BBC (December 19)
The majority (57%) of votes cast in a poll conducted by Elon Musk were in favor of “Musk standing down as Twitter CEO.” The move “has either spectacularly backfired – if Musk was looking for an ego-boost – or it has been a huge success in getting him off the rather large hook he has found himself caught on since his purchase of Twitter.”
Washington Post (April 5)
“Two years ago, China was being lauded by the World Health Organization for its success in beating the coronavirus.” Today, clinging to a “Covid Zero” policy leaves the nation “increasingly isolated as other countries … wean themselves off harsh countermeasures and return to a semblance of pre-pandemic life.” China may have little choice. Relaxing the policy would likely result in at least “630,000 infections a day,” a figure which could rapidly overwhelm “China’s patchy hospital network.”
Tags: China, Coronavirus, Covid Zero, Hospital network, Infections, Isolated, Lauded, Overwhelm, Patchy, Pre-pandemic, Success, WHO
WARC (February 8)
“Despite the difficulty of putting on the games with a pandemic still raging and freezing conditions even by the standard of snow sports, success in the Winter Olympics is putting Chinese designed technology front and centre.” This provides an excellent stage to advance the country’s “Made in China 2025” strategic plan that is “designed to move the Chinese economy away from being a low-wage factory to the world and toward high tech, advanced design and manufacturing.”
Tags: “Made in China 2025”, Advance, Advanced design, Economy, Factory, Freezing, High-tech, Low wage, Manufacturing, Pandemic, Raging, Sports, Strategic plan, Success, Technology, Winter Olympics
Washington Post (January 19)
“The challenge — and the opportunity — for Joe Biden is that he succeeds the worst president in U.S. history. Donald Trump’s tenure was characterized by colossal incompetence and mind-numbing indifference to the public good.” As a result, the new president will face the biggest challenges since Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Paradoxically, by taking over at such a low point in our history, Biden is set up for success” and his approval rating is already “higher than Trump’s ever was.”
Tags: Biden, Challenge, Incompetence, Indifference, Opportunity, Public good, Roosevelt, Success, Trump, Worst
Financial Times (June 20)
“A vaccine that allows people to live, work, travel, learn and socialize together safely again is the best long term exit strategy from lockdown.” With 183 vaccines under study, “the chances that one of those will come good seem hopeful but success is not guaranteed. There is still no vaccine against HIV, a plague that has now been with us for 40 years.”
Tags: Exit strategy, Guaranteed, HIV, Lockdown, Safely, Success, Travel, Vaccine, Work
Responsible Investor (June 9)
“Only in finance can a product lose 24% of its value and be celebrated as success. Since traditional benchmarks have lost more than ESG funds since the beginning of the year, ESG is feted by some as a success, a ‘refuge’.” Kudos, however, are not in order. “The rude fact is that, on the whole, ESG risk management frameworks did not prepare us for the inevitability of the pandemic. They did not help investors and banks anticipate the crisis, nor how to navigate it. The pandemic is a failure of mainstream risk management frameworks. Sadly, it is also a failure of ESG risk management frameworks.”
Tags: Banks, Benchmarks, Crisis, ESG funds, Finance, Frameworks, Investors, Pandemic, Refuge, Risk management, Success, Value
Bloomberg (May 19)
“Australia’s success in curbing Covid-19 infections is allowing it to slowly ease some restrictions even as it remains largely closed off from the rest of the world, taking its economy back to the pre-globalization era.” Stimulating domestic consumption prove essential “to drive any rebound,” but complicated by consumer worries. “Even before Covid-19, Australian households were among the most indebted in the developed world, with debt almost double disposable income.”
Tags: Australia, Closed off, Consumption, COVID-19, Developed world, Economy, Households, Indebted, Pre-globalization, Restrictions, Success
Wall Street Journal (March 9)
“The biggest activist hedge funds are jumping on the wave of socially responsible investing.” The “latest latest trend in shareholder activism” is strategic. “Highlighting ESG could help activists win the support of the big funds that is crucial to their success—and ignoring the issues could make their backing harder to win”.
Tags: Activists, Backing, Hedge funds, Shareholders. ESG, SRI, Success, Trend, Win
Washington Post (February 20)
“China has an immense challenge coping with the outbreak. Its success or failure will affect the whole world. It has now mounted an enormous containment effort. But these early weeks of the epidemic reveal the hazards of an authoritarian system that hides the truth from its own people” as President Xi Jinping knew about the threat on January 7, if not earlier.
Tags: Authoritarian, Challenge, China, Containment, Epidemic, Failure, Hazards, Outbreak, Success, Truth
Detroit News (October 31)
“No plant closures, fewer government ties and independence from other entangling partnerships means Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s proposed merger with French automaker Groupe PSA has a better chance of success than it had with Renault SA, according to experts.”
Tags: Entangling partnerships, Fiat Chrysler, Government ties, Groupe PSA, Independence, Merger, Plant closures, Success
