Weekend Hits
Things you might find interesting, but I haven’t had the time or inclination to blog about:
- On November 30 I posted about the Global Economic Crime Survey published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, so it’s a bit soon to do another full post on corruption. But you should glance at the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International. It shows New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore as the world’s least corrupt. Somalia, Afghanistan and Myanmar fill the bottom slots. No surprises there.
- Not all of us fully understand rising or falling exchange rates, so I was glad to see a wonderful graphical presentation in the N.Y. Times that shows just who benefits and who gets hurt when the U.S. dollar falls. Good stuff.
- This is for those of you in the luxury goods business. The South China Morning Post carried an article about super-rich Chinese in London. Some interesting nuggets: Asia has 14,300 ultra rich (defined as a net worth of more than $30 million), compared to Europe’s 18,000. China now has a higher population of the merely wealthy (more than $1 million in investible assets) than does the U.K.
- Asia Times put out an article on China’s growing African population. Who knew that some 20,000 African traders and their families are living in Guangzhou? The majority are Nigerians, buying cheap Chinese goods for resale in their home markets. These are not your stereotypical rich expats, but lower income types who are clustered in one neighborhood of Guangzhou, sensitively known to the Chinese as “Chocolate City“.
- Hawaii loves Vegas. It’s not for nothing that Las Vegas is popularly known here as the 9th Island. If you stop by the hotels and casinos in downtown Vegas, you’ll find them filled with customers from Hawaii. There are even enough Hawaii expats living in Vegas to support an Hawaiian Festival each November – at which my canoe team paddles. So, imagine my consternation when I discovered that Macau is now the world’s largest gaming market. It’s a combination of a recession-hit Vegas with restricted supply in Macau. Macau now has 33 casinos, but construction stopped in 2008, boosting demand for each of those gaming palaces.
- It’s not often that progress can be reported in the Doha Round, but we seem to have some. No details yet, but it appears negotiators have moved forward on a new dispute settlement mechanism that would limit the inappropriate use of health and safety standards to hinder trade. The new mechanism was proposed jointly by the European Union and India. It appears the United States initially opposed, but has reversed itself to use the proposed mechanism as a basis for negotiation. Since health and safety standards can include restrictions for environmental reasons, we may have a breakthrough coming to reconcile trade and environmental concerns. Keep your fingers crossed (or thumbs tucked if you are in central Europe).
- Yesterday’s announcement of Wendy’s withdrawal from Japan is ominous. And they are doing it quickly. In the Japanese market since 1980, Wendy’s is closing all of its 71 stores – mostly around Tokyo – by the end of this month. There was a disagreement with their Japanese franchisee, but I can’t tell if this is a one-off problem or something broader for franchises in Japan. Watch out.
