全通翻譯/翻譯社

It's My Treat!

The etiquette of who should pay the bill for a meal or drink can vary even within individual cultures. Things can get doubly tricky when one is visiting or doing business in a foreign country.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. --- George Washington 
若言論自由被剝奪，那麼引領我們的可能是寡言與沉默，而我們就如同待宰的羊隻。--- 喬治‧ 華盛頓

The Lowdown on the Securities Gains Tax II

OPPONENTS of the securities gains tax think Taiwan runs the risk of fund outflows and shrinking business scales for the securities and financial sectors. Given the degree of f inancial internationalization nowadays, it is natural for institutional and retail investors alike to make their investments in places which are expected to yield the highest returns.

Bangkok: Fun and Culture in the Big Mango

There's no doubt that Bangkok is one of the world's tourist hotspots. Major surveys routinely rank the Thai capital up there with London and Paris in terms of international visitors. A staggering 6.33 million tourists arrived in the City of Angels in the fourth quarter of 2012. Altogether, Bangkok netted close to US$50 billion in tourist revenues.

Head in the Clouds? HP Faces Uncertain Future

A year before his death, Steve Jobs went for a stroll around his neighborhood with Mark Hurd, who had just been ousted as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The late Apple cofounder offered to contact each member of the HP board individually to get Hurd reinstated. In five years at the helm, Hurd had made HP the largest tech company in the world and continually increased profits. Yet, the board had still forced his resignation over claims of sexual harassment and misuse of his expense account. Larry Ellison, Jobs and Hurd’s mutual pal, labeled the move “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs.” 

Tokyo: More than a City

Strangely, for an international city of such repute, Tokyo is not technically a city at all. Formed in 1943 from the old city and the outlying Tokyo Prefecture, Japan's capital is now known as Tokyo Metropolis. As such, it is the largest metropolitan area in the world.

The Price of Abenomics

When Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in Japan late last year, it was on the back of a pledge to beat def lat ion. The world's third-largest economy has seen 20 years of falling consumer prices, which experts say has taken its toll. Abe's plan is, thus, to carry out a Bernanke-style quantitative easing with the aim of enforcing a mandatory 2-percent inflation target. He now has a governor and a team in place at the Japanese Central Bank to push ahead with this policy of reflation.