New York Times (October 6)
“For companies and governments worldwide, defending their digital operations is a constant challenge.” Recent cyberattacks at big British brands demonstrate how they can “upend company operations.” Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Jaguar Land Rover have all been “severely disrupted by cyberattacks this year, bringing pain to the lives of customers, workers, suppliers and government officials.” In fact, “Jaguar Land Rover hasn’t built a single car” since shutting its systems down on September 1. This has halted “production at its factories in England, as well as sites in Brazil, China, India and Slovakia.”
Tags: Brazil, Challenge, China, Co-op, Companies, Customers, Cyberattacks, Defending, Digital, Governments, Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, Officials, Operations, Suppliers, UK, Upend, Workers
Washington Post (June 25)
“Governments around the world are scrambling for ways, often at great fiscal cost, to slow or even reverse their baby busts. From cash incentives to paid leave, the results have been disappointing.” They would do better to quit fighting and focus on adaptation. After 17 years of population decline, Japan “now offers a surprisingly hopeful counter that an aging economy can still offer growth and prosperity.” Recent analysis by Goldman Sachs found that in Japan “the demographic decline that once drained vitality is now creating a ‘virtuous cycle’ of tightening labor markets, increased worker bargaining power and more investment in productivity-enhancing tech. These trends are helping prop up the economy even as it weathers a shock from the U.S.-led trade war.”
Tags: Adaptation, Aging economy, Baby busts, Cash incentives, Cost, Demographic decline, Goldman Sachs, Governments, Growth, Investment, Labor markets, Paid leave, Population, Prosperity, Reverse, Scrambling, Tech, Virtuous cycle
Fortune (January 20)
“Two-thirds of the world’s population already lives in countries where fertility is below” the replacement rate (an average fertility rate of 2.1 children per female). “Some of those economies are on track to see 20%-50% population declines by 2100, requiring big changes to societies and governments.” Younger people will also face a growing burden. “The world’s support ratio was 9.4 in 1997, or more than nine working-age people supporting one older person,” but this is expected to drop to just 3.9 by 2050 and currently stands at 6.5.
Tags: 1997, 2050, 2100, Burden, Children, Economies, Fertility, Governments, Population declines, Replacement rate, Support ratio, Two-thirds, Working-age
The Economist (May 4)
“It is easy for investors to lose a fortune in the financial markets—and even easier for governments.” When Japan tried to prop up the yen in 2022, the nation “spent more than $60bn of its foreign-exchange reserves,” but supporting a currency “is expensive and futile.” Since breaking the ¥160/$1 barrier, there are rumors of another intervention. As long as the giant interest rate gap exists with the U.S., Japan would be “wrong to try to prop up the yen.”
Tags: $60bn, ¥160/$1, 2022, Currency, Expensive, Financial markets, Forex, Futile, Governments, Interest rate, Intervention, Investors, Japan, Reserves, Yen
Wall Street Journal (July 31)
“Once a lonely and largely impassable maritime expanse where countries worked together to extract natural resources, the Arctic is increasingly contested territory. As sea ice melts and traffic increases on the southern edges of the Arctic Ocean, governments are maneuvering in ways that mirror great-power rivalries in lower latitudes.”
Tags: Arctic, Contested, Governments, Great-power rivalries, Impassable, Lonely, Maneuvering, Maritime expanse, Melts, Natural resources, Sea ice, Traffic
Fortune (April 24)
“National governments are spending a record amount of money on defense and arms, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a more complicated geopoltical environment push countries to buy more military equipment.” All told, defense spending grew by 3.7% in 2002. Roughly “half of that increase was due to a 640% surge in military spending by Ukraine, as the country quickly expanded its armed forces to defend against the invasion.”
Tags: Arms, Complicated, Defense, Environment, Geopoltical, Governments, Military equipment, Record, Russia, Spending, Ukraine
Reuters (June 6)
“Even though supply disruptions in many parts of the world are severe and policy solutions are challenging, Western governments do have the opportunity to reverse the rising cost of food through the simple scrapping of biofuel mandates. This would remove a very large non-food demand for crops and turn the current grain shortage to a surplus, easing the pressure on inflation.”
Tags: Biofuel mandates, Crops, Demand, Disruptions, Food, Governments, Grain shortage, Inflation, Opportunity, Solutions, Supply, Surplus
BBC (April 4)
“Even if all the policies to cut carbon that governments had put in place by the end of 2020 were fully implemented, the world will still warm by 3.2C this century…. The good news is that this latest IPCC summary shows that it can be done…. But keeping temperatures down will require massive changes to energy production, industry, transport, our consumption patterns and the way we treat nature.”
Tags: 2020, Carbon, Consumption, Energy production, Governments, Implemented, Industry, IPCC, Nature, Policies, Temperatures, Transport, Warm, World
Wall Street Journal (December 23)
“Businesses, schools, hospitals and governments are preparing for a new year with a sense of déjà vu, as the spread of Covid-19’s Omicron variant brings a familiar challenge: how best to navigate another surge. This time, they’re hopeful they can stay open and operating.”
Tags: Businesses, Challenge, COVID-19, Déjà vu, Governments, Hospitals, Omicron, Schools, Spread, Surge, Variant
The Atlantic (November 20)
“The question facing governments in Europe and elsewhere is which approach—carrot versus stick—will prove the most effective. By singling out the unvaccinated, Austria may succeed in increasing its vaccination rate, but it also runs the risk of driving vaccine skepticism even further.”
Tags: Approach, Austria, Carrot, Effective, Europe, Governments, Skepticism, Stick, Succeed, Unvaccinated, Vaccination rate
