The Traderszone Network

Budget carrier AirAsia Bhd (AIRA.KL) is planning a convertible bond issue of as much as $150 million at each of its Philippines and Indonesian associates, and may sell and lease back up to 20 aircraft of the group’s fleet this year, group chief executive Tony Fernandes said in a letter to investors. Due to the recent movement in our share price, we are sharing the details with you earlier than planned,” CEO Fernandes said in the letter, sent on Monday, of which Reuters obtained a copy. AirAsia officials had no immediate comment on the letter.

Submitted by Eric Zeusse, author of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 and of Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics,

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One week ago, we highlighted a NY Times op-ed by Lee Siegel, a writer who holds not one, not two, but three degrees from Columbia, including two graduate degrees.

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This follow-up post is only for tax nerds; it gets pretty deep in the weeds, or wheat fields.  I was interested in this comment in a WSJ piece on Governor Brownback, who’s struggled to enact supply-side reforms in Kansas:

During a brief presidential run in 2007, Mr. Brownback said he saw economic growth in parts of South Dakota—where there is no income tax—outpacing activity just across the border in Iowa, which has such a tax.

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Submitted by David Stockman via The Mises Institute,

Jeff Deist: The Fed recently announced just this past week that it would not use specific dates for targeting higher Fed funds rate this year and you almost get the sense that poor Janet Yellen is at the end of this Greenspan-Bernanke experiment and there’s not much left for her to do. I mean, what’s our sense of Yellen and her position?

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The euro slipped in early Asian trade on Monday, after Greece’s talks with lenders to avert a default ended with no agreement and a downbeat day on Wall Street was also likely to pressure Asian shares. European Union officials blamed the collapse of the talks on Athens, which it said had failed to offer any new concessions to secure funding it needs to repay 1.6 billion euros ($1.79 billion) to the International Monetary Fund by the end of this month. On Friday, shares on Wall Street dropped after upbeat consumer data capped a week of solid economic reports that back the view that the U.S.

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Three years after its founding merger, UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) is ready to turn its attention to acquisitions and is assessing potential targets, its president said on Sunday. Until now, the aircraft components unit of United Technologies (UTX.N) has been focusing on integrating Goodrich, acquired by parent UTC for more than $16 billion in 2012 and combined with Hamilton Sundstrand to form UTAS. “I think that process has been successful and it now enables us to look at what’s next,” UTAS President David Gitlin told Reuters.