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Markets 5th May 2014

The two sides of China’s Internet economy

Mid-April the largest Chinese micro blogging service, Weibo, raised $286m in its Nasdaq debut. Within weeks, Alibaba, the largest e-commerce platform in the world is expected to complete probably the biggest IPO in history. These are some of the main players of China’s booming Internet economy, which saw revenues of  600.41 billion Yuan in 2013, and it is expected to reach 1.72315 trillion Yuan in 2017.  But censorship and strict regulations are hindering the growth of the country’s cyber players.

 

Tesla

World economy 29th April 2014

The driving forces of Elon Musk

BEIJING | By W. Jiapeng, H. Haoyi, Z.Shiyun and G. McCubbing via Caixin | The second time around to China has offered much more promise than the first some two years ago, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla Motors Inc, said in an interview with Caixin. In three or four years, Musk plans to have cars produced in China, which will mean setting up a joint venture with a local partner, influencing the car industry to move faster in the direction of electric cars.

 

Real economy

World economy 23rd April 2014

The Long Goodbye

BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | What’s important in today’s financial world is perception, not substance. If you check out what important financial figures have proposed in the past, they have been good for forming bubbles, not for growing the real economy.People around the world will only begin to question their economic policymakers when they realize living standards are slowly worsening.

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Markets 15th April 2014

Market chatter: down the road to a banking union and much more

MADRID | By Jaime Santisteban | In a crucial day for the long-awaited banking union in Europe, market makers also chattered about many other issues, like the Bank of Spain -which has denied it plans to subject Spanish lenders to stress tests this month- achieving less tough criteria for Spanish banks in the upcoming EU stress tests.

Gentlemen

World economy 15th April 2014

China: Why ‘gentleman’ matters

BEIJING | By Will Spence via Caixin | The English Gentleman may be one of our country’s most enduring national symbols, but it is still a somewhat controversial topic back home. In China, however, the concept has flourished in a wholly positive way. The Chinese government often says it wants to build up its soft power, but for this to happen it may have to embrace its heritage and adopt a gentler approach.

 

China shadow banking

Markets 3rd April 2014

China: shadow finance for the masses

Iris Mir | Tight control of capital accounts has pushed China to a financial deadlock.  Chinese savers are looking to new online investment platforms amid a  lack of substantial wealth management options. Last year China’s Internet payment platform launched the online investment platform Yu’e Bao to offer its users the possibility of investing the idle money on their Alipay accounts and getting much higher benefits than any traditional bank. More than 43.03 million people already enjoy its advantageous financial products. The opportunities of this business model are huge  and many other Chinese internet giants are following suit.

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In Europe 25th March 2014

Achtung: German businessmen express doubts on growth and labor reforms

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | German Council of economic experts (‘the Five Wise Men’) upgraded its forecast for the country’s GDP growth in 2014 to 1.9 percent from its previous expectation of 1.6 percent in November last year. However, the last Ifo’s data show that global events like Crimea crisis and a slowing Chinese GDP growth can badly impact the euro zone’s engine.

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World economy 21st March 2014

China: The mirage of the ‘new economy’

SHANGHAI | By Andy Xie via Caixin | The current Internet boom and the new economy, centered around social networking, e-commerce and online gaming, has not produced a significant productivity boost for the economy and likely will not in the future. The boom is mostly about redistributing existing demand from offline to online.