Economist, Sept 14, 2013

choi

(1) Smartphones in China | Taking a Bite out of Apple; Xiaomi, often described as China’s answer to Apple, is actually quite different.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... ent-taking-bite-out
("It [Xiaomi's] is a classic internet business model: build an audience then monetise it later, as Google and Facebook did, notes Mr Lin [Bin, Xiaomi’s co-founder]")

Note: monetize (vt; Latin Moneta):
"to utilize (something of value) as a source of profit"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monetize

choi

(2) Poultry markets | Henmania; Chicken is set to rule the roost in the global meat market
http://www.economist.com/news/fi ... eat-market-henmania

Quote:

"chicken is on its way to becoming the world’s favourite meat. Diners currently chomp through more pork—some 114m tonnes a year compared with 106m tonnes for poultry.

Chicken is "the most affordable. It takes far less feed to produce a kilo of chicken than the equivalent amount of pork or beef.

Chicken feed "make up 50-70% of total costs. Production costs in America and Brazil, the world’s biggest producers, which between them provide two-thirds of chicken exports, are 30% below those in Europe and China, according to Nan-Dirk Mulder of Rabobank.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) "Asian consumers prize the more flavoursome brown meat from the thigh and leg."

flavorful (adj)
http://thesaurus.com/browse/flavorful
(synonym: flavorsome)

choi

(3) German economic history | Where the Angst Comes From; Why Germans are so frightened of inflation.
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... n-where-angst-comes
(book review on Frederick Taylor, The Downfall of Money; Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class. Bloomsbury, 2013)

Note:
(a) "France entered and occupied Germany’s industrial heartland, the Ruhr and the Rhine, in January 1923, making it even harder for Germany to keep up its reparation payments."
(i) Occupation of the Ruhr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr
(1923-1925)
(ii) Rhineland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland
(section 3.5 Interwar Years: French occupation 1918-1925)
(iii) Ruhr is part of Rhineland. See the map in Ruhr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhr

(b) "Add to that a weak central government, threatened daily by extremists on the left and right, and it is remarkable that the world’s second-biggest economy didn’t disintegrate."

Angus Maddison statistics of the ten largest economies by GDP (PPP)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang ... t_economies_by_GDP_(PPP)
(1921: US> Germany> UK> China> India > Soviet Union > Italy > Japan)

(c) "the introduction of a 'gold' mark whose issuance was severely restricted by a new bank, called the Rentenbank. * * * The gold mark came in on November 15th, and the paper mark settled down to a rate of 4.2 trillion to the dollar by the end of the year. Germany became stable enough to attract foreign investment and a huge American loan."
(i) Reichsbank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsbank
(1876-1945; issued Goldmark (1873-1914, backed by gold), Papiermark (backed by nothing), Reichsmark (1924-1948; backed by gold))
(ii) German Papiermark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Papiermark
(1914-1924; "The currency [Papiermark] was stabilized in November, 1923 after the announcement of the creation of the Rentenmark, although the Rentenmark did not come into circulation until 1924")
(A) The preceding quotation is what the Economist means by "The gold mark came in on November 15th," 1923.
(B) German-English dictionary:
papier (noun neutral): "paper"
(iii) Reichsmark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsmark

Quote: "The Reichsmark was introduced in 1924 as a permanent replacement for the Papiermark. * * * To stabilize the economy and to smooth the transition, the Papiermark was not directly replaced by the Reichsmark, but by the Rentenmark [1923-1948], an interim currency backed by the [state-owned] Deutsche Rentenbank, owning industrial and agricultural real estate assets. The Reichsmark [equal in value to the Rentenmark, or at exchange rate 1:1] was put on the gold standard at the rate previously used by the Goldmark"

(A) Rentenmark (n; German rente income (from OF [Old French]))
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rentenmark
(B) rent (n; Middle English rente, from Anglo-French, payment, income, from Vulgar Latin *rendita, from feminine of *renditus, past participle of *rendere to yield — more at RENDER)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rent
(iv) Dawes Plan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Plan

Quote:

"The Dawes Plan relied on capital lent to Germany by a consortium of American investment banks, led by the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, under supervision by the US State Department.

"By stabilizing the currency, it [Dawes Plan] brought increased foreign investments and loans to the German market. But, it made the German economy dependent on foreign markets and economies. As the US economy developed problems under the Great Depression, Germany and other countries involved economically with it also suffered. * * * After World War I, this cycle of money from US loans to Germany, which made reparations to other European nations, who paid off their debts to the United States, locked the western world's economy into that of the US.
(v) Charles G Dawes
(Wikipedia: 1865-1951; For his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations he was a cowinner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925; US vice president under Calvin Coolidge 1925-1929)
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_ ... 1925/dawes-bio.html

(d) "Things came to a head in November 1923. The central government was nearly toppled by the communists and socialists in Hamburg, Saxony and Thuringia, and by Hitler and his Nazi party in Bavaria. The putsches failed, although Hitler lived to fight another day."

Adolf Hitler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler
(In 1923, he attempted a coup d'état in Munich, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924)