Breakingviews

U.S. utilities face German-style solar burn

By Christopher Swann and Robert Cyran
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

America’s utilities face a German-style solar burn. So far, solar power accounts for just 1 percent of U.S. electricity demand, against 10 percent in Germany. But generators stateside are already feeling the heat and pushing for levies on solar panels. They’re keen to avoid the scorched profit seen at traditional Teutonic utilities like E.ON.

Commodities set to distinguish themselves

By Kevin Allison
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Commodity prices look set to distinguish themselves in 2014. From gold to grain, raw materials will trade less in line not only with equities, but with each other – and are likely to fall, to boot. Thank a calm euro zone and the prospect of the U.S. Federal Reserve cutting back its bond purchases.

The chilling echoes of 1914, a century on

By Martin Hutchinson

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

A rerun of 1914’s descent into global war is really rather unlikely. But some of the danger of a hundred years ago is present today.

India’s Common Man Party is investors’ frenemy

By Andy Mukherjee

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The sudden rise of India’s self-professed “anti-establishment” party is making seasoned politicians nervous. Investors, meanwhile, view the dramatic ascent of the Aam Aadmi – Common Man Party – with a mixture of awe and suspicion.

Recovery will only increase inequality

By Christopher Hughes and Edward Hadas

The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

A normalising world will not be a harmonious world. The massive fiscal and monetary stimulus that is helping revive GDP growth in developed economies favours the privileged directly, and trickles down only slowly to the middle classes, the poor and the unemployed. That tension will worsen.

Small tech best placed to take on Big Brother

By Katrina Hamlin

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

Feeling insecure? So are companies everywhere. The lesson of 2013 was that there are grievous flaws in security systems once thought virtually impenetrable. Business needs better protection. The most credible providers may be smaller tech players.

Predictions 2014: Reversals and Revivals

By Breakingviews columnists

The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

Breakingviews’ annual compendium of financial foresight sets the agenda for the next 12 months. From Wall Street to the Great Wall, who has most potential to surprise, where are markets heading, and which are the companies to watch? Plus, we predict the winner of soccer’s World Cup.

Who packs the biggest power to surprise in 2014?

By Breakingviews columnists

The opinions expressed are the authors’ own.

Difficult jobs abound in the global economy, finance and business in the coming year. But so do incredibly low expectations. That means getting it right could mint legacies, and surprise investors in a good way.

Think of politicians like Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, who is about to host the world’s biggest sporting event of the year, the soccer World Cup; or John Boehner, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, an institution with one of the worst public approval ratings in history. Equally, there are a few chief executives who could defy the current consensus, such as the bosses at Deutsche Bank, Barclays or Microsoft. Herewith, Breakingviews columnists compile a list of those who might surprise us.

Markets face a year as tough as 1994

By Ian Campbell

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

It’s all priced in, the optimists say, referring to the likely tapering of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s money-printing. But tapering is just the beginning of the end of ever looser monetary policy and the long road towards normalisation.

Local audit highlights China’s debt dilemma

By Peter Thal Larsen 

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

China is being a bit more precise about its debt problem. A long-awaited audit of local government borrowing shows that provinces, towns and villages collectively owed 17.9 trillion yuan ($2.96 trillion) at the end of June, including contingent liabilities. The state will now have to decide which of those debts it wants to stand behind. Its approach will offer some hints about the importance of leverage for China’s economic growth.