The Internet and Social Media
Recently, technical and operational specifications of the Scorpene class submarine that India is buying from DCNS — a naval shipbuilder two-thirds owned by the French government — were leaked to The Australian newspaper. The incident follows the Modi administration’s launch of an AU$150 billion (US$113 billion) program to modernise the armed forces. It is a timely reminder of a basic flaw in India’s weapons acquisition and digitisation: a lack of expertise in cyber security and data encryption.
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Steel Industry
Today, advanced economies blame China for steel overcapacity. In reality, four decades ago Washington and Brussels opted for bad policies, which China seeks to transcend.
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Energy
The late-2014, Saudi-initiated oil-price war may have taken the 'boom' out of the US shale industry as it seriously threatened OPEC market share, but Saudi victory has been elusive: US shale has proven amazingly resilient. The industry has adapted quickly to the new playing field, and the unsung hero of a new uptick in drilling and investment isn't just true grit—it's sand.
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Energy
In most financial market contexts, crude oil maintains its position as one of the most actively traded commodities in the world. In futures markets, light sweet crude oil is the most commonly traded futures contract, and price trends in these areas can be a great indicator of how commodities as a whole are likely to trade in the near-term. Over the last year, we have seen some historic price movements in oil and precious metals. Here we will look at some of the factors that have contributed to these market occurrences over the last 6-12 months.
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Food Industry
The food sector has the potential to benefit greatly in the new ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). However, because food products attract higher levels of regulation, which often varies between member countries, a significant number of non-tariff measures (NTMs) remain. Such regulatory heterogeneity creates challenges for increasing food trade, harmonising standards and ultimately creating an integrated ASEAN single market.
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Energy
Oilfield services, shipbuilders and other industries that rose with the pre-2014 oil price boom have had it hard. Since barrel rates fell, their previous patrons have become uninterested in doling out major purchase orders, leaving oil and gas equipment manufacturers without revenues.
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Energy
China was responsible for 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2012. According to World Bank research, cities consume more than 65 percent of global energy and emit some 70 percent of greenhouse gases. Transforming cities into ‘low-carbon cities’ will therefore be an important policy tool in mitigating climate change.
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Small Business
Small to medium enterprises (SME) are increasingly relying on commercial credit cards to finance their operations, because payment terms for the businesses they supply are stretching out. However, if the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) goes ahead with plans to include commercial cards in the new caps on interchange fees, SMEs will be even more hard pressed to make ends meet.
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Health Care
Mylan is the latest pharmaceutical company to face controversy over its drug pricing. It has come under scrutiny and strong criticism from the public and government officials for raising the price of its EpiPen allergy device from about US$100 in 2008 to about US$600 currently.
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Energy
Oil has broken down further today. The ostensible trigger was the larger than expected build in US inventories. However, the price of oil has been trending lower since the beginning of last week. It appears that our skepticism of talk of an output freeze is gaining support.
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Energy
The collapse of oil prices has ground shale drilling to a halt, but the one region where drilling is still active, and even increasing, is in West Texas.
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Information Technology
Judging by the political winds, Silicon Valley seems headed for a showdown with antitrust regulators. For the first time since 1988, the Democratic Party’s platform includes stronger antitrust enforcement, while leading liberals have singled out Google, Apple and Facebook for holding too much market power.
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Marketing
At the Rio Olympics, American Ryan Lochte won gold as part of the US men’s 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay team. That medal, his 12th, made him the second most successful male Olympian swimmer of all time.
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Energy
We have gone electric, and there is no going back at this point. Lithium is our new fuel, but like fossil fuels, the reserves we are currently tapping into are finite—and that is what investors can take to the bank.
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Business Today
During the 2016 presidential election, we’ve seen an unusual amount of interest in issues regarding gender equality in the workplace. Discussions of equal pay, the glass ceiling and affordable childcare are not typical talking points in presidential elections.
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