U.S. Marines Send F-35 Stealth Fighter Squadron to Japan
Posted: January 11, 2017 Filed under: Asia, China, Global, Japan, Mediasphere, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: -elect, Barack Obama, Boeing, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Chief executive officer, Donald Trump, Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, United States, United States Air Force Leave a comment
It marks the first time for that stealth aircraft to be stationed overseas.
The US Marine Corps said it has sent a squadron of F-35B fighter jets to Japan, marking the first operational overseas deployment for the controversial aircraft that is under scrutiny from president-elect Donald Trump.
The deployment of the 10 planes to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni on Honshu Island marks a major milestone for the F-35, which has been bedeviled by technical glitches and soaring cost overruns.
With a current development and acquisition price tag already at $379 billion for a total of 2,443 F-35 aircraft, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 is the most expensive plane in history, and costs are set to go higher still.
The Marines’s version of the plane, known as the F-35B, is capable of conducting short takeoffs and vertical landings.
Trump last month sent shockwaves through the aerospace industry when he tweeted that he wanted rival Boeing to price out a possible alternative.
“Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!” Trump tweeted December 22.
The F/A-18 Super Hornet does not have stealth capabilities and has been in use since the late 1990s.
Once servicing, maintenance and other costs for the F-35 are factored in over the aircraft’s lifespan through 2070, overall program costs have been projected to rise to as much as $1.5 trillion.
Proponents of the F-35 tout its speed, close air-support capabilities, airborne agility and a massive array of sensors giving pilots unparalleled access to information. Read the rest of this entry »
To Problems With China’s Financial System, Add the Bond Market
Posted: December 21, 2016 Filed under: Asia, China, Economics, Global, Politics | Tags: Bond market, Chair of the Federal Reserve, Chief executive officer, Christine Lagarde, Economic growth, European Central Bank, Federal funds rate, Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve System, Fiscal policy, International Monetary Fund, Janet Yellen, Monetary policy Leave a comment
SHANGHAI — Keith Bradsher Chinese officials cheered on the country’s stock market when it reached heady new highs, offering hope that it could become a new source of money to fix China’s economic problems. Then, last year, the market crashed.
“China is struggling with its own balancing act. The Chinese bond slump also stems from Beijing’s efforts to wring excess money from its financial system and to stop potential bubbles that may lurk in shadowy, hard-to-track corners of its economy. Should it continue with those efforts, bonds could fall further.”
Now another fast-growing part of China’s vast and increasingly complicated financial market is showing signs of distress: its $9 trillion bond market.
Prices for government and corporate bonds have tumbled over the past week, a sell-off that continued on Tuesday. The situation has spooked investors, prompting the government to temporarily restrain some trading and to make emergency loans to struggling financial institutions.
“The adjustment has not yet finished. It will continue and normalize until money is put where the government can see it.”
— Miao Zuoxing, a partner at the FXM Brothers Fund
The price drops have resulted in higher borrowing costs at a time when more Chinese companies need the money to cope with slowing economic growth. Yields reached new highs again on Tuesday.
In part, China is reacting to financial shifts across the globe. With the Federal Reserve raising short-term interest rates and many expecting the presidency of Donald J. Trump to lead to heavier government spending, investors worldwide are selling bonds.
“Due to recent, relatively large market fluctuations, our company decided to cancel the issue of the current bond, and will reissue it at a chosen time.”
— Jiangsu Sumec Group
But China is struggling with its own balancing act. The Chinese bond slump also stems from Beijing’s efforts to wring excess money from its financial system and to stop potential bubbles that may lurk in shadowy, hard-to-track corners of its economy. Should it continue with those efforts, bonds could fall further.
“The adjustment has not yet finished,” said Miao Zuoxing, a partner at the FXM Brothers Fund, a Shanghai-based investment fund that trades stocks, bonds and futures. “It will continue and normalize until money is put where the government can see it.”
At least 40 companies have said they would postpone or cancel bond offerings rather than risk being forced to pay high interest rates to sell the bonds — or being unable to sell them at all. Among them was the Jiangsu Sumec Group Corporation, an industrial trading house that exports items as varied as gardening tools and auto parts; the company said on Thursday that it would not go through with the sale of $130 million in short-term bonds.
“Due to recent, relatively large market fluctuations, our company decided to cancel the issue of the current bond,” Jiangsu Sumec Group said in a statement, “and will reissue it at a chosen time.”
China has particular reason to worry. As the world’s second-largest economy, after the United States, it relies on a rickety financial system that is mired in debt and susceptible to hidden stresses. Higher overseas interest rates could also prompt more Chinese investors to move their money out of the country, either to chase higher returns elsewhere or to avoid what some see as China’s growing problems.
Read the rest of this entry »
Bye-bye, Ballmer. Investors cheer as Microsoft CEO unveils retirement plan
Posted: August 23, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Apple, Bill Gates, Business, Carol Burnett, Chief executive officer, Google, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer Leave a comment
As Carol Burnett sang: “I’m so glad we had this time together, just to have a laugh or sing a song. Seems we just got started and before you know it , comes the time we have to say, ‘So long.'”
[np_storybar title=”Markets: By the numbers” link=””]
Japan’s Nikkei
13,660.55 +295.38 +2.21%
China’s Shanghai
2,057.46 -9.67 -0.47%
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
21,863.51 -31.89 -0.15%
S&P/ASX 200
5,123.40 +47.70 +0.94%
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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, who has struggled to adapt to an era of declining personal-computer sales,will retire after more than a decade leading the world’s largest software maker. Ballmer, 57, plans to step down within the next 12 months, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said today in a statement. Microsoft’s lead independent director, John Thompson, will lead the search for his successor, heading a committee that will also include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Microsoft shares rose 5.75% to US$34.25 by 11:30 a.m. in New York. The stock had gained 21% this year before today. Ballmer, who took over the CEO role from Gates in 2000, has been working to bolster Microsoft’s performance in areas like mobile computing as consumers…
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Peculiar Theory of the Day…
Posted: October 8, 2012 Filed under: Reading Room | Tags: Bain Capital, Business, Chief executive officer, City Journal, Edward Conard, Investing, Mitt Romney, United States Leave a commentUnintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong, by Edward Conard Penguin Portfolio, 310 pp., $29.50
“Edward Conard, former managing director of Bain Capital, has a straightforward explanation for why the United States outpaced other nations in generating innovation and wealth in the decades leading up to the financial crisis. It wasn’t the result of rational Americans’ choosing pro-investment policies, he thinks, but rather a cultural accident…”
Read on >> City Journal
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- Capitalism for Financial Capitalists: How Edward Conard learned to stop worrying and love the financial crisis (city-journal.org)
