Flying people to the Space Station is SpaceX’s biggest deal yet
May 30th 2020IT WAS ONE of those neat bits of symmetry that history seems to enjoy. On May 30th, at 15.22 local time, Douglas Hurley, an American astronaut, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on his way to the International Space Station (ISS). The last time Colonel Hurley went into…
Flying people to the Space Station will be SpaceX’s biggest deal yet
May 30th 2020IT WAS ONE of those neat bits of symmetry that history seems to enjoy. On May 30th, at 15.22 local time, Douglas Hurley, an American astronaut, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on his way to the International Space Station (ISS). The last time Colonel Hurley went into…
Will covid-19 halt the rise of private equity in Europe?
“DURING THE global financial crisis we devoted all our energy to rescuing companies we already owned,” says Johannes Huth, the European boss of KKR. This time the private-equity (PE) firm is well prepared to take advantage of economic calamity, as are many of its rivals. Four-fifths of KKR’s staff are looking after the companies in…
Standoffish North Korea discovers the limits of self-reliance
THE ECONOMY was not on the agenda when Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s dictator, appeared at a party meeting on May 23rd after his second three-week absence from public view in as many months. According to state media, the Supreme Leader promoted several military officials and laid out plans to beef up the North’s nuclear…
Does the US need the SpaceX launch during this pandemic?
Published on May 30, 2020 by Anne What is happening? The SpaceX Demo-2 mission will be launching astronauts from the US for the first time since 2011. In the SpaceX launch, NASA astronauts are going to be transported to the International Space Station (ISS) by an American-made shuttle. This is known to be the final…
China’s economists debate deficit monetisation
NO ONE WOULD ever describe the Chinese central bank as Germanic. After all, China’s broad money supply has tripled over the past decade alone, the kind of expansion that would send shivers through Germany’s inflation hawks. But listen closely and Teutonic inflections can be heard in Beijing. A ruckus about how to finance this year’s…
What is the link between inflation and equity returns?
May 28th 2020IN PLACES WHERE it has been long absent, it is hard to remember what a curse inflation is. In other places, it is hard to forget it. Take Zimbabwe. In 2008 it suffered an inflation rate in the squillions. Prices doubled every few weeks, then every few days. Banknotes were so much confetti.…
Military tensions mount on the India-China border
Reports of Chinese incursions into India raise tensions between the nuclear-armed neighboursMay 29th 2020WHEN INDIAN and Chinese soldiers brawled at Pangong lake in Ladakh earlier this month—a punch-up serious enough to leave many in hospital—General M.M. Naravane, India’s army chief, was unworried. Such “temporary and short-duration face-offs” happened from time to time at such remote…
Australia’s foreign-student bubble has burst
AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST university campus should be heaving on a sunny autumn afternoon. Before the pandemic, the University of Sydney hosted more than 70,000 students. At lunchtime they would cram into its cafés and crowd onto its lawns. Now its grounds are practically deserted. Although Australia has almost quashed covid-19, social-distancing rules forced the campus to…
Why African governments still hire mercenaries
May 28th 2020WHEN PRESIDENT FILIPE NYUSI wanted help last year to tackle a jihadist insurgency in northern Mozambique, various private military firms were keen to oblige. Mr Nyusi chose Russia’s Wagner Group, which vowed to make short work of the rebels. But after a bunch of its men were killed, it pulled out, humiliated.In its…