Europe's disinflation is real. Elon Musk's state-like powers. Standing with crypto & Nigerian Japa.
Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
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Teruko Yokoi, source: Galerie Assadi
Disinflation in the Eurozone really is a done deal!
Source: TS Lombard
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Is Scott Bessent Trump’s James Baker?
Elon Musk’s “state-like” power worries Europe
Elon Musk’s meteoric rise to the top of US politics as efficiency czar is generating high anxiety in Europe, and not just because of his foul-mouthed social-media tirades against Brussels rule-setters. German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the pairing of Musk and Donald Trump hugely concerning, pointing a finger specifically at Musk’s dominance in the space industry. The angst is justified — but pointing fingers isn't enough. Musk’s $210 billion firm SpaceX is uniquely powerful, even more so than his tweets. Its reusable rockets have essentially monopolized a commercial launch market once led by Europe. Its 6,000 Starlink satellites offering high-speed internet from anywhere have changed the course of war in Ukraine’s drone-heavy battlefield. Officials are panicking that the billionaire’s conflicts of interest will exacerbate a dangerous dependency: At a Paris panel last week, top German antitrust official Andreas Mundt cited Musk’s influence on Starlink and urged tech regulators to be bold, saying it was “insupportable” that one man could wield state-like powers. As Europe dithers over how to catch up, Starlink is adding new wins to its 4 million-strong subscriber base. Airline Air France-KLM — part-owned by the French government — in September announced a deal with Starlink to offer high-speed Wi-Fi on its flights from next summer. That same month, Starlink announced a deal with marquee US customer United Airlines Holdings, Inc. Novaspace Managing Director Nathan de Ruiter says Starlink is able to improve and iterate its product as it launches more satellites.
Source: Bloomberg
Folks just don’t want PCs.
Romania’s debt took a battering from the surprise 1st round in Presidential elections
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Teruko Yokoi, À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), 1963, oil on canvas, 57 3⁄8 × 59, Source: Art Fourm
Stand with crypto
Source: Standwithcrypto
Japa
To understand the population pressures on African nations, the Nigerian trend known as Japa offers some insight. The Yoruba slang term meaning “to flee” describes the exodus of highly educated professionals migrating to the West.
Japa is a problem for governments across the continent. There are, for example, more Ghanaian nurses working in the UK than in Ghana. Since 2017, approximately 75,000 nurses have left Nigeria, and the World Health Organization projects that by 2030, sub-Saharan Africa could face a shortage of 5.3 million healthcare workers. Additionally, many engineers, particularly those aged 45 to 60, are leaving. This exodus comes at a critical time: These graduates come from economies that demand robust infrastructure and urban development that would benefit from local expertise. The trend is unsustainable, and risks repeating a similar drain of skilled workers from Asia.
Source: Bloomberg
Stoli Brand Vodka’s US Arm Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Source: Bloomberg
Turning Captured Vehicles into German War Machines: The Genius of Alfred Becker
THE TITLE OF A 1963 PAINTING by Teruko Yokoi (1924–2020), blue night 1966, Source: Art Fourm
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