Cedric Villani, Kim Jong Un, Made in China 2025, Mark Zuckerberg, Virgil Abloh

Marc Ross Daily
March 28, 2018
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross

Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia

Marc Ross Daily  = Global Business News at the Intersection of Politics + Policy + Profits

Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/bSQKwA

TOP FIVE

✔️ Math whiz has become a crucial political figure in France

✔️ Kim-Xi meeting

✔️ Trump gets SK concessions in first trade deal

✔️ Facebook goes on hiring spree for Washington lobbyists

✔️ Fosun to invest 100 billion yuan in AI

ROSS RANT

"From what we've seen, the Trump administration can be very unpredictable."

California's agriculture sector worried: California's vintners and growers are concerned they are on the frontlines of a US-China trade fight. 

There is growing prospect that wine, nuts, fruit, and other California farm exports are going to be negatively impacted by the increasing trade battle between President Trump and China. 

This $47-billion industry in the state of California and many of the workers in this sector voted for Trump in the 2016 election. 

The California wine industry, which has made significant inroads to the Chinese market in recent years, sold about $197 million of its product there last year, according to the Wine Institute, a California advocacy organization. US wine exports to China and Hong Kong have more than quadrupled in the previous decade and rose 10% last year, according to the institute.

Many working in the sector fear many of these California agriculture sectors stands to lose momentum in a worldwide competition for a share of the rapidly expanding Chinese middle-class consumer market.

GEOECONOMICS

A math whiz has become a crucial political figure in France: To hear Cedric Villani tell it, the French are better than everyone else at love, wine -- and math. A winner of the Fields Medal -- the Nobel Prize equivalent for mathematics -- Villani has in less than a year risen to become a key political figure in France with the ear of the tech-savvy President Emmanuel Macron. On Thursday, Villani takes center-stage when he unveils the country’s Artificial Intelligence strategy, aimed at putting his claim of France’s mathematical superiority to work in the global battle for emerging disruptive technologies. https://goo.gl/8c5Yw4

Brexit countdown: With just over a year to go to the UK’s exit from the European Union, PM Theresa May said the post-Brexit transition phase may end up being longer than currently planned due to the difficulties in establishing a new customs regime and avoiding a hard border with Ireland. 

Bloomberg: Portrait of Brexit Britain: A divided nation makes a journey into the unknown https://goo.gl/q2aDfi

WSJ: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Beijing

Bloomberg: Trump urges pressure against North Korea after Kim’s China trip

CNBC: China claims Kim Jong Un has agreed to denuclearize Korean Peninsula

WP: Kim-Xi meeting presents a new challenge for Trump on North Korea

Trump’s early trade gains could come at future cost: WP reports, the Trump administration bills its success in reworking a South Korean trade deal as vindication for the “America First” approach the president promised on trade policy, including a robust carrot-and-stick diplomatic style. In the business community, meanwhile, there is skepticism that Trump’s latest tariff threats will force China to change over intellectual property practices. “It’s still not clear to me how that gets China to move on the issue of intellectual property and technology transfer,” said Erin Ennis, senior vice president at the US-China Business Council.

Nikkei - Editorial: Trump's flawed trade policy threatens the global economy: International effort needed to convince Washington to rethink its approach.

The trade issue that most divides US and China isn’t tariffs: NYT reports, China has struck a hard stance on the issue at the root of the looming trade fight between Beijing and Washington: China’s government-led drive, which Washington describes as breaking international rules, to build the cutting-edge industries of the future. Chinese officials in recent days have been defending the government’s ambitious plan, known as Made in China 2025, to create globally competitive players in industries like advanced microchips, driverless cars and robotics. While Beijing has signaled a willingness to compromise on other matters, the intractable standoff over its core industrial policy could prolong a trade fight that has already shaken markets and led to concerns about a full-blown trade war.

Made in China 2025 = How does a nation develop an economy? Buy, borrow, or build? Competition or protectionism?

US-China trade-war crossfire threatens Asia: WSJ reports, Japan, Australia and other economies fear impact of disruption of global supply chain.

LAT: Trump closes his first trade deal, a modest step with South Korea

Politico: Trump gets South Korean concessions in first trade deal

FCC joins push to limit China’s telecom reach: NYT reports, the Federal Communications Commission is joining the Trump administration, Congress and other government agencies that have targeted Huawei, China’s giant telecommunications equipment maker, as a national security risk. Ajit Pai, chairman of the commission, on Monday, proposed a rule to tighten restrictions on companies building internet infrastructure in the United States. Part of the rule’s impact may be to further crimp Huawei’s meager sales in America by potentially affecting some deals with small and rural carriers, analysts said.

Chinese investments in US real estate have plummeted since Beijing enacted tighter regulations on outbound investments in August.

6 = Since 1979, only six cabinet-level US officials, and no sitting presidents, have visited Taiwan, out of respect for Beijing’s “One China” policy. 

CARACAL CLASSROOM

How to communicate trade + globalization: This 90-minute, small group session will cover the best strategy and necessary tactics to communicate trade and globalization with the media, stakeholders, and elected officials. Participants will receive communication checklists, social media ideas, opinion editorial tools, and coalition mapping systems.

More information and dates here: http://www.caracal.global/events/

AMERICAN POLITICS

NYT: To reclaim the House, Democrats need to flip 24 GOP seats. 25 are in Clinton territory. https://goo.gl/DefiSb

Bloomberg: Senate Judiciary Committee invites Zuckerberg to testify on Facebook privacy

Facebook has signaled that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress on April 12.

Facebook goes on hiring spree for Washington lobbyists: Bloomberg reports, as a chorus of calls mounts for answers about its data practices, Facebook is looking to hire at least 11 people for policy-related positions in Washington, according to its website. The company started hiring new lobbyists last fall after revelations Russians exploited its platform to help elect President Donald Trump.

"The reality is that Facebook is threatening global democracy. It's a threat to liberal democracy on a global scale," David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect.

NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke opened the company's fourth annual Innovation Day berating Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica scandal: "They have a very serious problem."

ENTERPRISE

CNBC: Calm meditation app is now worth $250 million and has Trump-related stress to thank

Apple tried to put the Chromebook genie back in the bottle with a new education product push. 

EU may try to forcebreak-up of Google: The Times reports, the EU holds “grave suspicions” about Google’s dominance and may yet force it to break up, Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner, said. Vestager said that officials had lost trust in the company and that the threat to dismantle it must be “kept open and on the agenda”.

The Verge: The shady data-gathering tactics used by Cambridge Analytica were an open secret to online marketers. I know, because I was one https://goo.gl/yVtWmg

Yesterday, the tech stocks that have led the market up—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google parent Alphabet—took a beating, with Apple down 2.6%, Alphabet down 4.5%, and Facebook down 4.9%. Tesla was clobbered—down 8.2%.

SoftBank has signed a non-binding agreement with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund to build "by far the biggest solar project ever." 

Reuters: In China payment war, Walmart places bet on Tencent

Fosun to invest 100 billion yuan in AI, biotech over next decade: SCMP reports, the company was named Apple's app of the year last year and is ranked 50th among top grossing iOS apps.

Baby, you can drive my car:  Alibaba and Ford have unveiled an unstaffed Super Test-Drive Center in China's southern city Guangzhou, allowing buyers to have a three-day test drive for free as long as they have a great credit score. 

GM Korea will file for bankruptcy if its union does not agree to cut labor costs by April 20.

Waymo is buying up to 20,000 Jaguars and plans to rev up its driverless ride-hailing service.

Nestle says it has cut the sugar in a chocolate bar by 30% by spraying it into warm air while mixed with milk and water. The “structured sugar” dissolves faster in the mouth, says the confectionery company.

What Trump’s trade war means for fashion: BOF reports, as fears of a trade war begin to ebb, the tension felt by supply chain leaders appears to be lifting. But given president Trump’s characteristic unpredictability, the fashion industry is not out of the woods yet. https://goo.gl/k41hJk

TRENDS

BBC accused of dominating podcast market: The Times reports, the BBC has appointed its first commissioning editor for podcasts, fuelling concerns that the corporation’s UK dominance of the increasingly popular audio format could undermine commercial podcast providers.

Fast Company: The future of parking garages doesn’t involve cars at all: In London, a disused garage is being partially converted into studios, restaurants, and more. https://goo.gl/1rL3kz

This is old news - This was discussed at Brigadoon Sundance 2018!

Cryptocurrencies explained by John Oliver: Digital currencies are generating a lot of excitement. John Oliver enlists Keegan-Michael Key to get potential investors equally excited about the concept of caution. https://goo.gl/bWqqNF

Blockchain will prevent fraud, boost transparency: Implementing blockchain solutions in digital advertising could reduce fraud through keeping better records of transactions and better optimizing overall digital ad supply chains, writes Nicole Perrin. "A fully transparent and trustworthy ledger would mean that, for the first time, brands could see where all their digital media dollars end up," Perrin writes. https://goo.gl/5Cb7MN

McDonald's says it will phase out the use of plastic straws in its U.K. restaurants.

CULTURE

Virgil Abloh, founder of streetwear label Off-White and longtime Kanye West collaborator, is the new artistic designer of menswear at Louis Vuitton.

Things that fund managers don’t say enoughhttps://goo.gl/DQbN3K

SPORT

How Loyola used information and skill — not luck — to reach the Final Four https://goo.gl/f5RBgH