ITK Daily | September 15
Happy Thursday.
To be ITK, know this:
Read this: The queen of the world: The paradox of Elizabeth II’s reign was that in presiding over a shrinking empire, she became a modern global monarch. Tom McTague
+ Queen Elizabeth was a constitutional monarch, not a political leader with real powers, and one who was required to serve an ever-changing set of realms, peoples, institutions, and ideas that were no longer as obviously compatible as they had been when she ascended to the throne.
+ The princess declared that just as England had saved Europe from Napoleonic domination in the 19th century, the British empire had saved the world from Hitler in the 20th.
+ She stands above almost all of Britain’s British monarchs, but was one who oversaw a drastic shrinkage in the monarchy’s power, prestige, and influence.
Read this: Our divine monarchy is finished: There is only spectacle left. Ben Judah
+ "This funeral is the last great pretence. The last funeral for a British world power. The world’s leaders will never gather like this in Westminster Abbey again. The crowds will not flock to London, let alone Edinburgh, like this again."
Putin’s meeting with Xi is intended to display Russia-China ties: NYT reports Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are set to meet in a summit meant to signal the strength of their relationship at a time of increasing animosity with the West.
Read this: Fortress China: Xi Jinping’s plan for economic independence: Beijing wants to become less dependent on the west — and especially on its technology. But how realistic is this self-sufficiency goal in a connected world? FT
+ Build a “fortress China” — re-engineering the world’s second-largest economy so it can run on internal energies and, if the need arises, withstand a military conflict. While many in the US want to “decouple” their economy from China, Beijing wants to become less dependent on the west — and especially on its technology.
+ At the intersection of geopolitics and technology lies another big vulnerability for China — the supply of energy. On a visit to an oilfield in northern China late last year, Xi made a clarion call that has echoed through the official media ever since.
I sense that Xi Jinping will be the leader of China for 30 more years or 30 more months.
Read this: What if the United States loses the AI race against China? David Ignatius
+ “Absent targeted action, the United States is unlikely to close the growing technology gaps with China” and will fall behind in the critical AI sector, argues the report. It was issued Monday by a group chaired by Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and head of the congressionally mandated National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence
+ Essentially, the report argues for a national “industrial policy” focused on technology, much like the recently passed legislation to support the semiconductor industry in the United Studies.
So, the US needs a Department of Software?
Pro-tip: Reports that don't convey a grim message rarely get attention in DC.
As long as the 美国麻省理工学院 is operating, I think the US will be all right.
Read this: China and the lore of American manufacturing: In Ohio’s Senate race, both candidates are employing anti-Asian rhetoric and neglecting to hold corporations to account. New Yorker
Blame game Ohio-style
+ "Ohio’s recent industrial history is largely one of departure. Factories of all kinds have been lost not only to China but to the right-to-work South."
Read this: Why Colorado Gov. Jared Polis could answer Democrats’ 2024 prayers George F. Will
Read this: A sober look at the ‘cartoonishly chaotic’ Trump White House: In “The Divider,” political journalists keep their cool as they chronicle the outrageous conduct and ugly infighting that marked a presidency like no other. NYT
Read this: Giorgia Meloni may lead Italy, and Europe is worried: The hard-right leader has excoriated the European Union in the past, and she regularly blasts illegal immigrants and George Soros. But she is closer than ever to becoming prime minister. NYT
+ On Sept. 25, Italians will vote in national elections for the first time since 2018.
+ She considered herself a soldier in Rome’s perpetual, often violent, and sometimes fatal ideological wars between Communist and post-Fascist extremists, where everything from soccer games to high schools was politicized.
Read this: Earth is now our only shareholder. If we have any hope of a thriving planet—much less a business—it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is what we can do. Yvon Chouinard
Q: Who is your shareholder?
A: Earth
+ @patagonia: Instead of “going public,” you could say we’re “going purpose.” Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.
+ Using the code name Project Chacabuco, a reference to a fishing spot in Chile, a small group of Patagonia lawyers and board members began working on possibilities.
AFP: Shell CEO to step down, hand reins to renewables
领英推荐
+ "Shell on Thursday announced the exit of chief executive Ben van Beurden as the British oil and gas giant looks to reinvent itself under group renewables boss Wael Sawan."
Hello.
Bloomberg: Ethereum finishes long-awaited energy-saving ‘merge’ upgrade
+ Software revision seen cutting network electricity use by 99%
+ Danger of bugs and other hiccups remains as the chain forks
Read this: How Wall Street stormed the music business: Investors poured billions into buying rights, turning pop songs into a new asset class — but then the economy stalled. FT
+ Blackstone now earns money every time Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” plays in a shopping mall. Apollo gets paid each time Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” is blasted through a nightclub.
+ Private equity executives often cite 高盛 in validating their music investments, calling the bank’s annual music report the “bible” of the market. Goldman predicts music revenue will nearly double to $153bn by 2030, as streaming revenue rises 12 percent per year on average.
Read this: The world's best business schools, ranked Bloomberg
US rankings:
#1 Stanford Graduate School of Business
#2 Chicago Booth
#2 Harvard Business School
#4 Northwestern Kellogg
#5 Dartmouth Tuck
#6 MIT Sloan
#7 Pennsylvania Wharton
#8 Columbia Business School
#9 Virginia Darden
#10 Yale School of Management
#22 North Carolina Kenan-Flagler
Congratulations: Julie Andreeff Jensen and David Sutphen have launched strategic advisory firm Jasper Advisors.
The geopolitics of sport:
+ Rangers defied UEFA as a capacity Ibrox crowd sang God Save the King before their Champions League match with Napoli on Wed. night.
+ Celtic fans unveiled a banner with the words “F*** the Crown” at their match in Poland against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Read this: Can this sport outmatch China in the Pacific? The West is betting on it. Richard Glover
+ In the intense battle between the United States and China for influence in the Pacific, the West is preparing to deploy a brutal new weapon. Rugby league.
+ Hence the idea: Why not allow a rugby league team from the Pacific to join the Australian competition? A New Zealand team already belongs, so opening the doors to a team from PNG — or a PNG-based team made up of players from the many island nations — makes eminent sense.
Amazon's "Thursday Night Football" debut tonight: Uniforms will include chips to track NextGen stats, which viewers can follow in real-time using Amazon's "X-Ray" feature.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Caracal produces ITK Daily.
Caracal is a geopolitical business intelligence firm specializing in global business issues at the intersection of globalization, disruption, and politics.
Clients are Chief Communications Officers with global responsibility who rely on Caracal for help navigating today's interconnected business environment with political intelligence, research, strategic planning, public affairs, and communications.