Latest news clips 2012.05.18

   1.      JPMorgan loss: Ghost of the credit crisis

CNN     May11, 2012

  

(CNN) – JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon shocked Wall Street just after the market closed Thursday with news that the company had lost $2 billion since April 1 on trades in credit default swaps.

Sound familiar? It should. Credit default swaps based on housing mortgages created the tinder that was ignited by rising home defaults to create the conflagration of the 2008 financial crisis.

Trading in derivatives such as credit default swaps were designed to hedge against risk. But as we know, banks and other market players used these tools to create products that seemed to take the danger out of risky bets and reaped huge rewards - right up until the moment they didn’t. Banks and other businesses were stuck on the wrong side of the trade, trapped with a mountain of debt they couldn’t pay.

Speaking on a Thursday conference call – which the Financial Times’ Alphaville called “the most excruciating bank conference call we’ve ever heard”
                                             極痛苦的 難忍受的
 – Dimon said JPMorgan's losses stemmed from trades designed to hedge
                                                          起源於, 由...而造成[
 against risk, but those trades went awry due to "errors," "sloppiness" and "bad
                                                   出錯、出問題                              散漫、馬虎; 凌亂    
 judgment." It doesn’t help that, just a month ago, Dimon decried the build-up 
                                                                                               decry 譴責
of credit default swaps at JPMorgan’s London office, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, as a “tempest in a teapot.”

                                            暴風雨               察壺    

2.  Why aren't more students doing sandwich courses?

    Guardian    2012.04.30

There's no substitute for hands-on experience. Photograph: Andrew 
                   替代品
Brookes/Corbis

A year in industry puts theory into practice and prepares students for the workplace – yet sandwich courses are in decline

                                                                                     下降               

Nowadays everyone is scrambling for work placements. Even unpaid 
                                        scramble 爭奪, 搶奪      佈置
internships are oversubscribed. Meanwhile employers say recent graduates 
實習醫師的地位
are lacking work skills. Why then, are sandwich courses in decline?

Sandwich degrees – vocational courses where students spend a year working within their industry – are meant to introduce you to the world of work and complement university learning. Sounds good, right? Yet despite the advantages of sandwich degrees, there has been a steady fall in the numbers 
                                                                                       穩固的
enrolling on such courses.

 登記
………….

But why don't more universities offer placement years – and in a broader range of courses? Employers' reluctance to spend time supervising students is 
                                         不情願、勉強                              監督; 管理
partly to blame, says Warwick University professor Kate Purcell, an expert in 
              責備
the graduate labour market.

"Work placements are very difficult for universities to set up and they're expensive for to run – departments have to arrange visits by academics, and 
                                                                                                     大學生
mentoring, to ensure students are having a rewarding experience."

  顧問導師指導
………..

But it's not just a handy nugget to add to the CV. My industry placement has 
                方便的、手邊的   珍品、金塊
been about experience and discovery, empiricism and experimentation. This 
                                                                 經驗主義            實驗
year has given me confidence, memories, direction and assurance – and being paid has helped too. When I finally return to university for my final year I will no longer be a student, I'll be a scientist.

 

3.  Resource-Rich Canada Looks to China for Growth

The Wall Street Journal   May 13, 2012

Reuters

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, center, inspects a guard of honour 
                                                                                   審查、視查
with China's Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing in February.

VANCOUVER—For almost a century, Canada's economy has been firmly 
                                                                                                                  穩固地
tethered to its much larger southern neighbor. Now, Canadian officials and 
 拴
executives also are betting their future on China.

For almost two centuries, the U.S. has been Canada's most important trading partner. Now China is gaining ground. Video and reporting by WSJ's Chip 
                                     抬頭、前進
Cummins.

Canada's economic reliance on the U.S. has ebbed for decades amid 
                                                                            ebb 衰退, 衰落
sporadic efforts to diversify. But weak demand from a prolonged economic 
  零星分散的             多樣化                                             拖延的
downturn south of the border has accelerated the move, sending Canadian 
                                                        加速
companies looking for new markets.

Climbing oil production in the U.S. is upending American demand for Canadian hydrocarbons. That has spooked Ottawa, suddenly worried about finding buyers for its own growing crude exports, almost all of which now flows to the U.S.

The shift is sharpest here in Western Canada, rich in resources and closer to China. Last year for the first time ever, British Columbia sent more exports to the Pacific Rim than to the U.S. Chinese investors have beat out U.S. investors in Canada's oil patch every year since 2009, pumping $12.8 billion into companies and projects since then, according to Dealogic. British Columbia and the federal government have embarked on a massive push, spending billions of dollars, to retool the country's infrastructure to facilitate more trade with Asia.

On a national level, Canadian officials say they expect America will always be Canada's biggest trading partner. Last year, the U.S. accounted for 67.7% of Canadian trade, measured by the value of exports and imports. That is down from 80.8% 10 years ago. Asia's share of Canadian trade stood at 15%, up from about 9.5% a decade ago. China's share alone came in at 7.2% last year.