Bond markets on fire, Cairo revamp, Libyan flood aftermath, Aron on Europe & NATO, plus fascism in America
Great links, reading and images from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
Ana Mendieta: death of an artist foretold
The mystery of how the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta fell 34 floors from the window of her New York apartment in 1985
Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian h/t NL
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Bond markets on fire
US corporate bond markets are “on fire” as companies have sold a record $150bn of debt since the start of this month, the busiest opening to the year for more than three decades. … Borrowers are rushing to lock in lower interest costs, while investors are keen to buy new bonds before policymakers start cutting US interest rates later this year.
Source: FT
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Cairo masterplan
Egypt's sovereign wealth fund is finalising a masterplan to revamp Cairo's historic centre now that government ministries have largely moved to a new capital to the east, and hopes to break ground on the project within months, its chief executive said. The area, modelled on Paris in the 1860s, is filled with elegant but crumbling buildings constructed over the subsequent seven decades. Many were nationalised in the 1950s and 1960s and left in disrepair. The Sovereign Fund has already taken control of three prime properties in central Cairo, and received ownership of 11 former ministry buildings in a decree published this week in the official gazette. It is also overseeing the real estate portfolio of Misr Insurance Holding, which includes nearly a hundred buildings, most built before World War Two. The blueprint includes the government quarter on the southern edge of downtown and involves traffic plans, area surveys and plans to repurpose various buildings, the fund's CEO, Ayman Soliman, told Reuters. The fund will bring in private companies to own and finance much of the properties. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and two international advisers are helping to draw it up. Much of the government has transferred in recent months to ministries and offices in a lavish new capital being built 45 km (28 miles) east of Cairo. The fund expects to take over many former government buildings to either sell, manage on behalf of the government or turn over to private developers in exchange for a minority ownership stake in the projects.
Source: Reuters
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Derna disaster
Libya's deadly flash flood in September constituted a climate and environmental catastrophe that requires $1.8 billion in reconstruction and recovery, an international report said on Wednesday. Huge swathes of the city of Derna were destroyed in the flood, after heavy rainfall from Storm Daniel crashed through two aging dams, sweeping entire districts into the Mediterranean. The report by the World Bank, United Nations and European Union said the disaster affected about 1.5 million people or 22% of Libya's population, and cited figures from the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA of 4,352 confirmed deaths with 8,000 still missing. The report said the dams' collapse was partly due to their design, based on outdated hydrological information, and partly a result of poor maintenance and governance problems during Libya's conflict.
Source: Reuters
Untitled: Silueta Series, Mexico, 1976 Photograph Ana Mendieta Collection
Source: Musee magazine
45 percent of Americans did not read a book in 2023.
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Amongst American book readers, history is the single most popular genre
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Raymon Aron on Europe’s conflicted relationship with American power: “With regard to the United States, each European carries within himself a neutralist and a collaborator."
1949 poll conducted in France: "Have you heard of the Atlantic Treaty (NATO) and if so do you think France ought to sign this Treaty? 23% had not heard of the Treaty (the figure was exactly the same in Great Britain), 39% were in favour, 18% were against and 20% had no opinion."
Fascism in America
Barnes & Noble is having a 25% off preorder sale this week (1/24 to 1/26) for this VERY important-looking collection: “Did It Happen Here? Fascism and America.”
Ana Mendieta, La Venus Negra (1981)
