By John Richardson HOW the world has changed. Dan Loeb of the Hedge fund, Third Point, wrote in a letter proposing a spin-off of Dow Chemical’s petrochemicals assets: “We suspect that Dow’s push downstream has led the company to use its upstream assets to subsidise certain downstream derivatives, either by sacrificing operational efficiency or making […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Here We Go Again
By John Richardson EVERYONE should read the following section from this Economist article with great concern. Central bank stimulus might well be doing more harm than good. “When Americans borrow money to buy a car or a house, their debts are often repackaged as the backing for a bond,” writes the Economist. “Before 2007 investors […]
US Petchems “Double Peak” Theory
Wall Street rounding up investors? Source of picture: Rex Features In a guest blog post, Joseph Chang, the global editor of our magazine, ICIS Chemical Business, echoes our own concerns that it is getting very frothy out there. The “this time it will be different” school of thought sems to be controlling the sentiment […]
New Policies Needed To Restore Growth
Politicians seem to be floundering as they seek to restore growth to the Western economy. Their prescriptions swing between austerity and economic stimulus as they argue over what has gone wrong. But in chapter 10 of our Boom, Gloom & The New Normal e-book we argue that they are on the wrong track. They are […]
America’s New Political Era
What follows is likely to be of little interest to those, like ourselves, who are obsessed by the week-by-week price of polyethylene (PE). But a strong US economy is essential for a healthy global chemicals industry, and what is being attempted right now to revive America doesn’t appear to be working. Happy New Year to […]
Wal-Mart sends a message
by Paul Hodges The blog is a great believer in the predictive power of the retail sector. Wal-Mart and Tesco were the first to spot the downturn in the summer of 2007, a year before it became obvious to everyone else. Now Wal-Mart’s problems are providing some important messages about how companies need to adjust […]
Oil Prices, Wall Street And Economic Chaos
By John Richardson Crude oil and commodities markets have lost touch with the fundamental realities. This didn’t just happen yesterday, but began a decade ago. That’s the argument the blog put forward in the latest chapter of our new free eBook, ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal – how the Western BabyBoomers are changing chemical […]
Jump to page: