Stockmarket mania comes to China again. Can it last this time?
There are grounds for optimism but also signs of irrational exuberanceIN CHINESE STOCKMARKET mythology, the rarest of beasts is the slow bull. The past couple of decades have brought two fast bulls: vertiginous surges in share prices, neither lasting more than a year. Those soon led to fast bears when stocks crashed and, eventually, to…
What if the dotcom boom and bust hadn’t happened?
Jun 27th 2020THERE IS A lovely quotation at the start of “Security Analysis”, a canonical text by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd published in 1934. “Many shall be restored that now are fallen and many shall fall that are now in honour.” It is by Horace, a Roman poet who knew all about reversals of…
India’s ban on TikTok deprives the country of a favourite pastime
IN INDIA, AS elsewhere, TikTok looks like a cornucopia of bright and busy nonsense: an endless, blooming, buzzing confusion of shaky videos and cheap special effects, dispensed free of charge in 15-second doses. But time spent on the app—or on its Chinese-owned peers, all of them abruptly blocked by the government on June 29th—had a…
Bullfighting is under attack in South Korea
TO WORK OUT if a male calf will make a good fighting bull, you have to study its face. A promising one will have a glint in its eye, a hint of the courage and resolve needed to face down another bull in the ring. “It’s difficult to define, but you can just tell if…
Israel weighs the future of the West Bank
Jun 27th 2020BEIRUT AND JERUSALEMFAR FROM being a show of strength, it smacked of desperation. On June 22nd thousands of Palestinians held a protest in Jericho against a possible Israeli annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank. They were joined, unusually, by diplomats from across the globe: Britain and Russia, Jordan and Japan. The…
More African judges are standing up to governments
MALAWI’S CHIEF JUSTICE, Andrew Nyirenda, is an industrious chap. Since donning the wig 26 years ago he has racked up 572 days of untaken leave, or so says the office of Peter Mutharika, Malawi’s president. Last week it ordered Mr Nyirenda (above left) to go on holiday immediately. Since the chief justice would reach retirement…
Is it Official? Kanye West’s Intentions for his Presidential Run
Together with the fireworks for the Independence Day weekend, the latest explosive Hollywood news involves no one else but the controversial Kanye West. The famous celebrity has revealed his plans for a presidential run. Originally planned for 2024, he has stated that he is actually going to run for the 2020 Presidential elections in November. The…
The IMF downgrades its global growth forecasts
ON JUNE 24TH the IMF said that the economic slump caused by the covid-19 pandemic would be worse than it forecast in April, and that governments would be left more indebted as a result. The fund thinks that advanced economies’ combined gdp at the end of 2021 will still be lower than it was in…
China’s prodigious exporters have some new tricks
NORMALLY 200,000 buyers, hailing from just about every country, would have flocked to the Canton Fair, the world’s biggest trade show. This year, because of the pandemic, it was conducted entirely online, running for ten days and ending on June 24th. Although no substitute for meetings in the flesh, the virtual fair was testament to…
India’s ban on TikTok deprives the country of a favourite pastime
IN INDIA, AS elsewhere, TikTok looks like a cornucopia of bright and busy nonsense: an endless, blooming, buzzing confusion of shaky videos and cheap special effects, dispensed free of charge in 15-second doses. But time spent on the app—or on its Chinese-owned peers, all of them abruptly blocked by the government on June 29th—had a…