Bloomberg (August 31)
“BYD Co.’s overseas revenue exceeded what it made at home for the first time, helping end one of the company’s longest profit slumps and illustrating why Chinese carmakers have no choice but to try their luck outside of the world’s largest auto market.” Annual vehicle sales in China’s “vast” market are twice as high as the U.S. Despite that scale, however, China’s market “has become so brutal that not even its national champion can count on making money there. That’s why Chinese carmakers have increasingly turned abroad, where they can charge more for their vehicles, to make money despite ongoing geopolitical risks.”
Tags: Abroad, Auto market, Brutal, BYD, Carmakers, Charge more, China, Geopolitical risks, Largest, National champion, Overseas, Profit slump, Revenue, Scale, Vast, Vehicle sales
The Guardian (August 9)
“India is attempting to do something the world has never seen before…. No major economy has tried to expand GDP nearly eightfold within a generation while simultaneously redirecting its energy and industrial systems to reach net zero within two generations.” This is remarkable. “China industrialised at vast scale, but not on a sustainable net zero path. Korea, Japan and Europe became wealthy by industrialising before decarbonizing,” but “the world’s most populous country has to do this while also reducing emissions.” And India doesn’t have much choice. “In April, on a single day, all of the planet’s top 50 hottest cities were in India.”
Tags: China, Decarbonizing, Emissions, Energy, Europe, GDP, Hottest cities, India, Industrial systems, Industrialized, Japan, Korea, Major economy, Net zero, Scale, Sustainable, Wealthy
Financial Times (July 23)
“Japan is now behaving like a country that has emerged from a malaise once considered incurable. Deflation now seems consigned to the past. The output gap has closed. Pricing power has returned to parts of the economy that have not known it for years…. The scale and significance of the alteration are remarkable. No country of Japan’s economic size has spent anything like as long in the grip of falling prices and none has emerged with anything like its suite of unknowns as it returns to a still unspecified ‘normal.’”
Tags: Deflation, Economy, Emerged, Japan, Malaise, Normal, Output gap, Pricing power, Remarkable, Scale, Significance, Unknowns
Fortune (January 11)
“2026 begins with sharper risks for China: Geopolitical uncertainty, a struggling real estate sector, strained public finances, and elevated youth unemployment. Yet what draws companies to China—scale, innovation, and global influence— remain as compelling as ever.” The economics have changed and competition has increased. Success now requires greater discipline, but “for global businesses prepared to operate with this level of discipline, China can still be a lucrative market in the Year of the Horse.”
Tags: 2026, China, Competition, Discipline, Geopolitical uncertainty, Global influence, Innovation, Lucrative, Public finances, Real estate, Risks, Scale, Struggling, Year of the Horse, Youth unemployment
Bloomberg (July 25)
“The world’s oceans experienced a staggering amount of warming in 2023, as vast marine heat waves affected 96% of their surface, breaking records for intensity, longevity and scale…. That could mark a turning point in the way the oceans behave, potentially signaling a tipping point after which average sea temperatures will be reset higher and some ecosystems may not recover.”
Tags: 2023, 96, Ecosystems, Intensity, Longevity, Marine heat waves, Oceans, Records, Scale, Sea temperatures, Staggering, Surface, Tipping point, Warming, World
The Guardian (January 24)
“Waiting for Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was like watching a tsunami gather force. Everyone could see the threat approaching. But its scale was still shocking as it hit land, and what damage it wreaks will ultimately take months and years to determine.”
Tags: Damage, Determine, Force, Inauguration, Months, Scale, Shocking, Threat, Trump, Tsunami, Waiting, Wreaks, Years
Washington Post (September 19)
Europe faces many challenges, but the largest is structural. “The E.U. is still not really one big thing, but a collection of smaller ones. This makes it difficult for companies to scale” or for the EU to pursue a coherent strategy. “Mr. Draghi’s report has many good ideas — to unify budgets, markets and strategies; to streamline rules to encourage innovation. At its core, the message is one that Europeans have heard before: For Europe to thrive, it must act as Europe.”
Tags: Budgets, Challenges, Companies, Draghi, E.U., Europe, Markets, Rules, Scale, Strategies, Strategy, Streamline, Structural, Unify
Wall Street Journal (September 12)
“Investors and policymakers alike are eager for big-bank mergers in the European Union. U.S. banks, which have the benefit of scale and cheaper funding, rule the roost when it comes to dealmaking even in Europe, with France’s BNP Paribas as the only universal bank that comes close to posing a challenge.” With the possible merger of UniCredit and Commerzbank, “technocrats in Brussels might finally get their wish for bigger European banks. But Wall Street still shouldn’t expect any real competition to emerge from this.”
Tags: Big-bank mergers, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Dealmaking, EU, Funding, Investors, Policymakers, Scale, Technocrats, U.S. banks, UniCredit, Wall Street
Washington Post (July 16)
The extreme heat events “should not be viewed in isolation.” They are “virtually impossible” to explain except for human-caused climate change. “Slashing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to a greener economy at the scale and pace needed would require creativity, innovation and political courage. But the cost if we fail is far more daunting: a future in which climate disasters, and all the damage and instability that come with them, become the new normal everywhere.”
Tags: Climate change, Climate disasters, Cost, Creativity, Daunting, Extreme heat, Fail, GHG emissions, Greener economy, Innovation, Isolation, Pace, Political courage, Scale, Transitioning
The Economist (March 6)
“Though understandable,” the knee-jerk reaction following the Fukushima disaster “was wrong.” Nuclear power has numerous drawbacks, but “well-regulated nuclear power is safe” and essential given the climate crisis. Nuclear provides constant generating capacity to support a reliable grid. Furthermore, “nuclear provides such capacity with no ongoing emissions, and it is doing so safely and at scale around the world.”
Tags: Climate crisis, Disaster, Drawbacks, Emissions, Fukushima, Generating capacity, Grid, Nuclear power, Reaction, Reliable, Safe, Scale, Understandable, Well-regulated
