Financial Times (January 25)
The German economy is “faltering.” Despite promises of reform and rebound, “Europe’s largest economy is starting to look more like a slow-moving car crash…. In 2023 it contracted by 0.3 per cent, making it the world’s worst-performing major economy. This has been accompanied by policy setbacks, nationwide strikes, and a steep decline in the ruling coalition’s popularity.”
Tags: 2023, Car crash, Contracted, Decline, Economy, Europe, Faltering, German, Major economy, Promises, Reform, Setbacks, Strikes, Worst-performing
The Guardian (September 8)
“Public opinion has swung away from Brexit, with more than half the country thinking it was wrong to leave the bloc. Crucially, a chunk of 2016 leave voters have changed their minds because Brexit hasn’t delivered either on promises that it would energise the economy or on reducing immigration. Rather, leaving the EU probably made the cost of living crisis worse.”
Tags: Brexit, Cost of living, Crisis, Economy, Energise, EU, Immigration, Leave voters, Promises, Public opinion, Wrong
Washington Post (July 1)
July 1 “used to be a day of celebration in the city. Now, it has morphed into a morbid reminder of Hong Kong’s tragic decline under the ever-worsening repression brought on by Beijing.” Hong Kong’s tragedy has great bearing for Taiwan. It “proves that Beijing’s proposal of ‘one country, two systems’ is a delusion — and that any promises Xi makes regarding Taiwan’s continued autonomy under reunification are worthless.”
Tags: Autonomy, Beijing, Celebration, Decline, Delusion, Hong Kong, July 1, Morbid reminder, Promises, Repression, Reunification, Taiwan, Tragedy, Worsening, Xi
Reuters (May 12)
“South Korea was the first country to launch a fifth-generation mobile network in 2019, heralding a warp-speed technological transformation to self-driving cars and smart cities. Three years on, the giddy promises are unfulfilled.” It has achieved one of the highest rates of adoption, around 45% with speed about five times faster. Until demand catches up, however, telecoms will remain unwilling “to invest in the fancier technology that would ramp speeds by 20 times over 4G technology…. To make the quantum leap to the highest-speed 5G will require the roll-out of essential services that need such fast connections.”
Tags: 5G, Adoption, Demand, Invest, Mobile network, Promises, Roll-out, Self-driving cars, Smart cities, South Korea, Speed, Technology Quantum leap, Telecoms, Transformation, Unfulfilled, Warp-speed
The Economist (February 6)
Wall street is undergoing revolution. “Information technology is being used to make trading free, shift information flows and catalyse new business models, transforming how markets work…. And, despite the clamour of recent weeks, this promises to bring big long-term benefits.”
Tags: Business models, Clamour, Information flows, IT, Markets, Promises, Revolution, Trading, Wall Street
Washington Post (February 13)
President Trump released his very own “comic book” in the form of a budget. Candidate Trump boasted “he would ‘get rid of the $19 trillion in debt . . . over a period of eight years,’” but his budget would add $7 trillion to the debt over a decade — $2 trillion in the next two years alone — and even those numbers are based on the peculiar assumption that the economy will never again go into recession.” That’s only the beginning. His comic-book budget goes onto shred many of the bold promises Trump once made.
Financial Times (August 13)
“Mr Trump’s campaign promises to rip up trade agreements and protect heavy industries like steel are running into the complex realities of international supply chains.” By examining actual U.S. business practices, “you encounter how the president’s economic nationalism is clashing with the complexities of what the label ‘Made in America’ actually means in today’s world.”
Tags: Clashing, Complexities, Economic nationalism, Promises, Realities, Steel, Supply chains, Trade agreements, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (July 8)
“Despite lots of martial talk from Mr Trump, a pre-emptive strike against North Korea is a terrifying option. It would risk setting off a war on the Korean peninsula that could claim millions of lives.” The best options are still deterrence and containment, “But if deterrence is to be effective, America’s threats must be credible. So Mr Trump must stop making promises he is not ready or able to honour—promises like stopping North Korea from developing an ICBM.”
Tags: Containment, Credible, Deterrence, ICBM, North Korea, Pre-emptive strike, Promises, Risk, Terrifying, Threats, Trump, U.S.
New York Times (May 7)
Six months on, both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton are still waging last year’s campaign, undermining their promises to help America heal. This is particularly offensive — and more than a little pathetic — coming from Mr. Trump, who after all has a nation to run.” Yet, he still has “no concrete accomplishments to boast about, and nothing meaningful to offer the working people to whom he promised jobs and a revived industrial America.”
Tags: Accomplishments, Campaign, Clinton, Jobs, Meaningful, Offensive, Pathetic, Promises, Trump
Wall Street Journal (January 31)
“Political disruption has its uses but not if it consumes your Presidency in the process.” Donald Trump “seems determined to conduct a shock and awe campaign to fulfill his campaign promises as quickly as possible, while dealing with the consequences later.” Unfortunately, governing effectively “is more complicated than a campaign rally” and the “bonfire over his executive order on refugees shows that government by deliberate disruption can blow up in damaging ways.”
Tags: Awe, Blow up, Consequences, Damaging, Disruption, Executive order, Governing, Government, Presidency, Promises, Rally, Refugees, Shock, Trump
