Japan passes law to launch reform of electricity sector

Japan's upper house passed legislation on Wednesday to start the most ambitious reform of its electricity sector since 1951, a process prompted by the Fukushima nuclear crisis that may end with the break-up of powerful regional monopolies.

The reforms, including the establishment of a national grid and the liberalization of the power market for homes, are central to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to overhaul the economy, as high energy costs threaten to derail efforts to reverse decades of stagnation.

Regional monopolies, including Tokyo Electric Power Co and Kansai Electric Power Co, supply almost 98 percent of Japan's electricity and terms for access to their transmission lines make it onerous for new entrants.

Wrenching control of transmission from the monopolies to create a national grid became a big issue after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that sparked the Fukushima disaster and highlighted an inability to transfer power to areas suffering shortages.

The power law was passed by Japan's lower house earlier this month and sailed through the upper house with 202 votes in favor and 29 against, a parliamentary official said by phone.

While the energy companies say they support the thrust of the proposed changes, they have repeatedly urged the government to give priority to stable power supplies and say reform should be slowed down if this cannot be guaranteed.

Source: NewsOnJapan

US Researchers: New gene therapy could reverse heart failure in pigs

U.S. researchers said Wednesday they have successfully tested a powerful gene therapy, delivered directly into the heart, to reverse heart failure in pigs.

The findings, published in the U.S. journal Science Translational Medicine, is the final study phase before human clinical trials can begin testing SUMO-1 gene therapy, researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said.

According to the researchers, SUMO-1 is a gene that is "missing in action" in heart failure patients.

"SUMO-1 gene therapy may be one of the first treatments that can actually shrink enlarged hearts and significantly improve a damaged heart's life-sustaining function," senior investigator Roger Hajjar, director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, said in a statement. "We are very eager to test this gene therapy in our patients suffering from severe heart failure."

Heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization in the elderly, occurs when a person's heart is too weak to properly pump and circulate blood throughout their body.

Recent clinical trials have shown that replacing SERCA2, a gene that regulates the heart's calcium pump, can reduce heart failure, but Hajjar and his research group found that SUMO-1 can also effectively soothe ailing hearts.

By binding to and restoring the function of the SERCA2 pump, SUMO-1 is like a plumber on speed dial that quickly repairs the heart, they said.

The researchers simulated human heart failure in pigs by obstructing blood flow in the heart's main artery and tested delivery of SUMO-1 gene therapy alone, SERCA2 gene therapy alone, and a combination of SUMO-1 and SERCA2.

They found that gene therapy delivery of high dose SUMO-1 alone, as well as SUMO-1 and SERCA2 together, result in stronger heart contractions, better blood flow, and reduced heart volumes, compared to just SERCA2 gene therapy alone.

"These new study findings support the critical role SUMO-1 plays for SERCA2 function, and underlie the therapeutic potential of SUMO-1 gene replacement therapy for heart failure patients," Hajjar said.

The researchers said that they hope to start a Phase one clinical trial within the next few years and that beyond heart failure SUMO-1 may be a promising target for pulmonary hypertension and vascular diseases.

Source: Xinhua

Japan machinery orders fall, BOJ warns of overseas risks

Japan's core machinery orders fell more than expected and a central banker warned of headwinds from soft overseas growth, underscoring the difficulties of sustaining the economic recovery Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus policies generated.

Board member Ryuzo Miyao stressed the Bank of Japan's readiness to loosen monetary policy again should the global economy and domestic wages fail to pick up, forcing a change to the central bank's upbeat economic forecasts.

"I see risks somewhat tilted toward the downside for both the economy and prices," said Miyao, who is among those in the nine-member board relatively pessimistic about the outlook.

"If the BOJ were to act again, it won't rule out any policy steps in advance," he told a news conference on Wednesday after meeting with business leaders in Matsumoto, northwestern Japan.

Miyao's comments came after data showed core machinery orders, a volatile series regarded as a leading indicator of capital expenditure, fell 2.1 percent in September, more than a median market forecast for a 1.4 percent drop.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China sets up cloud computing industry alliance

A cloud computing industry alliance was set up Wednesday in Beijing to promote the development and innovation of information technology.

The alliance, China's first of its kind, was jointly established by Tsinghua University, Peking University and the Center for International Economic and Technological Cooperation under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The alliance aims to introduce advanced ideas, technologies and experience of cloud computing from overseas in order to boost the industry in China, said an alliance statement.

It will also boost domestic and international cooperation of cloud computing by integrating resources from government, enterprises, universities, research institutes and capital market, it said.

"Cloud computing marks the trend of the information industry," said Sun Jiaguang, president of the alliance and dean of Tsinghua University's School of Information Science and Technology.

Sun said cloud computing serves as "a nerve center between Internet of Things and the mobile Internet" and concerns the future of the economy.

The alliance strives to become an influential cross-sector, interdisciplinary social group to promote China's industrial upgrading and economic restructuring, he added.

Source: Xinhua

"China myth" body painting show staged in Wuhan

The body-painting performance named "China Myth" was held in Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province on Nov, 11, 2013. The show was organized by the 61st annual session of CIDESCO - world's major international beauty therapy association, and more than 600 experts from 36 countries took part in the session.

Founded in 1946, CIDESCO is called the "beauty industry's Olympic" and is held in one of their members' states annually.

Japan's wholesale prices up 2.5 pct in October

Japan's wholesale prices gained 2.5 percent in October compared with the same period of last year, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.

The index of corporate goods prices stood at 102.5 against the 2010 base of 100, the central bank said in a preliminary report. It was down 0.1 percent from September.It marked the seventh consecutive month that the index registered an increase, and the rise last month was the highest in five years, mainly due to a weaker yen and rising prices of building materials.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China Image Film Festival kicks off in London

The 5th China Image Film Festival opened here on Tuesday to give the British people an opportunity to watch 20 Chinese new films, including crime movie Silent Witness, romantic comedy Finding Mr. Right and cartoon movie Kuiba II.

The opening movie of the seven-day festival, held at Curzon Chelsea cinema and known as the largest Chinese movie festival in Europe, was historical blockbuster An End to Killing, which tells a story about war and peace.

"This year the festival is bigger and better, with more commercial movies," said Ivor Benjamin, chairman of Directors Guild of Great Britain. "It is a wonderful window of China."

China is currently the world's third largest film producing country with the number of new films and revenue of the film industry growing by 30 percent over the last decade. At the same time, China is the world's second largest film market.

"I hope that the festival is not only a platform to show the Chinese culture, but also a bridge for exchanges between film-makers from both China and the UK, so that they could enhance mutual understanding and future collaboration," said Xiang Xiaowei, minister counsellor of culture with the Chinese embassy in Britain.

During the festival, Chinese and British film makers will meet to discuss issues of co-production and cooperation. A film fair aimed at promoting Chinese film will also be held.

The China Image Film Festival, initiated in 2009 and held annually in autumn in London, is a platform for cultural exchanges between China and Britain.

Source:  Xinhua

Time for China to remove distortions, bottlenecks in resources allocation: Justin Yifu Lin

Justin Yifu Lin, former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank, shares his views on China's growth paths and the outlook for the Chinese economy at the inaugural Singapore Management University China Forum in Singapore, Nov. 13, 2013. China is at a development stage where it is necessary to remove the distortions and bottlenecks in the mechanism for resources allocation, Lin said on Wednesday.

"It's time to remove these kinds of distortions and the Chinese leadership certainly understand this issue very well," he told the inaugural Singapore Management University China Forum.

Lin, who is currently the honorary dean and professor at the National School of Development of Peking University, also said China is "ready" to pursue reforms to allow the market to play a fundamental role in the allocation of resources in its economy.

The reason is that China is already at a development stage where it is no longer short of capital and, instead, has an advantage in capital-intensive industries such as automobile and equipment manufacturing, he said.

China was successful in gradually moving from planned economy to a market economy, but it has also adopted a dual-track approach over the years, allowing China to "cross the river by groping for the stones."

Lin said this allowed China to sidestep the trap where nearly all the economic sectors collapse when all the distortions are removed simultaneously and all of a sudden.

As for the fundamental drivers of growth, Lin highlighted constant technological innovation and industrial upgrading for any economy. China was able to utilize its advantage of backwardness, he said.

The world's largest developing economy started with labor intensive industries where it had a comparative advantage after it opened up to foreign investment.

But now it is already at a stage where it is starting to have an advantage in the capital-intensive sectors, Lin said.

It means that the distortion in resources allocation mechanism that has the households and the small firms effectively subsidizing the operations of the big firms seems increasingly absurd and even causes social concerns.

Lin said that the distortions and bottlenecks are a legacy from the era of planned economy. The big firms, many of them state- owned, have access to cheap credit, whereas it is difficult for the small firms and the household to get access to the credit.

China has already scrapped the cap on lending rates and the next step would be to remove the limit on savings rates, thereby achieving an interest rate determined by the market, he said.

China needs more smaller financial institutions that operate in the provincial or local markets, Lin said.

Meanwhile, Lin said that he remains confident of China's growth for the coming years.

China's per capita income in 2008 was around 21 percent of the U.S. per capita GDP. This is like Japan in 1951, Singapore in 1967 and South Korea in 1977, and these East Asian economies managed to achieve an average annual growth rates between 7.6 percent and 9.2 percent in the 20 years after that.

It is therefore still possible for China to have another 20 years of sustained high growth of around 8 percent per year from 2008, Lin said.

Certainly China has to continue to carry out structural reforms in order to achieve what is theoretically possible, he added.

Lin said the Chinese leadership is trying to push reforms for the market to play a larger role in the allocation of resources.

The senior economist also said that it is important for China to continue having high savings rate and having investment as a key driver of the economy.

All the economies that achieved sustained high growth had had very high savings rates.

Diet panel grills Mizuho Bank chief over gangster loans

Japanese lawmakers grilled Mizuho Bank President Yasuhiro Sato on Wednesday over the Mizuho Financial Group Inc.  unit's loans extended to gangsters in a tie-up with consumer credit affiliate Orient Corp. and the bank's failure to address the problem quickly.

"We humbly apologize and are now resolved to take measures to thoroughly shut out antisocial forces," Sato said at a meeting of the Financial Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Billionaire Mikitani's Kenko sues Japan government on drug curbs

Kenko.com Inc., a unit of billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani's Internet retailer, said it filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government to fight restrictions on the online sale of some drugs.

The government's ban is "unconstitutional," and the lawsuit was filed at the Tokyo District Court, Rakuten Inc. (4755) unit Kenko said in a stock-exchange statement yesterday. The cabinet approved a bill yesterday that would limit some sales.

The filing came after Mikitani, the 48-year-old head of Rakuten, threatened legal action against the government and said he would step down from a key government council if Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed forward a bill that would prevent Internet sales of 28 drug products. The Kenko suit and online drug sales will be handled according to the law, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a press conference.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Comet ISON unlikely to be as bright as previously expected

Space enthusiasts are worried about Comet ISON, which will reach perihelion, the point in its orbit closest to the sun, on Nov. 29. The cause of their concern is that its brightness has not increased as predicted.

The approach of Comet ISON has been billed as the biggest astronomical event of the year, as astronomers assumed its brightness would reach a magnitude of minus 13, or slightly more brilliant than a full moon, when the comet was discovered in September last year.But the pace of the increase in the comet's brightness has been slower than predicted.
The best times to observe the comet will be an hour before dawn on Dec. 4 to 10, when it will be moderately distant from the sun. During those times, the comet will be visible in the lower part of the eastern sky.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Right-wing member uses yakuza name to extort listed Tokyo company

Tokyo Metropolitan Police announced on Monday the arrest of the head of a right-wing group for the alleged blackmail of Tokyo construction and real estate firm Crea Holdings.

Officers took Takashi Nao, the 55-year-old leader of the Shokonjuku group, into custody for extorting a total 22 million yen in cash payments from the 46-year-old majority owner of the company, which is listed on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.On three occasions in February and March of 2011, Nao demanded the money from the victim at the Hotel New Otani and other locations. The suspect utilized the name of the top boss of the Sumiyoshi-kai organized crime group in threatening the employee. "They will kill," Nao reportedly said, according to TV Asahi (Nov. 11).
Nao has reportedly admitted to the allegations.
In 2009, Nao originally demanded payment of 100 million yen at a general shareholders' meeting of Crea Holdings under the false pretext of having a right to be present. A signed agreement that included a payment of that sum was exchanged.
According to TBS News (Nov. 11), an arrest warrant for Nao was issued in February.
Investigators are now attempting to determine if Nao had been involved in any other extortion cases.
Nao participated in the founding of Shokonjuku in 1978. The group, which uses Tokyo as a base of operations, has 1,500 members.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Landscape painting exhibition opens in Beijing

The Lingnan school of painting is one of the most important traditions of Chinese art, an exhibition showcasing the latest developments of that tradition has opened here in the capital, featuring landscape paintings by Xu Qinsong, master of the Lingnan School.

There are 100 works on display, all created by Xu this year. Xu is the dean of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, and President of the Guangdong Artists Association. Since the first half of the 20th century, the Lingnan school of painting has centered around the southern China city of Guangzhou.

The style has led the art world of Guangdong Province and surrounding areas of southeastern China, a region also known as “Lingnan.” The influence of these innovative artistic concepts remains strong today.

Source:  CCTV

Thyroid cancers up in Fukushima

Screening of Fukushima residents who were 18 or younger at the time of the 2011 nuclear disaster had found 26 confirmed and 32 suspected cases of thyroid cancer as of Sept. 30, according to the Fukushima Prefectural Government.

The number of confirmed cases was up by eight from August, while the suspected cases rose by seven, the prefecture-led study found.About 226,000 people have undergone the screening program since it kicked off in October 2011.
The 26 confirmed cases underwent surgery and are doing well, according to the prefecture.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Space: GOCE mission comes to a fiery end

This morning, at about 1:00 am CET, ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite reentered the atmosphere and burned up somewhere along its orbital path extending from Siberia, across the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean, and to Antarctica. 
 Launched in March 2009 from Russian’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome, GOCE’s mission was to carry out the most detailed survey yet of the Earth’s gravitational field, within one-millionth of a gravity. The octagonal 1,100-kg (2,425-lb) satellite, nicknamed the "Ferrari of space," provided new insights into the Earth’s structure and the ocean’s circulation, as well as the creation of a map of the "geoid," which is the shape of an ideal global ocean as it would appear under only the influence of rotation and gravity, and not tides and wind.

In order to carry out these measurements, GOCE was placed in an orbit of 255 km (158 miles) to 224 km (139 miles). At this altitude, there is enough of the Earth’s atmosphere present to cause considerable drag, so the unmanned spacecraft was somewhat streamlined, and equipped with winglets and an ion engine to help it maintain orbit.

On October 2, GOCE’s engine ran out of xenon fuel, its orbit began to naturally decay, and it lost about 1.5 km (1 mile) of altitude per day. ESA’s Space Debris Office and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee monitored the spacecraft’s progress and continued to update its estimated time of reentry. On November 10 at about 11:50 pm, it was tracked by the Antarctic Troll station at an altitude of 120 km (75 miles) and ESA reported that the craft was, to the agency’s surprise, still functional. Then, at about 1:00 am, communications were lost as it made its final plunge into the atmosphere.

"The one-tonne GOCE satellite is only a small fraction of the 100 – 150 tonnes of man-made space objects that reenter Earth’s atmosphere annually," says Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA’s Space Debris Office. "In the 56 years of spaceflight, some 15,000 tonnes of man-made space objects have reentered the atmosphere without causing a single human injury to date."

Source: ESA

Worries about a near term Melt Up in US Stocks? Liz Ann Sonders.

"It's interesting to see the reactions among clients and other investors to the melt-up story. It's been a mixed bag here in the United States, with more bearishly-inclined investors incredulous that it is even a possibility. I was in London this past May and when I brought up the subject at a small investor dinner, the debate became particularly heated between the melt-up believers and non-believers. More interesting was my experience in China last week, where there was much more enthusiasm about the possibility of a melt-up (highlighting the more trading-orientation of investors there in US stocks).

   Two of my long-time friends in this business- famed economist Ed Yardeni and famed strategist Laszlo Birinyi (with whom I shared the stage on Wall $treet Week With Louis Rukeyser)—have been warning of the risk of a melt-up. Like me, they remain bullish, but are keeping an eye on sentiment risks.

Sentiment does look a bit stretched in the short-term, with both the Ned Davis Crowd Sentiment Poll and SentimenTrader's Smart Money/Dumb Money Confidence Poll showing elevated (extreme) levels of optimism. The former should be very familiar to readers as it's my go-to sentiment indicator because it's an amalgamation of seven distinct indicators. The latter is one I haven't shown in some time, but it is flashing a bit of a warning presently".

These both suggest there is a growing near-term risk of a pullback.

Liz Ann Sonders,Schwab.

Japan: Yesterday Line to launch Line Mall e-commerce app.

Yesterday Line, the popular Japanese messaging app, announced that it will prepare for the public launch of its upcoming (and long anticipated) Line Mall e-commerce app.

In a blog post on its Japanese-language website, the company called for prospective e-commerce vendors to send in an application, which will presumably be used to determine the validity of the seller and his or her goods.

Further details are scarce, though the post  states that Line intends to provide users with a high-quality product line-up, and describes a system in which sellers will be rewarded for successful transactions with points that can be redeemed for other purchases.

What does that tell us? Well, Line Mall probably ain’t gonna be Craiglist – expect quality control, behavioral incentives, and social elements. And there will probably be some teddy bear stickers too.

Line gives no exact launch date for Line Mall, but states that it plans to roll the service out to the Japanese public in mid-December.

Line announced back in August that it intended to enter the e-commerce sector as part of increased focus on engagement and monetization.

The company brought in US$192 million in revenue for the quarter ending in September, up an impressive 48 percent from the previous quarter. It boasts 280 million registered users globally, though it’s unknown what percentage of those accounts are active.

Source: TechinAsia

U.S. equities showed some resiliency to finish higher

Stocks Higher Despite Central Bank Uncertainty

U.S. equities showed some resiliency to finish higher amid the omnipresent uncertainty surrounding the direction of monetary policy globally, which was exacerbated by the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report that upped concerns that the nation’s central bank may begin to raise rates sooner than some had expected. Meanwhile, Treasuries finished higher amid the uncertainty, as well as a decline in U.S. weekly mortgage applications. On the equity front, shares of Macy's rallied after it beat the Street’s expectations and voiced confidence heading into the all-important 4Q, Yum Brands got a boost after posting better-than-forecasted October same-store sales in China, while Starbucks revised its 4Q13 and full-year earnings results sharply lower after being ordered to pay $2.8 billion to settle a packaged coffee dispute with Kraft Foods Group Inc. Finally, gold and crude oil prices were higher, while the U.S. dollar ended lower, pressured by a rally in the British pound. 

Source: Schwab Market Insight

The Great Separation has Arrived in Private Equity

The Great Separation has arrived in private equity. For a long stretch, investors barely distinguished among the publicly traded stocks of Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR. There now appears to be a noticeable appreciation for the differences. It should be a welcome change even if it reflects some short-term thinking about a long-term business.

A blowout quarter from Leon Black’s shop Apollo helped it stand apart from rivals. Unprecedented harvesting of investments in companies like Sprouts Farmers Market, Realogy Holdings and Berry Plastics delivered earnings that far exceeded what analysts expected. So pronounced has been Apollo’s stock-market rally over the last year, however, that even the impressive news on Thursday wasn’t enough to power its tradable units further.

It wasn’t long ago that investors failed to distinguish one barbarian from the other. Overlay the stock charts of Apollo, Blackstone and KKR from November 2011 to November 2012 and they practically sit atop one another. Carlyle debuted in May 2012 and soon after the Four Horsemen were unbridled. Over the last year, Apollo’s shares are up 120 percent, Blackstone’s almost 80 percent, KKR’s nearly 60 percent and Carlyle’s about 20 percent.

For one thing, investors have come to appreciate carry, or the investment profits that buyout titans can generate. When Blackstone first went public in 2007, most analyses centered on sum-of-the-parts models that put greater emphasis on the industry’s steady management fees.

That led to unfavorable and generally unsuitable comparisons to more traditional asset managers like T. Rowe Price. The result wound up ascribing little value to carried interest. More attention is now paid to putting a multiple on distributable earnings, or cash flow.

With four sizable firms now trading, and rivals like Oaktree Capital also in the mix, it is getting easier to spot the differences. Blackstone’s real estate portfolio, Apollo’s debt investments, KKR’s balance sheet and Carlyle’s fragmented funds offer an array of strategies and risk profiles.

That all goes some way to explaining the variances in the share movements, with a marked preference for sellers over buyers. Like Apollo, Blackstone is heading for the exits in a big way, with IPOs of Hilton Worldwide, Brixmor Property and others.

Of course, the unsurprising implication is a tendency toward immediate gratification. That’s antithetical to private equity, whose fund model demands a time horizon of seven to 10 years. The Great Separation makes the differences between the industry’s two investor masters even more pronounced.

By Reffrey Goldfarb, Reuters

Yellen, in Testimony, Says Fed Has More Work to Do

 The Wall Street Journal reports,"the U.S. economy has made "good progress" since the depths of the recession, but has farther to go in regaining what was lost, Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen will tell lawmakers Thursday during a hearing on her nomination to be the next leader of the Federal Reserve".

Unemployment, at 7.3% in October—down from a recent peak of 10% in 2009—"is still too high, reflecting a labor market and economy performing far short of their potential," Ms. Yellen will say in her opening statement to senators, according to her prepared remarks, released Wednesday afternoon. Inflation remains below the central bank's 2% target and will likely remain low for some time, Ms. Yellen said.

"Both factors are motivating the Fed's efforts to boost the economic recovery, Ms. Yellen said. She defended the Fed's controversial $85 billion-per-month bond-buying program, anticipating criticism from some senators". "A strong recovery will ultimately enable the Fed to reduce its monetary accommodation and reliance on unconventional policy tools such as asset purchases. I believe that supporting the recovery today is the surest path to returning to a more normal approach to monetary policy."

   

Frackers needed Long term View to Succeed

Just six years ago the United States seemed destined for ever greater reliance on increasingly hostile Arab and Latin American nations to meet its energy needs. Worse, many respected energy experts, for example banker Matthew Simmons, credibly claimed that the globe faced a ruinous shortage of crude. A surge in the price of oil to a record $147 a barrel in June 2008 seemed just a taste of the economic pain to come.

“The Frackers” charts how a handful of small businessmen in America overturned these seemingly inexorable trends.

Hydraulic fracturing, the drilling technique commonly known as fracking, opened up vast reserves of oil and gas previously thought inaccessible. The resulting surge in U.S. natural gas production has lowered electricity bills, and the 40 percent surge in U.S. oil output since 2008 was enough to compensate for lower output from the likes of Iran and Libya. By the end of the decade the technology will have created 2 million jobs, offsetting all the jobs lost in the housing crash.

Why did America’s oil giants lag behind unknown peers in fracking, despite their far greater resources? Largely because they focused too much on quarterly results and a narrow definition of shareholder value. In the late 1990s, for example, Chevron pulled the plug on $50 million of annual spending to develop fracking in Texas. Many investors in the $50 billion company would have admired the frugality and attention to returns.

In contrast, by 1997 oil minnow George Mitchell, whose Mitchell Energy had a market value of under $1 billion, had spent $250 million over 16 years to develop fracking in the same region. The obsessive spending looked like the height of irrationality, until Mitchell finally made fracking work. In August 2001 Devon Energy paid $3.1 billion for his company. Mitchell became a billionaire and an energy legend – when he was 82. It took another five or six years for shale drilling to become widespread in the United States and start boosting output of gas and oil.

Anyone who took up the shale baton had to be willing to take many years of heavy losses. Harold Hamm, founder of tiny Continental Resources, spent so much trying to develop North Dakota’s Bakken shale that profits all but evaporated. Yet by 2012 oil production from Hamm’s wells accounted for 10 percent of America’s oil output, earning him a $12 billion fortune, which is still growing.

“The Frackers” details the colorful exploits of Aubrey McClendon, co-founder of Chesapeake Energy. His willingness to brush aside shareholder caution enabled him to build the second largest gas producer in the United States from a standing start in the 1990s. Sadly the same stubbornness impelled him to continue spending far beyond the means of his company and to use Chesapeake as a personal piggy bank. Disgruntled shareholders booted him out in 2013.

The picture that emerges, then,from Zuckerman’s compelling account is a revolution driven by stubborn entrepreneurs – often over the objections of shareholders and more rational directors. By the time Exxon Mobil, America’s largest oil company, awoke to the implications of fracking, it had to pay top dollar to catch up, buying shale driller XTO for $31 billion.

By  Christopher Swan,Breakingviews

      Reuters

Dark times for Suntech Creditors. China's IPO's cast Shadows

Suntech has gone from solar panel maker to financial black hole. The stricken company is fighting with creditors who want to see it liquidated after it defaulted on interest payments in March. Proposals to sell assets and take Chinese government cash seem unlikely to help investors avoid huge losses. For investors it’s a lesson in what happens when things really go wrong with Chinese companies.

Holders of Suntech’s bonds are owed $541 million. But local lenders, which have extended $1.7 billion or so, are first in line. Suntech’s bankrupt Chinese subsidiary has agreed to sell most of its assets to a Hong Kong-listed solar panel maker for $490 million, but it’s unlikely any of that cash will reach bondholders of the overseas holding company. Liquidation offers closure, but it could yield mere pennies.

Dark Times for Suntech Creditors

Suntech’s creditors are now left at the mercy of politicians in China – rarely a good place to be. A local state-owned vehicle, Wuxi Guolian, is offering $150 million of cash to recapitalise the U.S. listed vehicle, plus some unspecified assets, likely to mean bits of other local solar manufacturers. In return, bondholders would get equity, but it’s hardly attractive. The bonds’ current market value of 21 cents to the dollar may be as good as it gets.

With so many moving parts, valuing Suntech is a mug’s game. The $270 million suggested by the combined market value of the company’s bonds and shares on Nov. 7 looks heroic. Even if Wuxi Guolian puts up the cash and creditors swap some debt for equity, existing shareholders will be heavily diluted. To add to the dysfunction, the New York Stock Exchange has said it will suspend trading in the shares on Nov. 11.

While Suntech’s demise drags on, investors in other Chinese companies should watch closely. U.S.-listed Chinese technology stocks are flying even though their investors have the same tenuous claim on mainland assets, and are equally at risk of political meddling. Tech companies’ revenue growth may offer a wild ride on the way up, but Suntech’s grisly unwinding shows it gets even wilder on the way down.

 By John Foley 

Reuters Breakingviews

"Pink Star" diamond sells for world record $83 million - Sotheby's

The "Pink Star", a huge flawless pink diamond, sold for 76.3 million Swiss francs ($83.02 million) including commission fees in Geneva on Wednesday, a world record price for a gemstone at auction, Sotheby's said.

The oval-shaped diamond, mounted on a ring, weighed in at 59.60 carats. It was bought by a man bidding in the room, who told reporters that he was buying it on behalf of an anonymous person whom he represented, and would not give his own name.

"Ladies and gentlemen, 68 million (Swiss francs) is the world record bid for a diamond ever bid and it's right here," Sotheby's David Bennett said to applause as he brought down the hammer in the Geneva salesroom.

Sotheby's said the final sale price included the "buyer's premium", or commission fees.

The Pink Star was the star lot at Sotheby's semi-annual jewelry sale in Geneva, held in a heavily-guarded hotel showroom, which followed strong Hong Kong auctions last month.

Bennett, noting that its pre-sale estimate was $61 million, told reporters: "It surpassed our estimate. It's a large amount of money in itself but I don't think this stone has a price."

The previous record was held by the "Graff Pink", a 24.78 carat fancy intense pink diamond bought by Laurence Graff, the London-based jeweler known as "The King of Diamonds", in 2010 for 45.44 million Swiss francs ($45.75 million at the time).

"Frankly when I sold the Graff 3 years ago, I thought it would be a record for a very long time. Tonight's price is really quite extraordinary three years later," Bennett said.

The Pink Star was cut and polished from a 132.5 carat rough diamond mined by De Beers somewhere in Africa in 1999, according to Sotheby's, which said it had no information on the exact geographic origin.

It was first sold in 2007 and the seller wished to remain anonymous, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said.

Few lots were stranded on the block and many that sold soared many times over their pre-sale estimate.

Sotheby's sale of magnificent jewels also realised the highest jeweler sale total for a single auction in history - $199.5 million, according to the auction house.

Source: Reuters

Mobile Marketing: How to Get Your Share of $8 Billion in Mobile Bookings

Don’t have a mobile-friendly site yet? Debating the value of developing a mobile app? This guide’s for you.

Consider that 51% of mobile web users research travel options using cell phones and iPads or other tablets.1 And they book too, projecting to $8 billion in mobile bookings in 2013.2 

The first thing you should do to boost direct bookings and get your share of a rapidly growing mobile audience? Make it easy for travelers to find, research and book your property on mobile. Here’s why.

Over 50% of mobile web users research travel on mobile

Mobile-friendly is bookings-friendly

45% of mobile web users choose to browse on their smartphones even when a computer is nearby.3 Why? Because it’s so convenient — their phone is always with them and it’s always on. So if your potential guests are stuck with a website built for people using a computer, you could be losing out on a lot of prime business.

That’s because viewing a full website on a smartphone or tablet distracts and frustrates visitors with:

• Slow load times
• Small links that are hard to tap
• Pages that require resizing 
• Layouts that inhibit booking
• Too much typing

The good news? 

You can turn mobile visitors into mobile bookings, with just a little work on your part. We’ll give you an overview of two popular options for mobile-friendly sites: Responsive websites and separate mobile websites. We’ll also help you decide if a mobile app makes sense for your brand.

Source:  tripadvisor

ECB's Praet: All Options on Table

    According to a report from the Wall Street Journal "the European Central Bank could adopt negative interest rates or purchase assets from banks if needed to lift inflation closer to its target", a top ECB official said.
"If our mandate is at risk we are going to take all the measures that we think we should take to fulfill that mandate. That's a very clear signal," ECB executive board member Peter Praet said in an interview Tuesday with The Wall Street Journal.

Annual inflation in the euro zone slowed to 0.7% in October, far below the central bank's target of just below 2% over the medium term. The euro dipped briefly after the comments appeared on the Journal's website.

Mr. Praet didn't rule out what some analysts see as the strongest, and most controversial, option: purchases of assets from banks to reduce borrowing costs in the private sector.

"The balance-sheet capacity of the central bank can also be used," said Mr. Praet, whose views carry added weight as he also heads the ECB's powerful economics division. "This includes outright purchases that any central bank can do."

Additional stimulus from the ECB isn't needed right now, Mr. Praet signaled, noting that inflation risks for the euro zone as a whole are balanced after last week's unexpected ECB interest-rate cut.

Some of the countries hit hardest by the euro zone's debt crisis, including Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Spain, have inflation rates of zero or lower.

The ECB could do more if necessary, Mr. Praet said. "On standard measures, interest rates, we still have room and that would also include the deposit facility," he said.

The central bank's deposit rate has been set at zero for several months. Making it negative would effectively levy a fee on commercial banks that park funds at the ECB.

That would be aimed at spurring bank lending to the private sector, which would boost growth and inflation. However, a negative deposit rate would also weigh on bank profits.

"For some decisions it's easier than others" to gain consensus, Mr. Praet said. "One thing is clear: the Governing Council has been able to decide. That's really the message."

The need for more aggressive stimulus is increasingly being debated by economists and investors.