IMF smells trouble for Argentina and the world; Supermarket Morrisons to cut 2,600 jobs; BRICS seen to have shrunk to 'CI'

1 IMF smells trouble for Argentina and the world (BBC) The International Monetary Fund has warned that Argentina's legal defeat in its fight against hedge fund investors may have wider implications. On Monday, a US Supreme Court ruling sided with bondholders demanding Argentina pay them $1.3bn. The IMF said it was concerned about "broader systemic implications".

Meanwhile the ratings agency S&P cut Argentina's credit rating, warning the ruling made it more likely that the country would default. S&P reduced the credit rating by two notches from "CCC+" to "CCC-". The move makes it more expensive for Argentina to borrow money.

Argentina's Economy Minister, Axel Kicillof, said the government was "starting to take steps" to restructure the debt under Argentine law - as a way of avoiding complying with the US order. Argentina has agreed a restructuring with the bulk of investors holding its defaulted debt, but the so-called "hold-outs" have been fighting for 100% of the value. The Supreme Court rejected Argentina's appeal against an order to pay the full value of bonds that some hedge funds bought after the country defaulted more than a decade ago.

The South American country defaulted in 2001 following its economic crisis, and has been in a legal battle with bondholders led by hedge funds NML and Aurelius Capital Management. Argentina argues that the funds bought most of the debt at a deep discount after the default, and has since tried to impede the country's efforts to restructure. Investors holding more than 92% of the defaulted debt agreed in 2005 and 2010 to write off two-thirds of their pre-crisis value, providing Argentina with time to re-build its economy. But the hedge funds owning the remaining 8% held out against the restructuring.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27886361

2 Supermarket Morrisons to cut 2,600 jobs (Sarah Butler in The Guardian) Morrisons has confirmed plans to cut 2,600 store management jobs as part of a restructuring that will affect 15,000 staff. The supermarket told staff that it was starting a 45-day consultation process about plans to take out two tiers of management in its stores as it attempts to cut costs to help fund price cuts for shoppers. Dalton Philips, chief executive, said: "These changes will improve our focus on customers and lead to simpler, smarter ways of working."

The move is the result of trials of three possible slimmed-down management structures over the past year. Morrisons has come under fire from former chairman Sir Ken Morrison and his supporters over poor service in its stores, which they blame on cuts to the number of hours worked by store staff. It said it had found customers liked the new structures because they increased the number of staff on hand to help them.

The company, which employs 126,000 people in total, believes about 2,600 Morrisons staff will be made redundant because of the management changes. Those job cuts come on top of at least 100 planned redundancies at the retailer's distribution centres. Morrisons is under pressure to reduce costs in order to fund plans for £1bn in price cuts and product improvements over the next three years. Last month Morrisons cut prices on 1,200 items by an average of 17% after poor trade over the key Easter period contributed to a 7% slump in quarterly like-for-like sales.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/17/morrisons-2600-management-jobs-cut-supermarket

3 BRICS seen to have shrunk to CI (Luciana Magalhaes & Jeffrey T Lewis in The Wall Street Journal) Former Goldman Sachs executive Jim O’ Neill, who coined the BRICS term referring to fast-growing emerging markets countries, is rooting for the “B” in that acronym to win the World Cup. “Brazil symbolizes everything that’s beautiful about football,” the British economist said.

Still, the 57-year-old, who retired from his job as chairman of Goldman’s asset management arm last year, said the fortunes of Brazil’s national team, like those of its economy, will come down to execution. “There are better teams than Brazil — Germany, Italy, Holland and Spain are really good,” he said. “Brazil will have to play very well to win it.”

If Brazil loses, it won’t be the first time the country has disappointed the economist. Back in 2001, O’Neill coined the acronym BRIC to represent the rising economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, later adding as “S” for South Africa to the group. Brazil’s economy has frequently underperformed since then, expanding only about 2% or less each year after a sprint to 7.5% growth in 2010. O’Neill said one of Brazil’s biggest hurdles is a government that he views as “more Chinese than the Chinese” themselves, using what he says are heavy-handed, interventionist economic policies.

The economist said if he had to come up with a BRICS-like term today, it would probably just be “CI,” for China and India, which he views having the best outlook for growth. He’s particularly bullish on India, where Narendra Modi, who was elected Prime Minister last month in landslide, has called for extensive reforms to the country’s economy.

A loss by Brazil in the World Cup might be another bad omen for Rousseff, he said. “If Brazil were to be knocked out early, that could add to negativity about the government.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/06/18/rooting-for-the-b-in-brics/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=irt

IMF cuts US growth forecast for 2014; Democracy in decline in Eurasia; Amazon may launch smartphone; Where are our girls?

1 IMF cuts US growth forecast for 2014 (BBC) The International Monetary Fund  has slashed its US growth forecast, urged policy makers to keep interest rates low and raise the minimum wage to strengthen its recovery. The crisis lender said it expects 2% growth this year, down from its April forecast of 2.8%, after a "harsh winter" led to a weak first quarter.

However it expects 3% growth in 2015. It also said the US should increase its minimum wage to help address its 15% poverty rate.

World economics correspondent Andrew Walker, writes: The recovery from the great recession is a lot more advanced in the US than in many other developed economies. Even so, the IMF sees some important weaknesses. It calls for a catalogue of measures to boost what it calls the modest prospects for productivity growth.

Job growth, it says has been healthy, but the labour market is weaker than is suggested by the headline numbers for people out of work. Long-term unemployment is high and many people are not even seeking work, which means they don't register in the official jobless numbers. Wages are stagnant and poverty is stuck at more than 15%. Seven years on from the onset of the financial crisis, the scars on the wider US economy - never mind some European countries - have still not really healed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27864680

2 Democracy in decline in Eurasia (Sean Anderson in The Guardian) Eastern Europe has suffered a sharp democratic decline in the last year, according to a new report by Freedom House. Since 1995, the US-based non-governmental organisation has been producing Nations in Transit report series has monitored democratic development from central Europe to central Asia, focusing on countries that are undergoing significant reform or turmoil.

Covering 29 countries, this year’s report provides comparative ratings and in-depth analysis of local and national democratic governance in the post-communist world. The report opens with this assertion: Throughout 2013, governments across the former Soviet space worked to shut off the remaining oxygen supply to their democratic institutions.

As in every year for the past 10 years the average democracy score for the region declined in 2013, with 16 countries suffering downgrades, five improving, and eight not registering an overall score change.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jun/16/nations-in-transit-2014-eurasias-decline-from-democracy

3 Amazon may launch smartphone (Wendy Lee in San Francisco Chronicle) Amazon is expected to unveil a new smartphone on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. The new product may compete against smartphone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. The decision comes at a time when more consumers are consolidating their devices and Amazon may see that as a threat to the Kindle, said Rebecca Lieb, an industry analyst.

But the New York Times points out that other tech companies have struggled to compete in this space. From the story: A Google smartphone, the Nexus One, failed to catch on. Google next bought Motorola and then dumped it. BlackBerry, once the dominant smartphone maker, is struggling to survive. Microsoft’s Windows Phone has less than 3 percent of the global market. A Facebook phone stumbled last year.

Lieb said Amazon can compete in areas like price, service and user experience. Forbes reports that Amazon’s smart phone could increase its sales by $3 billion. Amazon did not immediately return a call for comment.

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/06/16/amazons-next-big-announcement-could-be-a-smartphone/?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech

4 Where are our girls? (Khaleej Times) It is often said that a story lives for a day. So seems to be the case with abducted Nigerian girls who are unaccounted for to this day.  The extremist organisation Boko Haram, which claims to hold those 248 plus girls in captivity, is at large, and no amount of international pressure and aerial surveillance had been able to secure the release of those poor souls. The apathy is that early this month, Boko Haram claimed that it had kidnapped more girl students from the nearby villages, thus embarrassing the government of President Jonathan Goodluck, which had not been able to do enough in bringing them back home.

It is no less than a mystery that the manhunt launched by several countries, including the US, along with their state-of-art gadgets had yielded no positive results. Whereas, the reclusive organisation claims that they are very much on the Nigerian soil, and not been moved to any neighbouring marshlands. It is feared that some of the girls may never be able to return home as their life and security had been compromised due to the delayed response of the authorities in going after the culprits.

And now the deal that Jonathan’s administration is cobbling with the militants seems to be too little, too late. The media, nonetheless, shouldn’t lose sight of the story and never let the girls end up in oblivion.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=/data/editorial/2014/June/editorial_June32.xml&section=editorial

Thousands take up arms for Iraq; Like it or not, Uber & Airbnb show sharing economy is on its way; False sense of comfort in Aids control; Five mango must-haves

1 Thousands take up arms for Iraq (San Francisco Chronicle) Thousands of Shiites from Baghdad and across southern Iraq have answered an urgent call to arms, joining security forces to fight the Islamic militants who have captured large swaths of territory north of the capital and now imperil a city with a much-revered religious shrine.

The mobilization, urged by the nation's top Shiite cleric, took on a sectarian dimension that threatened to intensify Sunni-Shiite strife in a nation already ripped by religious fervor after the militants' battlefield successes. In Baghdad, fallout from the stunning advance in the north was beginning to affect daily life for the city's 7 million inhabitants.

Some food prices rose dramatically. Army troops went house-to-house searching for militants and weapons in neighborhoods close to vital government installations. Dozens of men climbed into the back of army trucks at volunteer centers, chanting Shiite religious slogans, hoisting assault rifles and pledging to join the nation's beleaguered security forces to battle the Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

The volunteers were first taken to an assembly center in eastern Baghdad, where they were handed military uniforms, and later went to Taji, home of Iraq's largest military base north of Baghdad, to undergo basic training. State-run television aired footage of the volunteers being drilled, still in their civilian clothes.

The mobilization unfolded against a backdrop of religious and nationalist fervor. State-run television aired a constant flow of nationalist songs, clips of soldiers marching or singing, as well as interviews with troops vowing to crush the militants. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite widely resented by Sunnis for his perceived sectarian policies, denied that a call by the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was directed against Sunnis, saying it was in fact meant to protect the country and its holy shrines. "Talk of Sunnis and Shiites must be dropped," he said, calling for the unity of all Iraqis.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Hundreds-of-Iraqis-heed-calls-to-mobilize-5552136.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

2 Like it or not, Uber & Airbnb show sharing economy is on its way (Phillip Inman in The Guardian) There is something predictable about the reaction of most British people to joining the sharing economy. They're not interested. But across southern Europe, a sense of desperation has turned millions of people to sharing, in a reversal of the proportion who say yes in the UK. Yet the tide is turning, especially among young Britons, who a survey found were much more likely to embrace the idea.

And why would they not be in favour of sharing when low and stagnant wages combined with a rising cost of living and weekly advances in mobile technology make it easier and potentially more profitable. The strike last week by London black-cab drivers is likely to be the first of many protests by groups of workers fearful of being made redundant by sharing software. And is indicative of the pressure governments are under to rewrite rules made for the old economy.

Uber is a mobile application that links self-employed drivers to customers without the need to hail a cab or phone a minicab. Its claim that it isn't a taxi firm, but a "ride sharing" company, doing little more than connecting drivers with passengers, appears to be in breach of London's rules protecting the metered black cab. A court ruling is pending. San Francisco-based Airbnb has fallen foul of tough laws in London that require landlords to apply for planning permission from the council to rent out their homes for less than three months. In response ministers have promised to sweep away the rule and allow homeowners a more flexible route to renting a room or the whole place as and when they don't need it for themselves.

In January, Lord Young welcomed many of these businesses to No 10 and praised them for bravely confronting outmoded means of production. He ditched the friendlier phrase "creative disruption" adopted by many sharing firms in favour of "creative destruction". Young, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, is the kind of free marketer who knows that big business can ossify an economy. Among 18th-century lords of the manor, he would have been the first to buy a threshing machine.

Job destruction obviously displaces labour, but the sharing economy is absorbing some of them. Manpower, the recruitment agency, said last week that the rise of internet shopping and sharing via apps on mobile phones is triggering a shift in the transport industry. No longer are clothes and books making their way from large distribution centres to individual homes. Increasingly they are arriving at a local delivery hub to be taken to their destination by a self-employed driver who uses an app to log in and out of work.

Analysis by the Royal Society of Arts shows that for every worker who loses out there are three who say they benefit. It is an entrepreneurialism that the RSA argued is indicative of an unstoppable shift. Respondents cited factors such as being able to live where they want and work around caring for older relatives or children. Largely unspoken was the lack of pay, wage rises and decent pensions on offer in mainstream jobs culture.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2014/jun/15/sharing-economy-uk-mobile-technology-uber-airbnb

3 False sense of comfort in Aids control (Straits Times) Three decades into the Aids pandemic, health officials say they have the medicine and other tools to stop the spread of HIV, the Aids virus. It no longer strikes a mortal fear like it once did. Since 2001, the global rate of new HIV infections has fallen 33 per cent, from 3.4 million a year to 2.3 million a year in 2012. Consequently, the sense of crisis has waned. But the reality is that people are still becoming infected and many are still dying from the scourge.

What has set in is a sense of complacency. As editor of The Lancet Richard Horton said recently: "Total donor funding has stagnated at about the same level since 2008... The illusion that we have finally subdued HIV is a dangerous one. Every single day there are still 6,000 new infections. About 40 per cent of these new infections are in young people."

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/false-sense-comfort-20140615

4 Five mango must-haves (Rajyasree Sen in The Wall Street Journal) Some of my fondest childhood memories are about mangoes. Every region in India is divided on which mango variety trumps the other in taste and I am treading into dangerous territory but here’s my list of the top five mango varieties that everyone must try. Langda: To me, the Langda trounces the Alphonso in taste. It originates from the orchards near the northern Indian city of Varanasi. The fruit is green on the outside, which might give you the impression that it’s not yet ripe. But you couldn’t be more wrong.

Himsagar: This is a West Bengal speciality – although Odisha likes laying claim to it now and then. It’s also green on the outside and has a very sweet aroma. The Himsagar is not at all fibrous and oh-so-delicious. Kesar: Yellow with a tinge of green on the outside, I have rarely tasted a mango as subtle as this. It comes from Gujarat and is cheaper than the Alphonso.

Alphonso: What the Alphonso does have going for itself is its looks—one of the most beautifully shaped, uniformly yellow mangoes I’ve seen. They’re harvested in Ratangiri, Maharashtra. It’s delicious and extremely expensive, and everyone should try it and soon because its season usually ends in June.

Banganapalli: This mango from Tamil Nadu is super sweet, supremely delicious way and nearly not as inexpensive as the Alphonso. If you’re planning on gorging on mangoes and don’t want to break the bank – I’d recommend a Banganapalli.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/06/15/top-five-mango-must-haves/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=irt

Iraqi military hangs on against insurgents; Chinese as the world's biggest spenders; India PM Modi's realistic agenda; Dos and don'ts of cubicle decor

1 Iraqi military hangs on against insurgents (Matt Bradley & Ali A Nabhan in The Wall Street Journal) Iraqi troops beat back Islamist insurgents in several areas north of Baghdad on Saturday, as the US moved an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf. A battlefield stalemate between Iraqi security forces and their militia opponents persisted into a third straight third day Saturday.

Besides some minor advances by Iraq's military, it was largely quiet as Iraq's government worked to rebuild the strength of armed forces left battered and humiliated by a startling series of victories last week by a Sunni militia known as the Islamist State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS.

Fighting outside Tikrit, about 87 miles north of Baghdad, came as young men queued to join Shiite militias to fight the insurgents. Many of the men were answering calls by a prominent Shiite cleric and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this week for ordinary citizens to help repel the Sunni militants.

The government's shift toward recruiting civilians to fight ISIS revealed a lack of confidence in the US-funded-and-trained Iraqi military. But by relying on civilian fighters, Mr. Maliki also risks exacerbating bitter sectarian tensions that could lead the country back toward the kind of religious civil war that nearly broke Iraq apart in 2005 and 2006.

Iraq's military is now using Samarra, about 78 miles north of Baghdad, as a rallying point for a planned assault on Tikrit. Mosul remained largely quiet on Saturday as ISIS fighters maintained their grip on the city. In Tikrit, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's hometown, northern parts of the city remained under ISIS control. ISIS fighters were using Saddam's well-reinforced presidential palaces as bases of operations as they fought with security forces in the southern parts of the city.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/iraqi-military-makes-gains-north-of-baghdad-in-conflict-with-isis-1402765053

2 Chinese as the world’s biggest spenders (Linda Yueh on BBC) Impressively, China accounts for nearly 1 in 10 tourists globally. This number is set to rise and it shouldn't be surprising since China accounts for one-fifth of the world's population. Projections are that the 100 million trips taken each year now will double by 2020. This is with only an estimated 5% of the population holding passports. Though that's already more than the population of Britain.

Still, with 1.3 billion people, there's a lot more potential tourists. Chinese tourists are already the biggest spenders globally. They outspend the Americans and Germans as well as even the Russians on a per trip basis. In 2013, Chinese tourists spent over $100 billion and they travel to shop.

The growth of Chinese tourism offers an opportunity for other countries seeking to attract big spending visitors. But, for under-developed Chinese tourist sites that are affected by pollution and lagging services, surely there's a missed opportunity for the Chinese themselves.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27756464

3 India PM Modi’s realistic agenda (Rahul Singh in Khaleej Times) Two countries that new India prime minister Narendra Modi seems to admire the most are China and Japan. China for having lifted so many of its people out of poverty — something which he hopes to do for India as well. The recent visit of China’s foreign minister to New Delhi (the first important dignitary to come to India under the new administration, apart from those who came for the swearing-in ceremony), was an indication of this admiration.

What about Modi’s domestic policy? Again, taking the cue from China, the stress will be on improving primary education and basic health care, two areas in which China is way ahead of India. The Chinese literacy rate is over 80 per cent, while India’s is still under 70 per cent. The average Chinese can expect to live into his or her late 70s, while an Indian only into his or her mid-60s.

Another initiative, which Modi has taken and that is close to his heart is to bring back the huge amount of “black” money that unscrupulous Indians have illegally stashed away abroad, running to many billions of dollars. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by a former Supreme Court judge, has just been set up, with instructions to place the matter on a “fast track”. I will hazard my own cynical prediction: Nothing will come of it.

But another initiative has already produced good results on the ground – making bureaucrats come on time to work. Sauntering in one or even two hours late and then settling down to a long cup of tea and idle chatter, used to be the norm. Modi has cracked the whip. He arrives at the office well before 9am and the “babus”, as civil servants are called, are now making sure they are also at their desks before then. Too good to last? Your guess is as good as mine.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2014/June/opinion_June26.xml&section=opinion

4 Dos and don’ts of cubicle décor (Belo Cipriani in San Francisco Chronicle) You want to make your cubicle as cozy as possible. And why not? You spend a big chunk of time there every week. But while the singing fish you bought at the drugstore or the collection of superhero figurines next to your computer brings you joy, they may be slightly annoying to your co-workers.

The unclutter: Everyone has a unique style of arranging their work on the desk. Although you may not be fully aware, you are subconsciously trying to keep track of every piece of scattered paper on your desk. Many companies, the most well known being IBM, have a “no clutter after work hours” policy. This means that you must completely clean up your station every day before going home. When it comes to decorating, keep picture frames, stuffed animals, and snow globes to a minimum. Also, it helps to have a designated area on your desk for food and beverages.

A well-lit path: Fluorescent lights are cheap and durable, but not super supportive for your eyes. Color karma: Color is very important, especially at work. The best colors for work spaces are: brown for grounding, yellow for concentration, green for balance, and orange for inspiration.

Accent your cubicle: Accent pieces should be visually appealing and functional. While some people find adding a plant to their work area calming. Other possible accent items are pillows for your back, a quiet fan or heater, or posters of green, lush places. Remember, too much of anything is never a good idea. And check with your supervisors before adding anything to that may distract others. Office décor is all about creating the right atmosphere for you without offending others.

http://blog.sfgate.com/gettowork/2014/06/13/the-dos-and-donts-of-cubicle-decor/?cmpid=hp-hc-jobs#24279101=0

Fitch eyes South Africa downgrade; Perils of please-all economics; Counting the world's wealthy

1 Fitch eyes South Africa downgrade (BBC) Credit ratings agency Fitch has warned South Africa that its credit rating may be lowered following a five-month platinum strike in the country. Fitch was followed by Standard & Poor who also downgraded their rating. Fitch changed the country's outlook from stable to negative, citing poor economic prospects and rising public debt.

Its economy contracted by 0.6% in the first quarter, in part because of a fall in platinum production. A negative outlook can indicate that a country's credit rating could be downgraded. A downgrade can influence a country's borrowing costs, as some investors are restricted from lending to borrowers that do not have a high rating.

South Africa's Treasury said that it was committed to the plans laid out in the country's budget. Fitch kept South Africa's credit rating at BBB, but raised concerns about a poor economic growth outlook and persistent budget shortfalls.

The strike by up to 80,000 platinum miners has been going on since late January and is the longest in South Africa's history. The stoppage has affected about 40% of the global supply of platinum, which is used in jewellery and vehicle catalytic converters.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27829277

2 Perils of please-all economics (Andy Mukherjee in Straits Times) Singapore is confronting the perils of please-all economics. Ageing citizens are pushing the Government for bigger nest eggs and more subsidised health care and housing. There is also popular resentment against letting more foreigners in, and not much appetite for increasing the 7 per cent consumption tax. Squaring this fiscal circle will be a long-term challenge.

People protested last year when the Government unveiled a plan to boost the resident population by 30 per cent to 6.9 million by 2030, with immigration compensating for a drooping birth rate. The multifaceted discontent puts Singapore's fiscally conservative Government in a quandary. Expanding the economy - and the tax base - with less foreign labour will mean improving the productivity of the local workforce. That's a long shot.

Another way to pay for everything people want is to tax companies more heavily. But Singapore's business costs are already quite high. A third strategy could be for the city-state to try to earn more on its substantial sovereign wealth by buying riskier assets. That could backfire, leaving less money for welfare. Alternatively, the Government could skimp on investing.

Slowing the pace might be a mistake, however. Pricey real estate would swoon if Singapore loses its urban buzz and stops attracting investors and tourists. That will make Singapore's property- loving citizens less wealthy and more miserable. The trade-offs are difficult. But Singapore has some advantages.

Rival Hong Kong is facing an existential threat as China tightens its grip on the former British colony and boosts alternatives like Shanghai. By contrast, Singapore offers investors proximity to India and Indonesia, neither of which will boast a global city soon. For all the grumbling, the majority of Singaporeans are too pragmatic to opt for unbridled welfarism at the next elections, which will take place by 2016. Still, please-all economics is scratching at the door. If it finds a way in, prosperity could be in jeopardy.

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/the-perils-please-all-economics-20140614

3 Counting the wealthy (Khaleej Times) The growth of private wealth has accelerated across most regions in 2013. As in 2012, the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) represented the region in which such private wealth has grown fastest — and this means not only that the ‘ultra high net worth’ households have become richer, but that there are more of them crowding into what used to be, two generations ago, a small and fairly quiet club.

Looking ahead to 2018, wealth project global private wealth to post a compound annual growth rate of 5.4 per cent. What this means, for the rest of a world which ponders the question of income inequality and the soaring cost of living, is that global private wealth is expected to reach around $198 trillion in 2018 (half of this will be in the Asia-Pacific region). When that happens, global private wealth will be more than three times as large as the combined GDPs, in 2018, of the world’s ten largest economies.

Such wealth-watching brings with it curious factlets. The highest density of millionaire households is in Qatar (175 out of every 1,000 households), followed by Switzerland (127) and Singapore (100). The US has the largest number of billionaires, but the highest density of billionaire households is in Hong Kong (15.3 per million), followed by Switzerland (8.5 per million). In terms of growth rate India will show the highest rise, as the wealth of the richest households is forecast to grow 129 per cent, to go up from $ 2 trillion to $ 5 trillion.

For the private bankers and wealth managers, the latest in a growing number of ‘rich list’ studies shows yet again that all’s well that spends well.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=/data/editorial/2014/June/editorial_June28.xml&section=editorial

Crisis pulls US towards Iraq; Syria slides to Somalia-like future; Tesla releases patents to all; Why women are being hanged in India

1 Crisis pulls US towards Iraq (Martin Chulov in The Guardian) Barack Obama has set the stage for renewed US military action in Iraq after the authorities in Baghdad proved powerless to stop relentless Islamist insurgents from seizing further swaths of a country in danger of breaking apart. The US president said his national security chiefs were looking at any and every way they could help the Iraqi authorities take the fight to thousands of Sunni jihadists who have seized three of the country's biggest cities and vowed to march on Baghdad.

US troops withdrew from Iraq in late 2011 after an eight-year occupation of the country that began with the 2003 invasion. On Thursday the US began airlifting planeloads of its citizens from Iraq. Kurdish fighters poured into the disputed northern city of Kirkuk to head off the militants from Isis, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, whose fighters have surged through the north in recent days, encountering little or no resistance from Iraqi army troops who have deserted in their thousands.

The streets of Baghdad were eerie and empty as Isis members took to social media taunting residents that they were advancing towards the capital. Local people have been stockpiling food, fearing that a much talked about enemy is almost at the city's gates. Iraqi officials estimate the total number of Isis forces in Iraq at around 6,000, spread between Mosul, Ramadi, Falluja, Tikrit and the surrounding countryside.

Isis has been handing out flyers in the towns it has seized assuring residents who have remained that it is there to protect their interests. The campaign for hearts and minds is gaining some traction, with some residents railing against perceived injustices at the hands of the Shia majority government. But on Thursday it said it would introduce sharia law in Mosul and other towns, warning women to stay indoors and threatening to cut off the hands of thieves. "People, you have tried secular regimes ... This is now the era of the Islamic State," it proclaimed.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/12/jihadist-victories-iraq-us-troops

2 Syria slides to Somalia-like future (Khaleej Times) Over the last four days, the Syrian civil war has taken a dramatic turn. The first major rebel attack with tanks and artillery has been reported in the south of the country, and appears to have been staged against an important Syrian army position in Deraa, which is due south of Damascus. From all accounts, this is the first time in the more than three-year-old war that the rebels have fielded a large, well-ordered force armed with tanks and heavy mortars.

More than 160,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which grew out of protests against President Bashar Al Assad in March 2011 that are seen as having been inspired by uprisings in the wider Arab world. Outside the immediate region and the Middle East, several countries that have sought to foster a peace deal have in fact misjudged the Syrian crisis; they expected President Assad’s rule to crumble as other leaders’ had done in the Middle East within the last five years.

The fear now is that Syria is descending into a Somalia-style territory run partially by warlords, and that such a possible future poses a grave threat to the Middle East. There is already a humanitarian crisis caused by the three years of conflict. The number of Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon exceeded one million this April, in what the UN High Commissioner for Refugees called a “devastating milestone” for Lebanon, itself a small country.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=/data/editorial/2014/June/editorial_June26.xml&section=editorial

3 Tesla releases patents to all (Julie Balise in San Francisco Chronicle) Tesla Motors will not pursue patent lawsuits against other automakers that use its electric car technology in good faith, CEO Elon Musk wrote in a blog post. The company originally patented its technology to prevent major manufacturers from using their manufacturing, sales, and marketing resources to overwhelm Tesla. This has not proven to be the case, according to Musk.

Zero emission cars make up a small part of sales for major automakers, Musk wrote, with only a few companies producing a limited volume of models that have limited range. Manufacturers produce almost 100 million new vehicles per year. Tesla can’t make electric vehicles fast enough to “address the carbon crisis,” Musk wrote.

“Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day,” Musk wrote.

http://blog.sfgate.com/energy/2014/06/12/tesla-releases-patents-to-all/?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech

4 Why women are being hanged in India (Geeta Pandey on BBC) Four women have been found hanging from trees in remote villages in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the last fortnight. The families of at least three of the dead, two of them teenage cousins, have alleged that they were murdered after being raped. Is this spate of grisly murders new? Such crimes are not new to Uttar Pradesh, indeed to India.

As a young girl, when I visited my grandparents in my tiny ancestral village in Pratapgarh district in the state during my annual summer vacations, I sometimes heard my mother and our neighbours talk about assaults on women. The perpetrators were almost always men from my community - high-caste Brahmins. And the victims were almost always lower-caste or Dalit (formerly untouchable) women. Nobody went to the police because, as my mother said, they were often considered part of the problem.

Certainly in the years since my childhood, things have changed - slowly, but surely. Could stricter rape laws actually be part of the problem? Some campaigners say it could be making women more vulnerable. The victims are being killed because the rapists want to finish off the main witness, they say.

Why are the women being hanged? Some say this might appear the easiest way to attackers to get rid of evidence and pass murder off as suicide. But police and state administration officials disagree and suggest in some cases guilty families are trying to pass "honour killings" off as rape and murder. The head of forensic medicine and toxicology at Delhi's AIIMS hospital says hanging is "generally a method of suicide" and is "very rarely" used for murder.

"To hang someone is not easy," Dr Sudhir Kumar Gupta says, but adds, "unless someone is totally defenceless and unconscious." I ask him if the group of men who allegedly killed two teenage cousins last month could have beaten them into submission before hanging them? "Maybe," he says.

Why Uttar Pradesh? India's most populous state with more than 200 million people is also one of the poorest states with more than 40% of its population living below the poverty line. Like much of north India, the state is still largely patriarchal and feudal and women are regarded as inferior to men. Two weeks ago, when a photograph of the two teenage cousins hanging from the branches of a mango tree appeared on news websites and social media, there was outrage across India.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27807542

South Africa may be heading for recession; Jobs boom, but not living standards; Uber threat to global taxi drivers

1 South Africa may be heading for recession (Johannesburg Times) South Africa is at risk of going into a recession, according to BankservAfrica's Economic Transaction Index (BETI). This was after the BETI for May dipped below zero after five months of decline. "Not even two extra working days in May, spending around the election, and the inauguration of the president could prop up the numbers," economists.co.za chief economist Mike Schüssler said in a statement.

Schüssler noted that with international commodity prices of South African exports also in decline, the added pressure is tipping the balance in favour of further shrinkage of the economy. BankservAfrica corporate reputation head Michael Rubenstein, said May's decline was not the real concern, but rather the continuous overall decline the BETI had shown over the past five months.

"There is no golden rule between the BETI and GDP growth in exact terms, but it is clear that the year-on-year GDP will decline, especially given the historical connection between the two," said Schüssler. The only encouraging factor was the positive internet traffic growth over the past year. 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2014/06/11/sa-could-be-heading-for-recession-index

2 Jobs boom, but not living standards (Robert Peston on BBC) So there are some very striking - and perhaps odd - things going on in the jobs market. Much of it looks positive - such as the 345,000 increase in people in work during the three months to April. Which is the biggest quarterly rise in employment since records began in 1971.

Now if depressions were measured by the employment rate, the UK depression would be officially over - because the employment rate is now 72.9%, which is 0.1 of a percentage point higher than before the start of the slump at the beginning of 2008. And the employment rate is only a whisker below it's all-time high of 73.1% - attained in early 2005 and in late 1974.

If the most important thing about an economy is the way it provides gainful employment, then the UK is doing pretty well. It is all splendidly wonderfully tickety boo, n'est-ce pas?

And then there are some other trends material to how we feel about all this jobs growth. Total pay rose just 0.7% in the three months to April, and pay minus bonuses increased just 0.9% - both well below the 1.8% rise in CPI inflation that month. Or to put it another way, real pay - having increased marginally for a few weeks - is falling again.

There is no sign that what we are paid is rising faster than the cost of living - except in manufacturing, shops, hotels and restaurants. One other thing, quite a profound shift in the balance between public and private sectors in the British economy since the financial debacle of 2007-8, can be seen in the jobs figures. For most of 2009, the public sector provided 22% of all employment in the UK. That had fallen to less than 18% by April of this year - and looks to be on a declining trend for some years yet.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27794991

3 Uber threat to global taxi drivers (San Francisco Chronicle) Taxi drivers in London, Paris and other European capitals protested on June 11, against unlicensed mobile car-hailing services such as Uber which have shaken up the industry. About 30,000 taxi and limousine drivers across Europe participated in the protest.

Taxis drivers block a highway outside Paris, as they take part in a demonstration to protest against the growing number of minicabs, known in France as Voitures de Tourisme avec Chauffeurs (VTC).

http://www.sfgate.com/business/slideshow/Taxi-drivers-protest-Uber-in-Europe-Brazil-87665.php?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech