TEc - Money burner or money spinner? - At the onset competition should be welcomed...

All manner of questions may be asked when a newcomer arrives to a highly lucrative high-reputation market such as commercial aviation aircraft.
Fact of the matter is a well known Japanese company - a household brand-name whose range of products is pretty wide - now offers what looks like a very well-appointed regional jetliner.

Admittedly competition is tough, established makers feeling challenged will do renewed battle, there are two or three other companies whose products are yet to see the dawning light.
At the end of the day, granted the market is far from crowded, it will be for purchase managers to assess airplanes from different makers on their own merits.
If the +80-seater Mitsubishi's MRJ has the right figures for fuel-burn per seat to match its amazingly sleek design, there's every reason to antecipate its success.

I certainly wish Mitsubishi all the very best marketing its latest product.

TEc - Why Brazil needs change - Stakes are high in Brazil as change looks desirable

That Brazil needs some sort of change looks like the starting line to a disputed election run-off next week.
As the campaign nears the end millions of undecided Brazilians will be wondering whether to stick with the known devil or seek out unknown good(!?).

It would seem to me that following 12 years of uninterrupted grip on Federal State power the PT has likely become a spent force, to a fairly large degree at least.Notwithstanding many points scored in social advancement through large-scale public policies that won international recognition and acclaim. There will have been misuse of funds, outright fraud and waste but at the end of the day the balance should be assessed.

Brazilian society has ratcheted up to a new level of expectation and accountability of their leadership.
That said, Dilma Roussef's performance leading as uneven a country does not match her predecessor. Lula's charisma and wise choice of advisors and ministers helped his two mandates as opposed to Dilma's rather lacklustre presidency.

Also, it did not help that commodity prices dropped from highs seen before though the country's structural challenges go far above and beyond that.

'The Economist' clearly endorses change and chooses the opposition man-of-the-hour to embody that change.
Perhaps Aécio is Brazil's best bet that it can charter a new course from a higher slot.
Brazilians should know better.

TEc - Britain survives - Scotland The Brave!

This time the UK has only just survived intact.
The SNP's call for outright independence was heeded by 45% of voters in a high turn-out election. A major achievement by any reckoning that a nationalist politician should have taken his cause this far and this close to victory.
It all finds explanantion when set against the background of Scotland's history from afar to times nearer.
The whole picture then emerges sharp and clear.

UK governments in London must pay closer attention to all constituent parts of a Kingdom that once ruled half the world.
Not any more since long, challenges now lie in Europe or arise daily from within.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland may be dwarfed by England by demography and economy.
At the end of the day each want (NI is different) something more intangible than merely devolved powers.

Scotland's soul has had a chance to let out a scream of some sort.
They did it!

TEc - That sinking feeling (again) - The Eurozone has not bounced back up

The latest quarterly growth figures for the Eurozone have confirmed that a recovery never initiated in the first place. Europe at large, Eurozone-member countries in particular have barely managed to stay afloat in the midst of a severe multi-pronged structural crisis.
Political efforts to ensure the Euro's survival were no more than circumstantial expediency.
Objectively the can was repeatedly kicked down the road.

The real issue in Europe over the years from 2000 is to find key growth drivers that generate wealth like industry did since the end of the 2ndWW.
As far as sovereign-debt troubles and heavily unbalanced government accounts are concerned it is now clear that jumpstarting the economy is the only path to improve Europe's dismaying fortunes.

The million dollar (euro(!)) question is what is Europe competitive enough at that will promote its prosperity going forward?
A question for the business and political establishment to find answers to very quickly.
Failure to do so will inevitably speed up Europe's decline turning it from relative to absolute.

TEc - Collateral damage - Header that does not do justice to victims

Terrible title to head an otherwise excellent article covering just about all there is to know concerning flight MH17.
The title suits military strategists fine - whether regular armed forces or rebels wielding big guns - and politicians whose morals have long been trashed altogether.
Precious innocent lives have been criminally cut short by a single man hitting a button likely aided by a small party who cheered on. These were the material authors of an outrageous criminal act.
The moral authors, however, bear the biggest share of responsibility, one they should never be allowed to deflect from. On the contrary, no effort should be spared gathering enough evidence to lay the blame at the right doorstep.

Words do not suffice to describe the enormity of yet another major atrocity against humankind.
To my mind the best answers so far were given by the Dutch Foreign Minister speaking at the UN where words might still matter(????) and by the poignant, dignified silent reception afforded to the bodies-in-coffins upon their arrival on Dutch soil.

This criminal episode is NOT collateral.
Crucially, this is moral damage.

The day Portugal kicked off in Brazil

Raised expectations, high hopes, a wishful thought that the national team would deliver a fine win, an acceptable draw, perhaps a defeat by the slimmest margin......

Germany - 4 ; Portugal - 0 is almost too hard to bear when stakes are upped high enough in a country long yearning for some sort of victory.

Yes, over mighty Germany seen as an unfriendly nation even at the best of times.

But SHIT happens, in the pitch, where Portugal can do much, much better.

We all know it, we all secretly hoped they would stand up and face them down.

Or at least, already in despair score one lone face-saving honour goal. 

A nightmare it turned out to be.

And, damn it, everything happened under the watchful eye of a discreetly cheering Angela!

Portugal is definitely down after such a poor showing but not out of the competition. Yet.

The US and Ghana should not be underestimated.

They would better decide quickly whether they want in or out of Brazil 2014.

IBERIA got off to a bad start would be understatement.

Can IT shake it off and get on to a flying finish?

FT - The Eurozone won the war, now it needs to win the peace - An opinative overview

The visionary ideal of an ever closer union ultimately leading to a true European Union remains as far-fetched as ever since current woes began triggered by the financial meltdown.

While apparently the sovereign debt crisis is headed for closure where it manifested harshest, there are far more questions than answers as to the future contours of a mutually advantageous monetary union.

The Eurozone comprises 18 economies whose differences are relevant not least amongst the big 3: Germany, France and Italy - for the incoming European Commission and Parliament to take very serious note of.

And eventually adopt a new approach to the entire European edifice.

On every ground one can think of it is unacceptable to tie countries down indefinitely, leaving them to fend for themselves and yet share a single currency. A currency that objectively does not bring gains to their respective economies. 

With so many formerly readily available monetary policy tools having been removed there is no leeway left in these countries to manage their own economic cycles.

Portugal is a good case in point. The country officially exits the bailout programme today without any cautionary safety net. There are reasons to rejoice at progress made restoring external balances, reducing the size of the State, sharpening the export sector and, perhaps, making the surviving economy leaner. These gains were achieved, inevitably to a degree, at an overwhelming social cost.

For Democracy's sake it is up to politics at national and European level to do 'whatever it takes' to mend societies hit hardest.

This needs to be done concurrently with every action taken to ensure that the ECB saved Euro works to the benefit of all countries sharing it, if not equally at least tangibly to most citizens.

Prolonged economic stagnation wherever is not an option by any seasoned yardstick.