For example:

Shimano earns around $1.5 billion a year by supplying 60-70% of the world’s bicycle gears and brakes
YKK makes around half the world’s zip fasteners by value,
75% of motors for hard-disk drives in computers come from a firm called Nidec
90% of the micro-motors used to adjust the rear-view mirror in every car are made by Mabuchi

“Many technology products have become commodities, but certain components have not, since they require continual innovation. So entry barriers to the business of making them remain high, and although the margins on the final goods have deteriorated, the margins on specialised, high-end components are still juicy.: Much more here

Not every brand is enjoying the same performance. Costa Coffe which has 974 stores in the UK has reported like-for-like sales growth yesterday of 2.5 per cent in the six months to the end of August.
Caffè Nero, which has almost 400 UK outlets, is believed to be trading at a similar level to Costa, although Starbucks has like-for-like sales down by an estimated 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent in recent months. Brand fatigue in action.

The BBC carries this interesting video discussion with De Anne Julius about the impact of the Bank’s Quantitative Easing programme designed to support demand and lending in the UK economy. She emphasises the importance of gradually withdrawing the QE programme and she argues that the main effect of QE so far has been to hold down the interest rate on government debt (gilts) but that there is little evidence so far that QE has enabled a rise in lending to consumers and small businesses. The Indy’s Big Question looks at QE in their edition today.

Some economists favour a change in the direction of QE away from simple purchases of government debt (the BoE effectively becomes to purchase of first resort for the Debt Issue Office) towards purchases of private sector assets such as shares or bonds issued by companies. The Bank of England is now estimated to hold around a fifth of the total stock of government bonds (gilts).

I really like Roger Bootle’s article in the Telegraph

“QE’s ghastly name makes it seem completely novel and even outlandish. In reality, though, it is no more than the policy of “open market operations” described in the classic textbook on money and banking by Richard Sayers and advocated by John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s, learned by two generations of students of monetary economics but hardly ever implemented until recently. In the vernacular, it is known by the much more catchy title of “printing money”, though hardly any extra notes have been printed.”

“In the end, the way out of our current dire predicament will depend hugely upon what happens to the world economy, over which we have no control and precious little influence. We have done all we can to help our export response to whatever transpires by allowing and encouraging the pound to fall.”

More here

And David Smith wrote about QE in his Sunday Times piece last weekend

November news update:

“The Bank of England voted to boost its quantitative easing (QE) programme, which is aimed at increasing the money supply and helping the economy, bringing planned spending to a total of £200bn. At the end of a two-day meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also chose to keep interest rates at their record low of 0.5 per cent. “