Breakingviews

BYD caught in two Chinese economic traps

By Wei Gu

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

Warren Buffett doesn’t usually like companies in which the top managers are selling when the share price falls. By that standard, the Omaha investor must not be too happy with his Berkshire Hathaway’s 2008 purchase of 9.9 percent of Chinese electric automaker BYD.

Review: Banks bet their lives on neurochemistry

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

Trading is mostly about neurochemistry. That is the persuasive argument of former trader and current neuroscientist John Coates in his book “The Hour Between Dog and Wolf”. The implication is clear: men have too many of the wrong hormones to be trusted.

Investors may be happy to ride on renovated JAL

By Wayne Arnold

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

Japan Airlines’ plans to raise roughly $8.5 billion in an IPO may seem a heavy lift amid weak global markets and a perennially limping aviation industry. But big funds will likely clamor for seats on a flight fueled by a mix of government largesse and one of Japan’s most promising turnaround stories.

Olympics a bad metaphor for economic rivalry

By John Foley

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

China breaks the rules. The United States loses its edge. As for Britain, it barely registers at all. It’s easy to see the Olympic Games as a metaphor for economic rivalry. Fortunately, the real world is different, and can be much more harmonious – if everyone basically plays fair.

India’s power vacuum needs to be filled

By Jeff Glekin

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

Perhaps Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi got trapped in the Delhi metro yesterday. If the two leading Indian politicians were indeed victims of the world’s largest electricity blackout ever, they would at least have an excuse for their lack of public response to this clear sign of policy failure. Actually, there was a response, but it was not what might be expected. The power minister was promoted to Home Minister and replaced with a part time substitute.

U.S. banks loath to kick even soft crisis drug

By Agnes T. Crane
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

U.S. banks don’t even want to kick the softest of crisis drugs. Community bankers are pushing to extend a crisis program under which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp insures $1.5 trillion of deposits without limit. Yet the program helps concentrate risk, distorts funding costs and brings outsized benefits to the biggest banks.

Take hope from India’s power and water failures

By Jeff Glekin

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

India’s economic reform agenda has lost its way. Forget trivial reforms like permitting more foreign direct investment in aviation. What the county needs most is improvements in chronically mismanaged infrastructure. But change is hard when the systems are working, even badly. So a huge power outage – the worst blackout for more than a decade which left more than 300 million people without electricity – and yet another unnecessary crop shortage – due to a weak monsoon – could prove a blessing.

China’s insider culture stains CNOOC foreign bid

By Wei Gu

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

Chinese companies call for fairer treatment from foreigners. China’s critics say that these companies still don’t play by the accepted global rules of capital markets. The accusation of insider trading around the $15 billion bid by Chinese oil major CNOOC for the Canadian producer Nexen supports the critics.

Olympics feel good value, even if they aren’t

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

Olympic sentiment in the UK has undergone a sudden reversal. With the London Games opening on July 27, Britons have stopped moaning about recent bungles. The media, sensing the public mood, has swung squarely behind the occasion. Whatever goes wrong, Olympic investment is likely to feel like it was worth it – even if the finances argue otherwise.

Draghi bond-buying hints won’t end crisis

By Neil Unmack

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

It’s not clear what Mario Draghi meant when he said the European Central Bank would do was needed to preserve the euro zone. The market thinks the ECB president was promising more purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds to drive down their oppressive yields. Investors may be right. But anyone expecting a game-changing crisis response could be in for disappointment.