Podcast Host, Professor, Writer

Tag: China

New World (that is China, India) Outpaces Old World 2 to 1

Greece, Spain and Hungary once spawned mighty empires (8th to 6th century BC, 15th century AD and 19th century AD respectively), but now their crumbling economies are far outshined by cousins in the East – particularly China and India.

Yes we all know China and India are giants but today consulting firm BCG came out with its report on Global Wealth trends which has some very interesting empirical data.

Wealth in Asia (excluding Japan) will grow at twice the global rate and in China and India, wealth is expected to grew more than three times the global rate from 2009 to 2014. Another interesting statistic: in China – communist China that is – there are approximately 670,000 millionaire households. There are more millionaires in China that in the old world countries of the United Kingdom (485,000 millionaire households), Germany (430,000 millionaire households), Italy (300,000 millionaire households), Switzerland (285,000 millionaire households) and France (280,00 millionaire households). Only the US and Japan have more millionaire households with 4,715,000 millionaire households and 1,230,000 millionaire households respectively.

But the Old World still has something of an edge – Europe is the wealthiest region overall with $37.1 trillion in assets under management. It will need it for all those bailouts.

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Earth Day: talking with architect Chad Oppenheim about sustainable architecture

Chad Oppenheim, a Miami-based architect spoke with me about sustainable architecture and some of his designs.

GM&I: How was green building hit during the recession?

Chad: “As oil prices dropped dramatically, there was less of an urgency. We were sheltered from the fall until July 2009 when certain projects stopped. But there is still the sentiment. I am working on a $30 million house in Los Angeles which the owner wants to do green; a hotel in China wants to go green.”

GM&I: What are prospects for green architecture going foward?

Chad: “The way we are going is not sustainable, there has to be a better way. The last 75-100 years have not been the best way to further develop this world. The Chinese are stepping up as leading manufacturers in solar, wind and that effort transcends through architecture; at the same time, they are still building dirty coal plants.

GM&I: What is the global standard for green architecture?

Chad: ” The US is the most organized. LEED is well executed and marketed. France has a similar stamp. Abu Dhabi is building one based on LEED. The Swiss don’t have a catchy marketing tool, they just build highly efficient buildings. Eventually there will be standard green building codes similar to what the ADA did with standardizing disability ramps, etc.”

GM&I: What are some of the best standards being put in place?

Chad: One of the many things that LEED discusses is the atmosphere of buildings for example no toxicity in paint. A lot of these things are coming in line because of health and safety issues, over time air quality can be hazardous to your health. In France there is even code around acoustics, acoustical pollution.

GM&I: What is the cost of going green?

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International Women’s Day

Last week, I read an op-ed in the New York Times promoting a gender-neutral Oscar – author Kim Elsesser noted there is no need for segregating awards between men and women and that women should be treated as full equals. Though I agree with the latter statement, we live in a world of gender inequality. Look at the provocative cover of the Economist this week: “Gendercide:What happened to 100 million baby girls?” It goes over what has been in the news before – China’s one-baby per family policy encourages families to use ultrasounds to determine a baby’s sex and abort females, now there is a disproportionate male-female ratio in the country. Same for places in India and South Korea. The lead anecdote from rural China about a midwife throwing a girl baby in a slop-pile to die broke my heart.

So for me International Women’s Day is important. It is ironic that International Women’s Day is actually a national holiday in China. That’s based on the day’s roots in a socialist solidarity movement for women. The long history of promoting women’s rights needs to continue around the world.

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wunn have written a wonderful book, Half the Sky, which sets out a 21st century agenda for the women around the world. Check out the section on How to Get Involved.

In a world where women hold up half the sky, and make up 40% of the worforce, so much more needs to be done to achieve equality. Catalyst, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting women in business, recently published, Pipeline’s Broken Promise, which looked at thousands of women and men MBA alumni in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and determined that even after taking into account experience, industry, and region, women start at lower levels than men, make on average $4,600 less in their initial jobs, and continue to be outpaced by men in rank and salary growth. Men are twice as likely as women to hold CEO or senior executive positions and less likely to be at lower levels, where women are overrepresented.

I know I need to do more so that my daughter has a better future. To International Women’s Day!

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