People to Watch in 2015

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People to Watch in 2015
YEAR AHEAD A6-9 | MARKETPLACE: THE JOB MARKET IN 2015
******
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2015 ~ VOL. CCLXV NO. 1
HHHH $3.00
WSJ.com
Dec. 31: DJIA 17823.07 g 160.00 0.9% NASDAQ 4736.05 g 0.9% NIKKEI 17450.77 (Closed) STOXX 600 342.54 À 0.45% 10-YR. TREAS. À 5/32 , yield 2.173% OIL $53.27 g $0.85 GOLD $1,183.90 g $16.30 EURO $1.2099 YEN 119.72
What’s
News
i
i
Overseas
Headwind
TestsU.S.
Economy
China Mourns Victims of New Year’s Eve Tragedy
i
Business & Finance
T
he test for the U.S. economy as it enters 2015 with
strong momentum is whether
it can continue to thrive
while so much of the rest of
the world is stumbling. A1
 The Dow industrials
posted a sixth straight annual gain, despite a selloff on
2014’s final day of trade. C4
BY JOSH ZUMBRUN
n General Motors issued
three new safety recalls, bringing its 2014 total to 84. B3
n Russia bailed out its thirdbiggest lender, Gazprombank,
with a $660 million injection. C3
n Fed policy makers will
likely appear more unified in
2015 as previous dissenters
rotate out of voting seats. A2
n Activist investors, who
made boardroom waves in
2014, will likely be as busy,
or busier, this year. B1
DEADLY STAMPEDE: A makeshift memorial arose Thursday along the Shanghai waterfront where at least 36 died in a crush of revelers. A10
n The drop in crude and
natural-gas prices has taken
the shine off the partnerships
that drill for the fuels. B1
n A small U.K. hedge fund
has an outsize presence in
the world’s copper market. C1
n China has proposed allowing foreign investors
and brokerages to trade
some futures contracts. C3
i
i
i
World-Wide
n The White House will
steer away from using executive actions, looking for a
more legislative strategy. A1
n A stampede in Shanghai
killed dozens, calling into
question whether officials
provided enough security. A10
n The Affordable Care Act
will appear on tax forms this
year, though reduced IRS
staffing could mean light enforcement of some rules. A1
n Pressure is growing for
an Iraqi push to retake Mosul from Islamic State. A8
Obama Pivots to Lawmakers
New Plan to Advance Policy Goals by Working With Congress Draws Skeptics
BY CAROL E. LEE
HONOLULU—The White House
plans to pivot from President Barack Obama’s reliance on executive actions in the coming year
and invest more in a legislative
strategy aimed at trying to advance key policy goals with the
new, Republican-controlled Congress, senior administration officials said.
The new approach reflects a
White House acknowledgment
Health Law
Is Creating
A Trickier
Tax Season
BY STEPHANIE ARMOUR
AND LOUISE RADNOFSKY
n The major contributor to
cancer is random genetic
mutation that happens when
cells divide, research said. A3
n Kim Jong Un made an apparent offer to hold a summit with South Korean president Park Geun-hye. A10
n The incoming Congress
will try to sort out the future
of U.S. surveillance programs
with provisions of the Patriot
Act set to expire in June. A7
n Cleveland hopes to pass
the investigation of the
shooting death of Tamir Rice
to an outside agency. A4
n Global health experts are
preparing to test new treatments for Ebola in Africa. A8
n Died: Mario Cuomo, 82,
former New York governor. A4
Year-End Review
& Outlook
The year ahead for markets
and finance. R1-12
Movies............................. D3
Opinion.................. A13-15
Sports.............................. D8
Theater....................... D6,7
U.S. News................. A2-4
Weather Watch........ B6
World News.......... A6-11
>
s Copyright 2015 Dow Jones & Company.
All Rights Reserved
The first year of the Affordable Care Act is in the books,
and now comes a tricky tax-filing season for millions of Americans.
The law’s requirement that
most Americans carry health insurance means all filers must indicate on federal tax forms
whether they had coverage last
year and got tax credits to help
pay for it. Those who didn’t
have coverage could face a fine,
although reduced staffing at the
Internal Revenue Service and
certain changes to the law mean
the so-called individual mandate
is expected to be lightly enforced this year, tax preparers
say.
Meanwhile, millions of Americans who got subsidies under
the law may find they are getting smaller-than-expected refunds or owe the IRS because
credits they received to offset
their insurance premiums were
too large. As many as half of the
roughly 6.8 million Americans
who got subsidies may have to
refund money to the government, based on one estimate by
tax firm H&R Block Inc.
“The ACA is going to result in
more confusion for existing clients and many taxpayers may
well be very disappointed by
getting less money and possibly
even owing money,” said
Charles McCabe, president of
Peoples Income Tax and the Income Tax School, a Richmond,
Va., provider of tax preparation
and education. “The whole implementation of Obamacare will
be frustrating for tax preparers.”
But the season could be a lucrative one for tax firms. LibPlease turn to page A4
Composite
n Rough weather stalled
the search for victims, debris and the body of the
crashed AirAsia plane. A10
that Mr. Obama has already taken
some of the most significant executive actions in his arsenal as
well as the idea that several of
his top priorities might actually
be more easily achieved without
Democrats in control of the Senate, senior administration officials said.
The question is whether the
two sides can get past rancor of
the past several years by agreeing to disagree on certain issues
where their philosophies’ diverge,
and engaging on issues where
there is room for compromise.
Republican leaders, aides say,
want to work with Mr. Obama
but are skeptical that he will
compromise and that even if he
does, that he will deliver the
votes needed from his party.
“If he’s going to run around
the country talking about things
that have no chance of passing
rather than running around the
country focusing on the areas
where we agree, he’s not going to
be very productive,” said Don
Stewart, deputy chief of staff to
incoming Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.). “We
just had an election on his policies.”
Messrs. Obama and McConnell
discussed trade, taxes and infrastructure as areas of compromise
during a one-on-one meeting after the November elections.
Mr. Obama’s aim is to draw
only a few red lines on issues
Please turn to page A4
NEW FORMULA
World’s Poor Open Wallets
For Premium Products
BY PETER EVANS
BANGALORE, India—A. Ragini earns around
$130 a month as a nanny in this city of nearly 10
million, just about the average wage in India. After
paying for food and shelter, she has little cash to
spare.
Ms. Ragini recently noticed the price of her favorite soap, Unilever PLC’s Hamam, had gone up
to 24 rupees, or about 39 cents, from 16 rupees. It
also had new packaging, and some variations offered different ingredients.
Even though it stretches her budget, Ms. Ragini,
49, has continued to buy the soap. “I’m so used to
it, I don’t want to change it now,” she says.
Marketers are counting on many more reactions
like hers throughout the developing world. For decades, consumer-goods companies expanded in
emerging economies through rock-bottom prices
and small, affordable pack sizes. At Unilever, the
world’s second-largest consumer-goods maker by
revenue after Procter & Gamble Co., that meant
one-use sachets of Sunsilk shampoo and 3½-ounce
bars of Lifebuoy soap.
But now, with the global economy sluggish
and emerging-market sales growth waning for
the first time in years, companies are employing
a developed-world strategy with their poorest
customers: Pack more features into basic prodPlease turn to page A12
A Brouhaha Erupts in Belgium
Over New-Age Beer Designers
i
i
i
Brews Flavored With Cucumber, Insects,
Rile Old Gueuzers; Oyster Stout, Anyone?
BY FRANCES ROBINSON
BRUSSELS—A storm in a beer
glass is raging in Belgium. Traditional brewers are sour about
“beer creators”—Internet-savvy
startups who create recipes then
employ other Belgian brewers to
make the final product.
“They don’t get their hands
dirty, they don’t have pain in
their backs, the
only thing those
guys do in a
workday is sit in
front of a computer,”
said
Yvan de Baets, a
co-founder of
Brussels’ Brasserie de la Senne, a brewery in
the Belgian capital. “They make
a lot of noise on social media.”
Contract
brewing—where
brewers make beers for clients
ranging from Michelin-starred
chefs to discount supermar-
kets—has long existed. But
things are turning bitter in Belgium. Some brewery owners are
foaming with rage about “beer
architects” who create a recipe
then get it brewed under contract.
The country’s traditional
brewing prowess is legendary.
Cantillon, another brewery in
Brussels, still uses brewing
equipment over
100 years old,
making acidic
gueuze
beers
with wild yeast
floating in the
air near the
River
Senne.
Westvleteren,
rated by some the world’s best
beer, can usually only be bought
from the front gate of the Trappist monastery where it is
brewed.
In Monk, a bar popular with
Please turn to page A12
P2JW002000-6-A00100-1--------XA
n A growing number of
small-business owners are
starting the new year with a
rosier economic outlook. B1
CONTENTS
Art...................................... D5
Books........................ D1,2,4
Corporate News B2,3,5
Global Finance............ C3
Heard on the Street C8
In the Markets........... C4
THE YEAR
AHEAD
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
n Startups are holding back
on going public as they raise
huge sums in private deals. C1
The U.S. economy enters 2015
with the strongest momentum in
at least a decade and as the fittest of all the industrialized nations. The question is whether
that muscle can help yank the
rest of the world out of its doldrums.
“Our expectation is for a fairly
robust U.S. economy, and that’s
where the good
news starts and
ends,”
said
Adolfo Laurenti,
chief
international economist for investment
and advisory firm Mesirow Financial. “Everything else in the world
looks choppy.”
The nation added 2.7 million
jobs in 2014 through November,
the best year for employment
growth since 1999. Economic output registered its best six-month
stretch since 2003. Claims for
jobless benefits have been running lower than at any point
since 2000.
But after six slow years of economic recovery, the test for the
U.S. is no longer just about overcoming employer reluctance to
hire and lingering damage from
the housing bubble. It is whether
the U.S. can thrive when so much
of the world is stumbling.
Plunging oil prices, while good
for consumers and their spending
power, are expected to slow economic growth in petroleum-producing regions ranging from Russia to Africa to Latin America.
Geopolitical worries from the
Middle East to Eastern Europe
hang over swaths of the globe.
The eurozone remains lethargic
Please turn to page A6
Different Pace
Annual change in GDP*
10%
8
6
4
2
0
–2
’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15
2015
PROJECTIONS
CHINA
7.1%
U.S.
3.1%
EUROZONE
1.3%
JAPAN
0.8%
*Estimates for 2014, projections for 2015
Source: IMF October World Economic Outlook
The Wall Street Journal
 Four new votes at the Fed..... A2
 Wild card in housing.................. A2
 How forecasts fared................... A2
MAGENTA
BLACK
CYAN
YELLOW

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