Huawei’s Soft Power Charm Offensive

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 2/25/2019 03:51:00 PM
With the United States portraying Chinese telecommunications gear manufacturer Huawei as the devil incarnate seeking to infiltrate the rest of the world, a Huawei pushback was perhaps inevitable. But the question is, how exactly do you counter the American accusations of large-scale PRC espionage being facilitated by this seller of telecoms equipment? It appears that tactics differ based on the audience in question. Canada, where the Huawei CFO has been detained by officials for violating US-led sanctions on Iran, is receiving ads that refrain from suggesting anything unusual is going on with Canada-PRC relations (like,...
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Fat-Shaming & Debt-Shaming Undisciplined Yanks

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 2/20/2019 02:52:00 PM
Oink, oink: Can the archetypal American Porker-in-Chief be fat-shamed...and debt-shamed, too? It was perhaps inevitable that the lard-assed American President Donald Trump would be medically classified as obese sooner or later. And so it was that we recently received news that he is clinically obese. In this case at least, Trump exudes the true American spirit in being really, really fat: nearly 40% of his countrymen have the same kind of bulbous, fat-laden Jabba-esque physique. In a previous post, I have made the obvious connection between American health indiscipline and fiscal indiscipline. That is, American super-indebtedness...
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Development Debacle: Malpass for World Bank President

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 2/11/2019 09:38:00 AM
Alumni of long-gone Bear Stearns and global financial crisis denier circa 2007: Meet David Malpass. The abrupt resignation of Jim Yong Kim as World Bank president has opened up a lot of old wounds, especially now in the Trump era. If you will recall, there was a big brouhaha over the United States still getting to nominate its president. In an arrangement that's a throwback to when Western countries dominated the global political economy, the US still gets the right to select the World Bank's leader, while the Europeans still do so for the IMF's leader. The Obama administration's choice of the departed Kim was meant to...
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Brexit or Not, London Loses Financial Centre Role

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 2/10/2019 04:24:00 PM
This place used to compete with New York as the world's financial capital. No more. I used to snicker whenever CNBC used to announce that it was broadcasting from New York, the "financial capital of the world."  In many respects, London held that honor well into the 21st century despite the United Kingdom long, long ago ceding global influence to the United States. Last year, the Global Centre Financial Index (GCFI) ranked New York ever-so-slightly ahead of London, with the rest of the pack catching up on these two. If the end of Rule Britannia did not end London's role as the world's capital for finance, the 2016...
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