Suu Kyi’s China trip a symbol of Myanmar power shifts - Financial Times

June 10, 2015 at 1:40pm

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June 10, 2015 3:33 am
Suu Kyi’s China trip a symbol of Myanmar power shifts
Michael Peel, Bangkok and Tom Mitchell, Beijing

Aung San Suu Kyi’s first trip to Beijing is not quite a historic piece of Nixon-to-China diplomacy. But it is a fresh sign of the former political prisoner’s pragmatic preparations for power — and a symbol of the interests she shares with the Middle Kingdom’s rulers at a rocky point in Sino-Myanmar relations.
Analysts say the visit, which begins later on Wednesday, is an effort by the two parties to show they can do business together ahead of likely big gains this year for Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in landmark Myanmar elections billed as cementing the country’s transition from military dictatorship.


China is a big investor in Myanmar and prizes the access it offers to the Indian Ocean, but tensions have emerged in areas ranging from the suspension of a large Beijing-backed dam project to conflict spillover at the countries’ shared border.
“This trip fills in a blank for both sides,” said Yun Sun, a senior associate at Washington’s Stimson Center think-tank. “If Aung San Suu Kyi were not to visit China, it would leave a spot on her credentials. And if you are China, you want to have at least a superficially good relationship with the potential future kingmaker of Myanmar.”
The Nobel peace laureate will spend five days in China at the invitation of the Communist party. Beijing has yet to confirm reports from Myanmar of talks with President Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, prime minister.
Ms Suu Kyi’s long-flagged visit comes months before nationwide elections in Myanmar, the first since the military dictatorship of almost half a century stepped down in favour of a quasi-civilian government in 2011.
Ms Suu Kyi’s trip comes weeks after Thura Shwe Mann, a former Myanmar junta number three who is now the speaker of parliament’s lower house, met President Xi in Beijing, noted Christian Lewis, an associate at Eurasia Group, the political risk analyst.
“The sequence of visits likely reflects the fact that Beijing sees Shwe Mann as the strongest candidate for Myanmar’s next president, but recognises the rising power and influence of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in legislative politics,” Mr Lewis said.
China’s relations with Myanmar were never better than when Ms Suu Kyi was a prisoner for 15 years in her own home and her then pariah state relied on its northern neighbour for investment and diplomatic support.
But Myanmar’s political opening has brought cooler relations with China, as gratitude for Beijing’s support mixes with anger at perceived abuses of its political and economic dominance.
Public protests led Myanmar’s government to stop work in 2011 on the Chinese–backed Myitsone dam in the north of the country, while villagers in the country’s north-west have faced violent security force crackdowns during years of rallies against the Chinese-operated Letpadaung copper mine.
China [will] want to have at least superficially good relationship with the future kingmaker of Myanmar
- Yun Sun, senior associate at Stimson Center
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China's own grievances were highlighted when its military last week launched rare live-ammunition exercises in a border region, close to where the Myanmar army is fighting with rebels on the other side of the frontier. Myanmar’s bombing of rebel positions had earlier spilled into China, killing villagers.
Perhaps the most sensitive aspect of Ms Suu Kyi’s visit is her status in the west as a pro-democracy figurehead of the kind jailed by China. Her fellow Nobel peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, the only Chinese winner of the honour, is serving an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion”.
But US and European observers hoping for a ringing critique of Beijing’s policies are likely to be as disappointed as they are in Ms Suu Kyi's reluctance to speak out for Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya people.
She has tended to avoid anti-Chinese rhetoric and, unlike many of her fellow Nobel Prize winners, has shied away more generally from condemning alleged human rights abuses around the globe.
“She certainly doesn’t want to be seen as anti-China, and I don’t see anything that suggests she actually is,” said Thant Myint-U, a historian and author who has worked with Myanmar’s government on its peace process to end more than 60 years of civil conflict. “Her concerns have always been very domestic.”

If Europe cannot bend it will break - Financial Times

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June 8, 2015 2:15 pm
If Europe cannot bend it will break
Gideon RachmanGideon Rachman

Neither man would appreciate the comparison, but Alexis Tsipras and David Cameron are in remarkably similar situations.
The Greek and British prime ministers both say that they have secured a democratic mandate at home to demand changes in their national relationship with the EU. Both leaders have calculated that the other Europeans will meet their demands rather than risk seeing Greece leave the euro or Britain leave the EU. But both Mr Tsipras and Mr Cameron are encountering a wall of opposition in Europe that could lead them to the destinations that they are keen to avoid — Grexit and Brexit.

Both the Greeks and the Brits have found that an argument based on the results of their own national elections can go only so far in an EU of 28 member-states. When Mr Tsipras claimed that he had a democratic mandate to demand change in Europe, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, is said to have responded: “I have also been elected.”
But the difficulties of changing Europe go well beyond a clash of national democratic mandates. They are rooted in the size and legal complexity of the EU — an organisation that is now so large and unwieldy that it finds radical change almost impossible to contemplate.
The British say that securing the changes they want in Europe, on issues such as immigration and the rights of national parliaments, will require treaty change — that is changes to the EU’s basic legal documents. But treaty change requires the agreement of all EU countries, some of which will also hold referendums. The very process of renegotiation also invites every member of the EU to come forward with their own clashing demands. Rather than contemplate that nightmarish prospect, it is easier for the EU simply to refuse to shift — other than in small or symbolic ways.
It is important to realise that this aversion to change is largely divorced from the merits of the reforms that are being requested. Different EU governments have different views on whether Greek or British demands are reasonable. There is some sympathy in France and Italy for Greek arguments that the country’s debts are unpayable and that further deep austerity would be counterproductive. There is some sympathy in northern Europe for British arguments on welfare and increasing the role of national parliaments. But, regardless of the merits of the Greek and British cases, there is a deep reluctance to open the Pandora’s box of profound reform.
Regardless of the merits of the Greek and British cases, there is a deep reluctance to open the Pandora’s box
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The problems involved are not simply legal, they are also political. The worry is that concessions made to the Greeks or British would generate a backlash, with German or Dutch voters resenting a write-off of Greek debt, or Polish voters outraged by restrictions on the rights of EU migrants. Elsewhere, the sight of a radical left party such as Syriza or Eurosceptic conservatives, such as Britain’s Tories, extracting concessions from the rest of Europe could boost similar parties across the continent, making the EU even harder to manage.
As a result key governments in Europe, in particular Germany, are more willing to contemplate Grexit and Brexit than the Greeks and British may have realised.
The German government has been saying for some time that the eurozone can withstand a Greek exit from the euro. While Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, still seems keen to keep Greece inside for geopolitical reasons, the German finance ministry, led by Mr Schäuble, now seems inclined to let Greece go, believing that this could actually have a salutary effect on the other members of the eurozone. Whether or not Grexit happens, the German consensus is that the lesson of the whole Greek crisis is that Europe needs to be even less flexible, with the eurozone requiring tougher rules and stricter enforcement, including tighter supervision of national budgets from Brussels.
The British problem is less urgent than the Greek one and involves less money, but a similar German approach is already emerging. I spent part of last week in Germany at the Konigswinter conference, which has been bringing British and German decision makers together for 65 years.
The Konigswinter atmosphere was, as ever, friendly and frank. Markus Ederer, the head of the German foreign ministry, told the British visitors: “Germany will go to great lengths to support London, even help London, but it cannot go to any lengths.” Allowing EU countries to choose which of its principles to follow would “curb the union’s strength, maybe even more than continuing in a smaller but punchier union.” That looked like a quietly-stated, but direct, warning to the British that Berlin is prepared to see the UK leave the EU, rather than risk the union’s internal coherence.
Germany’s tough approach is based on a realistic assessment of how hard it will be to get reforms through a 28-member EU — as well as a profound aversion to rolling back the process of EU integration. But it is also an alarming commentary on Europe’s inability to respond to changed circumstances, whether it is a 25 per cent shrinkage in the Greek economy, or the unanticipated migration of millions of people across the EU. That failure to be flexible about change is dangerous. A Europe that cannot bend is much more likely to break.
gideon.rachman@ft.com

An offer that Greece should not refuse - Financial Times

June 5, 2015 at 11:56pm

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June 4, 2015 4:35 pm
An offer that Greece should not refuse
Philip Stephens

Greece should take the deal. The country’s creditors have tabled what has all the appearances of a final offer. Alexis Tsipras’s government should accept it. Athens will not achieve better terms and the alternative of default and likely exit from the euro would be worse for the Greek people.
The signs are not encouraging. The creditors’ proposals were hammered out at a meeting hosted by Angela Merkel. For all the Greek brickbats hurled at Berlin, the German chancellor has been more anxious than many to keep it within the euro. She understands that the geopolitical consequences of its departure would reach well beyond the inevitable financial shock. A fair inference would say Ms Merkel has pushed the International Monetary Fund as far as it will go.

Greece’s immediate response has been that Mr Tsipras would be the one presenting what officials described as a “last, best offer”. A kind interpretation would be that the prime minister has to play the politics of managing anti-euro hardliners in his own party; a harsher one that he has still to realise it really is one minute to midnight.
When politicians promise the impossible, the odds are that they will be found out. That is what has happened to the Syriza government. It offered the voters a shortcut out of the country’s dire economic predicament. They could throw overboard fiscal retrenchment and tough economic reforms and keep the euro. Now it is evident Mr Tsipras cannot deliver. More than that: the pain is unavoidable with or without default, inside or outside the euro.
Another miscalculation (or was it hubris?) was to assume that other European states should be bound by the choice made by Greek voters. Mr Tsipras was given a mandate to seek what he said was a better deal. No one should have expected that the voters of Madrid and Lisbon or Dublin and Berlin would feel an obligation to agree. Greece’s democratic choice does not trump those of other eurozone states.
The negotiating strategy of the Athens government has rested on the hopelessly flimsy assumption that Greece has a better option if its creditors refuse to bend to his demands. Economists can argue about the theoretical impact of default followed by a devaluation but, in the particular case of Greece, the consequences are probably all bad.
Syriza’s laundry lists of proposed structural reforms remain, well, laundry lists
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In the short term a return to the drachma would see living standards fall sharply and, with Greece locked out of international capital markets, the government would be forced to generate the fiscal surpluses it now balks at. Austerity inside the euro would be replaced by harsher austerity without.
Ah, but what about the long-term gains to competitiveness from devaluation? In all likelihood they would be fleeting — lost to the dysfunctionality of the political and economic systems. Without the modernisation demanded by creditors, including overhaul of a clientelist and corrupt bureaucracy, a serious effort to collect taxes, the opening up of closed professions, and reform of public pensions, salvation outside the euro would be a chimera.
There is plenty of scope for debate about whether the specific fiscal targets in the latest offer are plausible. I count myself among those who think the Greek government is probably right when it says that the level of Greek debt is unsustainable. The focus by the creditors on precise numbers for fiscal and pension balances, however, reflects the deeper loss of trust.
Targets for the size of the primary surplus a year or two hence can be changed. What matters are the circumstances. The missing ingredient since Syriza’s election victory has been any confidence on the side of creditors that greater fiscal leeway would be accompanied by a serious commitment to overhaul the country’s governance. Mr Tsipras promised that, as an outsider, he would sweep away the corruption and cosy cartels. The impression he has given since is that one set of clients is being replaced by another.
If Athens wants other leaders to take seriously its view that austerity is counterproductive, the only way to do it is to embark on the political and economic reforms needed to underpin a return to growth. Sure, this is more than a two- or three-year project. But resolve and direction count. No one would argue with the slippage of a percentage point here in the size of the country’s primary surplus if the Greek government was breaking up the oligopolies, cleaning up government and stamping out endemic tax evasion.
Instead, Syriza has talked itself into believing that the rest of Europe, and above all Germany, is out to “punish” Greece. Laundry lists of proposed structural reforms have remained, well, laundry lists. The economy has gone backwards. And, yes, in a way it does now seem somewhat perverse to prescribe more austerity.
There is no guarantee that even if a deal is struck it will last. As long as Mr Tsipras and his colleagues feel more comfortable in blaming others for Greece’s woes, the country’s prospects will remain resolutely grim.
The consequences of Grexit for the rest of the eurozone would be at the very least dangerous. But here, sadly, Greece’s partners are trapped in their own par­alysis. They know they must turn a monetary into an economic union, but lack the will to do so. This does not look like a story with a happy ending.

Greece to delay IMF repayment as Tsipras faces backlash - Financial Times

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Last updated: June 4, 2015 6:33 pm
Greece to delay IMF repayment as Tsipras faces backlash
Kerin Hope in Athens and Peter Spiegel in Brussels

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivers a speech during the Economist conference entitled "Europe: The comeback ? Greece: How resilient?" in Athens on May 15, 2015. Greece's left-wing government will not abandon its defence of social rights and salaries in tough talks with its EU-IMF creditors, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said. AFP PHOTO/LOUISA GOULIAMAKI (Photo credit should read LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images)©AFP
Alexis Tsipras. Greek prime minister
Greece has notified the International Monetary Fund that it will not make a scheduled €300m loan repayment on Friday after opposition to a bailout compromise with creditors erupted inside the governing party.
Following a rarely used procedure permitted under IMF rules, the Greek government intends to bundle all the payments it owes in June totalling €1.5bn and transfer it at the end of the month.




Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has come under intense pressure from within his left-wing Syriza party to withhold payment to the IMF as a sign of the country’s defiance to terms required by its international creditors to access desperately-needed €7.2bn in bailout aid.
But as recently as early Thursday morning, Mr Tsipras had signalled his government intended to make the payment. Asked by reporters after a four-hour Brussels meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, whether the instalment would be made, the Greek prime minister said: “Don’t worry about that.”
Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief, had also said earlier on Thursday she was “confident” Athens would make the payment and dismissed talk that Greece would opt for the bundling option, last used by Zambia in the 1980s.
But according to a Greek central bank official, Athens made the request late on Thursday. Gerry Rice, the IMF spokesman, confirmed the request, saying the rule allows countries “to address the administrative difficulty of making multiple payments in a short period.”
However, senior IMF officials believe that any non-payment by Athens would be a political decision rather than a financial one; in an economy as large as Greece’s, €300m is a relatively small sum and Greek officials had been working to raid undisbursed EU funds for infrastructure projects to cover the payment as well as another €350m instalment due to the IMF on June 12.
As a result, Greece’s decision — coming less than 24 hours after Mr Tsipras was presented a five-page list of policy commitments by Mr Juncker that Athens needed to implement to win the €7.2bn in aid — will be seen as a negotiating tactic as well as a sign of a shortness of cash.
“This move is almost unprecedented and based on Tsipras’s comments yesterday unexpected,” said Mujtaba Rahman, head of European analysis at the Eurasia Group risk consultancy. “It unnecessarily raises the stakes and will further undermine the goodwill of Greece’s creditors.”

Ever since an emergency summit meeting of EU leaders hosted Monday in Berlin by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, eurozone officials have been concerned that many of the terms in a compromise plan hammered out by Greece’s warring creditors would be unacceptable to Syriza.
Some eurozone officials believe Mr Tsipras will be forced to move to elections if he accepts creditors terms, which includes demands that Athens make public-sector pension cuts of 1 per cent annually starting next year. The pension measures, demanded by the IMF but resisted by the European Commission, were one of Athens’ most important “red lines” in negotiations.
In a sign of how fraught the political situation had become for Mr Tsipras, he was forced to put off an expected second round of talks in Brussels with Mr Juncker to address his parliament on Friday night.

American socialism’s day in the sun - Financial Times

June 1, 2015 at 10:30pm

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May 31, 2015 5:19 pm
American socialism’s day in the sun
ED LuceEdward Luce


Leftwing politicians are in electoral retreat across most of the western world. The one exception is the United States. At 15 per cent in the Democratic polls, Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, is riding higher than any US socialist since Eugene Debs ran for the White House a century ago.
The fact that Mr Sanders has very little chance of unseating Hillary Clinton is beside the point. His popularity is dragging her leftward. If he flames out, other left-wingers, such as Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland who entered the race at the weekend, are ready to pick up the baton. Elizabeth Warren, the populist Massachusetts senator, will continue to prod Mrs Clinton from outside the field. The more Mrs Clinton adopts their language, the harder it will be for her to reclaim the centre ground next year. Yet she is only following the crowd. A surprisingly large chunk of Democrats are happy to break the US taboo against socialism.

To most students of US politics, the phrase American socialism is an oxymoron — like clean coal or the Bolivian navy. A century ago, Werner Sombart, a German scholar, asked “Why is there no socialism in America?” It was a question that confounded Marxists. As the most advanced capitalistic society, the US was most ripe for a proletarian revolution, according to their teleology.
Yet the US refused to live up to its role. Europe’s finest intellectuals would have done better to have listened to the Irish immigrant in 1893 who on landing at Boston docks proclaimed: “If there’s a government here, I’m agin it.” They might also have read the first three words of the US constitution: “We the people”. For all the crimes committed against Native and black Americans, the US republic came into being without an aristocracy or feudal serfdom. It was born a middle class country with equality of opportunity as its creed. That made it a radically different place to the old world it had left behind.
Such differences are no longer obvious. No one, including Mr Sanders, is talking about nationalising chunks of the US economy. Yet his policies are radical by American standards. He wants a single-payer healthcare system, along the lines of Canada, or the UK. He would abolish tuition fees for instate higher education. He would drive big money out of US politics, redistribute income, mandate paid holidays and increase social security benefits. He would also break up the “too big to fail” Wall Street banks. “Are we prepared to take on the enormous political and economic power of the billionaire class,” asks Mr Sanders, “or do we continue to slide into . . . oligarchy?”
A highly energised minority of Democrats are responding to his message. Mr Sanders raised $1.5m from small donors within 24 hours of his launch in early May. Although Mr Sanders is trailing far behind Mrs Clinton, his support exceeds that of almost any candidate in the Republican field. Is it a temporary protest vote? Or should Mrs Clinton’s donors start to worry?
The answer to the first question will come when Democrats hold their first presidential debate. As a plain talker with an authentic personality, the septuagenarian Mr Sanders could strike an unflattering contrast to Mrs Clinton. Because Mrs Clinton is so strongly associated with dynasty and wealth — the Clintons earned more than $25m in speaking fees since the beginning of 2014 — she will feel all the more need to appropriate Mr Sanders’s rhetoric. But that will risk making her seem even less authentic. A majority of the US public already says they find Mrs Clinton untrustworthy. Mr Sanders will not become the 45th president of the US. But he could fatally wound Mrs Clinton’s chances. So, too, could Mrs Warren.
The answer to the second question is yes — Mr Sanders is no flash in the pan. Socialism found no audience in the US because most Americans felt they were middle class. High rates of social mobility gave most people the sense that their society was exceptional — and rightly so. As Richard Hofstadter, the US historian, said: “It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies but to be one.”
That is now in question. As recently as 2008, 63 per cent of Americans identified as upper middle or middle class. That has fallen to 51 per cent. Meanwhile, the share of Americans who self-identify as “working and lower class”, according to Gallup, has risen from 35 per cent to 48 per cent since 2008. Perhaps fittingly, the share of Americans who identify as upper class is 1 per cent. That number hasn’t changed. But the belief that they are rigging the system is now mainstream.
To be clear, I am not forecasting a red dawn in the US. It is hard to imagine even a small portion of Mr Sanders’s agenda being enacted. But the rise of the Democratic left is every bit as real as the Tea Party’s surge among Republicans. Until recently, political scientists talked of “asymmetric polarisation” — meaning Republicans were moving more to the right than Democrats were moving left. Now Democrats are catching up. Meanwhile, more and more Americans profess intolerance for other people’s political beliefs. Elections are generally won in the centre. But it is smaller than it used to be. By US traditions, next year’s election is likely to present an unusually stark clash of ideologies. Whatever else he does from here, Mr Sanders has already ensured that.
edward.luce@ft.com

Europe’s problem is with Russia, not Putin - Financial Times

June 2, 2015 at 12:50am

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May 31, 2015 5:56 pm
Europe’s problem is with Russia, not Putin
Thomas Graham


Moscow is not a rising revolutionary force but one seeking to restore power, writes Thomas Graham
In this Wednesday, May 27, 2015 pool photo Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia. Putin says the United States is meddling in FIFA's affairs in an attempt to take the 2018 World Cup away from his country. Putin said in televised comments Thursday, May 28, 2015, that it is "odd" that the probe was launched at the request of U.S. officials for crimes which do not involve its citizens and did not happen in the United States. (Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)©AP

The west acts as if it had a Vladimir Putin problem. In fact it has a Russia problem. The Russian president stands within a long tradition of Russian thinking. His departure would fix nothing. Any plausible successor would pursue a similar course, if perhaps with a little less machismo.
The Russia problem is not new. It emerged 200 years ago, at the end of the Napoleonic period, with the opening up of what we would today call a values gap. In the 19th century Russia maintained an autocratic regime as Europe moved towards liberal democracy
Yet Russia remained a great power, essential to European security. How to protect Europe in the presence of a powerful state that is alien in worldview? That was the problem then, as now.
European states seek security in balance; Russia seeks it in strategic depth. That view grows out of its location on the vast, nearly featureless great Eurasian plain, across which armies have moved with ease.
Historically, Russia has pushed its borders outward, as far away as possible from its heartland. It did not stop when it reached defensible physical borders, but only when it ran into powerful countervailing states. Where the west saw imperialism, Moscow saw the erection of defences.
Over time, resistance from the Germanic powers in the west, Great Britain and then the US in the south, and China and Japan in the east, came to define Russia’s zone of security as north central Eurasia, the former Soviet space.
For Moscow, states there face a choice not between independence and Russian domination, but between domination by Russia or a rival. That struggle,
Moscow believes, is playing out in Ukraine.
Also out of security concerns, Russia has opposed the domination of Europe by a single power and remains uncomfortable with greater European unity. The reason is easy to grasp: Russia can be the equal of Great Britain, France, or Germany, but it can never be the equal of a united Europe, which in population, wealth, and power would dwarf it as the US does today. Driving wedges between European states, and between Europe and the US, might forestall the emergence of a serious threat.
Russia’s fears are amplified by a sense of vulnerability. Its economy is stagnating, its technology is no longer cutting-edge, and outside forces — China, the west and radical Islam — are challenging it in the former Soviet space. The temptation is to act tough to cover up the doubts by, for example, flaunting nuclear capabilities.
After more than 20 years of hope that Russia could be brought into the west-led international order, the re-emergence of the Russia problem has shocked the west. But the threat is limited. This is not a rising revolutionary force but a declining state seeking to restore its power.
It can be managed. One way is to revitalise the European project. That means dealing vigorously with the issues fuelling anti-EU forces — the democratic deficit, immigration and inequality.
To be sure, steps such as a Nato presence in the Baltics and robust planning for hybrid-war contingencies are necessary, but the west needs to avoid over-militarising its response to what is largely a political challenge.
At the same time, more should be done to help Ukraine repair its economy and build a competent state as a barrier to Russia’s assault on European norms and unity.
Yet containment will not work in our globalised, increasingly multipolar world , as it did during the cold war. The west cannot contain one of the world’s largest economies, and it is geopolitical malfeasance to weaken unduly a power critical to the equilibrium we hope to create out of today’s turbulence, particularly in Asia.
The hard truth is that Ukraine cannot be rebuilt without Russia. It is simply too reliant on Russia economically, and Russia has too many levers of influence inside Ukraine, for it to be otherwise. Containment has to be leavened with accommodation. Finding the right balance is the challenge.

The writer is a former senior director for Russia on the US National Security Council staff

7 reasons Grexit wouldn't be a total disaster - CNN

7 reasons Grexit wouldn't be a total disaster - CNN

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The word Grexit has once again entered the financial vocabulary, after talks on Greece's future within the eurozone collapsed on Monday.
But somehow, the word -- shorthand for Greece's exit from the eurozone -- is not freaking out global markets as much as it once did.

Here is why a Grexit, while undoubtedly painful, might be much less of a deal now than in 2012 or back in 2010, when the eurozone was at the brink of collapse.
1. Stronger creditors: The structure of Greece's debt has changed dramatically. In 2010, 85% of Greek debt was held by private investors, leaving them with plenty to lose.
That ratio has flipped since then -- the latest data from Open Europe show that 80% of Greek government debt is now held by governments and other institutions, such as the IMF and the ECB, which are better equipped to deal with a potential Greek default.
2. Risk is spread out: No single bank holds a significant chunk of the debt either, so no one creditor would take too much of a hit. Plus, foreign banks held just $46 billion of Greek debt at the end of 2014. That compares to $300 billion in 2010, according to data from Wells Fargo and the Bank for International Settlements.
And global banks aren't being punished despite the fact that the debt standoff is shaking confidence in the Greek financial system. The country's biggest banks Piraeus (BPIRF)and Alpha Bank (ALBKF) have lost over 25% in market value so far this year.
Related: How Greece could accidentally stumble out of the euro
3. No fear of domino effect: Greece looks gloomy, but Portugal, Italy and Spain, the other "troubled" eurozone countries, are doing much better after working through their own painful bailout programs.
Bond yields tell the story. Investors are more willing to lend their money to the rest of the group, because they are less afraid these countries would follow Greece out of the eurozone. Spain's 10-year bond yields 1.59%, compared to 7% in 2010. In fact, both Spain and Italy can currently borrow money cheaper than the U.K.
4. ECB stimulus: After years of hesitation, the European Central Bank finally unveiled a big stimulus program in January, making investors very happy. The $1.3 trillion bond buying program is expected to help boost eurozone's growth. The cheap cash can help offset any potential fallout from Greece.
5. Economy growing: Europe, although battling the effects of a long recession, is in better shape now compared to the last time a Grexit was on the cards in 2012.
Eurozone's GDP is growing again -- in the last quarter of 2014, growth even beat expectations. Analysts say cheap oil, falling prices and a weaker euro are helping boost the economy.
6. New plan for member states: When the eurozone crisis first struck in 2010, the bloc's leaders didn't have any framework to turn to if a member state runs into troubles.
Since then, eurozone countries established the $800 billion bailout fund for emergency loans. They also agreed on rules on how countries can access this money.
7. Stocks rising: Investors appear unfazed by the prospect of a wider eurozone crisis. Despite the Greek standoff and a military conflict on the bloc's doorstep, major European stock markets are at record highs.
Related: Grim economic news piles pressure on Greece

Unrepentant Dick Fuld blames Washington for Lehman collapse - Financial Times

May 30, 2015 at 1:29am

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May 28, 2015 6:40 pm
Unrepentant Dick Fuld blames Washington for Lehman collapse
Tom Braithwaite in New York



Former Lehman chief Dick Fuld arrives to speak at the Marcum Microcap conference in New York on Thursday
Dick Fuld, who presided over the implosion of Lehman Brothers, used his first voluntary public appearance since 2008 to blame Washington for fuelling the financial crisis and ordering the investment bank’s closure.
“Wow, I haven’t done this for a while,” Mr Fuld said. “This is my first public event since 08. I don’t include my wonderful time with Congress,” he added, referring to his post-crisis grillings on Capitol Hill.

Mr Fuld, who was known in his Wall Street heyday as the Gorilla because of his aggressive attitude, chose a relatively low-profile venue for his public comeback — the Marcum Microcap conference in New York where small companies were looking for investors.
But even there, almost seven years since the bank’s collapse, there was still ill-will towards the Lehman boss, particularly from employees — some of whom saw their life savings wiped out in the biggest bankruptcy in US history.
“I have a few words I’d like to say to him,” said Brian Choi, a former Lehman employee who is now vice-president at Woerner Holdings, an investment firm. “You screwed so many.”
Another in the audience remarked: “There should be a Plexiglas shield in front of him.”
Mr Fuld showed no sign of contrition over the demise of the bank, which he led from 1994. The crisis was “a perfect storm,” he said, “but it starts with the government.” It paved the way for unsuitable borrowers to buy homes, caused an interest rate shock, and then unfairly “mandated” the bankruptcy of Lehman while saving competitors.
He acknowledged that all investment banks “had too much leverage” but insisted that Lehman was still solvent when it was placed into bankruptcy, citing the bank’s $28bn of equity capital, a capital ratio of 11 per cent and unencumbered collateral of $127bn.
“Lehman Brothers . . . was not a bankrupt company. I think I missed the violence of the market and how it spread from one asset class to the next. Did we try to do everything we possibly could? Did we fall prey to some other agendas? I’ll leave it at that.
“There’s so much I’d love to say,” he said. “Dah dah dah dah dah . . . enough said on that.” He reached for a glass by the stage and took a sip. “No, this is not scotch or rum.”
In a somewhat disjointed speech, whose pop culture references spanned Dean Martin and Rocky, Mr Fuld pointed to Barack Obama’s administration and said: “We need new leadership.
“Everything’s ‘great’,” he added. “Why the hell does it not feel better? Why has the belly of America been ripped out?”
Mr Fuld said he was a “hardcore capitalist” but added: “Capitalism only works, though, if it starts at the top and filters down. If it doesn’t get down we’re going to lose, really simple.
“Enjoy the ride — no regrets,” he advised the audience. “Look in the mirror, ‘this is about you and me. Are we OK? Let’s enjoy the ride.’ ”
Though Mr Fuld had said he would not speak in detail about Lehman, he answered some questions about the bank’s failure from the conference moderator.
After being told there would be easy questions, at the start of the session, Mr Fuld adopted an exaggerated, deep, movie-announcer voice, replying: “There is no easy one.
“We don’t have time to hear all the things I would have done differently,” Mr Fuld said.
“Do we have time?” the moderator asked the audience. “Yes!” came the resounding reply.
The former Lehman chief said: “It’s very easy to look back. I must tell you that I was blessed with a terrific team, for the most part, a terrific team and we were in it together.”
Asked why he did not retire, Mr Fuld said: “I didn’t think I had a choice. Lehman went down. The next Monday I was working with Alvarez [& Marsal, the bankruptcy consultants working on stabilising the Lehman estate].”
Please understand, not a day goes by when I don’t think about Lehman Brothers. Not a day. I’d love to tell you I’m over it, it’s behind me. It doesn’t happen
- Dick Fuld
In the aftermath of the collapse, he worked with Bryan Marsal, the bankruptcy consultant who was appointed chief restructuring officer.
“I was dedicated to helping unwind some of this stuff. It got a little dark because he was dedicated to tearing down everything my team had built.
“You have the right to ask me what happened at the end then when the fabric of the team got frayed . . . All I can say to that was the survival instinct took over.”
Asked why he had chosen to appear now, Mr Fuld said: “I thought it was time. You know what. Time for me to raise my ugly head. Our business is growing. I think I’ve gotten a lot of this stuff behind me.”
In 2009 Mr Fuld founded Matrix Advisors, a mergers and acquisitions consulting firm based in midtown Manhattan.
“I said to all of you: enjoy the ride, no regrets. Please understand, not a day goes by when I don’t think about Lehman Brothers. Not a day. I’d love to tell you I’m over it; it’s behind me. It doesn’t happen. But having said that, I do have to move on and this is part of it.”

Russia censors discussion of involvement in Ukraine - Financial Times

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May 28, 2015 6:17 pm
Russia censors discussion of involvement in Ukraine
Kathrin Hille in Moscow


MOSCOW, RUSSIA - MARCH 29: Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov looks on in memory of the victims of a blast inside the Lubyanka metro station on March 29, 2010 in Moscow, Russia. At least 38 people were killed and 60 injured as two separate female suicide bombers blew themselves up on trains on Moscow's metro during morning rush hour. Twenty-five people died in the Lubyanka station blast and around 45 minutes later a second explosion occurred at the Park Kultury station leaving another 12 people dead. (Photo by Dmitry Korotayev/Epsilon/Getty Images)©Getty
Associates of murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov published a damning report earlier this month
Russia has made it a crime to speak, write or broadcast about Russian troop losses in peacetime and about people co-operating with Russian foreign intelligence, in what critics said was a Kremlin attempt to stop all information about Moscow’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday spelling out more than 20 additions to Russia’s state secrets law, including “information which reveals personnel losses in times of war and in peace time while a special operation is being conducted”.

The new censorship rules mean families of Russian soldiers killed fighting in Ukraine or activists researching Moscow’s clandestine campaign risk prison sentences of up to eight years.
“It appears that the position of just denying there are Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine cannot last any longer,” said Kirill Koroteev, a lawyer with Memorial, the human rights group.
Earlier this month, associates of the murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov published a damning report that said at least 220 active Russian soldiers had died fighting in Ukraine.
Days before he was shot in central Moscow in February, Nemtsov said he intended to enlighten the Russian people, starting with families of military and security officials, that Mr Putin was dragging the country into war.
“Now people will go to prison for searching for data about our fallen soldiers,” Ilya Yashin, one of Nemtsov’s closest associates and co-author of the report, wrote on Twitter.
Olga Romanova, a journalist and rights activist, wrote on her Facebook page: “These things mean that a blogger will be criminally prosecuted for writing about a young widow . . . crying after she received a coffin from Donbass.”
Technically, Russia’s state secrets law only covers certain institutions or persons. But legal experts said the new rules could easily be applied more broadly to silence families of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, activists distributing or publicly discussing such information and all media reports about Russian involvement in the war.
“It can be administratively abused in such a way that the body of a soldier killed in Ukraine or benefits will only be released to the family in exchange for them signing a guarantee that they will keep silent,” said Mr Koroteev.
The new list also stipulates that “information about persons under evaluation with the aim of recruiting them for co-operation on a confidential basis, [and] people who assist or have assisted the organs of foreign intelligence of the Russian Federation on a confidential basis” will be regarded as state secrets.
An activist at a soldiers’ rights group said this was a catch-all description designed to cover volunteers and soldiers who were forced by the military to resign from their official duty before being sent into battle.

Greek exit from euro is ‘a potential’, says Lagarde - Financial Times

May 30, 2015 at 1:34am

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May 28, 2015 7:28 pm
Greek exit from euro is ‘a potential’, says Lagarde
Stefan Wagstyl and Claire Jones in Dresden and Shawn Donnan in Washington

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), speaks at a news conference during the IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. The global response to the Ebola crisis is "way behind the curve," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said today, as leaders of the three affected African nations appealed for financing and faster assistance. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Christine Lagarde©Bloomberg
Christine Lagarde
The head of the International Monetary Fund has acknowledged that Greece could leave the euro, while insisting that this would not mark the end of the single currency.
“It’s a potential,” Christine Lagarde told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, adding that it would be “no stroll” but also that it would definitely not mean the end of the euro. Ms Lagarde’s admission came as the IMF offered Greece three more weeks to repay €1.6bn it owes to the fund next month, insisting that Athens still had a long way to go to persuade creditors to unlock desperately needed bailout money.
Frustration is mounting over the slow progress in the talks between Greece and its three bailout monitors — the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission — and exasperation at repeated Greek claims that an agreement is imminent.


“It’s very unlikely that we will reach a comprehensive solution [between Greece and its creditors] in the next few days,” Ms Lagarde said in her interview with the newspaper.
An official attending the Dresden meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialised countries said on Thursday: “We are still on most key issues quite far apart. [The idea] that a deal is just around the corner and can come by Sunday is far, far from reality.”
The IMF confirmed on Thursday that Athens would be permitted to delay all its June repayments until the end of the month, removing the threat that Greece could default as soon as June 5, when €300m falls due.
At the same time, fund officials warned the G7 gathering that Athens was still far from a deal to secure much-needed rescue aid, as it had failed to deliver credible reform proposals.
Claims by Greek officials that Athens had begun drafting a staff-level agreement with its bailout monitors and could reach a deal by the weekend briefly buoyed financial markets earlier this week. The Greek government repeated the assertion on Thursday.
“We are coming to these negotiations with the aim to have a deal with the partners by Sunday,” said Gabriel Sakellaridis, the Greek government spokesman.
But a senior G7 official said the two sides still remained far apart on issues that have separated them for months, including pension overhauls, labour market liberalisation and a coherent fiscal package.
“We haven’t got much further in the negotiations,” said Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister.
William Murray, an IMF spokesman, said Greek officials had not asked for a “bundling” of its June payments, as permitted by a little-known rule introduced in the 1970s, but “they are entitled to do that if they want”.
Just what the market reaction to any such move by Greece would be is unclear. It has been invoked only once — by Zambia in the 1980s.
Senior EU officials, including Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, have told Alexis Tsipras, the Greek premier, that he will not be able to reach a deal without IMF approval.
The IMF is maintaining a tough line in the talks partly because it wants economic reform in Greece and partly because it knows that especially generous treatment for Athens would provoke criticism elsewhere in the world. The senior G7 official said: “[The IMF] can’t blatantly disregard its own rules.”

Greece debt crisis
The Syriza government is facing resistance to its plans to tackle the country’s massive debt burden
Read more
But the fund is also turning the screws on eurozone bailout lenders, saying they will need to offer some relief on existing rescue loans and provide new aid if any economic package is to be “sustainable”.
The G7 official said: “There has been no concrete discussion on the financing of the debt. There has been no other discussion other than acknowledging that this has to add up.”
Asked about possible future debt relief, Pierre Moscovici, European commissioner for economic affairs, indicated that he did not rule it out, once comprehensive reforms were in place, saying: “We’ll see later on what kind of further arrangements can be found.” He added: “We need to work day and night to find an agreement. No matter what the date we have little time. But an agreement is certainly possible.”

6 Ways You Can Build Skills Without Asking Anyone for Help - TIME

https://www.themuse.com/advice/6-ways-you-can-build-skills-without-asking-anyone-for-help

By Amanda Elliott
At some companies, your boss will actively suggest that you attend conferences or provide opportunities for on-the-job training. But, there are also many jobs that rely on you to develop your skill set.

Even if your organization won’t pay for (or doesn’t offer) training, there are several things you can do to work your way toward that next promotion or remain competent and coveted in your field. And—better yet—most of them don’t cost much at all.



1. Read (or Listen to) Books, Articles, and Forums

Reading is fundamental, and whether you choose short blogs or books, it will make a difference. So instead of your daily browse of BuzzFeed, make a plan to read content that will educate, inform, and introduce you to new tools, skills, and people.

To start, dedicate 30 minutes a day to learning about your industry from top thought leaders. When reading books, use the appendix and notes to see where the author got his information and how he is researching and learning in his field. You can also follow industry experts on LinkedIn or Twitter to see the content they are sharing, the companies they follow, or groups they are in. Finally, don’t just look for people to follow—organizations also publish great information! Companies like WordPress have blogs and forums that you can read to learn about functional skills.

Feel like you don’t have the time to sit down and read? Listen to industry-specific podcasts on your commute, during a workout, or even while you do chores. For general advice, The Work Talk Show (which is currently on hiatus) has two years worth of interviews with professionals in various fields regarding how they get work done and what their favorite apps are.


2. Join a Professional Organization

Professional organizations are great resources that too often go overlooked. Many provide training and conferences, connect professionals with mentors who can offer advice, and give you a bit of validation in your field to boot. In the PR world, for instance, there’s the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) or The PR Council. Fundraisers have The Association of Fundraising Professionals, and someone in IT could join the Association of Information Technology Professionals. Most fields have numerous organizations—a national group (or sometimes more than one), regional groups, and so forth. Not only will you have access to top industry news, but also to the people influencing that news. It’s a win-win!

You can also join informal groups through Facebook and LinkedIn. In this setting, people often feel less intimidated asking questions or participating in discussions—so no matter what you’re interested in learning more about, ask away!

Related: 5 Ways to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn Groups



3. Take Classes

Thanks to the internet, it’s never been easier to go to class. One resource is Coursera, an online platform for taking classes from top universities like Northwestern and Duke. When you sign up for class, the description includes an estimate of time you will need per week. I took a class called “Understanding Media by Understanding Google” from Professor Owen R. Youngman at Northwestern, and it included the opportunity to meet up with some of the local students at the university for a live class (hello, networking opportunity!).

Another option is to listen to class lectures online through Apple’s iTunes U. And platforms like Udacity, Udemy, Skillshare, and Lynda offer short lessons on almost everything imaginable, delivered by experts. Get creative and set up your own curriculum through books, podcasts—you can even assign yourself homework!

Just remember, your goal is to hone in on a skill or gain expertise in a certain subject matter. It can be tempting to take classes in everything, but try to start with one area of emphasis.

Related: 50 (Cheap!) Professional Development Classes Anyone Can Take


4. Attend Events

Even if your company doesn’t sponsor learning events, other organizations will. For example, Astek, a B2B web design company in Chicago, hosts monthly “Think-n-Drink” events, where a panel of local experts discuss trends in marketing and graphic design. Hubspot, a national company, hosts events about UX design and product marketing in cities such as Dallas, Denver, and San Francisco. Check out Meetup or Eventbrite, to find company-sponsored events in your area and industry, or look into nearby co-working spaces, which also tend to host functions regularly.

Oh, and if you miss out on a local event, you can often find notes on SlideShare, another great resource for learning!



5. Look Around Your Office

Even if your company’s budget is tight, don’t underestimate the opportunity to learn some new skills at the place you go to work every day. Look around the office and see what your colleagues are working on. Are there projects or issues you’re interested in learning more about? Ask another team member or department if you could help out on an assignment—or even shadow someone for a day. For instance, let’s say you’re tasked with writing blog posts, but the marketing team is responsible for getting them out into the world. You can learn more about SEO and social media—for free!—just by sitting down with a teammate over coffee or lunch.



6. Volunteer

OK, so your company may not want you to take a project requiring a skill you have minimal experience with, but often times volunteer organizations are in serious need of additional bandwidth, and OK with you learning as you go. Plus, different organizations have different methodologies, so, working somewhere new—yes, even for free—can teach you new ways of doing things.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that “67% of middle-skill jobs demand proficiency” in basic spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel and SAP SE. A lot of nonprofits use these simple programs, and this could be your chance to advance your abilities. And, of course, help out your community.



Your skill set is your responsibility—not your company's. For best results, pick an area of expertise, develop a plan, and consistently practice.

5 Tech Skills That Will Help Any Career - TIME

http://time.com/3852284/tech-skills-helpful-any-career/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• Kelli Orrela / The Muse
 

May 13, 2015

    

Almost every single job out there involves being online in some capacity. That means that, at some point in your career—this year or 30 years from now—you’ll likely have to access the back end of a company site, a blog, or an email marketing service.

Did that sentence scare you?

Don’t worry, it’s not as hard or as complicated as it sounds. Especially once you master a few of the basic building blocks. No, you won’t magically transform into Steve Jobs or Marissa Mayer overnight, but you can gain enough knowledge to talk credibly about website development and design. And that new knowledge might impress your current boss or a future hiring manager.

So, skip the Facebook stalking for a while and spend that time boosting your digital know-how instead. Here are five basics you can get started on right now.

1. Image Editing

Photos aren’t just for selfies and Instagram. They’re also an important tool for marketing, technical documents, and of course, a company’s online presence.

If you can do a little image editing with tools like Photoshop, you can:

• Resize images for blog posts or websites
• Crop images for social media headers or profiles
• Create images for online marketing campaigns, emails, and digital newsletters

For quick and easy image editing, check out Pixlr, a photo editor you can use for free on the web or mobile devices. Or download a free 30-day trial of Photoshop and try the free tutorials on the site.

2. SEO

There’s no getting away from the fact that most people head to Google when they need information nowadays. You can help your company take advantage of that fact by understanding how SEO (search engine optimization) works and how it can improve your company’s business. If your company has any kind of online presence, SEO can only help it.

With a bit of SEO, you can:

• Optimize images so they’re also searchable
• Create links that best describe what’s on your site
• Write content that gets you noticed by search engines

To start unraveling the secrets of SEO, check out Google’s free “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.”

3. HTML

HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is what’s used to put content on websites or web-friendly emails. You probably won’t be able to build a whole site after studying HTML for a few hours, but you will be able to do surprisingly important tasks with only a handful of code.

 

For example, with HTML, you can:

• Finally correct the typos on your company’s site
• Put content in a CMS (content management system) like WordPress
• Write marketing emails with a service like MailChimp or Campaign Monitor
• Create links to track the performance of marketing campaigns

You can learn HTML basics and even create your own web page in the free Skillcrush 10-day Bootcamp. You’ll also learn interesting and useful tech terms along the way that’ll wow your colleagues when you start casually tossing them out.

4. CSS

CSS (a.k.a., Cascading Style Sheets) is like the yin to HTML’s yang: It’s the code that formats and styles HTML content. By changing just a little CSS, you can completely change how a web page or other digital content looks.

If you know CSS, you can:

• Create an email newsletter that matches your company’s brand
• Style blog posts so they’re easier to read
• Customize a Tumblr or Squarespace theme
• Change the appearance of entire web pages

Check out this quick explanation of CSS to take a look at some actual CSS code. Then, have some fun playing with CSS live in the CSSDesk online editor.

5. Website Inspectors

Once you know more about websites and digital content, you can go behind the scenes with a website inspector. This is a tool that lets you see all the code that web pages are built with and—get ready for this—even edit it if you like. (Don’t worry though. The changes you make will only show up on your computer, so you won’t bring the internet down with your tweaks.)

Using an inspector is a great way to understand more about HTML and CSS—and to see how changes look before you make them on a “real” site.

Two of the most popular inspectors are Mozilla’s Firebug and Google Chrome DevTools, both of which are free. And you can get going with both inspectors with just a couple clicks by installing the Firebug Lite extension for any browser or right-clicking on any web page in Chrome to bring up DevTools.

So, what are you waiting for? Pick the building block that looks the most interesting to you, and set aside time this month to learn the fundamentals. You might even realize that you’ve discovered a new passion and decide to get a foundation in tech to advance your career. Or not. Either way, learning new tech skills can only help your career.

Chinese navy to focus on 'open seas', paper says - BBC NEWS

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-32880477

• 
  

China has focused on building up its navy, investing heavily in submarines and other warships

China is to focus on projecting its military presence beyond its borders at sea, according to a strategy document.

The navy will shift its focus to "open seas protection", rather than "offshore waters defence" alone.

It will also speed up developing its cyber force to tackle "grave security threats", the State Council said. 

China has been accused of aggressively pursuing territorial claims in the South China Sea which has sparked concern in Washington.

The strategy document highlighted four areas of critical importance - the ocean, outer space, nuclear force and cyber space. Its recent naval policy has prompted the most controversy.

Satellite imagery showed China building an airstrip in the Spratlys

In recent years, China has focused on building up its navy. It has launched an aircraft carrier and invested heavily in submarines and other warships. 

It has also exercised its claims over islands in the South China Sea which the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei variously dispute. 

In one disputed area, the Spratly Islands, US officials say China has created about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of dry land since 2014 that could be used as airstrips. 

The strategy document warns of threats to China's maritime rights and interests.

It says China "will not attack unless [it is] attacked, but will counterattack" and mentions the "provocative actions of certain offshore neighbours" and "outside parties involving themselves in South China Sea affairs".

On the same day that the strategy document was released, state news agency Xinhua reported two 50-metre high lighthouses were to be built on a reefs in the Spratly Islands, which are claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines. 

At a news conference to release the document, defence ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said: "Looking from the angle of sovereignty, China's development of construction on its islands is no different at all from all the other types of construction going on around the country." 

He said island building was "beneficial to the whole of international society" because it aided China's search and rescue, and environmental protection work.

China criticised Washington after a US spy plane flew over areas near the Spratly Islands last week, with both sides accusing each other of stoking instability.

The strategy document also says China's air force will shift its focus from territorial air defence to both offence and defence, and building airspace defences with stronger military capabilities.

This New Honda Does 483 Miles Per Hour - Fortune

http://time.com/3882379/hondajet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• John Kell / Fortune
 

May 18, 2015

    

It's a very different kind of vehicle

Honda’s luxury play has traditionally been the Acura. But the latest high-priced offering from the auto maker will be an ultrafast jet.

The Japanese company is awaiting final approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to sell a seven-seat business jet called the “HondaJet.” The price? Around $4.5 million.

The Wall Street Journal took a flight in the jet with Honda Aircraft CEO Michimasa Fujino, who has worked on the project for decades. “This airplane is my art piece,” he said in an interview.

Honda is taking the jet on a road show, kicking off in Switzerland and eventually demonstrating the plane across several other key European markets. Honda’s entry into aviation makes it an upstart member of an exclusive club of airplane makers. The jet also adds to an aerospace renaissance for Japan, which has long supplied parts and materials to the aviation industry but hasn’t recently made its own planes. In addition to Honda, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is separately developing its own plane.

The jet is Honda’s first commercial aircraft, produced by its North Carolina-based Honda Aircraft division. The potential FAA approval puts the plane on pace for delivery to customers around the middle of this year, the Journal reports.

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com.

A Chinese App That Steals Wifi Passwords Just Raised $50 Million - Fortune

http://time.com/3893764/china-wifi-app-password-steal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

• Scott Cendrowski / Fortune
 

7:48 AM ET

    

Wifi Master Key lets users access wifi without user name or password

A Chinese App used for connecting to the country’s ubiquitous Wifi hotspots without a login or password just raised substantial money in a series A venture funding round, according to a source at Northern Light Venture Capital, one of its investors.

Wifi Master Key shares login data with all the users of hotspots run by China Mobile, one of the country’s big three telecom giants, which offers blanket coverage in all China’s major cities.

China cynics might think that a business model that looks like brazen theft is a pretty good summary of the country’s whole business model in the tech sphere. The reality is somewhat more nuanced. Wifi has been assiduously promoted as a public good by the powers-that-be, and China Mobile is, after all, a state-controlled (if publicly-listed) company. Wifi Master Key would argue it just helps to deliver that public good by getting round an infuriating bureaucratic.

Living in Beijing, it becomes easy to understand how the App boasts of 270 million monthly users. The frustrations of seeing a Wifi hotspot, but not being able to access without a cumbersome login process, is a daily occurrence. Cynthia Meng, an analyst at Jefferies in Hong Kong, says Wifi Master Key was the 21st most popular app in China in March.

The Chinese tech blog QQ Tech originally reported the fundraising news, speculating that Master Key earned a $1 billion valuation. Fortune couldn’t independently confirm the figure, but the amount raised appears to have been around $50 million. The overall valuation may be lower, as Master Key faces reports of security risks—potentially leaving users vulnerable to hackers—and competition from a rival app in China, Wifi Companion.

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com