New York Times (December 21)
The Twenty-Teens have “been fundamentally shaped by the technological creations of the young, in the form of social media and mobile apps; by the mass migrations of the young, from Africa and the Middle East to Europe and from Latin America to the U.S.; by the diseases of the (mostly) young, notably addiction and mental illness; and by the moral convictions of the young, from the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements in the U.S. to mass demonstrations from Cairo to Hong Kong.”
Tags: #MeToo, Addiction, Africa, Apps, Black Lives Matter, Cairo, Demonstrations, Diseases, Europe, Hong Kong, Latin America, Mental illness, Middle East, Migrations, Moral convictions, Movements, Social media, Technology, U.S., Young
Bloomberg (March 3)
There is a “big problem with China’s bridge and tunnel addiction.” It looks unsustainable. “China spent more than $10.8 trillion on infrastructure from 2006 to 2015…. Outlays for roads, airports, ports, railways, and the like rose 17.4 percent last year, far outpacing the country’s 6.7 percent expansion in gross domestic product.” To maintain the pace, Beijing is promoting public-private partnerships (PPP), but these look “unstable.”
Tags: Addiction, Airports, Bridge, China, GDP, Infrastructure, Ports, PPP, Railways, Roads, Tunnel, Unstable
Institutional Investor (February 6)
Legendary bond investor Bill Gross believes the “$12 trillion now held by central banks is a permanent fixture of global finance, acting a bit like methadone. Methadone manages the craving, but does little to end the patient’s addiction.” He also posits that the U.S. would be in recession if it were not for the easing measures of the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan.
