Houses are least affordable in those parts of China where men most outnumber women, argue Shang-jin WEI 魏 尚进 of the Columbia University, Xiaobo ZHANG 张 晓波 of International Food Policy Research Institute and Yin LIU 刘 寅 of Tsinghua University (see chart)")

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(5) Chinese Braille | Feeling Their Way; Blind people in China struggle with more than just their disability.
http://www.economist.com/news/ch ... y-feeling-their-way
("China has 17m visually impaired people, including 6m who are completely blind. Few receive a basic education, let alone make it to university. There are just 22 schools for the blind, with a total of 1,500 pupils. The government regards massage as the default vocation for the blind. Some 17,000 were trained for the profession last year. Out of China’s 2,000 universities, only three admit blind students. All of them are in Shanghai")

My comment:
(a) Braille
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille
("Braille is named after its creator, Frenchman Louis Braille, who went blind following a childhood accident. At the age of 15, Braille developed his code for the French alphabet in 1824")
(b) Chinese Braille
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_braille
(China vs Taiwan)
(c) HAN Ping/ Beijing Union University 韩 萍/ 北京联合大学
(d) Regretably the blind in Taiwan have few opportunities, too. Massage is reserved for the blind only, a law there decrees.

(6) Chinese shipyards | Too Sick to Sail; Ailing shipbuilders test China's commitment to reform.
*"The industry association for Chinese shipyards estimates that perhaps a third of its members now face bankruptcy. Yet foreign rivals like South Korea's Hyundai Heavy are flourishing. Rongsheng simply makes the wrong kind of ship, argues Martin Rowe of Clarksons, a big shipbroker. Many Chinese firms have focused on making * * * giant container vessels. In contrast, South Korean and Japanese [ship]yards have invested in new technology and advanced engines to make ships of all sorts cleaner and more efficient. Such firms are not only growing, but also fetching premium prices")

Note:
(a) There is no Wiki page for Clarksons.

About Us: Our history. Clarksons, undated.
http://www.clarksons.com/about-us/our-history/
("In 1852, Horace Anderton Clarkson started the business with the help of a family legacy. The son of a prosperous lawyer, he invited Leon Benham, a former colleague, to run the business for him. Benham was at that time out of work and so poverty-stricken that he had to walk the 150 miles from Cardiff[, capital of and largest city in Wales,] to London to join his new partner... but he was to be the driving force behind Clarksons for nearly 30 years")
(b) It is easy to make a container ship.

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(7) Dell buy-out | Hobson's Choice; Shareholders may not like Michael Dell's offer, but it's the best they'll get.

Note: Hobson's Choice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice

(8) The rising dollar | Green and Back. The dollar is enjoying a rare period of strength. How far can the rally go?

Note:
(a) The bar charts shows "Currencies against the $; % decrease May 1st-July 9th 2013": among others (renminbi or Taiwanese $ not one of them), Australian $ (~11%), Indian Rupee (slightly > 10%), Canadian $ (4%), British pound (a bit <#%), Japanese yen (a bit less than 3%), Euro (~2.5%).
(b) That means renminbi has in the same period appreciated against the above.

(9) Coffee prices | Brewed awakening; Plenty of coffee, to few drinkers.

(10) Boom and bust in Asia | Going for Growth; Explaining Asia’s economic success is as easy as one, two, three.
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... -three-going-growth
(book review on Joe Studwell, How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World’s Most Dynamic Region. Grove, 2013)
  
"Asia’s post-war miracle economies emerged, he [Studwell] argues, by following a recipe with just three ingredients: land reform; export-led, state-backed manufacturing; and financial repression. The process began with the ousting of the landlords. Feudal estates were broken up and divided among small farmers, who also received cheap credit and valuable advice. Smallholder farming requires 'grotesque' amounts of labour, Mr Studwell concedes. But that is a good thing, because countries as poor as Taiwan or South Korea were in the 1950s have labour—and only labour—in abundance. Tightly planted, closely tended farms coax the best yields out of each parcel of land. This rural bounty then creates room for the next step: export-led manufacturing.

"Mr Studwell’s recipe is not original: the formula dates back at least 140 years, he shows, to Japan under the Meiji emperor. Only the first step, smallholder farming, would be backed by this newspaper [which is how Economist identifies itself, as opposed to, say, a weekly or magazine].

Note:
(a) Washington Consensus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Consensus
(section 1.1 Original sense: Williamson's Ten Points)
(b) Of course, Taiwan and China have outgrown "smallholder farming" and regretted it, which is not suitable for automation.
(c) "Its heart is a historical account of how smallholder farming, export-led manufacturing and financial repression took root in Asia’s miracle economies, such as Japan and Taiwan, but failed to bed down in the Philippines and Indonesia."

bed (vi):
"1a : to find or make sleeping accommodations —usually used with down <a place to bed down>  
b : to go to bed —usually used with down <bed down at midnight>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bed

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(11)
(a) Schumpeter | Mayors and mammon; City leaders are increasingly adopting business methods and promoting business.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... s-mayors-and-mammon

Quote:

“THE mayor of New York pays homage to business in almost everything he does. His office is modelled on the ‘bullpen’ of a trading floor. His administration uses business methods to improve everything from city services (for example, providing 24-hour public helplines) to long-term planning. He sees New York as a corporation, city workers as talent, and the public as customers—and by and large New Yorkers love him for it. Michael Bloomberg is a successful businessman as well as a popular mayor. But he is hardly alone in regarding himself as the CEO of his city. A growing number of mayors see their job as promoting business-friendly environments and selling their cities abroad.

“Mayors the world over now spend their time issuing urban prospectuses and flying off to gatherings of businesspeople. * * * In China mayors do not have much to do other than woo businesses and promote the local economy.

“There are plenty of problems with the new fashion. Competition between mayors to appease businesses can become costly. China’s Pearl River Delta region now has no fewer than five international airports, causing havoc with air-traffic control.

Note:
(i) mammon (n; ultimately from Aramaic māmōnā riches):
“material wealth or possessions especially as having a debasing influence <you cannot serve God and mammon — Matthew 6:24(Revised Standard Version)>”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mammon
(ii) bull pen (n; First Known Use 1809)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bull%20pen
(iii) “Why are mayors playing such a prominent role in business these days? In a new book, “The Metropolitan Revolution”, Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley explain that the growing paralysis in Washington, DC, with the Republicans and Democrats locked in an ideological death-struggle, is forcing mayors to step in to solve practical problems.”

Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley, The Metropolitan Revolution; How cities and metros are fixing our broken politics and fragile economy. Brookings Institution Press, 2013.
(iv) There is no need to read the rest of the report.

(b) Business and conservation |  Nature’s Banker; Lessons from the Nature Conservancy.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... ancy-natures-banker
(book review on Mark Tercek and Jonathan Adams, Nature’s Fortune; How business and society thrive by investing in nature. Basic Books, 2013)

An unlikely boss of the Nature Conservancy, "Mr Tercek is at the forefront of a new, businesslike sort of environmentalism, which is changing the way companies and governments view nature. It typically involves putting a valuation on the useful things that nature does,

Note: Catskill Mountains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Mountains