Xi Jinping, Cryptocurrencies, Viktor Orban, John Bolton, Patrick Reed
Marc Ross Daily
April 9, 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
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TOP FIVE
✔️ Xi to outline economic reforms amid trade tension
✔️ Regulators worldwide are cracking down on cryptocurrencies
✔️ European right greets Viktor Orban's Hungary win
✔️ John Bolton comes prepared
✔️ Patrick Reed won the Masters
ROSS RANT
Make that walkabout a priority; your imagination will thank you
Made famous in the United States by famed Australian philosopher Crocodile Dundee, a walkabout is a journey through the wilderness of one's choosing to satisfy an itch, a desire to be elsewhere, the craving for the open road, or to engage the space over the horizon.
A walkabout can be a simple bike ride to your local art museum or possibly a more adventurous cross-continental journey to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. A walkabout can be joining the local historical society or taking a gap year to teach economics in Canada.
Regardless of the distance traveled or the actions taken, your imagination will thank you for the change of scenery. The brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. Same morning routine. Same office commute. Same weekly meetings. Same quarterly reports. Same yearly industry conference. Sameness overload.
This sameness can suppress your ability to generate new ideas.
Without generating new ideas, you become a manager and not a leader.
Changing up the pace, the people, the poetry can have profound results. From developing new skills and insights, but more importantly, your ability to generate new ideas.
You are a mashup of what you let into your life - friends, meals, music, books, art, lectures, movies, experiences, etc.
Every new idea is a mashup of one or more previous ideas. Without developing new ideas, the mashup process stalls.
So make time for that walkabout. Big or small, your imagination will thank you.
GEOECONOMICS
Xi Jinping to outline economic reforms amid trade tension: FT reports, Xi Jinping will on Tuesday give the most anticipated speech of his already historic presidency. During an address to a Chinese government-hosted forum on Hainan island, Mr Xi’s challenge will be to outline bold new economic reforms and measures to open markets without appearing to bend to US pressure on trade.
Analysts are hoping that Chinese President Xi Jinping will use his speech tomorrow at the Boao Forum for Asia to announce a serious market reform push.
NYT: Amid fears of trade war, Trump predicts China will relent
China’s largest movie studio is vast, and so is its audience. But filmmakers have to toe the party line. LAT reports, Hengdian World Studios, built on farmland in the 1990s, claims to be the largest outdoor film studio in the world, and the source of an estimated 1,200 Chinese films and TV shows. It has 13 themed shooting areas scattered throughout a nondescript town in southeastern China's Zhejiang province.
Regulators worldwide are cracking down on cryptocurrencies. India’s next. WSJ reports, the country will prevent banks and financial institutions from engaging in digital currencies.
NAFTA: Leaders from the United States, Canada, and Mexico are not likely to announce a preliminary deal to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement when they gather in Peru for a summit later this week.
Lula da Silva surrendered to Brazilian police on Saturday to begin serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption.
Brexit banking: Barclays is preparing to split its euro trading division and move part of the unit that trades eurozone government bonds and interest rate swaps away from its main trading floor in London.
May on tour: May will meet her Danish and Swedish counterparts on Monday in a tour of Scandinavian capitals to discuss Brexit and Russia.
DW: European right greets Viktor Orban's Hungary win
This will be Orban’s third consecutive term as PM and fourth overall.
AMERICAN POLITICS
Plan accordingly: Both the House and Senate are in session this week.
The Hill: Day one in Trump's White House: John Bolton comes prepared
Farmers who propelled Trump to presidency fear becoming pawns in trade war: WP reports, Trump’s aggressive attacks on China over trade are putting Republicans in a difficult spot — torn between siding with Trump and acknowledging the economic peril to many of their constituents. The issue presents yet another challenge to the GOP in a tough midterm election year even in the rural areas across the Upper Midwest that swept Trump to victory — and where control of the Senate could be decided.
FT - Peter Navarro - OpEd: Donald Trump is standing up for American interests
LAT - Editorial: China sees right through Trump's posturing
FT - Editorial: History holds little hope of a winnable trade war
US-China on the Hill:
Wednesday @ 230pm ET: Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on tariffs with China.
Thursday @ 1000am ET: House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the effects of tariff increases.
Detroit: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will be at Harvard University on Wednesday to talk about rebuilding Michigan’s biggest city.
WSJ: Mark Zuckerberg’s Washington mission: Stay cool in a very hot seat
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to meet US lawmakers today ahead of Tuesday and Wednesday's Congressional hearings.
Facebook on the Hill:
Tuesday @ 215pm ET: Facebook's Zuckerberg testifies at Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Commerce Committee joint hearing.
Wednesday @ 1000am ET: Facebook's Zuckerberg testifies at House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
Zuckerberg has prepared for his testimony with a crash course in charm and humility - I need this course.
Facebook PR chief Elliot Schrage manages between 500 and 700 full-time policy and communications employees.
That is a lot of people to attend focus groups, read polling data, and say no comment.
Tim Cook of Apple took a shot at Facebook’s business model in an MSNBC/Recode interview: “We’re not going to traffic in your personal life. I think it’s an invasion of privacy.”
FL-SEN: Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) today is set to announce his candidacy for his party's nomination for US Senate.
The race to replace Paul Ryan is on: Politico reports, two top members of Paul Ryan's leadership team, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, have begun angling for his job in the event the speaker calls it quits after the election. They're closely monitoring the moves of the other and quietly courting Republicans who could help them clinch the top post, according to 20 GOP lawmakers and aides interviewed for this story.
NYT: Republicans seize on impeachment for edge in 2018 midterms
Good luck with that. This move will only propel Whole Foods Republicans to vote Dem in House races, or worse for the party, not voting at all, which will impact Senate races.
ENTERPRISE
FT: HSBC brings in AI to help spot money laundering
"Bank is latest to harness tech as a cheaper and better way of tackling crime"
Alibaba and other investors have pushed the valuation of the Chinese AI start-up SenseTime to $3 billion.
Shipping emissions: The International Maritime Organisation will meet in London this week to figure out how to cut carbon emissions from the shipping industry, which is currently unregulated on that front.
Car dealerships face conundrum: Get big or get out: WSJ reports, in the age of Uber and Tesla, locally owned dealerships are becoming a thing of the past. https://on.wsj.com/2uVvaBr
Netflix reportedly put up a $300+ million bid for LA-based billboard company Regency Outdoor Advertising.
Netflix plans to boost marketing spending to $2 billion in 2018.
A billboard spot on Sunset Strip could cost $140,000 a month.
TRENDS
Theme park designers are preaching the importance of play over technology these days. https://lat.ms/2GPRcqU
Play > Technology
Brigadoon > Conference
Blockchain is not only crappy technology but a bad vision for the future http://bit.ly/2uZmSZ5
How planned mergers like CVS-Aetna are reshaping US healthcare by muscling out doctors. https://nyti.ms/2IE2Zca
The future of what: Data! What is it good for? These days there’s nothing but data out there - social media statistics, Spotify artist insights, info about who your fans are, where they are, and when they listen to your music. But what do you do with all this data? And who is really benefiting from it? http://bit.ly/2GJhD5o
Barron's: AI: Coming to a portfolio near you: Fund shops and other financial firms are in a race to use artificial intelligence to improve their stock-picking, provide better guidance for customers, and save money in the process. What managing your money will look like in the not so distant future. http://bit.ly/2H9EcQ2
CULTURE
Gisele Bündchen is a force of nature https://on.wsj.com/2Ewoady
"Never do meetings unless someone is writing a check." -- Mark Cuban
Olivier awards: The musical Hamilton stormed the Olivier awards last night, taking home seven awards and dispelling any wonderings about whether a show about one of the least well-known founding fathers of the US would do well in the UK.
SOTD
Ten Fé - Single, No Return http://bit.ly/2qgE2Nf
SPORT
Patrick Reed won the Masters - few seem to care.
Bananas vs. sports drinks? Bananas win in study https://nyti.ms/2Ej2S35
Sad news from the Paris-Roubaix race: Belgian cyclist Michael Goolaerts, 23, has died after suffering a cardiac arrest during the event on Sunday.