Financial Times (January 14)
“Since the Bank of Japan stunned markets by widening the band of its yield curve control (YCC) policy on December 20, markets feel things are now moving tectonically for one of the developed world’s most unorthodox financial regimes.” At long last, the ‘widow-maker’ trade “is making money. On Friday and for the first time in almost a decade, yields on the benchmark 10-year JGB rose to 0.53 per cent and, critically, outside the BoJ’s target band in defiance of its ever more desperate efforts to fight the market.”
Tags: 10-year, Benchmark, BOJ, Control, Defiance, Desperate, Financial regimes, JGB, Markets, Target band, Widow-maker trade, Yield curve, Yields
Newsweek (January 4)
“For all its love of control, the Chinese leadership appears to have condemned its public to relive the uncertainty of early 2020, when Western capitals couldn’t grasp the spread of COVID. For those hoping to track the country’s first nationwide outbreak, it’s nothing short of a guessing game.”
Tags: 2020, Condemned, Control, Covid, Leadership, Nationwide, Outbreak, Public, Relive, Spread, Uncertainty
Washington Post (December 28)
ChatGPT, which is “is conversant in a way previous chatbots haven’t been,” has captured the imagination and stoked new fears. “Humans today are still in control…. Ultimately, unleashing the full potential of the technology that appears tantalizingly close to our grasp comes down to this: What do we as a species hope to gain from artificial intelligence, and — perhaps more important — what are we willing to give up?”
Tags: AI, Chatbots, ChatGPT, Control, Conversant, Fears, Humans, Potential, Species, Tantalizing, Technology
The Economist (October 13)
“The Communist Party has always been obsessed with control. But under President Xi Jinping that obsession has deepened. After three decades of opening and reform under previous leaders, China has in many ways become more closed and autocratic under Mr Xi.” The obsessive control is, however, weakening China.
Tags: Autocratic, China, Communist party, Control, Leaders, Obsessed, Opening, Reform, Xi
Washington Post (May 17)
With May “more than half over,” Russia’s Plan B is clearly “fizzling” with a notable retreat from Kharkiv. Russia “now appears to be aiming to take, at most, the entirety of a single Ukrainian region, Luhansk. And even that might be beyond the capability of Russia’s depleted, poorly led forces.” Instead, “a widening Ukrainian counteroffensive” might succeed in bringing “more of the Russian-held south and east of Ukraine back under the control of its legitimate government.”
Tags: Control, Counteroffensive, Depleted, Fizzling, Government, Kharkiv, Legitimate, Luhansk, May, Plan B, Retreat, Russia, Ukraine
Financial Times (January 28)
“Oaktree Capital is risking a showdown with Beijing over control of one of ailing property developer Evergrande’s most-prized projects in mainland China.” Seizing “the Venice development could have a profound effect on the wider restructuring of Evergrande, the property developer that has scrambled to reassure its creditors since its finances started to unravel last year.”
Tags: Ailing, Beijing, China, Control, Creditors, Evergrande, Oaktree Capital, Property developer, Restructuring, Risking, Showdown, Venice development
The Economist (March 20)
Last week China slapped down democracy in Hong Kong. The imposition of tight mainland control over the territory is not just a tragedy for the 7.5m people who live there, it is also a measure of China’s determination not to compromise over how it asserts its will.” But China has pressure points. It is “more tightly coupled with the West than communist Russia ever was. This presents the free world with an epoch-defining question: how should it best secure prosperity, lower the risk of war and protect freedom as China rises?”
Tags: China, Communist, Compromise, Control, Democracy, Hong Kong, Imposition, Mainland, Prosperity, Risk, Russia, Territory, War
Washington Post (February 2)
The emerging new strains of the novel coronavirus “are a powerful reminder that we must remain vigilant in fighting the virus, even as vaccines promise an end to the pandemic. And they are a warning that if the world doesn’t bring the virus under control everywhere, this nightmarish pandemic could continue for years longer than it needs to.”
Tags: Control, Emerging, Fighting, Nightmarish, Novel coronavirus, Pandemic, Strains, Vaccines, Vigilant, Warning
Bloomberg (January 18)
“China’s successful control of Covid-19 made it the only major economy to have grown last year, but a wide income inequality gap and still weak consumer spending reflects an unbalanced recovery.”
Tags: China, Consumer spending, Control, COVID-19, Gap, Income inequality, Major economy, Successful, Unbalanced recovery, Weak
New York Times (January 12)
“As America went through a week from hell, with the prospect of fresh hells yet to come, financial markets signaled … growing optimism.” This actually makes sense. Other things that happened, aside from the act of insurrection, like the Georgia win giving Democrats control over the Senate. This makes “a huge difference for economic policy, making it almost certain that we’ll have an additional large relief package, and fairly likely that we’ll get some much needed investment in infrastructure.”
Tags: Control, Democrats, Economic policy, Financial markets, Georgia, Insurrection, Investment, Optimism, Relief package, Senate, Sense, Signaled, U.S.
