Sunday Supplement: 13 September 2020

‘Grey day in the ranges’ 1942, Margaret Preston, Art Gallery of NSW 

Macro & Markets

• China would rather see TikTok U.S. close than a forced sale – Reuters
• Rio Tinto exits seen reverberating across boardrooms – Reuters
• China debates cutting US access to drugs as hostilities spike – SCMP
• Global energy transition already well underway – Reuters, Kemp
• OPEC at 60 — an oil cartel on life support – Deutsche Welle
• New data: The pandemic will set back global development by a decade – New Statesman

Americas

• U.S. economy is improving, weeks before the election. Will Trump benefit? – Reuters
• Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US ‘dropped the ball’ on innovation – BBC
• US budget deficit soars to $3tn record – BBC
• Biden Embraces Trumpism on Free Trade – Bloomberg
• Trump, Ike and the Myth of the Military-Industrial Complex – Bloomberg
• The Widening Education Gap May Tear the Economy Apart – Bloomberg
• US corporations continue sending jobs abroad during pandemic – Guardian
• U.S. lawmakers quiz Disney CEO over Xinjiang connection to ‘Mulan’ – Reuters
• How US consumers use their stimulus payments – VoxEU
• Big Pharma wages stealth war on drug price watchdog – Reuters
• Biden’s radical climate change plan could overturn the world’s efforts – Ninefax
• What’s really going on with the economy – Vox
• A third of Americans might refuse a Covid-19 vaccine. How screwed are we? – Vox
• Poisoned by 9/11, Killed by the Coronavirus – The Atlantic
• Older voters love Joe Biden – Vox
• The Great Rethink: It’s time to reassess how our provinces manage natural resource wealth – Financial Post
• Canadians are paying down debt during COVID-19 — but a ‘tsunami’ of bankruptcies could be coming – CBC

Asia

• ‘China exit’ limited to some American sectors — and not for home – Nikkei Asian Review
• As China’s economic recovery from the coronavirus gains momentum, what is the outlook? – SCMP
• China to pump hundreds of billions of yuan into key industry projects, with ‘no need to cover up its ambitions’ – SCMP
• China will suspend imports from companies if frozen foods test positive for coronavirus – Reuters
• China has quietly vaccinated more than 100,000 people for Covid-19 before completing safety trials – Vox
• China’s inbound foreign investment surges 18.7 per cent in August, as bank loans grow more than expected – SCMP
• India-China border: is peace really on the horizon? – SCMP
• Border dispute: what’s at stake for Russia as it tries to mediate between China and India? – SCMP
• Asia taps alternative energy sources as China fears grow – Nikkei Asian Review
• Amid China’s coronavirus success, low marks for local ‘social credit’ apps – SCMP
• China focuses on modern, efficient logistics system as Beijing plots response to ‘grim and complicated’ outlook – SCMP

Europe

• Russia’s appointed billionaires – Le Monde…cracking read…
• Labour market effects of COVID-19: Sweden and its Scandinavian neighbours – VoxEU
• Withering cash: Sweden seems special rather than ahead of the curve – VoxEU
• The Balkans: External debts in uncertain times – BNE Intellinews
• UK’s Johnson accuses EU of threatening food blockade – Deutsche Welle
• EU to consider sanctions on Turkey over Mediterranean gas drilling – Deutsche Welle
• France launches huge coronavirus rescue plan to focus on jobs – Deutsche Welle
• Westlessness: how cracks within NATO signal a new balance of global power – New Statesman
• Brexit negotiations hit a formidable new barrier – Economist
• Brexit: UK negotiators ‘believe brinkmanship will reboot trade talks’ – Guardian
• Why does the right keep pretending the left runs Britain? – Guardian…could ask the same of most of the English speaking world – chock full of libertarian nutters running a 1% playbook about ‘liberty’ in the face of wokeness while ‘left wing’ politicians sing along with Neoliberalism on the economy …

Terra Specufestorus

• Australia Has a Nuclear Option in Its China Diplomacy – Bloomberg, Fickling
• Young Australians and the property market: ‘Less like The Castle and more like a Mad Max hellscape’ – Guardian
• Why I changed my mind about super – Inside Story, Eslake…well said…
• If stimulus is the question, the government’s tax cuts aren’t the answer – Inside Story
• Shopping centres feel the pinch as retail speeds up move to online – ABC
• JobKeeper recipients paying millions in bonuses to their executives, research reveals – ABC
• Pandemic bipartisanship is crumbling as Scott Morrison ramps up the politicking – Guardian…there may be a very substantial swing away from the Federal Government in Victoria next election around…
• Australia suffering full-scale depression – Independent Australia, McCallum
• Prospects for Australia’s overseas student program – Independent Australia
• Words are hollow: Australia can revive projects and manufacturing – Independent Australia
• The long shadow of the virus means there is no easy path back to prosperity – Guardian, Megalogenis
• States should take bigger role in economic recovery: AustralianSuper’s Russell – Ninefax
• ‘Go early, go hard, go households’: Recession lessons from the 1990s – Ninefax
• Eddington: The way out of lockdown is already here – Ninefax
• Thrifty consumers ensure a slow-grind recovery – Ninefax, Yeates
• Morrison can continue to divide and occasionally conquer but he’ll miss his big opportunity – Ninefax
• We must be able to debate the economic risks we face – Ninefax, Colebatch…very good read…
• Australian journalists’ case a reminder of what can happen when you challenge China, and it doesn’t bode well – SCMP
• Rio Tinto’s executive cull shows ‘profit at all cost’ cultures no longer cut it – Ninefax, Ferguson…it hasn’t been cutting it for a generation, but corporate and management culture cant hear…
• Rio Tinto boss Jean-Sebastien Jacques quits over Juukan Gorge blast – ABC
• Time for Rio to right its wrongs and set up HQ in Australia again – Michael West

…and furthermore…

• How QAnon Went Global – Slate
• Immigration and the welfare state – VoxEU
• What really drives inflation – VoxEU
• Design choices for central bank digital currency – VoxEU
• Forget Mulan: meet Khutulun, Mongolia’s undefeated wrestling princess, Genghis Khan’s great-great-granddaughter and Turandot inspiration – SCMP
• The labs where monsters live – SCMP
• Huawei’s troubles show the limits of the old trade order in a world of data, software and AI – SCMP
• The international controversy over Disney’s Mulan, explained – Vox
• One Sperm Donor. 36 Children. A Mess of Lawsuits. – The Atlantic
• Passengers furious at airlines’ voucher policies in Covid crisis – Guardian…there are a lot of questions to ask about airline behaviour during CVOVID – their treatment of poorer people trapped away from their homelands is nothing short of a disgrace..
• Revisiting Milton Friedman’s Critique of Stakeholderism – Bloomberg…’Shareholder value’ is what blows up archaeological sites in the name of profit regardless of the consequences…
• The four-fold imagination – Aeon…William Blake was a visionary’s visionary…
• Deluded, with reason – Aeon
• Toots Hibbert: Jamaican reggae legend dies aged 77 – BBC…Vale Toots, thanks for the Music and the memories…

Toots and the Maytals – Take Me Home Country Roads

Pressure Drop