Splendour in China and other branding
MSCI, the index provider used by leading investors across the world, has decided it needs a name change in Greater China. In a news release this morning the firm (which is no longer owned by Morgan Stanley, the MS in its title) said its Chinese business would henceforth be branded as MSCI 明晟.
When I tweeted this @reutersJeremyG, one wag suggested this meant “MSCI small-ladder-bigger-ladder-books-on-a-picnic-table”, which is what it indeed looks like to an untrained eye (like mine). But it is actually Ming Sheng, which apparently is supposed to symbolise “brightness and transparency, prosperity and splendour”.
The rule of three
It is beginning to look like financial markets cannot handle more than three risks. First we have, as MacroScope reported earlier, Barclays Wealth worrying about U.S. consumers, euro zone debt and Asian overheating.
Now comes Jim O’Neill and his economic team at Goldman Sachs, with three slightly different notions about risks in the second half, this time in the form of questions. To whit:

