麻豆约拍

Business Daily today takes to the high seas. International shipping companies are the arteries of the global economy. So what can this industry tell us about the state of world recovery? And are school exams the best preparation for working life - or do they really teach us the wrong lessons?

Earlier this year, much of the world's seaborne trade had collapsed because of the economic crisis. Instead of helping power the global economy, record numbers of cargo and container ships had been moored in vast natural harbours like Subic Bay in the Philippines.
But how is this crucial industry faring now?

The 麻豆约拍's Vaudine England examines the health of the shipping industry in the major Asian port of Hong Kong.

The shipping industry may be in trouble but it is still a key barometer of the health of the world economy. Because if activity picks up, more goods will be crossing the oceans, and more of the raw materials to make them.

The giant Danish shipping company Maersk Line operates world-wide so its chief financial officer Peter Ronnest Andersen is well placed to take the pulse of global trade and, through that, the health of the world economy:

It is school exam results season in Britain and parents across the country are getting the good or bad news about their offsprings' grades.

Our regular commentator, Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times, has been going through it with her daughter and concludes that of all life's challenges this is among the worst.