What made the business news in Asia and Europe this morning? Here's our daily business round-up:
Continue reading the main storyStock markets have fallen in Europe following the news that credit ratings agency Moody's had downgraded 15 global banks and financial institutions.
UK, French and German stock markets were all down by 0.5% to 1% in morning trading.
The UK banks downgraded were Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC. Lloyds also had its rating cut by Moody's in a separate announcement.
In the US, Bank of America and Citigroup were among those marked down.
The other institutions that have been downgraded are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, UBS, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Canada.
As the crisis in the eurozone continues, Italy's prime minister has warned European leaders that failure to agree on joint action will encourage market attacks on their economies.
Mario Monti is due to meet the leaders of France, Germany and Spain in Rome ahead of an EU summit next week.
He predicted "progressively greater speculative attacks" without unified action from all the eurozone members.
In emerging market news, China and Brazil have agreed a currency swap deal in a bid to safeguard against any global financial crisis and strengthen their trade ties.
It will allow their respective central banks to exchange local currencies worth up to 60bn reais or 190bn yuan ($30bn).
The amount can be used to shore up reserves in times of crisis or put towards boosting bilateral trade.
At the same time, it has emerged that China's imports of crude oil from Iran rebounded in May after the two countries resolved a payment dispute.
Beijing imported almost 524,000 barrels per day, a 35% jump from the previous month.
The surge comes even as the US has asked countries to cut oil imports from Iran and threatened to impose sanctions against financial institutions doing business with Iran's energy sector.
And in another member nation of the Brics group, India, the competition watchdog has fined 11 cement companies, including ACC and Ambuja Cements, for price-fixing.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a collective fine of more than 60bn rupees ($1.1bn) on the firms.
It has accused them of "limiting" supplies and controlling prices through an "anti-competitive agreement".
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nintendo will start selling a version of its 3DS handheld gaming console with bigger screens from July.
The 3DS LL, which will be known as the XL outside Japan, will have displays that are almost twice as big as those on the current version.
It will be priced at 18,900 yen in Japan and $199.99 in the US.
Finally, in corporate news, UK bookmaker William Hill has been given the green light to launch its first US operations after being granted a licence by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Last year, the British bookmaker announced it was to buy three US companies, but the acquisitions were dependent on the awarding of a licence.
The deals are now expected to complete by the end of the month.
William Hill said it was the first British bookmaker to be licensed for sports wagering in the US.
Click through to our Business Daily podcast for an in-depth look at the business developments that matter.
Business in the Community stands for responsible business - WalesOnline
THE best examples of business as a force for good were showcased in Cardiff last night as Business in the Community held its annual Wales Awards for Excellence.
This year, a dozen companies were recognised for their outstanding corporate social responsibility programmes at a gala dinner at the Swalec Stadium, sponsored by Wales & West Utilities.
Hosted by ITV Wales presenter, Ruth Wignall, with lively performances by Britain’s Got Talent finalists Nu Sxool and the Tenovus ‘Sing for Life’ Choir, the gala event also celebrated Business in the Community’s 30th anniversary year.
The top accolade, the Welsh Government Responsible Company of the Year, went to RCT Homes, who were recognised for their work transforming lives and communities. The company which was only established in 2008 was seen to have made significant progress on all aspects of its corporate social responsibility programme in a short time and for “living and breathing” their pledge to be “more than a landlord”. RCT Homes are the first social landlord to receive this prestigious award.
Among the other winners last night were Dwr Cymru Welsh Water who picked up the Carbon Reduction Award for their £75m investment in renewable energy; and the Thomas Carroll Group who won the Principality People Development Award for their ongoing commitment to training and nurturing skills of their employees.
Two international firms recognised for their work in Wales include Laing O’Rourke, who won this year’s Welsh Water Employee Volunteering Award while ScottishPower picked up the Inspiring Young People Award for their partnership work in Wrexham with Ysgol Rhosnesni.
Two new categories launched in 2012, the Working Links Employability Award and the Chwarae Teg Agile Organisation Award, were awarded to Rhondda Housing Association and Bangor-based social care provider, Anheddau Cyf.
Cardiff-based G24 Innovations and North Wales businesses including UPM Shotton Paper and St Asaph-based automotive parts manufacturer, TRB were among the organisations that received highly commended awards. Bluestone Resorts were also presented with a Big Tick Reaccreditation after being named the Example of Excellence at the 2011 UK Awards for their work in supporting rural farmers.
The event also marked the opportunity to celebrate and recognise individuals and business leaders within Wales that have made a significant personal contribution to the local community.
Jonathan Smith, the group Communications director for Castleoak was named the Responsible Business Ambassador by HRH The Prince of Wales, while school teacher and acting deputy principal from Pen Y Dre High School in Merthyr Tydfil, John Davies, received the Marks & Spencer Sieff Award for his work in building successful collaborative partnerships between local businesses and the education sector.
Commenting on the event, Wales Director for Business in the Community, Simon Harris, said: “As we celebrate 30 years of supporting and encouraging businesses to play a role in communities, I am thoroughly inspired by the amazing examples of what businesses are doing in Wales to incorporate responsible business in all they say and do.
“Our winners show great leadership and willingness to genuinely transform their businesses and the communities in which they operate. This interconnected proposition of the mutual benefits to both business and society when businesses think and act differently is key for all organisations on this journey.”
Mark Oliver, Director of Business Services at Wales & West Utilities, added: “This year’s award winners have been recognised for putting corporate responsibility at the heart of their businesses and for the positive impact they’ve made on their employees, partners, local communities and the environment.
“Business in the Community’s Wales Awards for Excellence are a prestigious accolade for business and an event that Wales & West Utilities is very proud to support. We hope other businesses are inspired by the powerful force to good that Welsh companies can be in the communities in which they operate.”
* You can find out more about all of last night’s award winners in today’s Business in the Community Awards for Excellence Supplement .
How networking locally could power your business globally - The Guardian
Starting out in business can feel like a lonely journey. Whether you're up at 2am writing the business plan, dealing with rules and regulations before you open for trading, or negotiating the tricky task of securing external finance, it can sometimes feel like you're an army of one facing competition that's better resourced, more experienced and already in the game.
Yet help, networking and sage advice are all closer than you might think. The internet is a treasure-trove of FAQs, and this new Guardian site provides many important resources if you're just starting out.
Think local, but act global
Linking up with other new starters and more experienced business people willing to lend a hand and offer advice is so important when sourcing new customers and opportunities. Chambers of commerce can help too, as they collectively hold more than 3,000 networking events nationally every year that allow members to make real business-to-business links – something that should never be underestimated by a new business seeking to sell into its immediate area, and especially if you're considering trading further afield.
Networking with other companies early on can increase your chances of developing contacts in markets from Barcelona to Bangkok and Beijing. Many newly-minted business people tell me that it's at networking events that they meet international business people who become informal mentors and guides; some also meet their first international customers, and even their first international suppliers. So linking up with your peers can help you learn the ropes of worldwide trading early on, and build a global perspective into your business plan.
By ensuring that your company is born global, considering overseas markets from your earliest days where that's appropriate, you can make a real difference to the success of your business, and to Britain as a whole. Businesses that are bold and break into new markets overseas will play a key role in sustaining an economic recovery in the UK.
Your global business might have already started
The beauty of international trade is that sometimes you don't know you're an exporter until you're actually doing it. Small, home-based companies have flatly denied being exporters to me, saying: "I only post a few packets off to the continent."
Yet from such humble beginnings come Britain's new global players. The Somerset company selling ice cream above the Arctic Circle; the Derby clockmakers selling timepieces to the Swiss; the London creative media business whose social media software has had over 1.4 billion users around the world; the Bradford textile manufacturer selling 90% of its products abroad; the Cumbria business selling top-quality food products from an idyllic Lake District setting into over two dozen countries.
None of these is a large conglomerate, but all are growing strongly because they are bold, hard working and not afraid of taking risks.
Technology can make global feel local
There's no doubt that technology has revolutionised the business startup industry, helping new companies find new markets, and providing a shop window for both goods and services. It's now easier and faster than ever before to register and get trading. But never forget that so much in business is still done face-to-face.
Networking is a critical part of your company's journey to success, as behind the core of every business is a real person. The same holds true for all your potential trading partners and collaborators, whether down the road or across the globe.
Whether it's a meet-the-buyer event (where companies, including potential international customers, meet with potential suppliers), a sector group (gathering together businesses operating in the same sector to discuss common local and global challenges), a gathering of companies in your local town, or a one-to-one relationship with a businessperson who's been through the same first steps when seeking to trade at home or abroad, networking brings real benefits.
So as you prepare to do battle as an army of one, or even as a company that's starting out with several employees, remember that you're not alone. There are legions of reserves, stationed close by that can help make your battle for business success into the victory of a lifetime. And that victory could be local, it could be national – or it could even be global.
Dr Adam Marshall is director of policy and external affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce. He can be found on Twitter @BCCAdam.
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Inheriting your father’s brains and strong work ethic is better than receiving his money, new study claims - Daily Mail
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A father’s brains could mean more to his son’s success than his money because of the importance of teaching a good worth ethic and the ability to study, a new study claims.
Although sons of fathers with high incomes tend to end up with higher than average incomes themselves, the findings show that it’s not just the cash that helps a son on his way.
According to a study recently published in the Journal of Political Economy, human capital passed from father to son - perhaps in the form of smarts, advice, work ethic, or some other intangible - could be more important to a son’s success than the size of daddy’s paycheck.
One day, son, all my intangible human capital will be yours... New research shows that a father's brains and work ethic can have a big impact on his son's earnings
It found that these human intangibles account for nearly two-thirds of a the overall relationship between the father's income and the son's, and that income had only a weak influence.
David Sims, economics professor at Brigham Young University, who led the study, said: 'We know there’s a correlation between fathers’ income and sons’. What's got less attention is the mechanism.'
'We wanted to see if the intergenerational income correlation is due to money - what we can buy for our kids - or if human capital attributes passed from father to son play a role as well.'
The report says that the problem is that separating the two inputs is tricky. On average, fathers with higher human capital endowments also tend to have higher incomes, so it’s hard to tell which factor is doing what. Professor Sims and his colleagues used a statistical model and a rich dataset to try to disentangle the two.
The authors’ methodology builds on the following thought experiment. Take two smart, similarly skilled and educated fathers. Say one lived in a town with a robust labour market and he had a big salary. The other father wasn’t so lucky. He lived in a town with a depressed labour market, and had much lower earnings despite his comparable human capital.
If money is the only thing that matters in the intergenerational transfer of income, then we’d expect that the son of the lucky father would end up with a higher income than the son of the unlucky father.
However, if human capital matters, the two sons may end up with more similar incomes.
It's all down to the parenting: The study showed that the father's human capital was much more important than wealth as a determiner of a son's future income
To test this idea, the researchers used remarkably detailed government administrative data on a large sample of Swedish fathers with sons born between 1950 and 1965.
The data included salary information for fathers and sons as well as clues about fathers’ human capital in the form of education levels and the nature of their occupations. Fathers with more education or those who work in jobs that require specialised skills are considered to have higher human capital endowments that could be passed to sons.
First, Sims and his colleagues looked for a raw correlation between fathers’ incomes and their sons’, which, as expected, was quite strong.
Then they employed a statistical methodology to isolate differences in fathers’ income due to something other than human capital, like in the example of similar fathers who worked in differing labour market conditions.
If the income correlation weakens for fathers and sons in these types of situations, the researchers could conclude that money isn’t the only thing that matters.
And that’s exactly what the study found. Income differences not related to a father’s human capital were weaker predictors of a son’s income. In other words, human capital matters.
'We can conclude that, for the men in our dataset, differing human capital endowments passed from father to son account for about two-thirds of the overall intergenerational income relationship,' Professor Sims said.
'We don’t offer a final answer here, but we do offer some boundary conditions and present a methodology that could help unravel the question.'
German business confidence at 2-year low - Financial Times
June 22, 2012 10:22 am
London financial stocks shrug off downgrades - Financial Times
Last updated: June 22, 2012 12:07 pm
Nothing like breeding son in Horses Dogs and Men ...Thackray.
- jamesusa, garrison ny, 22/6/2012 13:17
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