1 China devalues yuan to boost economy (Martin
Farrer in The Guardian) China has devalued its currency to boost flagging
exports in a move that risks deepening the global currency war. After recent
data showing falling exports and a stalling manufacturing sector, the central
bank said that it was allowing the yuan to weaken by nearly 2% in the hope of
making China’s exports cheaper and pushing down borrowing costs.
The People’s Bank of China said it was now basing
the yuan’s midpoint on market makers’ quotes and the previous day’s closing
price. The currency midpoint weakened to 6.2298 per dollar, its lowest value to
the dollar for almost three years. It was 6.1162 on Monday.
The move is a sign that the country’s leaders are
increasingly concerned about the economy, which has lost competitiveness as the
yuan has climbed in relation to other currencies such as the yen and the euro. A
series of interest rate cuts have failed to kickstart the economy, which has
also been hit by turbulence on the country’s stock markets after more than a year
of unprecedented rises.
But it could trigger copycat devaluations by central
banks across the region as those countries attempt to maintain their own
competitiveness against China. Australia, Korea and India are among the leading
Asia Pacific economies where central banks have cut interest rates to force
local currencies down and boost exports hit by flagging world demand.
Another dimension is Beijing’s attempts to win
greater status for the yuan. It has been lobbying the International Monetary
Fund to include the yuan in its basket of reserve currencies known as special
drawing rights (SDR), which are used by the IMF to lend money to sovereign
borrowers. The current members of the group are the US dollar, yen, euro and
British pound. “I don’t think this is a reaction to the weak trade data over
the weekend, I think it’s because of the SDR,” said Zhou Hao of Commerzbank AG
in Singapore.
2 New parent company for Google (BBC) Google has
unveiled a surprise restructuring, creating a new parent company called
Alphabet Inc.Under the rebranding, Google will retain its best-known
businesses, such as search, apps, YouTube and Android. Some of the newer
entities, such as the investment and research divisions, the
"smart-home" unit Nest, and the drone arm will be run under Alphabet.
Google founder Larry Page said it would create a
simpler structure for what had become a diverse group of businesses. "This
new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary
opportunities we have inside of Google. Our company is operating well today,
but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable," he said.
"The whole point is that Alphabet companies should have independence and
develop their own brands."
Mr Page will become chief executive of Alphabet,
with senior vice president Sundar Pichai becoming CEO of Google. Mr Page's
fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin will become president of Alphabet, and
Eric Schmidt, the current Google chairman, will be executive chairman of the
holding company.
The name Alphabet was chosen for two reasons, Mr
Page said. It represents language, "the core of how we index with Google
search", and because Alpha-bet means "investment return above
benchmark, which we strive to do".
3 Four features of an entrepreneur (Allison Engel in
San Francisco Chronicle) Everywhere you look, young, modern thought-leaders are
cashing-in on the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Society is worshipping at the
altar of venture capitalism and extolling open-concept office spaces. And
"entrepreneur” has become a trendy buzzword. But the problem is, once
everyone embraces that buzzword, once everyone becomes an entrepreneur, will
that once distinguished title lose its meaning?
Who qualifies? The biggest thing that separates
entrepreneurs from everyone else is that they tend to build new ideas in
relatively unchartered territories, in order to target a big exit. There are three
other main differences between entrepreneurs and mainstream small business
owners: Funding:
Entrepreneurs tend to take on outside capital to grow their
businesses. This may be in the form of VC funding, crowd-funding, microloans or
angel investors. Strategy: A major staple of entrepreneurship is having an exit
strategy for your business. Entrepreneurs usually aren’t in it for the long
haul. They’re trendsetters who cash-in on innovation, then move on to the next
big thing.
Tech: Entrepreneurs tend to have inherently strong
tech backbones. They’re always searching for tech tools to make their ideas run
more efficiently and lucratively. These differences are far from comprehensive
and still leave a lot of gray area in this discussion. If you’re still unsure
whether you’re an entrepreneur, let’s delve even deeper.
Still unclear? Ask yourself these questions. A. Are
you a risk-taker? Where other people see volatile, scary situations,
entrepreneurs see opportunities and possibilities. Their clear-eyed vision of
the future allows them to take what appear to be crazy risks without batting an
eyelash.
B. How do you feel about personal development? Entrepreneurs
are highly focused on learning everything they can about their industries.
They’re always “on,” consuming information and learning, just for the sake of
learning. C. What happens when someone tells you “no”? “No” doesn’t always mean
“no” for entrepreneurs. To them, “no” means they need to more expertly hone
their pitch and try again.
D. How do you spend your downtime? If you’re an
entrepreneur, this is actually a trick question because you don’t have any
downtime. There’s no such thing as "work-life balance"; everything
bleeds together because your entire life revolves around both your business and
your industry.
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