Expanding the Legacy
Expanding the Legacy
The US Federal Reserve celebrated the death of inflation with a bold interest rate cut. As the Federal Open Market Committee mulled its next move during a highly-anticipated meeting yesterday, its twelve members just hoped, and perhaps even prayed (this is, after all, America), that the reports of inflation’s death are not ‘greatly exaggerated’. The benchmark federal fund rate receded to five percent.
The withdrawal of banks from the high streets and neighbourhood corners is unsurprising. Today, most banks derive no more than three percent of their turnover from ‘traditional’ business operations such as fees and lending depositors’ cash to companies wishing to expand or families looking to buy a home. In 2022, the total assets of the financial sector in the UK amounted to a truly staggering $16.88 trillion - well over five time the aggregate output of the country’s entire economy. Those assets comprise mostly claims on other banks.
He lapped up life daringly, mastered the art of rebellion, and looked far beyond the horizon to find adventure and clam his restless soul. Just before the implacable woke crowd could ‘cancel’ him, biographer Sue Prideaux snatched Paul Gauguin from its claws. The French postimpressionist painter seemed ripe for the picking: the perfect candidate to be knocked off his pedestal, thrown from his perch, and relegated to the scrapheap of art history. It was not for a lack of trying that the über politically correct posse failed in its pursuit.
To placate its critics, the German government has temporarily reasserted control over the country’s borders. The measure is meant to stem the flow of immigrants entering the country to submit unfounded asylum claims. As of tomorrow, checks will take place on incoming traffic by roving border patrols.
The Republican campaign for the presidency is being shredded by an epic catfight between Trump groupies vying for the love and attention of their idol. Get the popcorn! Also: Kamala Harris Takes Advice from Chinese Sage and American Cheapskates Fail to Pay Up for Defence of Ukraine.
Whichever way US voters decide on election day, it’s the day after that causes most concern. A win by Donald Trump is unlikely to be contested by his opponents but promises to usher in a man who vowed to don the mantle of a dictator on his first day in office. Conversely, it is a foregone conclusion that a loss will be bitterly contested by Mr Trump.
As a rule, nations outlive their leaders. Ask the King of Denmark. Nations learn to move on (‘it outlives me when I’m gone’)*. So too will the United States, although the country may no longer be recognisable as a beacon of freedom, the arsenal of democracy, or, indeed, a place where ‘huddled masses’ may find refuge and opportunity.
MBA graduates are usually highly valued for their ability to analyse and comprehend a vast universe of business scenarios, discern trends, trace the shortest route to success, unearth synergies, and/or map under-explored areas ready for exploitation. However, there is quite literally nothing in this that cannot be done by artificial intelligence - and probably be done better and cheaper.
Whilst Donald Trump is often portrayed as unhinged and simple-minded, including on this forum; he does possess a surprisingly clear vision of America’s place and role in the world. It is a vision - or perhaps an instinct - that resonates with a great many American voters who agree with Mr Trump that the US should stay out of world affairs, discard geopolitical considerations, and concentrate on furthering its own interests, rather than those of longtime allies.
In this era of electoral upheaval, with Donald Trump and the European hard right rattling the gates of power, it is perhaps a propitious moment to rescue the American satirist and cultural icon HL Mencken from obscurity. Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) was an admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (‘I Am Dynamite’) and as outspoken, if not more so, than the polemicist he idolized.
The forward march of the hard right in Europe, deemed unstoppable, has bumped into a roadblock set up by British and French voters. In a surprise outcome of the early parliamentary election, France swung to the left and kept Marine Le Pen’s National Rally well short of the expected majority.
It was only his third day in office, however, parliament showed no mercy for Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof. In a tumultuous session, the opposition let it rip, leaving Mr Schoof gasping for air amid a veritable assault on his cabinet. The leaders of the opposition, acting in concert, demanded to know what the prime minister thinks of two of his cabinet members who have expressed concerns over ‘population replacement’ (‘omvolking), a supposedly deliberate policy to replace the native Dutch with immigrants.
Klaus Schwab, the octogenarian founder and chairperson of the World Economic Forum, has been a naughty boy. Mr Schwab repeatedly and persistently harassed female staffers with suggestive and vulgar comments and, on at least one occasion, propped his leg on a desk to place his crotch in front of a staffer’s face whilst lamenting the fact that she wasn’t from Hawaii, explaining that he would have enjoyed watching her in ‘Hawaiian costume’.
On Thursday, voters in the UK will render their verdict on fourteen years of Tory rule. It is expected that the Conservative Party will receive an electoral clobbering of note. Some polls predict that the party may even be relegated to third place, behind both Labour and either the Liberal Democrats or Reform UK, the new kid on the block of Brexit provocateur and Trump-wannabe Nigel Farage.
There is nothing intelligent about artificial intelligence. The clue is in the name: artificial. At best, AI mimics intelligence. And such, it fools the more simple minded into believing that AI is a brainiac whereas, in reality, AI is merely good at crunching big data to distil trends and source possibilities.
WEF executive chairperson Klaus Schwab (86) is taking a step back from the organisation of the talkshop that brings thousands of ‘thought leaders’ to the Swiss mountain resort Davos each year. Conceived as a low key event to allow movers and shakers to swap ideas and experiences away from probing microphones and cameras, the annual event has of late become a stage for grandstanding from where the holier-than-thou dispense lessons in ethics to the unwashed hoi polloi.