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"It will be very painful and even feel like cutting one's wrist." So predicted Li Keqiang, China's premier, as he discussed the task ahead of him during his first press conference last March. Not the most inviting prospect for investors looking to make a play on China. But they should certainly take heed of these words. Li is the man who, together with president Xi Jinping, must lead a reform programme regarded by analysts as the most fundamental in decades. It will affect almost every part of an economy worth $9.4tn (Britain's annual output, for comparison, is $2.4tn). So what are these reforms? And why does China's new leader think that their implementation will be so painful? There are three key areas which investors should note.

If you're like most Americans, you probably didn't make a new year's resolution to get started with long-term financial planning. A staggering 84 percent of respondents to a New Year's Resolution Survey from Allianz Life Insurance said that financial planning was not among their 2014 resolutions at all-the highest percentage ever to reveal that in the survey's history. What held them back? Well, 30 percent said they don't believe they make enough money to "worry" about financial planning. That's bizarre. Shouldn't having less money increase your need to manage what you have effectively? Regardless of your situation, I hope you'll engage in the planning process this year-and the sooner you get started, the better.

Outside the portfolios' 'Themes' and 'Commercial property' sectors, regular readers will know that the strategy guiding both portfolios since their inception five years ago has been to 'Go high, go deep and go east'. The emphasis has been on higher-yielding blue-chips and bonds, smaller companies and the Far East (including Japan from the end of 2012). This has served both portfolios well. However, the time has come to modestly refine the strategy for the Growth portfolio given market conditions and its freedom from an income constraint.

With the unemployment rate slowly falling, many Americans are facing a healthier job market and trying to get their financial lives back on track. Based on findings of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation's National Financial Capability Study of more than 25,000 Americans, the FINRA Foundation has developed five tips to help you manage daily financial challenges and build a brighter financial future in 2014.

The slowdown in the economy after 2010-11 has had a ripple impact on the fortunes of India Inc. and lenders alike. With gross domestic product (GDP) growth decelerating from 8.4 per cent in 2010-11 to the sub-five per cent level in the first three quarters of the current financial year, the number of companies seeking succour from lenders under the aegis of the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) cell had almost doubled to 605 as of December 2013 against 305 as of March 2011. Further, there has been a 194 per cent jump, from []1,38,604 crore at the end of March 2011 to []4,07,656 crore as of December 2013, in the amount of loans that came up for recast. Therefore, it is not surprising that bank managements, in their internal meetings and conferences with the media and analysts, are devoting as much time fielding questions on the loans that had to be restructured in a quarter vis-à-vis loans that have gone sour. More related issue from Corliss: http://corlissonlinegroup.com/ http://corlissonlinegroup.com/blog/ http://corlissmag.livejournal.com/

McAfee report paints grim picture of lucrative industry, despite incomplete data. Cybercrime could be costing the global economy as much as $575 billion annually, according to a new report from McAfee. The Intel-owned security company based its estimate on a range of sources, from government agencies to NGOs and academic institutions, counting both direct and indirect costs. The report, Estimating the Global Cost of Cybercrime explained the methodology as follows: "This study assumes that the cost of cybercrime is a constant share of national income, adjusted for levels of development. We calculated the likely global cost by looking at publically available data from individual countries, buttressed by interviews with government officials and experts. We looked for confirming evidence for these numbers by looking at data on IP theft, fraud, or recovery costs. In addition to a mass of anecdotes, we ultimately found aggregate data for 51 countries in all regions of the world who account for 80% of global income. We used this data to estimate the global cost, adjusting for differences among regions." However, the vendor cautioned that "differences in the thoroughness of national accounting", as well as underreporting of incidents and the difficulty of valuing IP all make calculations an imprecise art. High income countries lost more as a percentage of GDP, which could be because they have better accounting systems in place and/or that their IP is more valuable and therefore a bigger target for criminals. The $575bn figure therefore comes from extrapolating a global total from high loss countries. It could be as low as $375bn if McAfee had extrapolated from "all countries where we could find open source data".

Large banks and trading firms are frantically trying to determine whether they have fallen victim to a suspected commodities fraud emanating from the giant Qingdao Port in northeast China. Citigroup and several other large Western banks are concerned that their loans may lack the appropriate collateral, big stockpiles of copper and aluminum at the port. The banks have inspectors on the ground who are trying to assess whether enough of the metals are there. The worry stems from suspicions that a Chinese companies pledged the same collateral for multiple loans. Chinese authorities are investigating the matter. The case could have broad repercussions for the commodities market and the Chinese economy. Banks have funneled billions of dollars into the Chinese economy through these murky transactions, and commodities prices have been falling over concerns that such lending will dry up. Western banks, including Citigroup, are bracing for any potential fallout. Just months ago, Citigroup fell victim to a multimillion-dollar fraud in Mexico. If the Qingdao developments harm the bank, regulators and shareholders are likely to press it to explain why its controls had failed again. Chinese companies are at risk, too.

The think tank Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicts the UK economy will outstrip France and Germany within two decades even if Britain stays in the EU. But while leaving the organisation would have initial negative consequences, the CEBR's chief executive Douglas McWilliams suspects "that over a 15-year period, it would probably be positive." Britain is set to vote on a referendum on EU membership in 2017. The report predicts the UK's GDP will first move to fifth place ahead of France by 2018 before leapfrogging Germany around 2030. However, despite being forecast to be the second most successful of the Western economies after the US, it will fall behind the accelerating economies of India and Brazil. "Germany is forecast to lose its position as the largest Western European economy to the UK around 2030 because of the UK's faster population growth and lesser dependence on the other European economies," the report said. But added: "If the euro were to break up, Germany's outlook would be much better. "A Deutsche Mark-based Germany certainly would not be overtaken by the UK for many years if ever." It added that a factor driving the UK's move ahead of Germany is the assumption of a falling value for the euro, Germany's falling population and the UK's rising population. The gap between the two countries will fall from almost £610billion in 2013 to just £183billion in five years. The UK's GDP will grow from more than £1.59trillion in 2013 to £2.6trillion in 2028, compared to China which is predicted to be in top position with a GDP of more than £20.5trillion, ahead of the US with an estimated £19.7trillion Japan will fall from its steady position in the global league of third to fourth by 2028, overtaken by India and followed by Brazil, Germany and the UK. The positive report on the economy comes as a poll reveals more people believe they would be helped rather than harmed by a rise in interest rates. A survey reveals that a pre-

Reasonable, convenient PayPal commercial loans can now be availed of, thanks to alternative business lender, BusinessCashAdvanceGuru.Com. Small companies can be eligible to loans from $5,000 to $500,000 with interest rates as low as only 1.9 percent with no accompanying credit investigation. Small commercial lending has dropped significantly from the Great Recession. All over the country, small-sized businesses are now discovering working funds, business loans, and expansion capital as difficult to acquire. "Forty-five percent of the 515 business-people who joined the advocacy group's survey said availability of loans and credit at affordable rates is a hurdle for their companies. Access to funds was most hard in the Northeast, where 53 percent of the owners said it was difficult to obtain. In the West, 49 percent considered it a major obstacle, followed by 44 percent in the South and 37 percent in the Midwest," reported the Seattle Post Intelligencer.