It's happening! Partisan economic sentiments are flipping. Transfer nation & Trump's golf course in Vietnam.
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Taner Ceylan (Turkish, born 1967). “I Love You,” (2016). Source: Sothebys
Partisan economic sentiments are already flipping.
Source: Sofia Baig
Transfer nation
In 2022, Americans received $3.8 trillion in transfer income from the government. If that were split evenly across the entire US population, it would be about $11,500 per person.
Source: Economic Innovation Group
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DoD’s budget growth rates
For contributing subscribers only.
Venture Capital-backed Defense Tech Companies
This organization was created in 2015 as the DoD looked to reengage Silicon Valley and other technology hubs, which had turned away from their defense roots after the end of the Cold War in favor of businesses focused on computing, networking, e-tailing, and social media. The DIU’s mission focuses on identifying technologies being developed in the Valley and other locations that can be used to support DoD efforts, and importantly, to keep many of them out of the hand of adversaries. The DIU provides contracts that allow companies to avoid the “valley of death” while awaiting the often-slow contracting process. It also works to help some of these companies partner with larger primes possessing contract vehicles that would benefit from the technologies being developed. In a nutshell, the DIU has become a beachhead on the West Coast that has helped “techies” better understand how to do business with the DoD and to socialize the idea that doing so is patriotic. Currently, the DIU is focused on AI, Autonomy, Cyber and Telecom, Emerging Technology, Energy, Human Systems, and Space.
As the DIU has garnered success in funding numerous projects, and as the geopolitical environment has become more menacing, VCs, both institutional and corporate, have taken notice. This has led to a resurgence in venture investing in the defense tech sector, with over $70B deployed over the past two years. The focus areas of investment have been broad, but the concentration has largely mirrored the priorities of DIU, i.e., AI, Autonomy, Cyber and Space. Some of the most notable VCbacked companies to date include SpaceX, Anduril, Shield AI, Hawk-Eye 360, BETA, Ursa Major, Skydio, and Helsing (Figure 27). And interestingly, most of the large defense primes have established and funded corporate venture arms that have allowed them to independently or co-invest with institutional backers, perhaps further highlighting the importance of start-ups to the defense industrial base ecosystem.
Source: Citigroup
China's October new lending tumbles more than expected
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China’s copper smelting capacity has increased sixfold in two decades
Source: Bloomberg
Taner Ceylan (Turkish, born 1967). “1881,” (2010). Source: Whitewall
Will a New Golf Course Near Hanoi Cement Trump-Vietnam Relations?
There’s one other thing about Trump that Vietnam knows all too well: his obsession with his own family wealth. Was this the reason behind the announcement on October 8 that the Trump Organization, his family business, signed an agreement with Vietnamese real estate developer Kinh Bac City Development to build a $1.5 billion golf course and resort in Vietnam’s Hung Yen province, just outside Hanoi? A memorandum of understanding was signed last month, while CPV chief To Lam was visiting the United States, by officials from the Trump Organization, the People’s Committee of Hung Yen province, and Kinh Bac City Development Holding. Trump himself attended the signing ceremony and was photographed sitting next to his son Eric Trump and Dang Thanh Tam, chairman of Kinh Bac City and a tycoon with significant political influence. This development surely raises the possibility of a potential conflict of interest under the next Trump presidency – or, at least, it means the specter of self-interest will stalk his dealings with Vietnam. Hung Yen, the site of the planned resort, is the home province of To Lam and his vast and dominant provincial faction, including the new Public Security Minister Luong Tam Quang and the new Justice Minister Nguyen Hai Ninh. Through this deal, Trump’s family firm is now tied to the ascendant faction within the CPV. … “Vietnam has tremendous potential for luxurious hospitality and entertainment,” Eric Trump, Donald’s son and executive vice president of the family firm, said in a statement last month. … Hanoi’s international airport is the closest to his firm’s planned resort, and it isn’t hard to imagine Trump more regularly visiting Vietnam to combine the official and personal, nor difficult to think of him petitioning Southeast Asian leaders to hold a meeting or two at his Vietnamese golf course.
Source: David Hutt in The Diplomat
Egypt declared malaria-free after century of work to defeat disease
Source: Mizy Flifton in Yahoo News
Taner Ceylan (Turkish, born 1967). “Karanfil Hasan,” (2006). Source: Taner Ceylan
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