Wall Street Journal

choi

(1) Julie Wernau, Higher Costs Bite Chocolate Makers. Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2016.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/high ... e-makers-1468280462

My comment:
(a) online subtitle: The cost of chocolate’s two key ingredients, cocoa butter and sugar, has risen sharply this year
(b) There is no need to read the text. What is interesting is a graphic:

"Bean Counter[;] How the costs of producing and selling a bar of chocolate break down[:]

44.2%  Retail and taxes
35.2%  Manufacturing of chocolate
7.6%  Processing cocoa beans into cocoa butter and cocoa powder
6.3%  Transporting cocoa beans from farm to factory
6.6%  Purchasing cocoa beans from farms

Note: Numbers don't add up to 100 due to rounding
Source: Cocoa Barometer"


(2) James T Areddy, Citi Stumbles with China's Consumers. Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2016.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/citi ... -red-ink-1468162180

"Citigroup Inc began accepting deposits from Chinese households in April 2007 * * * Citi has lost nearly $350 million since 2009 trying to serve Chinese consumers, according to figures in its Chinese unit’s little-noticed annual filings. The bank’s operations in the country are profitable overall, thanks to its business serving foreign companies and trading.

"Almost a decade after World Trade Organization rules gave foreign banks a foothold in China's financial sector, they hold only about 2% of the country's total banking assets, according to government figures. Britain's Standard Chartered PLC and Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia Ltd are reporting losses on consumers.  HSBC Holdings PLC is posting profits on retail banking [which deals with consumers; as opposed to corporate banking], but losses in private banking with wealthier clients. Few other international banks aside from Citi have given it much of a try.

choi

(3) Fred Barnes, The Savviest Lobbyist. The head of the Humane Society, with the help of Carl Icahn, got McDonald's to changes its policy toward pork. Sixty brands followed. Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2016
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-savviest-lobbyist-1468183798
(book review on Wayne Pacelle, The Humane Economy; How innovators and enlightened consumers are transforming the lives of animals. William Morrow, 2016

two consecutive paragraphs:

Pacelle: " 'Of America's big predators, wolves have proved among the least menacing—with no documented fatal attacks by healthy wild wolves on people in the lower forty-eight states in the last century.'

"Mr Pacelle lives and works in Washington, DC, and operates like a lobbyist whose clients are animals. But persuading corporate America is his main task. He doesn't rely on the moral argument for the benign treatment of animals. He makes the case that it's a 'brand builder' that pleases consumers without increasing the cost of doing business.