New York Times (April 21)
“The mundanity of the courtroom has all but swallowed Donald Trump, who for decades has sought to project an image of bigness and a sense of power…. For the next six weeks, a man who values control and tries to shape environments and outcomes to his will is in control of very little.”
Tags: Bigness, Control, Courtroom, Environments, Mundanity, Outcomes, Power, Project, Shape, Swallowed, Trump
The Economist (March 6)
“So far the signals” from China’s annual meeting of the National People’s Congress “are not reassuring. They suggest that China lacks a robust plan to deal with its economic slump and that some of its targets are drifting from reality. Power is concentrating even further in the hands of President Xi Jinping.”
Tags: Annual meeting, China, Concentrating, Economic slump, Lacks, National People's Congress, Power, Reality, Reassuring, Robust plan, Signals, Targets, Xi
Institutional Investor (December 19)
Investors and CEOs using their power to change the world around them provides the best hope for restoring value-creating potential to relationships between public companies and asset owners. But it may not be good enough. Investors and companies that seek to remain in public markets and derive value from their relationships will need ways to find each other in the masses of intermediaries between them, special tools for using this approach, and plans for navigating the inevitable collisions with short-term activists.”
Tags: Asset owners, CEOs, Hope, Intermediaries, Investors, Markets, Navigating, Potential, Power, Public companies, Relationships, Restoring, Value, Value-creating
The Economist (November 9)
“America’s anti-China fervour is partly an overcorrection for its previous complacency about the economic, military and ideological threat the autocratic giant poses.” The U.S. needs to rely upon “a sober assessment not just of China’s strengths, but also of its weaknesses.” Anything less, risks letting a distorted “view of Chinese power” lead to unnecessary “confrontations and, at worst, an avoidable conflict.”
Tags: Anti-China, Autocratic, Complacency, Confrontations, Economic, Fervour, Ideological, Military, Overcorrection, Power, Sober assessment, Strengths, Threat, U.S., Weaknesses
Washington Post (July 12)
Toyota could “upend the EV business even as that business is itself upending the wider autos industry…. Think about what a breakthrough along the lines of Toyota’s claims would mean: A battery that can power a vehicle for 745 miles on a single charge, recharge in 10 minutes or less and is far less prone to overheating and fire. In other words, all the current hang-ups about EVs — range, refueling time, safety — disappear.”
Tags: 10 minutes, 745 miles, Autos, Battery, Breakthrough, EVs, Hang-ups, Industry, Power, Range, Recharge, Refueling time, Safety, Single charge, Toyota, Upend
Foreign Policy (November 28)
After engineering “changes in China’s leadership succession rules so that he can preside over his country for life,” Xi is now confronting “a crisis that may come to be seen as an ideal test of the middle-income trap theory.” Deep down, Xi probably realizes “that at some point China’s political system will have to adapt for the country to continue to modernize” and avoid this trap. But for Xi, much like other “leaders who concentrate immense power in their own hands,” the problem is that “no moment ever quite looks like a good one to make serious, substantive change.”
Tags: Adapt, China, Concentrate, Crisis, Leaders, Leadership, Middle-income trap, Modernize, Political system, Power, Rules, Substantive change, Succession, Test, Xi
The Guardian (October 5)
Prime Minister Liz Truss “is plugging on while the Tory party implodes…. Watching the Conservative party self-destruct after 12 years of near-untouchable power while the economy tanks is akin to seeing your racist neighbour’s house flood with sewage. It’s delightful schadenfreude – until you realise that stink is heading straight for you.”
Tags: Conservative Party, Economy, Implodes, Plugging on, Power, Schadenfreude, Self-destruct, Sewage, Stink, Tanks, Tory, Truss
CBS News (December 20)
“Kim Jong Un will mark the end of his first decade in power armed to the teeth, but more isolated than ever as he tries to battle a killer virus in one of the world’s poorest countries. He’s no closer to what he really wants, which is relief from devastating sanctions and normal relations with the rest of the world.”
Tags: Armed, Decade, Devastating, Isolated, Kim, Normal, Poorest, Power, Relations, Relief, Sanctions, Virus
Foreign Policy (November 24)
“The pro-business Free Democratic Party is about to wield power in Berlin, thanks to the country’s youngest voters—but doesn’t yet know what it wants.” Whether the voters will ultimately “regret their choice is an open question. All of the party’s appeals to philosophical traditions and grand concepts have left more open questions than concrete approaches to governing,” but skyrocketing COVID-19 cases will increase the urgency to produce “concrete proposals for governance.”
Tags: Berlin, Concepts, Concrete approaches, COVID-19, FDP, Governing, Power, Pro-business, Questions, Regret, Skyrocketing, Traditions, Voters
Washington Post (September 7)
“Mr. Xi’s two predecessors allowed China’s people more personal freedom and provided a rising living standard,” but he “is reversing that by putting more of an ideological stamp on society.” Aside from widely publicized new limits on video games and screen time, on September 2, the television regulator “banned effeminate men on the screen” out of “official concern that Chinese pop stars, imitating the sleek look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, were failing to encourage China’s young men to be masculine enough.” Mr. Xi may know best “about everything, on behalf of everyone. But the more power concentrates in one man, the more brittle the system may become.”
Tags: Brittle, China, Effeminate, Freedom, Ideological, Japan, Masculine, Pop stars, Power, South Korea, Television, Video games, Xi
