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China

Diageo bids for Chinese spirits maker

by Jacob Grier on March 2, 2010

From the Telegraph:

Diageo has sought to take advantage of the continued march of the Chinese consumer by launching an offer worth up to £610m for a local white spirit venture in the Asian country.

The drinks giant said the full offer for the company, which is not expected until the second half of 2010, would give it a springboard to expand its share of one of the fastest-growing spirits markets in the world.

That’s a little over 900 million in US dollars. And yes, that’s the same Diageo that’s currently threatening to take its Captain Morgan production outside the US if taxpayers don’t pick up the tab for a new distillery in the Virgin Islands.

Additional reading: This paper [.pdf] from the Congressional Research Service provides the most thorough, balanced explanation and appraisal of the rum cover over that I’ve seen yet. This blog previously covered the Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands dispute here.

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The future of smoking

by Jacob Grier on May 6, 2008

This is depressing: Foreign Policy rounds up a list of the next countries likely to implement national smoking bans. Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and China are all on the list. It does note that Germany, at least, is backing away from its ban, so the trend isn’t entirely in one direction.

Regardless of your personal preferences, where do you see the future of smoking regulation in the US? Have we reached a tipping point that will inevitably make smoking socially unacceptable? Or will the increasingly untenable and bizarre claims made by anti-smoking groups propel the movement over the shark, allowing smokers and property rights defenders to push back?

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that, regardless of legal changes, old-fashioned pipe smoking will see a resurgence.

Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

[Via TMN.]

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