Breakingviews

Weibo has reason to “open sesame” to Alibaba

By Wei Gu

The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

Weibo has reason to “open sesame” to Alibaba. A possible purchase of a 15-20 percent stake in China’s Twitter by the country’s largest e-commerce group, Alibaba, as reported by China Business News, makes strategic sense. It could pave the way for owner Sina to spin Weibo off, and create revenue synergies for both.

Soft power is priceless – and scarce

By Edward Hadas
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Soft power is proving to be priceless – and scarce. The United States may not have lost much power to coerce but its power to co-opt has weakened. Despite the claims of a new study, no country has taken its place. The soft power vacuum makes the world a little more risky.

Bayern’s profits shine in fickle football economy

By Olaf Storbeck

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

In the mid 60s, the executives of a minuscule football club from southern Germany, Bayern Munich, travelled north to Cologne to visit the country’s most successful team. They wanted to learn how to run a professional sports club. And learn they did. Bayern has dominated the Bundesliga, Germany’s professional league, ever since.

HSBC needs to put numbers on China ambition

By Peter Thal Larsen

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

HSBC’s global strategy overhaul has reached China: the emerging market lender is in talks about offloading its 16 percent stake in Ping An, the Chinese insurer. Chief executive Stuart Gulliver could go further, by putting some numbers on his ambitions for the bank’s other Chinese assets – particularly its even-larger shareholding in Bank of Communications.

Choose outside man for Bank of England governor

By Edward Hadas
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The Bank of England had a bad crisis. It needs a major rethinking of its role, goals and operating philosophy. The opportunity is at hand. Mervyn King, the current governor, leaves in June 2013.

Euro zone dodges disaster but doesn’t rebound

By Edward Hadas

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

For a minute, forget about debts, deficits and the desires of financial markets. Just think about the real economy of labour and consumption. From this perspective, the euro zone doesn’t look too bad. The 11.6 percent unemployment rate is high, but GDP is just 2 percent below the all-time peak reached in the first quarter of 2008. The trend is flat: GDP was an imperceptible 0.1 percent lower in the third quarter than in the second.

Old hands to become China’s new finance guards

By Wei Gu

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

China’s leadership reshuffle extends to its financial sector. The country’s central bank chief may step down after being left out of the Party’s central committee. The heads of the China’s sovereign wealth fund and Bank of China’s chairman are among the candidates for promotion. Although the state maintains a tight grip on financial matters, personal styles still matter.

China’s leadership line-up gets 6.5 out of 10

By John Foley

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The seven men who will run China’s ruling party for the next five years have a tough job. Two of them, party chief Xi Jinping and premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang, have been groomed for years, but even they are little known. Are they up to it? Breakingviews has scored them on five key criteria, and found some scope for encouragement.

China buzzword bingo shows slow move forward

By John Foley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

China’s rulers give little away. So at the five-yearly Communist Party Congress, details matter, from the order the new leaders come onstage to the arrangement of portraits on the front page of People’s Daily. To see what’s on the mind of outgoing party leader Hu Jintao, there’s another option: buzzword bingo.

Japan shuns fiscal cliff, won’t escape growth funk

By Andy Mukherjee

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Japan has avoided fiscal harakiri. The decision by the country’s opposition parties to stop blocking the government’s deficit-spending plans is a big relief for an economy that shrank by an annualised 3.5 percent in three months through Sept. 30, and is likely to contract again in the current quarter. Exports are stumbling amid weak global demand and a boycott of Japanese-made goods in China. Amidst this, government spending worth 8 percent of GDP was in jeopardy because of the parliamentary stalemate, according to Fitch.