Is China’s biggest property developer truly too big to fail?
EARLY IN SEPTEMBER Evergrande, China’s biggest home-builder, announced the kind of sale more commonly seen in clothing stores: “30% off all properties, one month only!” Some debated whether it was a gimmick or a genuine discount. But its motivation was clear. Deep in debt, Evergrande needed cash—and quickly. Events since then have highlighted the urgency,…
Nicolai Tangen pays a big price for his new gig
THE BIGGEST crisis in the 24-year history of the world’s biggest sovereign-wealth fund was defused at the very last minute. On August 24th Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) announced that Nicolai Tangen, its incoming boss, would liquidate his entire stake in AKO Capital, the $20bn hedge fund he founded. He will transfer it to AKO…
As natural disasters strike, North Korea cuts itself off
NORTH KOREAN dictators are not given to self-deprecation. Indeed, they seldom admit to being anything less than godlike, and lock up those who suggest otherwise. Yet in mid-August Kim Jong Un told a meeting of the Workers’ Party that, owing to multiple “unexpected difficulties”, his government had recently failed to improve the lives of the…
Asian airlines are selling in-flight meals directly to the public
MOST TRAVELLERS see the food as one of the least palatable aspects of air travel. Rubiyanto Haliman is not most travellers. A worker at an Indonesian shrimp hatchery who flew four to six times a month before the pandemic, he collects in-flight menus, magazines and tumblers, and likes to post pictures of aeroplane food to…
Polar bear ambushes and damages Leonardo helicopter
A CH-149 Cormorant helicopter constructed by Leonardo Helicopters has been ambushed and battered by a polar bear. The Royal Canadian Air Force has revealed the chopper was left damaged by the “curious” beast after the run-in in Quebec. Workers on a training exercise fled the whirlybird parked near the Labrador Sea at the outback Saglek…
Funniest Trump Tax Tweets and Memes
A few days ago, the hashtag #TrumpTaxes trended online and is still trending to this day. The reason: documentation shows that President Trump paid a measly $750 in taxes. The shock factor was so intense that it shook the entire country! Why won’t you when you find out that you’re paying more QUARTERLY taxes than…
Outright bans can sometimes be a good way to fight climate change
Oct 3rd 2020WHEN SET against the grave threat posed by climate change, the green policies favoured by economists can seem convoluted. Carbon prices, beloved of wonks, require governments to estimate the social cost of carbon emissions, a nebulous concept. Green subsidies put politicians in the position of picking promising innovators and praying that bets with…
Mastercard and Visa seek to get the most out of the digital-payments boom
Oct 3rd 2020THE GREATEST accolade a payment system can aspire to is to be forgotten about. “People don’t want to make payments,” says Diana Layfield, an executive on Google’s payments team. “They want to do what a payment facilitates.” The industry’s biggest battles therefore often happen in the shadows. The latest struggle, which sees card…
The murderer of 51 Muslims in New Zealand last year is sentenced
THE WHITE supremacist who murdered 51 Muslims in Christchurch in March last year expressed only one regret: that he had not been able to kill more. The mass shooting, which he live-streamed on Facebook, was the worst in New Zealand’s history. Its courts had never sentenced anyone to life in prison without parole. But on…
Abe Shinzo resigns, leaving formidable problems for his successor
Japan’s new prime minister must grapple with huge debts, a shrinking population, an aggressive China and an unpredictable AmericaABE SHINZO announced his resignation at a press conference in Tokyo on August 28th, citing ill health. Japan’s prime minister will continue to carry out his duties until the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds a vote…