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Friday May 22
* A new report from four Beijing University journalism students on the riots in Lhasa last year comes to the conclusion that China’s efforts to pour money into Tibet and enrich the region have created a new power elite and widespread inequality. (Sydney Morning Herald)
* Caijing re…
Source: Business Listings
There is no doubt that the UK is in a financial mess, but am I the only person who finds it odd that we still rely on the world’s “leading credit rating agencies”, as they are habitually called, to tell us what debt it is safe to invest in?
It seems perfectly reasonable t…
Source: Business Listings
Any normal, functional government would realise it had a problem when the leading ratings agency decided to overturn a 31-year long unblemished record for their creditworthiness. So we should probably not be surprised that our Treasury have issued about the most delusional response I have ever seen to S&P’s decision today to put the UK’s ratings on negative outlook. Let’s dissect it in full:
Standard and Poor have reaffirmed the UK’s triple A rating on the basis of our “wealthy,…
Source: Business Listings
So much for those legally binding bank lending agreements. Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland agreed to lend billions more to small and medium sized companies this year and next in return for taking part in the Government’s asset protection scheme.
But the Bank of England’s latest lending trends survey shows that the annual rate of growth in net lending to busines…
Source: Business Listings
And so it begins. Before today, the talk about Britain’s solvency, about its ability to sustain its debts and finance itself in the capital markets, about its very status as one of the world’s economic big boys, was merely theory. Now, it is becoming a reality.
I’m increasingly puzzled by the effect of the recession on Britain’s business community. Business failure rates are increasing, but are still nowhere near the rates seen in the early 1990s. Recession Britain’s high streets and industrial parks should be visibly emptying, but in many cases they are holding up well.
Spending a day in Brighton last week was eye-opening. The streets were packed with shoppers and the independent traders that I spoke to al…
Source: Business Listings
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Thursday May 21
* A former senior Chinese censor has claimed a major role in recording the memoirs of Zhao Ziyang, the former leader of the Communist Party who opposed sending the army into Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Du Daozheng, reformist chief of the General Administration of Press and Publications in the late 19…
Source: Business Listings
Does Google actually view itself as a technology company anymore? Yesterday’s Google Zeitgeist conference read like a who’s who in everyone who cares about the environment and world peace.
Prince Charles spoke about saving the planet, Amazonian chief Almir Narayamoga Surui made an appearance, while Sir Richard Branson told how he had been on a three-day hunger strike to show solidarity with the people of the war-hit Darfur region of Sudan. Beardie apparently took over the fast from…
Source: Business Listings
(Geely GE Limo - look familiar? Photo: Geely)
There’s a lot of hype about the Chinese car industry right now. With Detroit on its knees and Tokyo in retreat, companies like Shanghai Automotive, Geely, Chery and BYD are being touted as the next generation of manufactu…
Source: Business Listings
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Wednesday May 20
* Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company, said it had signed a deal with China to ship 200,000 barrels of oil a day to China in return for a $10 billion loan.
* China has released the <a target=”_blank” href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5349203/China-frees-Tianan…
Source: Business Listings
