Brexit, Yellow Vests, Leonardo, Clemson, IBM, BAFTAs, Columbus
Caracal Global Daily
January 9, 2019
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross
Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia
Caracal Global Daily = News + Analysis at the Intersection of Globalization + Disruption + Politics
TOP FIVE
✔️ Business wants a second Brexit vote
✔️ Ongoing Yellow Vest protests in France
✔️ Italians block Leonardo loan
✔️ How Clemson emulated Silicon Valley
✔️ IBM kept the US patent crown for the 26th straight year
GLOBALIZATION
Anger as Bercow allows vote to force PM’s hand on Brexit: The Times reports, John Bercow is embroiled in another bitter row with Downing Street after he allowed MPs to try to force Theresa May to come up with an alternative plan rapidly if her Brexit deal is defeated next week.
Business for a second Brexit vote: London First, a business group with leaders from Starbucks, Virgin Group, Deloitte and Legal & General on its board, has withdrawn support for May’s Brexit deal and is prepared to advocate for a second referendum, the Times reports.
$1 trillion: Banks and other financiers have moved at least $1 trillion out of Britain and into other countries in the European Union in anticipation of Brexit,
That's like the economy of Florida departing the United States.
50,000: Ongoing Yellow Vest protests in France saw some 50,000 people take to the streets across the country last Saturday, up from 29,000 the week before.
Italians block Leonardo loan in worsening France feud: The Times reports, Italy is refusing to lend France key artworks for a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre billed as this year’s “greatest cultural event”. The Eurosceptic coalition in Rome escalated its dispute with Paris.
US-China trade talks conclude as hopes of progress rise: FT reports, analysts warn that complicated questions remain despite desire on both sides to do a deal.
Renminbi climbs to 5-week high and oil rises as trade negotiations gain traction.
David Fickling: Belt and Road is more chaos than conspiracy: China’s flagship foreign-policy initiative is closer to a branding exercise than a master plan for geopolitical domination.
India and Japan awaken to risks of superpower space race: Nikkei reports, fears for satellite security grow as US and China take confrontation into orbit.
Maduro to begin second term as Venezuela goes into meltdown: FT reports, president oversees a country with expected 10m% inflation and a flood of people leaving.
DISRUPTION
Mastercard's logo no longer features the company's name - the new logo looks more like an app icon.
You're so high, you don't even know it: Global funding to cannabis companies hit $2.2B across 300 deals in 2018 — a record high.
How Clemson emulated Silicon Valley to win a national title: WSJ reports, just as the technology business became known for the relative youth of its executives—valuing skill over experience—Clemson typifies college football’s growing embrace of freshman quarterbacks.
POLITICS
About last night: Trump pushes for a wall and Schumlosi pushes for a recording contract.
Mexico will pay? Trump has publicly promised at least 212 times that Mexico would pay for the wall.
Bloomberg: Trump’s prime-time bid to end border wall impasse falls flat
Manafort shared 2016 polling data with Russian employee, filing says: WP reports, the apparently inadvertent revelation indicates a pathway by which the Russians could have had access to Trump campaign data.
Business lobby gains sway in bid for US-China trade peace: WSJ reports, US business groups, who were unheeded by President Trump as he began a tariff fight with China, are now starting to exert some influence as pressure increases on the White House to resolve the monthslong dispute.
“It would be nice to figure out what the endgame is for the administration,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. “Folks are going to be realistic and plan for more tariffs.”
12: Democrats have announced plans to hold 12 primary debates ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Stephen Grosz: The real reason Trump lies: Because he’s in no one’s heart, he wants to be in all our minds. More and more, I’m convinced that his greatest ambitions are neither financial nor political — they’re psychological. He wants us never to take our eyes off him. A psychic imperialist, he aims to colonize our minds. He wants to dominate the external and internal landscape.
LAT: If Democrats are looking for fresh, new faces, why are these septuagenarian white guys so popular?
COMMERCE
IBM kept the US patent crown for the 26th straight year in 2018, receiving 9,100 patents in areas like artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cybersecurity.
Nikkei: Samsung falls victim to China slowdown, following Apple
Note, this has more to do with competition with Chinese brands and customers not wanting to purchase more expensive devices.
Also, WeChat is more important than any operating system and the app can operate on any device.
China's approval of DowDuPont soy poses challenge to Bayer: Reuters reports, China's approval of imports of a DowDuPont Inc genetically modified soybean puts rival Bayer AG on the defensive, investors and analysts said, as US farmers will have a new choice when planting their most valuable agricultural export.
Google’s battle against French proponents of a worldwide “right to be forgotten” enters a decisive phase at the European Union’s top court on Thursday, in a case that highlights the growing tensions between privacy, freedom of speech and state censorship.
The race to become the next Stripe, PayPal or Square heats up: Bloomberg reports, upstarts with names like Bolt, Toast, and Due are muscling into the payments market and could become acquisition targets.
Best-selling cars in the US, 2018 (units sold):
Ford F-Series: 909,330
RAM Pickup: 536,980
Chevrolet Silverado: 531,158
Toyota RAV4: 427,168
Nissan Rogue: 412,110
Honda CR-V: 379,021
Toyota Camry: 343,439
Honda Civic: 325,760
Toyota Corolla: 303,732
Chevrolet Equinox: 299,449
CULTURE
52 places to go in 2019: https://nyti.ms/2TFaqFI
Columbus makes the list!
The Favourite leads BAFTA nominations.
Exceptional film.
