Apple CEO joins Tsinghua SEM advisory board

Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook joined the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, according to an announcement posted on the university's website last week.

Along with Cook, Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba Group and Jim Breyer, Facebook's biggest shareholder after Mark Zuckerberg and partner in Accel Partners, were both added to the board this year.

Tsinghua SEM said it is scheduled to hold an annual advisory board meeting in Beijing on Wednesday. Before the meeting, 15 advisory board members will join a classroom discussion and have dinner with students on Tuesday.

It is unknown whether Cook will visit Beijing. China Daily called officials with Apple China's public relations department on Monday, but they did not answer the phone.

Initiated by SEM's Founding Dean, Zhu Rongji, the Advisory Board of Tsinghua SEM was established in October 2000. Since its establishment, the advisory board has met annually to offer advice on the development of Tsinghua SEM.

Japan: All regions reported improvement in their economies

The Bank of Japan on Monday upgraded its assessment of all of the country's nine regional economies compared with three months earlier on the back of solid domestic demand including spending and housing investment, with signs of improvement in employment and incomes.

All regions noted improvement in their economies, with eight of them using the word "recovery" in their assessments, the central bank said in its quarterly "Sakura Report" on regional economies released after a meeting of the BOJ's branch managers.

The report indicated that the economic recovery has started to spread from urbanized areas to regional economies, led mainly by firm domestic demand such as continued resilience in consumer spending as well as increased housing and public investment.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan logs record trade deficit for April-Sept.

Japan logged a record deficit of 4,989.2 billion yen in goods trade for the April-September first half of fiscal 2013, as a weaker yen and strong demand for energy continued to push up fossil fuel import costs, the government said Monday.

In the six-month period, exports rose 9.8 percent from a year earlier to 35,319.9 billion yen, while imports advanced 13.9 percent to 40,309.1 billion yen, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.

In September, the trade balance came to a deficit of 932.1 billion yen, a record for the month and staying in the red for a record 15th consecutive month.

Source: NewsOnJapan

PM Abe uses golf analogy to defend monetary policy

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took to the links to slam critics who call his attempts to get the country out of deflation too aggressive, likening the previous administration's failed attempts to stop chronic price falls to a timid golfer.

"You'll never hit the ball out of the bunker if you use a putter because you're scared of the cliffs beyond the green," the avid golfer said in a parliamentary debate Monday, firing back at the incremental, some would say overly-cautious approach to monetary policy that the former Democratic Party of Japan-led government adopted."That's why we are using a sand wedge to get the ball on the green. And the ball will hit the green. There's no other way to put it there," Mr. Abe said, explaining how the aggressive monetary policy the Bank of Japan8301.TO -0.90% launched in April is producing positive effects on the economy and the financial markets.
Mr. Abe was responding to criticism by former economy minister Seiji Maehara that the central bank's 2.0% inflation target would produce the side effects such as making an exit to its radical easing difficult and causing "cost-driven inflation" through a rise in imported energy and food prices.
Mr. Maehara said it's unclear whether the ball will land on the green, warning "it's would be terrible for (Japan) to fall off a cliff."
Mr. Abe said the golf analogy came from his economic adviser, Yale University economics professor Koichi Hamada. When BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda announced that the central bank would be embarking on easing of an unprecedented scale six month ago, Mr. Hamada told JRT that the BOJ has a leader who is aiming straight for the green, instead of just laying up.

Source: NewsOnJapan

The Panama Canal Expansion will spur US-China fuel trade

The Panama Canal expansion, slated for completion in 2015, will allow the transit of large tankers and put costs to ship U.S. gas liquids to Asia on a par with deliveries from the Middle East, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. U.S. exports would jump to 20 million metric tons by 2020 from the current 5 million tons, making the country the world’s largest exporter of those fuels, ahead of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Bernstein said.

Construction to double the canal’s capacity is 64 percent complete, the Panama Canal Authority said on its website Sept. 10. The expanded waterway will be able to handle ships as long as 1,200 feet (366 meters) and as wide as 160 feet, against the current 965 feet and 106 feet, data on the website show. Only seven of the VLGC fleet’s 154 vessels can use the canal now, according to data from IHS Maritime, a Coulsdon, England-based research company.

Once the canal project is completed, sailing time will be cut to 25 days, compared with 41 via Cape Horn, Bernstein’s Beveridge said. Freight costs will be reduced by 30 percent to 50 percent, he said.

The expansion comes as Asia’s appetite for lower-cost NGLs is increasing.China has approved the construction of 17 propane dehydrogenation units, which convert propane into propylene used to make plastics, antifreeze, deodorant and other consumer products. The new plants will require 12 million tons per year of propane, most of which will probably be imported from the U.S., Bernstein said.

Source: Sinocism newsletter, Bloomberg

English worth less in Beijing's admission tests

The equilibrium between English and Chinese may eventually be lost in scholastic admission tests, as Beijing redistributes subject scores. Currently, the two languages, along with math, have the same weighting. Beijing education authority wants to raise the value of Chinese by shifting points from English to Chinese in college and senior high school entrance exams from 2016, and started soliciting public opinion on the proposal on Monday 

Source: Sinocism China newsletter

China promotes lifelong learning

China attaches great importance to educational development of the whole nation and lifelong learning, said Vice Premier Liu Yandong here on Monday.

Liu made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Learning Cities, organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from Oct. 21 to 23 in Beijing.

"In the 21st century, the country emphasizes lifelong learning, with the formation of a learning society as an important objective in the construction of a moderately prosperous society," Liu said.

Based on the access to Internet by a population of 570 million, as Liu put it, one sixth of Chinese cities have proposed the construction of learning cities and more than 400 cities have organized reading festivals, reading months and other activities.

"We will emphasize the link between construction of learning cities and new urbanization," Liu said.

Source: X

Vice Minister of Education Lu Xin said China should strengthen international cooperation and promote exchanges between learning cities.

Source: Xinhua

China wants to know the total amount of debts of Local Governments.

    According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal: "In the next few weeks, the Chinese government is expected to release the results of an ambitious effort to calculate a seemingly simple figure: just how much the country's local governments have borrowed from banks and investors in the past few years".
"Estimates vary so widely they are almost meaningless. Government officials, analysts and economists have offered numbers that range from 15 trillion yuan to 30 trillion yuan ($2.46 trillion to $4.92 trillion), which equals nearly 30% to 60% of gross domestic product.
The size of the debt and the uncertainty about how much is out there also underscore a major risk facing the Chinese financial system: how little control the central government has over borrowing by cities and towns".

China's National Audit Office last counted the country's local government debt at the end of 2010, when it put the figure at 10.72 trillion yuan, or 27% of GDP. But borrowing has exploded since then as local governments have sought to keep growth going as Beijing scaled back the huge stimulus it launched to offset the global financial crisis. 

"Local government debt has been growing at a speed of nearly 20% a year in the last couple of years. If this trend continues, it will definitely bring about systemic risks for China's economy," said Nomura economist Zhiwei Zhang.

"The numbers matter a lot to Beijing. If the debt is backed by the Central Government, they argue, it should be considered part of China's national debt, pushing that total to a worrisome 200% of GDP, up from 129% at the end of 2008, according to Fitch Ratings. 

Beijing has enough cash to prevent bonds from defaulting and absorb losses if they do, and there is no immediate threat of a local government debt crisis. The worry among economists is that the debt will weigh on economic growth by constraining further investments. There is also worry that the central government will let some local governments default to show that it won't back all of this debt, potentially triggering a selloff in these bonds, hurting investors.

In a survey of 36 local governments released in June, China's state auditor said that among the 223 financing vehicles run by these governments, 151 of them failed to generate enough revenue to cover their annual debt repayment. "Because of their inadequate repayment ability, some provincial capitals had to borrow new debt to pay for their old debt," the state auditor said.

"Analysts raise several concerns. First, they argue that because local government debt will likely be backed by Beijing it should be considered part of China's national debt.                          Second, because much of this debt is backed by land owned by the local governments, a decline in land prices could wipe out some of the collateral on the bonds".

"Since many local governments use land as collateral for their debt, a potential fall in China's property market will pose huge risks to them," said Terry Gao, a senior analyst at Fitch Ratings.

That puts Beijing in a difficult situation. If it continues to try to push down property prices, which have been climbing rapidly, it risks leaving itself saddled with more bad debt from local governments.

The last big concern is that governments spent the proceeds of the bonds on unnecessary projects that are unlikely to boost local growth, which would make it harder to pay off the bonds".

An Update: Shale Gas Development in the U.S.

Natural gas plays a key role in meeting U.S. energy demands. Natural gas, coal and oil (fossil fuels)
together supply about 84% of the nation’s energy, with natural gas supplying about 27% of the total
(Figure 1).1  The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that the
percent contribution of natural gas to the U.S. energy supply will remain fairly constant over the
next 30 years.

    2013 U.S. energy consumption by source: Liquid Fuels 38%,Natural gas 27%,Coal 19%,Nuclear 8%,Hydropower 3%,Biomass 3%, other renewables 2%  , on an energy content basis (EIA 2013
Annual Energy Outlook data tables)

The United States has abundant natural gas resources. The EIA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
estimate that the U.S. has more than 1,864 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable natural
gas (wet gas volume, including natural gas liquids), including 318 tcf of proved reserves (the
discovered, economically recoverable fraction of the original gas‐in‐place).2 Further, EIA estimates
that U.S. technically recoverable shale gas resources total an additional 567 tcf, for a total future
natural gas supply of 2,431 tcf.  For comparison, in 2012 U.S. natural gas production totaled about
25.3 tcf.

Other estimates of the U.S. natural gas resource are even more optimistic. The Potential Gas
Committee, an independent organization that prepares biennial assessments of the technically
recoverable natural gas resource base of the United States, estimates the total technically
recoverable future gas supply to be 2,689 tcf as of the end of 2012.4 The “most likely” contribution.
 The “most likely” contribution of shale gas to this total is 1,073 tcf. In light of these estimates, shale gas can be expected to play an important future role in supplying about a third of U.S. energy demand, possibly even more, over the next several decades.
Natural gas plays an important role in the Nation’s energy portfolio because its use is distributed
across multiple sectors of the economy: Power Generation 34%, Industrial 29% , Residential 20%,Natural gas transport 3% and Vehicle transport <1%.
    The EIA forecast shows U.S. natural gas production increasing 1.3 percent per year through 2040
outpacing domestic consumption by 2019 and supporting net
exports of natural gas. Increasing volumes of shale gas production are a central element of this
scenario and the primary factor behind a future U.S. shift from importer to exporter of natural gas.
Most of the increase in net exports consists of increased pipeline exports to Mexico and declining
imports from Canada. If additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are approved, net exports

could climb more quickly.

Source: National Energy Technology Laboratory

                                                           

Brazil: Superconsórcio vence leilão do pré-sal

O leilão do pré-sal foi vencido por um superconsórcio liderado por Petrobras (10%, mais os 30% obrigatórios), Shell (20%), Total (20%) e as chinesas CNPC e CNOOC (10% cada). A disputa seguiu parcialmente o roteiro esperado, e apenas um consórcio vencedor apresentou proposta e obteve o direito de explorar por 35 anos o campo gigante de Libra, no pré-sal da bacia de Campos, que consumirá R$ 400 bilhões em investimentos nesse período.
Não houve ágio em relação à oferta mínima de 41,65% de retorno para o governo do petróleo produzido. No leilão sob o regime de partilha, vence quem ofereceu o maior retorno em petróleo para o governo, além de pagar um bônus de R$ 15 bilhões (recursos que serão usados para chegar à meta de superávit primário, a economia para o pagamento de juros da dívida, deste ano) e se comprometer a um conteúdo local mínimo de bens e serviços.
A Petrobras, além da participação obrigatória por lei de 30% no consórcio vencedor e de liderar os rumos da exploração e produção do campo, ficou com uma fatia adicional de 10%. Para especialistas, a oferta veio na pior hora para a empresa, que está endividada e com fraca geração de caixa diante do represamento, por parte do governo, do reajuste da gasolina.

Japan logs record trade deficit for April-Sept.

Japan logged a record deficit of 4,989.2 billion yen in goods trade for the April-September first half of fiscal 2013, as a weaker yen and strong demand for energy continued to push up fossil fuel import costs, the government said Monday.

In the six-month period, exports rose 9.8 percent from a year earlier to 35,319.9 billion yen, while imports advanced 13.9 percent to 40,309.1 billion yen, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.

In September, the trade balance came to a deficit of 932.1 billion yen, a record for the month and staying in the red for a record 15th consecutive month.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China, Singapore to build city of the future

China and Singapore are putting their heads together to build the world's first "ecocity" involving government-to-government cooperation in Tianjin, and hope it will be a model for sustainable development, local officials said here on Monday.

At the sixth China-Singapore Joint Steering Council Meeting for Tianjin Ecocity, to be held in Singapore on Tuesday morning, there will be an in-depth discussion to chart the way forward for the collaboration in the quest for sustainable urbanization and industrialization .

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and his Singaporean counterpart will be present.

Cui Guangzhi, deputy chief of the Tianjin Ecocity management committee, said that China and Singapore had met their initial environmental goals over the past five years.

By 2017, all infrastructure facilities and environmental programs will be complete, with a view to a population of 350,000, and districts with different functions including an industrial park will come online, said Cui.

When constructors broke ground on this project in September 2008, it was a wasteland of saline-alkali soil and water, recalled Jin Meizhu, chief of the Environmental Bureau of the Ecocity. Five years later the land has been levelled, 300 hectares have been reforested and treatment of a 40-year-old reservoir of industrial sewage is complete.

On a visit in September, Singapore's Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong suggested that the Eco-City could be the first in China to supply piped drinking water.

Qui remportera l'immense gisement pétrolier de Libra au Brésil ?

Quelque 700 militaires et plusieurs centaines de policiers ont été mobilisés autour de l'hôtel de luxe Windsor pour sécuriser, lundi 21 octobre, une vente aux enchères dont la durée ne devait pas dépasser, de l'avis même des experts, plus de trente minutes.

Une demi-heure qui en dit long sur la tension sociale du moment et l'importance que revêt, aux yeux des dirigeants brésiliens, cette première adjudication de concessions de gisements pétroliers présalifères dans l'Atlantique.

Le gisement proposé lundi est celui de Libra, situé en eaux très profondes dans le bassin de Santos, à 180 kilomètres du littoral de l'Etat de Rio. Les estimations des réserves de pétrole récupérables de ce champ varient entre 8 et 12 milliards de barils.

Elles représentent le plus grand volume d'or noir de cette zone du "pré-sél" découverte en 2007 et considérée comme étant au moins aussi importante que les réserves enfouies en mer du Nord. Le gisement de Libra permettrait deproduire plus de 1,2 million de barils de brut par jour dans cinq ans, selon l'Agence nationale du pétrole (ANP).

D'après le cahier des charges imposé par l'autorité de régulation, Brasilia devrarecevoir au moins 41,6 % du pétrole extrait à Libra. De quoi augmenter d'un tiers sa production nationale. De quoi équilibrer, aussi, son budget fédéral pour la fin 2013.

Avec un "bonus" initial, fixé à un minimum de 15 milliards de reais (un peu plus de 5 milliards d'euros), les gains s'annoncent juteux. 

Brasilia espère relancer avec cette enchère sa production etentrer dans le cercle restreint des plus grands pays exportateurs de pétrole. L'objectif est de faire passer sa production de 2,5 millions de barils par jour à 5,43 millions, en 2020.

Onze entreprises se sont inscrites aux enchères : outre Petrobras, contrôlé par l'Etat brésilien, y figurent les chinoises China National Corporation (CNPC) et China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), l'anglo-néerlandais Shell, le colombien Ecopetrol, le français Total, et la joint-venture Repsol/Sinopec. Chacune a versé plus de 2 millions de reais pour y participer. 

La vente sera remportée par l'entreprise ou le groupement de sociétés qui offrira le plus de pétrole à l'Etat brésilien.

Petrobras, les deux géants d'Etat chinois, CNPC et CNOOC, et le groupe Total sont les plus cités aux côtés d'un cinquième partenaire dont le nom n'a pas été divulgué.

Cette forte présence des entreprises chinoises autour de l'acquisition du site de Libra révèle, selon des experts un appétit croissant de Pékin pour le secteur énergétique brésilien et une volonté d'assurer l'accès à ses réserves sur le long terme.

Le Monde

Soif de pétrole: et voici l’Asie du sud-est!

"Un nouvel acteur va s'imposer ces prochaines années sur le marché de l'énergie: la région de l'Asie du sud-est, l'ensemble très composite de pays situés entre l'Inde et la Chine et qui rassemble Brunei, la Birmanie, le Cambodge, l'Indonésie, le Laos, la Malaisie, les Philippines, la Thaïlande, le Vietnam et Singapour.

Croissance en hausse, modernisation (134 millions de personnes de cette région qui en compte 600 n'ont toujours pas accès aujourd'hui à l'électricité), la demande d'énergie d'ici 2035 va y dépasser l'équivalent de la consommation actuelle d'énergie du Japon. Après avoir exporté il y a peu, la région va devenir le quatrième importateur de pétrole au monde, derrière la Chine, l'Inde et l'Union européenne.

En 2035, L'Asie du sud-est importera 75% de ses besoins en pétrole, triplant sa facture qui s'élèvera à 240 milliards de dollars, pendant que l'offre de gaz sera pratiquement absorbée par une demande croissante.

Chine, Inde, et maintenant Asie du sud-est: cette émergence le confirme, le "pivot" n'est pas seulement une réorientation diplomatique de l'administration américaine, c'est aussi un changement des rapports de forces dans le domaine de l'énergie à l'échelle du monde".

Le Monde

How the Indians Conquered Silicon Valley

"Visit any Silicon Valley technology company, and you’ll notice that it looks like the United Nations—with people from all over the world working together toward a common goal. It wasn’t always like this. Back when Silicon Valley was still developing semiconductors, it was largely white in complexion. As the Valley evolved and grew, it started attracting the best and brightest from all over the world. At first it was the Europeans, and then the Taiwanese. Then the whole world came.
 Indians have done amazingly well as entrepreneurs in the Valley, but other groups—African Americans and women, to name two—remain largely out of sight. As an Indian-born immigrant and tech entrepreneur myself, I have first-hand experience of some modes of thinking that, frankly, shocked me and rocked my belief in the Valley's story of its own openness. It appears to me that despite the success of Indians, meritocracy in the tech industry may be a mirage.

he seminal research on immigrants and diversity in Silicon Valley was conducted by University of California-Berkeley professor AnnaLee Saxenian, who published a paper titled “Silicon Valley’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs” in 1999. Saxenian found that immigrants accounted for one-third of the scientific and engineering workforce in Silicon Valley, and that Indian or Chinese CEOs were running a quarter of its high-technology firms. Saxenian analyzed data on firms founded in Silicon Valley from 1980 to 1998. Some 17% of the tech firms were run by Chinese immigrants (including Taiwanese) and 7% by Indians.

In 2006, my research team collaborated with Saxenian to update her work. The trend she’d seen in Silicon Valley had become a nationwide phenomenon. Among U.S. tech companies founded between 1995 and 2005, 25.3% had a chief executive or lead technologist who was foreign-born. These companies generated $52 billion in revenue and employed 450,000 workers in 2005. In some industries, such as semiconductors, the percentages were much higher: Immigrants founded 35.2% of startups''.

Source:  Reuters By Vivek Wadhwa

India: The World's Secret Silicon Valley

For many firms, developing new products for consumers around the world is the most visible manifestation of innovation - the "real deal." But many people still see India as a place where other people's ideas are made or executed and not where innovation begins. (After all, you don't hear about an Indian equivalent to Google, iPod or Viagra.) Bu they're wrong. In more than 600 captive research and development (R&D) centers across India today, corporations are designing and building amazing new things.
For example, GE's John F. Welch Technology Center has developed a string of technological marvels. A transparent roof spanning 300 meters without any central supports. A device to display integrated anatomical information from a CT scan with live functional information from a PET scan.
The markets for these wonder products are truly global, encompassing the United States, Europe, Asia and, of course, India itself.
Similarly, Intel's R&D center in Bengaluru is its largest unit outside the United States.
For example, the center delivered the world's first tera-scale experimental chip capable of one trillion operations per second.
Indian R&D units are present in AstraZeneca, EMC, Microsoft, Philips, Pfizer and Alcatel-Lucent - providing striking evidence that Indians can "do" innovation. But global consumers rarely recognize India as the country of origin because most of this innovation is invisible. How so? The innovation occurring in these Indian captive units is visible only to other business units and is not revealed to end consumers.
Because no country unit is solely responsible for the final result, it's difficult to associate any particular place with the innovation. Thus, the head of the GE unit in Bengaluru took great pains to state clearly that the unit in Bengaluru helped develop everything, but would not take sole credit for the aircraft engines and wind turbines.  The global services delivery model was invented in the late 1990s by many Indian IT companies, and this model allows for a key transformation: tightly integrated tasks formerly performed by workers in one location working for a single company now take on a distributed format, such that different parts of the work are executed in different geographies. The advantages are obvious, including the ability to execute work where the best expertise exists at the lowest possible costs,  take advantage of time zone differences for round-the-clock efforts, and  achieve some level of risk diversification by building redundancy across locations.
Source: Reuters

US: Nanowire Battery Created at Rice University

A group of investigators at the Rice University announces the development of a new type of battery, which is fashioned directly into a nanoscale wire. Scientists in the research group believe that this may very well represent the equivalent of the lithium-ion battery at the small scale. Almost every piece of electronic equipment that needs a mobile power source runs on lithium-ion batteries today, including cell phones, laptops, tablets, mp3 players, headphones, keyboards and mice. There is currently a great effort underway worldwide to discover ways of improving the efficiency and energy-storage abilities that these batteries have, but the issue is very complex, and many research teams have hit blocks. What Rice professor Pulickel Ajayan and his team did was pack the entire energy that a standard Li-ion battery can hold into a tine wire, at the nanoscale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, he explains. Details of the investigation appear in this month's issue of the American Chemical Society's (ACS) esteemed scientific journal Nano Letters. The research team says that this is about as small as any such device can ever get. Their innovation could be made into the rechargeable power source for the next generations of nanoelectronic equipment. The battery/supercapacitor hybrid was developed in two versions, and the Rice team tested them both before publishing the paper. “The idea here is to fabricate nanowire energy storage devices with ultrathin separation between the electrodes. This affects the electrochemical behavior of the device. Our devices could be a very useful tool to probe nanoscale phenomenon,” Arava Leela Mohana Reddy says. Source:news.softpedia

Marco Tempest: Techno Illusionist, blend of Digital Media and Magic

For years, Marco Tempest's masterful blend of digital media and magic has enabled audiences to glimpse the future before technology gets there. Adventurer, Scientist, Showman, Dreamer and Hero... There’s no one quite like Marco Tempest. His imaginative combination of computer-generated imagery, video, music and stagecraft with his unique vision of future life is creatively unique and unequalled within the performing arts. No one else combines the incredible technical savvy with the showmanship, the physical skills and the charisma of Tempest. With all that talent, it’s amazing that he seems to enjoy poking fun at himself, and all those marvelous toys! Marco gets a kick out of bending reality around the edges. Is that image in the screen, or just in front of it? At age 22, Marco captured the prestigious New York World Cup of Magic, launching him into international prominence. Marco Tempest has been featured in his own theatrical shows and as part of numerous television specials which have enjoyed well in excess of 500 million cumulative viewings across the world. Marco’s award winning television series The Virtual Magician is currently airing in 48+ countries. His talent has been recognized with a number of prestigious international awards. Marco Tempest is the winner of the 2009 World Magic Award for Best Contemporary Magic. Marco has been invited as a visionary presenter to the Seoul Digital Forum and the TEDxTokyo conference and presented his keynote to the xDays Leadership conference in Switzerland. His work is constantly changing: as new technologies evolve, Marco Tempest finds captivating ways of turning those advances into compelling illusions. Source: Marco Tempest Website

WSJ:Banks Brace For Fallout From J.P. Morgan’s Record Settlement

According to an article published today in the Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Eric Holder plans to use the deal with J.P.Morgan Chase, as a model for ongoing probes of other major financial firms’ conduct in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, according to several people familiar with his thinking. Justice Department officials intend to go after billions in fines from other institutions, pursue criminal cases aggressively and mix penalties with assistance for homeowners who were harmed by the financial crisis, these people said. Some J.P. Morgan rivals are already racing to figure out their ultimate exposure to all crisis-era lawsuits, said a person close to several large banks. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which was able to negotiate a cash payment of $4 billion as part of the larger pact, also intends to use the J.P. Morgan deal as a template for its pursuit of J.P. Morgan’s rivals. The regulator of mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is seeking a payment of more than $6 billion from Bank of America Corp.BAC that would resolve allegations that it misled Fannie and Freddie about the quality of mortgages sold to them during the crisis, said people close to those talks. Bank of America thus far has not agreed to any number, said another person.

A US scientist discovers internal body clock based on DNA

"A US scientist has discovered an internal body clock based on DNA that measures the biological age of our tissues and organs".

"The clock shows that while many healthy tissues age at the same rate as the body as a whole, some of them age much faster or slower. The age of diseased organs varied hugely, with some many tens of years "older" than healthy tissue in the same person, according to the clock.

Researchers say that unravelling the mechanisms behind the clock will help them understand the ageing process and hopefully lead to drugs and other interventions that slow it down.

Therapies that counteract natural ageing are attracting huge interest from scientists because they target the single most important risk factor for scores of incurable diseases that strike in old age.

"Ultimately, it would be very exciting to develop therapy interventions to reset the clock and hopefully keep us young," said Steve Horvath, professor of genetics and biostatistics at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Horvath looked at the DNA of nearly 8,000 samples of 51 different healthy and cancerous cells and tissues. Specifically, he looked at how methylation, a natural process that chemically modifies DNA, varied with age.

Horvath found that the methylation of 353 DNA markers varied consistently with age and could be used as a biological clock. The clock ticked fastest in the years up to around age 20, then slowed down to a steadier rate. Whether the DNA changes cause ageing or are caused by ageing is an unknown that scientists are now keen to work out".

Source:  theguardian

Monday Newspaper Round-up

"David Cameron is planning to build on the huge popularity of the Royal Mail privatisation by prioritising retail investors for the sell-offs ahead of the general election in 2015. Attracting retail investors will be a key aim as the government prepares to complete the sales of Royal Mail and Lloyds Bank next year, according to people close to the situation, the Financial Times writes. 

Ministers are to subsidise a French company to build Britain's first nuclear power station in a generation, guaranteeing to pay twice the level of today's wholesale energy price. The decision, to be publicised today, will provoke a new row over rising energy bills, with gas and electricity suppliers expected to announce further price increases this week. Under a deal with French company EDF Energy, the Government will guarantee to pay £92.50 for each megawatt hour of electricity generated by the Hinkley Point plant for 35 years, according to The Times. 

The number of profit warnings issued by British companies in September has shot to its highest level since 2008, according to research released today by top accountant Ernst & Young (EY). The figure for September was a shock after a strong performance so far this year, in which the number of companies warning of lower-than-expected profits has fallen sharply, suggesting the economic recovery was well under way.
London's booming housing market is rising at an unsustainable rate, the UK's largest property website warned on Monday, with the average asking price of a home in the capital surging by more than £50,000 last month.
Rightmove said the average asking price in London rose to £544,232 in October from £493,748 the previous month - an increase of more than 10%, The Guardian explains". 

LiveCharts

European Union's fiscal rate deficit and public debt ratio 2012

Data from Eurostat, the European Union's (EU) official statistics office, showed that Spain closed 2012 with the EU's highest public sector deficit as a percentage of GDP (gross domestic production). 

It came in at 10.6% when international aid for the banking sector is included. 

Excluding international funds for the country's banks, the public deficit ratio was 6.9%, less than the 7% estimate seen in April but greater than the 6.5% target set out by the Spanish government.

Elsewhere in the EU, Germany registered a public surplus of 0.1% in 2012. The lowest deficits were those in Estonia, Sweden (0.2%), Luxembourg (0.6%), and Bulgaria (0.8%). 

As a whole the Eurozone's public sector deficit was 3.7% compared to 4.2% in the prior year. For the entire European Union, which includes countries that do not use the single currency, the public deficit was 4.4% in 2012, above the prior year's 3.9% mark.

Greece had the highest stock of debt, at 156.9%, followed by Italy (127%), Portugal (124.1%), and Ireland (117.4%). Spain's total debt increased to 86% in 2012 from 70.5% in 2011.

The Eurozone's public debt ratio was 90.6%. For the entire EU, public debt was 85.1%.

Source: LiveCharts

SHANGHAI AND TOKYO EQUITIES RISE ON POLICY-MAKERS' REMARKS

"Asian stocks were generally higher on Monday, benefiting from expectations for a less aggressive US Federal Reserve and supportive remarks from policy-makers in China and Japan. 

Shanghai's main equity benchmark rose 1.62% to the 2,229.24-point level after the government called for carrying out its economic plan in an "unrelenting" fashion. Beijing will seek to increase support for small businesses and look for new engines to drive consumption, the State Council announced on Sunday. 

Tokyo's Nikkei-225 ended the trading session 0.91% higher at 14,693.57 points. In its latest quarterly assessment of the economy the Bank of Japan (BOJ) upgraded its assessment of economic conditions in all of the country' nine regions - activity was described as "recovering" in eight of Japan's regions - referencing the improvements seen in employment, income and industrial production.

In parallel, the central bank's Governor, Haaruhiko Kuroda, stated that he still aims to achieve the monetary authority's 2% inflation target within two years.

US dollar/yen gained by 0.34% to 98.08 yen on the back of those remarks from Kuroda.

Japan's exports grew at an 11.5% clip year-on-year in September, coming in below the 15.6% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Imports expanded at a 16.5% pace (consensus: 19.9%). 

The seasonally-adjusted trade deficit of 1,091.3bn Yen was smaller than forecast, but still the largest since statistics became available in October 2003, Nomura pointed out. 

China Mobile, the world's largest phone company when measured by the number of users, on Monday unveiled an 9% drop in net income, to well below the analyst consensus, as it invests in rolling out a 4G network in a bid to forestall losing further market share. 

Huishang Bank, a lender based in eastern China, is preparing a $1.5bn initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Suzuki Motor climbed by 2.4% after the Nikkei newspaper reported the vehicle manufacturer may report interim operating profits of 90bn Yen.

The Thai SET index was easily the worst performer in the region, dropping by 2.44% to 1,448.54 points".