Wall Street Journal (March 2)
With “the rapidly advancing nuclear capabilities of all four of America’s nuclear-capable rivals—Russia, Iran, North Korea and China,” it is time to reevaluate nuclear strategy. “Instead of pursuing 1990s-era fantasies about reducing the role of nuclear weapons, Washington needs to understand that… it is entering a long-term strategic-arms competition.” The U.S. must “strengthen its strategic forces to provide an adequate deterrent for itself and the more than 30 formal treaty allies that rely on U.S. nuclear weapons for their security.”
Tags: 1990s, Advancing, Allies, Capabilities, China, Competition, Deterrent, Iran, North Korea, Nuclear, Rivals, Russia, Strategic arms, Strategy, U.S., Weapons
Chicago Tribune (July 19)
“When the race for coronavirus vaccines started, health officials knew the competition between rich and poor countries would be lopsided. But few expected poor countries to be at the mercy of donations from the rich, or that the inequity would be bad for so long. Poor countries have vaccinated 1% of their population, compared with 55% in the U.S. and about 25% globally.”
Tags: Competition, Coronavirus, Donations, Health officials, Inequity, Lopsided, Mercy, Poor, Race, Rich, Vaccines
San Francisco Chronicle (May 16)
“Pandemic or not, restaurants can’t find rental space.” The real estate landscape is “nearly as heated as pre-pandemic levels.” One would expect “tons of options on the market at reasonable rates, but there are few deals—and competition for what’s available is intense…. Landlords, meanwhile, are hesitant to offer discounts because they’ve lacked income over the pandemic themselves.”
Tags: Competition, Deals, Discounts, Heated, Income, Landlords, Market, Pandemic, Pre-pandemic levels, Real estate, Rental space, Restaurants
New York Times (January 27)
“For months now, wealthy countries have been clearing the world’s shelves of coronavirus vaccines, leaving poorer nations with little hope of exiting the pandemic in 2021. But a fresh skirmish this week has pitted the rich against the rich — Britain versus the European Union — in the scramble for vials, opening a new and unabashedly nationalist competition that could poison relations and set back collective efforts to end the pandemic.”
Tags: Collective efforts, Competition, Coronavirus, EU, Nationalist, Nations, Pandemic, Poison, Poor, Relations, Rich, Skirmish, UK, Vaccines, Wealthy
Financial Times (March 26)
“Ten years ago, you knew where you stood with your energy suppliers. Oil companies sold road fuel, while utilities supplied electricity and gas. Today those lines of demarcation are blurring: utilities can fill up your car and oil companies want to keep your lights on.” This will make for a “period of intensified competition and instability, as companies that were previously able largely to forget about each other are now forced to battle for dominance.”
Tags: Blurring, Competition, Electricity, Energy, Fuel, Gas, Instability, Intensified, Oil, Suppliers, Utilities
Chicago Tribune (January 2)
“Who said: ‘Find out what the other team wants to do. Then take it away from them.’ Could have been Uber’s CEO, but no, it was George Halas, founder of the Bears.” As the Chicago Bears look for a new coach, it’s worth contemplating “heavy industries, or digital startups… business and sports share immutable truths about organizational ability and consequential success. Much of work life is a competition, right? Good bosses, like good coaches, are strategists and motivators who build strong teams. Games like football teach those lessons in fundamental ways that are useful in every field, including non-contact sports like accounting.”
Tags: Accounting, Bears, CEO, Chicago, Coach, Competition, Digital startups, Halas, Heavy industries, Motivators, Sports, Strategists, Uber
The Economist (March 2)
The planned $30 billion merger between Deutsche Börse (DB) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) “had been billed as a bridge between Europe’s two main financial hubs.” In tatters, the merger now stands as “a symbol of their growing competition—and of the uncertainty into which Brexit has plunged the EU’s markets.”
Tags: Brexit EU, Competition, Deutsche Börse, Europe, Financial hubs, LSE, Markets, Merger, Tatters, Uncertainty
The Economist (April 23)
With a dominant European market share, Google has come under fire from the European Commission. Google deserves to profit from its acumen, but this “has to be balanced against the need to inspire innovations that might complement Android or Google Search—or even displace them. It is now up to Google to demonstrate that its mobile strategy does not harm competition, and thus consumers.”
Tags: Android, Competition, Consumers, Dominant, Europe, European Commission, Google, Innovation, Market share, Mobile strategy, Profit, Search
The Economist (March 26)
There is “a corrosive lack of competition” among big firms in the U.S. “The naughty secret of American firms is that life at home is much easier: their returns on equity are 40% higher in the United States than they are abroad. Aggregate domestic profits are at near-record levels relative to GDP. America is meant to be a temple of free enterprise. It isn’t.”
Tags: Competition, Corrosive, Domestic profits, Free enterprise, GDP, ROE, U.S.
Bloomberg (January 26)
“Why are economists so willing to declare to the world that free trade is good?” Their consensus flies in the face of popular opinion and “powerful evidence that industries and regions that have been more exposed to Chinese import competition since 2000—the year China joined the World Trade Organization—have been hit hard and have not recovered.”
Tags: China, Competition, Consensus, Economists, Evidence, Free trade, Imports, Industries, Popular opinion, Regions, WTO
