Ford v. Fiat, Italy's decline & the history of cute

Great reading, links and images from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze

Most popular vehicles in Italy and the USA

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23.7 Percent!

Chris Giles @ChrisGiles_

You have to wonder what Norway will consider a big enough surplus if that hurts its trading partners https://t.co/PRoPhMX0gT

Robin Brooks @RobinBrooksIIF

G10 current account balances (H1 2021 vs H1 2022, in % GDP) 1. NO: +10.3 -> +23.7 2. CH: +6.7 -> +7.8 3. SE: +5.7 -> +2.4 4. AU: +3.7 -> +1.7 5. JP: +3.5 -> +1.3 6. CA: +0.0 -> +0.4 7. EU: +3.3 -> +0.2 8. US: -3.5 -> -4.3 9. UK: -2.1 -> -7.7 10. NZ: -4.9 -> -8.7 https://t.co/Mx83sh7t2P

China copper - Subscribers only

Australia’s shifting trade balance

As late as the 1950s, the UK dominated Australia’s trade balance

UK (statistical) geographies - subscribers only

Disappearing negative yielding debt

Source: FT

Italy’s relative decline

Branko Milanovic @BrankoMilan

25y ago, Italy's GDPpc (in PPP terms) was 3.5 times the world average. Today, it is twice the world average.

Railway ties

Astonishingly, 9 out of 10 railway ties on America’s railway system are wood v. concrete that is almost universally used in Europe. Why this seeming anachronism? Wood is cheaper, and is well-suited to America’s freight-heavy, low-speed railway network.

Source: WMUK

Scriabin - subscribers only

Anderson & Ghervas

Stella Ghervas 🕊️ @StellaGhervas

Very honoured to serve in tandem with Perry Anderson for the Cycle Europe 2022-23 public lectures at Collège de France (@cdf1530). Greatly looking forward to crossing our thoughts on “Peace and Power in Europe”! Programme: lnkd.in/dRRJa-9q Link:

college-de-france.frStella Ghervas – Le pouvoir de la paix en Europe | Collège de France

The history of the word “cute”

By Katy Waldman

So is it possible to praise a respected colleague’s work as “cute” today without minimizing it? The seminar argument in question was apparently neat and fun, which also means it didn’t seem messy, risky, or grandiose—it pleased my friend. Maybe there is something self-flattering about describing a comment in terms of its positive or negative effects on you. (And isn’t that one more funny thing about cute? It is almost less a quality you can assign to someone than a way of getting at how you feel in that person’s presence: warm and enamored and safe.) I think what I would have reacted badly to in that seminar is the way cute focuses on the unthreatening nature of the remark, stripping the student’s words—however charismatic, unexpected, or self-contained—of any power. Marrying the first definition of cute (ingenious) to the second (limited) results in a term for arguments that might surprise and delight you, but won’t change your mind. Which was essentially how my friend felt. So I guess his use of cute was both apt and untactful, fitting and ugly. Cute, in other words, and very much not.

Source: Slate

Rejecting Prince - subscribers only

Daniel Boyd

I was stunned by Boyd’s work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney

Source: Talking With Painters