China's balance of payments, the tricky business of Saudi sovereign wealth, Libyan fuel smuggling & slow food.
Great links, images and reading from Chartbook Newlsetter by Adam Tooze
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Douglas M. Parrish, First Controlled Nuclear Chain Reaction, c. 1968.
Today we showcase a lesser known artist, a chronicler of the American midwest in the Fordist moment who also reimagined scenes from across history:
Michigan-born advertising illustrator Douglas M. Parrish (1922-2001) has had his work reproduced in a number of magazines and newspapers. He also had worked on recreating historical subjects, and collaborated with Robert A. Thom on a series of historical paintings of Illinois.
Source: Rochester Institute of Technology
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China’s changes
Keeping Saudi links secret
The heads of consulting giants McKinsey and BCG told US lawmakers on Tuesday that their employees in Saudi Arabia could face jail if the firms handed over details of their work for the country’s sovereign wealth fund without approval from the kingdom.
Bob Sternfels of McKinsey and Rich Lesser of BCG had been summoned to appear before Congress, along with the chief executive of smaller consultancy Teneo and the dealmaker Michael Klein, after the four firms failed to comply with a subpoena demanding information about their work for the $700bn Public Investment Fund. A Senate committee is investigating how Saudi Arabia is using “soft power” such as sports investments to extend its influence in the US, and lawmakers assailed the consulting groups for their work in the kingdom at a hearing on Tuesday.
“We want to determine what work these companies have done and are doing that allows a foreign sovereign to use instruments of commerce in the United States to increase its influence within our shores, and rebrand its tarnished image after years of horrific human rights abuses,” said Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic senator and chair of the permanent subcommittee on investigation. “You say you are between a rock and a hard place but you have chosen sides; you have chosen the Saudi side, not the American side.”
The PIF sued the four firms in Saudi Arabia, claiming that documents demanded in the US were classified. It has allowed only a fraction of the requested material to be handed over, often with substantial redactions. A PIF spokesperson said: “We have made, and are continuing to make, significant efforts to facilitate the production of requested information from our advisers consistent with the laws of Saudi Arabia, which should be recognised like those of any other country.” Klein, a longtime PIF adviser who helped broker an agreement last year between the fund and the US PGA Golf Tour, said the Saudi court orders “expose me and my employees to not just civil liability, but criminal penalties, including a potential 20 years in prison. As I hope the committee can understand, that is simply not a risk I can take for myself or for my employees.”
Source: FT
How Libya’s fuel subsidy scheme metastasized into a giant fuel smugging business
Libya’s subsidized fuel program, which began under Qaddafi in the late 1970s, has metastasized in the past few years, according to Shekshek’s accounting. It jumped by more than 70% to 62 billion dinars ($12.8 billion) in fiscal 2022 from 36 billion dinars in 2021, he said. That was almost half the national budget, and was on track to be larger in 2023. As much as 40% of that — about $5 billion in 2022 — is being smuggled, according to audit bureau estimates Shekshek shared with Bloomberg.
A Libyan central bank estimate was even higher: It said that the leakage cost the country 30 billion dinars in 2022, or more than $6 billion.
Farhat Bengdara, chairman of the national oil company since July 2022, said in an emailed statement that fuel smuggling is a “huge problem” but that he couldn’t provide an estimate for the scale or value of the theft. He said the company has instructed Brega to install GPS tracking systems to help authorities investigate and has recommended the government reconsider its subsidy program.Shekshek has called for replacing the subsidies with a lump-sum payment of $1,000 for families to meet their energy needs. “The fuel-subsidy policy as it’s currently applied is a waste of public money and depletion of state resources,” he said. “It spreads crime, inequity in the distribution of resources and undermines democracy.”
In a country with few strong institutions and dominated by militia and tribal allegiances, Shekshek has sought to hold those in power accountable. His audits have led to the suspension or ouster of dozens of officials for corruption, misuse of public funds and governance issues. And he has repeatedly criticized the central bank and the state oil company for their lack of transparency — allegations the bank and the oil company have publicly refuted.
Source: Bloomberg
China/US - who is on the rise?
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Douglas M. Parrish, Friedrich Koenig And The Cylindrical Press
This has got to hurt!
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The decline of the European petrochemicals industry
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Slow food - Americans spend half as much time each day eating and drinking as French and Italians
Provincializing knowledge
Douglas M. Parrish, Geofroy Tory And Simon De Colines
Simon de Colines (c. 1480 – 1546) was a Parisian printer and one of the first printers of the French Renaissance. He was active in Paris as a printer and worked exclusively for the University of Paris from 1520 to 1546. In addition to his work as a printer, Colines worked as an editor, publisher, and punchcutter. Over the course of his lifetime, he published over 700 separate editions (almost 4% of books published in 16th-century Paris). Colines used elegant roman and italic types and a Greek type, with accents, that were superior to their predecessors. These are now called French old-style, a style that remained popular for over 200 years and revived in the early 20th century. He used rabbits, satyrs, and philosophers as his pressmark.
