The Economic Observer Issue 605 28-01-2013
- Caterpillar write down Zhengzhou Siwei due to accounting fraud; two former shareholders of Siwei bought the company cheap and sold to Caterpillar high; “Americans cheating American”;
- Chinese urbanization: “establishing cities by rescinding townships”; “removing mountains to build cities”; but local government still put much pace and relied on land sale for revenues; must carry out a deep reform of the existing land management system;
张丹红：欧洲人事竞争德国为何屡败
- 德国人原则至上：前联邦银行行长韦伯坚决反对购买希腊国债，辞职拒接欧洲央行行长；央行首席经济师斯塔克抗议央行越来越依赖于政治而辞职；
- 法国的掣肘：竞争更露骨、执着和具外交手腕（拉加德接替卡恩IMF职位）；
- 成功进入欧洲决策层的德国人努力忘却本国利益（不愿在外界引起民族主义重新抬头的嫌疑）；
- 将本国利益交由同属北欧阵营的荷兰、芬兰去维护。
- nominated treasury secretary Jack Lew, took CAI job in 2008;
- “The greatest irony is that given Mr. Lew’s crisis-era resumé, he bears a remarkable resemblance to the bankers who President Obama says created the financial crisis and deserve federal investigation.”
B&N Aims to Whittle Its Stores For Years
- now 689 stores wit 674 college stores; in ten year will have 450 to 500 stores;
- Random House (the world’s largest publisher) ‘s ebook sales count for 22% from almost nothing five years ago;
- bookstores serve for different purposes from other retail outlets, people could not sit and chat in bedbath&beyond;
How trust deficit is hurting the economy
- trust breaks down, economy is damaged;
- (Gallup) 25% trust in newspaper, 21% in television, only 13% to congress;
- food industry spending 30% more time meeting with regulators today than they did few years ago;
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