The Guardian (June 11)
“Since the historic Nato summit in The Hague one year ago this month, European leaders have pledged massive increases in defence spending in the face of increasingly acute threats of Russian aggression. Yet the reality is that key west European governments – especially the UK, France and Italy – are not putting their money where their mouth is for fear of undermining lenders’ confidence in their national debt.”
Tags: Assistance, Bitter, Conflict, Europe, Grim, Incalculable, Invasion, Milestone, Perished, Prove, Putin, Russia, Success, Suffering, U.S., Ukraine, Waver, WWI
Wall Street Journal (May 16)
By one measure, President Trump’s Beijing summit “was a success. It didn’t achieve much, but it also didn’t appear to give away anything notable.” The caveat is that “we can’t be sure based on the few details leaking out from the parties,” some of which sound incredible. “Mr. Trump boasted about ‘fantastic’ Chinese purchases to come of U.S. soybeans and aircraft. But China didn’t confirm the sales, and by our count this is the second time China has bought the same American soybeans. Or is it the third?” In addition, Mr. Trump “also didn’t appear to bend to Mr. Xi’s threats on Taiwan, at least not so far.” If, however, Trump gives into China and “stops arming Taiwan, Mr. Xi will have won the veto over U.S. sales that the Chinese leader has long sought. It will send a message of weakness to our allies in the region.” Details like this, should they out, would make it a misnomer to call this “The Good-News-Is-No-News Summit.”
Tags: Aircraft, Allies, Arming, Beijing summit, Caveat. Leaking. Incredible. Fantastic, China, Misnomer, Purchases, Sales, Soybeans, Success, Taiwan, Threats, Trump, U.S., Veto, Weakness, Xi
Reuters (December 11)
“India’s blistering growth has a quality problem. GDP is speeding ahead at 8% in the world’s fifth-largest economy but the government is doing the heavy lifting on investment. Policymakers have spent years trying to coax companies into spending more, with limited success. The result: growth that looks fast but feels flimsy.”
Tags: 8%, Coax, Economy, FAST, GDP, Government, Growth, India, Investment, Policymakers, Quality, Spending, Success
The Ecoomist (October 13)
Politicians, economists, investors and others have long argued whether China’s economy is “a bubble waiting to burst” or “a sustainable success.” The argument is shifting, however, as “a new debate is now emerging, which is potentially far nastier. Much of the world falls into one camp: admiring China’s accomplishments, but also reeling from a deluge of Chinese exports. In the other camp is China, utterly convinced of the rightness of its economic model.”
Tags: Accomplishments, Admiring, Argument, Bubble, Burst, China, Convinced, Debate, Deluge, Economists, Economy, Emerging, Exports, Investors, Nastier, Politicians, Reeling, Rightness, Success, Sustainable
Reuters (August 24)
The U.S. Federal Reserve “must determine how quickly to get to what they deem a neutral rate, neither depressing nor stimulating economic activity. Investors clearly hope that they prioritize speed.” Chairman Powell has now arrived at “the endgame, when the prospect of success is near at hand but the possibility of failure is at its most dangerous. To save the labor market, the cuts can’t come soon enough.”
Tags: Depressing, Economic activity, Endgame, Failure, Fed, Investors, Labor market, Neutral rate, Powell, Prioritize, Speed, Stimulating, Success, U.S.
BBC (December 19)
The majority (57%) of votes cast in a poll conducted by Elon Musk were in favor of “Musk standing down as Twitter CEO.” The move “has either spectacularly backfired – if Musk was looking for an ego-boost – or it has been a huge success in getting him off the rather large hook he has found himself caught on since his purchase of Twitter.”
Washington Post (April 5)
“Two years ago, China was being lauded by the World Health Organization for its success in beating the coronavirus.” Today, clinging to a “Covid Zero” policy leaves the nation “increasingly isolated as other countries … wean themselves off harsh countermeasures and return to a semblance of pre-pandemic life.” China may have little choice. Relaxing the policy would likely result in at least “630,000 infections a day,” a figure which could rapidly overwhelm “China’s patchy hospital network.”
Tags: China, Coronavirus, Covid Zero, Hospital network, Infections, Isolated, Lauded, Overwhelm, Patchy, Pre-pandemic, Success, WHO
WARC (February 8)
“Despite the difficulty of putting on the games with a pandemic still raging and freezing conditions even by the standard of snow sports, success in the Winter Olympics is putting Chinese designed technology front and centre.” This provides an excellent stage to advance the country’s “Made in China 2025” strategic plan that is “designed to move the Chinese economy away from being a low-wage factory to the world and toward high tech, advanced design and manufacturing.”
Tags: “Made in China 2025”, Advance, Advanced design, Economy, Factory, Freezing, High-tech, Low wage, Manufacturing, Pandemic, Raging, Sports, Strategic plan, Success, Technology, Winter Olympics
Washington Post (January 19)
“The challenge — and the opportunity — for Joe Biden is that he succeeds the worst president in U.S. history. Donald Trump’s tenure was characterized by colossal incompetence and mind-numbing indifference to the public good.” As a result, the new president will face the biggest challenges since Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Paradoxically, by taking over at such a low point in our history, Biden is set up for success” and his approval rating is already “higher than Trump’s ever was.”
Tags: Biden, Challenge, Incompetence, Indifference, Opportunity, Public good, Roosevelt, Success, Trump, Worst
Financial Times (June 20)
“A vaccine that allows people to live, work, travel, learn and socialize together safely again is the best long term exit strategy from lockdown.” With 183 vaccines under study, “the chances that one of those will come good seem hopeful but success is not guaranteed. There is still no vaccine against HIV, a plague that has now been with us for 40 years.”
Tags: Exit strategy, Guaranteed, HIV, Lockdown, Safely, Success, Travel, Vaccine, Work
