Institutional Investor (May 5)
“Institutional investors have a remedy for the mounting pile of public debt accumulating during the coronavirus crisis: Tax private equity.” In a recent survey 62% of respondents suggested “increasing taxes on private equity, carried interest or performance fees, and special purpose vehicles” as ways “their national governments should adjust tax policies to offset stimulus spending.”
Tags: Carried interest, Coronavirus, Crisis, Governments, Institutional, Investors, Performance fees, Private equity, Public debt, SPVs, Stimulus spending, Survey, Tax
Financial Times (April 22)
“The collapse of the eurozone would be a catastrophe. The ECB is the one institution able and willing to act. Governments should back it.”
Tags: Act, Catastrophe, Collapse, ECB, eurozone, Governments
Wall Street Journal (April 16)
“Can we please stop talking about “reopening” the U.S. economy?… There is no on-off switch. Swaths of the economy—restaurants, travel, retail shops—were already shrinking before governments ordered them shut, because people were afraid to dine, travel or shop. These fears will abate gradually, with the pace dictated by the course of the virus, not by anybody’s decree.”
Tags: Economy, Fears, Governments, Pace, Reopening, Restaurants, Retail, Travel, U.S., Virus
The Economist (March 14)
“All governments will struggle” with Covid19. “As they belatedly realise that health systems will buckle and deaths mount,” how well the governments and their leaders cope will be determined by “their attitude to uncertainty; the structure and competence of their health systems; and, above all, whether they are trusted.”
Tags: Attitude, Buckle, Competence, COVID-19, Deaths, Governments, Health systems, Struggle, Trust, Uncertainty
New York Times (March 13)
“China bought the West time. The West squandered it.” In the U.S. and Europe, the attitude has largely “been bizarrely reactive, if not outright passive… governments in those regions have let pass their best chance to contain the virus’s spread.” Why did “so many countries watch the epidemic unfold for weeks as though it was none of their concern?”
Tags: Bizarre Reactive, China, Epidemic, Europe, Governments, Passive, Spread, Squandered, Time, U.S., Virus
South China Morning Post (February 9)
“Coronavirus might be the world’s immediate challenge, but Antarctic heat record should worry us more.” Last week the temperature rose to 18.3 degrees Celsius in Antarctic. With “evidence of ice melting faster in the ‘doomsday glacier’, predictions of a 2-metre rise in sea levels seem more real.”
Barron’s (December 27)
“Megatrends, like aging and climate change, are forcing governments to take care of themselves, understanding there are going to be massive challenges. As a result, we’re starting to see the peak of globalization, meaning limits to the movement of free capital, goods, money, services, and knowledge.”
Tags: Aging, Capital, Challenges, Climate change, Globalization, Goods, Governments, Knowledge, Limits, Megatrends, Money, Peak, Services
The Economist (March 9)
Interest in Africa is booming. “Outsiders have noticed that the continent is important and becoming more so, not least because of its growing share of the global population (by 2025 the UN predicts that there will be more Africans than Chinese people). Governments and businesses from all around the world are rushing to strengthen diplomatic, strategic and commercial ties. This creates vast opportunities. If Africa handles the new scramble wisely, the main winners will be Africans themselves.”
Tags: Africa, Booming, Businesses, China, Diplomatic, Governments, Population, Strategic, UN
The Economist (October 20)
“Some 4,500 satellites circle Earth, providing communications services and navigational tools, monitoring weather, observing the universe, spying and doing more besides. Getting them there was once the business of the superpowers’ armed forces and space agencies. Now it is mostly done by companies and the governments of developing countries.”
Tags: Communications, Companies, Developing countries, Earth, Governments, Navigational tools, Satellites, Space agencies, Spying, Superpowers, Weather
South China Morning Post (September 3)
“Bankers did not cause the 2008 financial crisis…. Instead, blame for the crash lies squarely with the world’s governments. Sure, bankers were both greedy and reckless. But it was government policies that created the conditions in which greed and recklessness were allowed–even required–to flourish.” By ignoring this and “failing to learn from their mistakes, they have made another crash inevitable.”
Tags: Bankers, Blame, Crash, Financial Crisis, Governments, Greedy, Inevitable, Reckless
