Again Sweden is in the news in an article below I want to highlight. As I said yesterday in the links, I do want to talk about Sweden because the economic situation there is interesting. The Swedes are often seen as having the right mix of economic policies. Yet, the Swedes also suffer from serious house price inflation and household debt. Their economic tie to the euro zone makes them vulnerable to these problems given the weakness in the euro zone.
The second story line here is the HTC One, which has been reviewed by all the leading tech magazines. It seems like a great device and has the best specs of any Android device on the market. The question is whether it sells. From my standpoint, the importance of phones like the HTC One goes to the fight between iOS and Android more than anything else because it shows that the iPhone is just one of many elite handsets now available. Most of the others are Android.
The Aleph Blog » Blog Archive » Another Note on the Purchase of Heinz
“Heinz does very well — BRK exercises warrants gets majority of economics and control
Heinz muddles — BRK receives preferred dividend, does well.
Heinz does badly — BRK receives preferred dividend, does well. Might have to write down equity stake.
Heinz does very badly — BRK preferred dividend halted, buys remainder of Heinz by converting his preferred stock to equity. 3G loses it all. Buffett brings in competent management for his now wholly-owned subsidiary.
It’s a lot easier for Buffett to win relative to 3G. 3G needs strong demand to win. Buffett doesn’t.”
And the Pressure on the Bank of Japan Rises – Tim Duy’s Fed Watch
“But Mr. Draghi also seemed to suggest that central banks could succumb to mutual suspicion about whether exchange rates were being deliberately weakened.
“The less we talk about this, the better it is,” he said.
If the BOJ goes on a foreign bond-buying spree, such suspicion will spread further.
Also interesting is the possibility that Abe will push the next BOJ head to a more active role in supporting equity prices. Japan’s economy minister Akira Amari already made clear that boosting stocks is a high priority, even going so far as to put a goal of 13,000 on the Nikkei buy the end of March. The BOJ could help make this a reality.”
BBC News – OECD economies in 0.2% quarterly decline
“It was the first such decline for this group of mainly rich countries since the beginning of 2009.
The eurozone was the biggest factor, with a 0.6% contraction. Japan and the UK shrank too and the US saw no growth.”
BBC News – Japan trade deficit hits record as yen weakens
“Exports rose in January, the first jump in eight months, as its goods became more affordable to foreign buyers.
However, a weak currency also pushed up its import bill resulting in a monthly trade deficit of 1.6tn yen ($17.1bn; £11.1bn), a 10% jump from a year ago.”
Hard-Wired to Hate Exercise? – WSJ.com
“When it comes to exercise, many people seem to fall into two distinct camps: those who love a vigorous, sweat-soaked workout and those who view it as a form of torment.”
Asian shares hit 18-month high on growth hopes | Reuters
“Signs of improving global economic recovery lifted world shares to 4-1/2 year highs on Wednesday, while sterling fell sharply when the Bank of England revealed it came close to easing policy further to boost growth.”
Personal Technology: A $19 Unlimited Phone Plan – WSJ.com
“In my tests, conducted in and around Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, call quality was adequate, text service worked normally, and Web browsing and apps mostly worked OK, at my home, office and public Wi-Fi hot spots in airports and coffee shops. But there were definite downsides.
First is the phone itself. The Defy XT is a chunky device with a lower-resolution screen than any current iPhone or leading Android model. It comes with only about 2.5 gigabytes of usable storage, compared with a more typical 16 gigabytes on other phones, though you can expand the storage by buying a larger memory card. It has a relatively small 3.7 inch display. And when it isn’t on Wi-Fi, it can only use an older-type, slow, 3G network. Plus, it runs a clunky, old version of Android called Gingerbread that was released two years ago.
Republic says it plans to roll out several better phones running current versions of Android and much faster networks, including the best—4G LTE—starting in late summer.”
“HTC’s newest Android smartphone has a physical design that can’t help but be compared to the iPhone 5. There’s aluminum all over the place (it’s a unibody chassis with chamfered edges), it comes in both white and black, and a rounded rectangle look that’s sure to remind iPhone 5 owners of their own hardware. It even has the iPhone 4′s external wireless, edge-running antenna. And the emphasis this time around wasn’t on specs, speeds and technical details, but on features and software: HTC’s tacit acknowledgement that a fight over who can build the best Android hardware isn’t one it can win against Samsung. Consumers have to perceive these devices as operating in different categories, with HTC doing something Samsung can’t or won’t.”
Hands On With HTC’s Would-Be Savior, The HTC One | TechCrunch
“So, after months of leaks and speculation, HTC has finally revealed the HTC One. To say it’s an important device for HTC is an understatement given the rough seas the company spent nearly all of last year navigating, but the people here seem confident that they’ve worked up a winner. Just after the event wrapped I managed to get some extended hands-on time with the One, and the thing left some strong first impressions (not all of them good).”
“Consider that Apple sold 22.9 million iPads during just its first fiscal quarter of 2013, which is the last calendar quarter of 2012. That’s five times the amount of Nexus 7 tablets Evans estimates were sold during the entire year in 2012, which indicates we’re still very far away from a situation where the tablet market begins to look anything like the smartphone space in terms of Android share.
Google looks to be set to try to kickstart its tablet sales efforts with physical retail locations, a rumor that started this past weekend and was backed up by the Wall Street Journal today. I’ve already noted that I think this is a play to help the company try to replicate some of Apple’s success with selling and evangelizing the iPad through its physical retail locations, but these sales estimates underline exactly why the company needs to do that.”
Apple accounts for 20% of all 2012 US consumer technology sales revenue
“New data released by The NPD Group on Tuesday revealed that Apple accounted for 19.9 percent of all domestic consumer technology sales, based on revenue, from last year. That number was up from the 17.3 percent share Apple took in 2011.
Apple’s revenue easily beat out rival Samsung, which came in second with 9.3 percent, up from 7 percent in 2011. The rest of the top five saw their share of revenue fall in 2012: HP dipped from 8.9 percent in 2011 to 8.2 percent last year, while Sony and Dell both slid to 4.4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.”
HTC One raises the bar for Android smartphones | Android and Me
“For the second year in a row, HTC has delivered a premium smartphone that any Android fan would be proud to carry. HTC has hit a home run with the camera experience, speakers, and aluminum unibody design, but I believe they will still struggle to gain ground on Samsung.
Several of the new features on the HTC One are hard to relay through text and pictures, so HTC will have to increase their marketing budget to properly share the story of the One and convince consumers to go out and try the product.”
Hands-on with the HTC One | Android and Me
“It’s official, the HTC One is the latest Android phone from HTC and the company has high hopes that it will give them a competitive edge over Apple and Samsung. We got to spend some quality time with the HTC One in New York City and we came away thoroughly impressed.
Specs wise, the HTC One is the most powerful Android smartphone to date. “
T-Mobile goes off-brand with new prepaid service GoSmart — Tech News and Analysis
“GoSmart Mobile will focus on the budget-conscious voice centric user. There are data plans, and one of them is even unlimited, but you won’t get access to T-Mobile’s full HSPA+ network speeds.”
Sober Look: France’s fiscal tightening is inhibiting growth
“France seems to be the only EMU nation who is undergoing a larger fiscal tightening in 2013 than it did in 2012.”
For $19, an Unlimited Phone Plan, Some Flaws – Walt Mossberg – Personal Technology – AllThingsD
“The Defy XT is a chunky device with a lower-resolution screen than any current iPhone or leading Android model. It comes with only about 2.5 gigabytes of usable storage, compared with a more typical 16GB on other phones, though you can expand the storage by buying a larger memory card. It has a relatively small 3.7-inch display. And when it isn’t on Wi-Fi, it can only use an older-type, slow, 3G network. Plus, it runs a clunky, old version of Android called Gingerbread that was released two years ago.
Republic says it plans to roll out several better phones running current versions of Android and much faster networks, including the best — 4G LTE — starting in late summer.”
Apple likely to debut $199 iPhone as low-cost smartphone market hits $135B in 2013
A Piper Jaffray analysis of global unlocked smartphone prices solidifies the firm’s expectation that Apple will launch a low-cost iPhone later this year, with the new handset purpose-built to compete in the untapped market estimated to be worth $135 billion in 2013.
Google Works on Launching Retail Stores – WSJ.com
Google Inc. has been developing plans to launch retail stores in the U.S., said people familiar with the matter, in another sign the company is studying Apple Inc.’s playbook for building a consumer-electronics brand.
“This belief in the unfettered legal and moral right of the US to use force anywhere in the world for any reason it wants is sustained only by this belief in objective US superiority, this myth of American exceptionalism. “
“LANNY BREUER: Well, Martin, if you look at what we and the U.S. attorney community did, I think you have to take a step back. Over the last couple of years, we have convicted Raj Rajaratnam. Now, you’ll say that’s an insider trading case, but it’s clearly going after Wall Street. We—
MARTIN SMITH: But it has nothing to do with the financial crisis, the meltdown, the packaging of bad mortgages that led to the collapse, that led to the recession.”
Guest post: Forget currency wars, we are in the middle of a trade war | beyondbrics
“Once central bank action fails in this covert trade war through currency manipulation and bank bailouts, governments will be forced to take direct action through subsidies, tariffs and other trade barriers. References to currency wars will soon be replaced with trade wars as global imbalances come to the forefront again.”
Exclusive Interview: Meet Alexis Tsipras, the Most Dangerous Man in Europe | Alternet
“The New Democracy party, currently in power, is struggling for dominance over left-wing Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, a bold young politician who many believe is Greece’s brightest hope”
Sweden shows Australia the way out | | MacroBusiness
” Install macroprudential tools, break the link between interest rates and the currency, slash rates and allow the currency to boost the tradabele sector without bursting or growing further overpriced assets.”
Jeremy Grantham: Managing Progress in a World of Finite Resources | The Big Picture
“Peter Day talks with the prominent investment manager Jeremy Grantham about managing progress in a world of finite resources.”
It’s official: The feds will run most Obamacare exchanges
“In a way, all these states turning over their exchanges to the federal government brings Obamacare a little closer to the more liberal House bill, which had the federal government running one big marketplace. It allows the White House to have more control over setting up its signature legislative accomplishment. It also creates some economies of scale, as HHS can develop one template exchange that all 26 states it handles will use.
That could be especially important in states where opposition to the Affordable Care Act still runs very deep”
Research In Motion’s Eventful Fourth Quarter Leaves Gurus Divided
“All of the investors GuruFocus follows have reported their fourth quarter portfolios, and the updates show that opinions were split on the smartphone maker formerly known by the stock symbol RIMM, Research In Motion ( BBRY ). While five funds slashed their holdings, one Guru didn’t change his large position, one almost tripled his holding and two others increased their holdings. “
Currency war likely between Germany, France – Marsh on Monday – MarketWatch
“France needn’t fear direct European repercussions, Paris will face merely a polite rap across the knuckles. Olli Rehn, the EU’s monetary commissioner, carefully signaled last week that countries such as France and Spain may be given an extra year — until 2014 — to meet their deficit targets if they can prove that they are making efforts in structural reforms.
Psychologically and politically, though, the implications are more severe. The episode badly weakens France’s negotiating hand as the euro area heads for a choppy period in which the period of financial market stability wrought by the ECB’s bond-buying pledge last summer may be coming to an end. Optimists such as Jacek Rostowski, the Polish finance minister, who bravely said in London last week that the euro crisis is “effectively over,” are in the minority.
If Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Spain again make negative headlines in the next few months, it will be much more difficult for France and Germany to muster a common position on economic rigor in all these countries now that Paris and Berlin are far apart in other elements of policy.”
The Saver’s Dilemma by Michael Pettis – Project Syndicate
“as long as Germany does not absorb its excess savings and accommodate the desired rise in Spanish savings, Spain is still faced with the same options. Once borrowing is no longer possible, Spain must either intervene in trade – which implies leaving the eurozone – or accept many more years of high unemployment until wages are driven down sufficiently to produce the equivalent of currency devaluation.
This is the key point. Low-savings countries cannot easily adjust without an equivalent adjustment in high-savings countries, because their low savings rates may have been caused by high savings abroad. After all, savings and investment must be in balance globally, and if policy distortions cause savings in one country to rise faster than investment, the reverse must occur elsewhere in the world.”
Ford, Peugeot and Toyota lead Europe auto sales to new low | Reuters
“Ford, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Toyota led European car sales to a new low in January, kicking off 2013 with an 8.5 percent decline, the Association of European carmakers said on Tuesday.
Registrations fell to 918,280 new cars, the Brussels-based industry body said in a statement, the slowest January since its records began in 1990.”
States worry about rate shock during shift to new health law – latimes.com
“Less than a year before Americans will be required to have insurance under President Obama’s healthcare law, many of its backers are growing increasingly anxious that premiums could jump, driven up by the legislation itself.
Higher premiums could undermine a core promise of the Affordable Care Act: to make basic health protections available to all Americans for the first time. Major rate increases also threaten to cause a backlash just as the law is supposed to deliver many key benefits Obama promised when he signed it in 2010.
“The single biggest issue we face now is affordability,” said Jill Zorn, senior program officer at the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, a consumer advocacy group that championed the new law.”
US business hits out at ‘Obamacare’ costs – FT.com
“Some restaurants, including Wendy’s and Taco Bell franchises, have explored slashing worker hours so fewer employees qualify for health insurance, arguing that they cannot afford the additional healthcare costs. Other businesses are deliberately keeping headcounts below 50.”
Guest post: Forget currency wars, we are in the middle of a trade war | beyondbrics
“Once central bank action fails in this covert trade war through currency manipulation and bank bailouts, governments will be forced to take direct action through subsidies, tariffs and other trade barriers. References to currency wars will soon be replaced with trade wars as global imbalances come to the forefront again.”
“According to a recent study released by the Pew Center on the States, state and key local governments across the U.S. have unfunded public-pension liabilities totaling upwards of $900 billion. Others place the shortfall much higher. Clearly, this issue is of tremendous importance to taxpayers.
One factor contributing to the problem, in the view of many experts, is that local and state governments for too long have been able to mask the full extent of their total pension obligations by reporting to the public only the amount of money required to fund their pension fund in any given year – leaving the total, long-term liability relegated to disclosure in the notes to those financial statements.
Last year, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the private not-for-profit organization that sets accounting standards for state and local governments, adopted new accounting standards for public pensions that seek to greatly improve financial reporting. The rules will require state and local governments, and their pension funds, for the first time to clearly display their full net pension liability on the face of their financial statements for all to see.”
Sweden Teaches Bank Crisis Prevention to Top Basel Rules – Bloomberg
“The Financial Supervisory Authority in Stockholm, which requires Swedish lenders to adopt more rigorous capital rules than those set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, says industry demands to target uniform requirements don’t take into account the lessons of the most recent financial crisis.
“It would be silly, and negative, to have exactly the same rules in all countries,” FSA Director General Martin Andersson said in an interview. “While we should have minimum levels in all countries, different nations should be able to go above those minimum levels — otherwise we delete the experience we have made in the past few years that we sometimes have to do more to remove imbalances in individual countries.”
Banks in Sweden — a AAA rated nation struggling to contain record household debt — face a different set of risks than their peers elsewhere in Europe. Rules guiding the industry need to reflect that, Andersson said. It’s a viewpoint that has won support from the financial regulator in the U.K., home to Europe’s biggest banking hub.”
Google Inc. has been developing plans to launch retail stores in the U.S., said people familiar with the matter, in another sign the company is studying Apple Inc.’s playbook for building a consumer-electronics brand.