Brigadoon Daily
Your daily dose of the emerging issues + independent thinkers shaping commerce + culture
November 18, 2021
Barbados, Biden, British Columbia, Belarus, Blinken, Beltway
TOP FIVE
1. Blinken urges end to Ethiopian civil war on Africa trip
2. During pandemic’s first year, Americans moved at lowest rate in over 70 years
3. Investors hung their hats on Peloton and Zoom last year. What now?
4. Cleveland bank heist mystery solved after 52 years
5. Mino Raiola: From pizzeria worker to football super-agent
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GLOBALIZATION + STATECRAFT
Barbados to become first sovereign nation with an embassy in the metaverse: CoinDesk reports the Caribbean nation is working with multiple metaverse companies to establish digital sovereign land.
Today: Biden hosts the North American Leaders’ Summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
AFP: Canada sends military to flood-ravaged Pacific coast
Reuters: British Columbia sees death toll rising from massive flood; Ottawa pledges aid
Belarus: Lukashenko agrees to EU talks on ending migrant standoff: DW reports in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Belarus' president reportedly said his country is ready to negotiate with the EU on solving the crisis at the Polish border.
Clarissa Eden, British countess and political influencer, dies at 101: NYT reports the iconoclastic niece of Winston Churchill, she was married to Prime Minister Anthony Eden, who was at the helm during the Suez crisis.
They bought houses in Italy for 1 euro — and are using them to give back to the community: Meet the people turning the crumbling homes into businesses and social projects in aging towns.
WP
Nikkei: All-Turkic corridor heralds rise of new Eurasian political bloc
+ Turkey-led group has potential to disrupt Russia-China power balance
AFP: Blinken discusses violence in Sudan and Ethiopia during Kenya visit
AFP: Blinken urges preservation of democracy as he kicks off African tour
On first Africa trip, Blinken confronts questions of US leverage in deepening crises: WP reports the US secretary of state expressed concern about “escalating violence” in Ethiopia, among other issues.
Blinken urges end to Ethiopian civil war on Africa trip: WSJ reports Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the civil war in Ethiopia was risking the stability of Africa’s second-most populous nation, and said that regional allies such as Kenya were critical to ending the conflict and other regional crises.
Mass detentions of civilians fan ‘climate of fear’ in Ethiopia: NYT reports an ethnically-motivated detention campaign largely targeting Ethiopians of Tigrayan descent threatens to further unravel Africa’s second-most populous country a year into a civil war.
Gadhafi's son returns to Libyan politics: Can he win? DW reports after years in hiding, Seif al-Islam, the son of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, will run for president in upcoming Libyan elections. Experts believe his return complicates things even further in the unstable nation.
India closes coal-fired plants as New Delhi is smothered in toxic smog: FT reports schools have shut and construction work banned in the city and the surrounding region that are choking on pollution.
Bloomberg: Global wealth surges as China overtakes US to grab top spot
+ World’s net worth tripled in last two decades, McKinsey says
+ Housing boom is key driver, could bring unwanted side effects
Germany's Merkel warns against Europe 'decoupling' from China: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Europe should not cut off cooperation on research and development with China. However, protecting intellectual property remains an important challenge.
DW
Germany may have been naive on China at first, Merkel says
Reuters
Singapore PM warns of US-China ‘mishap’ over Taiwan: SCMP reports Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said heightened tensions were unlikely to lead to ‘war overnight’, but a ‘miscalculation’ over the island could still occur.
Analysis: Xi's need to overtake Deng poses big risk for Taiwan: Unification would cement his legacy. Does he have a timeline?
Nikkei
Biden’s Taiwan gaffes risk real-world consequences
Bloomberg
Biden maneuvers to avoid the unintended conflict with China
David Ignatius
Easing US-China tensions requires more dialogue: Virtual summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping should be the first of many.
FT - Editorial
Do we want a ‘thaw’ with China? Yes — and no.
WP - Editorial
So long, Hong Kong: Asia's business hub loses its luster: The city's rigid quarantine rules appease the mainland but risk alienating foreign bankers.
Nikkei
WTA says it is still unable to locate Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai: FT reports the player has not been seen since sexual assault allegations against government officials surfaced.
WP: North Korea’s Kim appears after month-long absence, visiting ‘utopia’ city created to cement regime’s legacy
Japan to unleash $350bn stimulus as west unwinds state spending: FT reports checks will be sent to families but economists warn it will not lift consumption and inflation.
COVID
Berlin tightens COVID-19 rules for unvaccinated: DW reports ahead of talks between caretaker Chancellor Angela Merkel and state premiers, some of Germany's 16 states have already tightened rules. In Berlin, the so-called 2G rule is off to a bumpy start.
+ Fourth wave hitting Germany with ‘full force’, Merkel warns
+ Belgium mandates working from home
White House plans major expansion of COVID vaccine production: NYT reports the Biden administration will spend billions of dollars on a new plan to combat the pandemic, investing in antiviral pills, rapid tests, and manufacturing.
During pandemic’s first year, Americans moved at the lowest rate in over 70 years, census data shows: WP reports last year's rate was the lowest since records started being kept in the 1940s, suggesting the country’s longterm downward trend was not interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
POLITICS + CAMPAIGNS
Pain at the pump drives Biden’s suffering in the polls: Politico reports consumer sentiment has plunged in recent weeks as inflation climbed to the highest levels in more than a generation.
Biden demands probe of ‘potentially illegal conduct’ in oil sector: FT reports the president singles out ExxonMobil and Chevron in a letter to FTC as US gasoline prices soar.
Reuters: US asks Japan, China, others to consider tapping oil reserves - sources
Bloomberg: Biden takes GM’s electric Hummer for test drive: ‘I’m an automobile guy’
DFP: Biden raves about Hummer, talks up infrastructure win in Detroit visit
Biden lauds electric cars in Michigan as climate agenda hits road bumps in Washington: WP reports President Biden traveled to Detroit to promote American-made electric vehicles and a new infrastructure package at a time when the rest of his climate agenda hangs in the balance back in Washington.
Politico: Psaki says Harris faces more criticism because she is a woman and woman of color
The collapse of Kamala Harris
Charles Cooke
Democrats shouldn’t panic. They should go into shock.
Thomas B. Edsall
Democrats face a 2022 superstorm
Philip Bump
'This experience broke a lot of people': Inside State amid the Afghanistan withdrawal: The chaos that came with ending America's longest war extended to Foggy Bottom, where the staff was left with psychological scars.
Politico
+ The Senate confirmed Jonathan Kanter, a critic of Big Tech, as the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
Lina Khan sees turbulent start as head of Federal Trade Commission: Criticized by Republicans, Khan tells agency staffers she aims to build bridges going forward.
WSJ
GOP can't escape 'self-inflicted injuries' as they fight to reclaim House: Politico reports the drama over Rep. Paul Gosar's violent anime video and the 13 Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill are the latest episodes in a long line of personality-driven GOP crises.
+ Media baron Rupert Murdoch told Donald Trump that he needed to leave the past behind and focus on the future to address problems the country faces.
Senate poised to advance defense bill after Schumer, Pelosi reach deal on China legislation: Politico reports the agreement comes after Senate Republicans and some House Democrats objected to Schumer’s push to unilaterally attach the China legislation to the must-pass defense bill.
Vinoda Basnayake is a Beltway whisperer for Middle Eastern royalty—and the operator of DC’s sceniest nightlife spots: He’s our town’s hookup to all kinds of big-name celebs, but also a super-wired foreign lobbyist. The two lives aren’t as different as you might think.
Washingtonian
An estimated 100,306 people in the United States died from a drug overdose in a 12-month period ending April 2021, according to new provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday.
DISRUPTION + INNOVATION
Designing transport for humans, not econs
Pete Dyson + Rory Sutherland
COMMERCE
The Great Resignation: How Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ could be the key to stopping employees from quitting: Workplaces may be losing employees by failing to understand their priorities, values, and need for belonging, recent research from EY says.
Fortune
‘It’s the biggest open secret out there’: The double lives of white-collar workers with two jobs: Remote working has made it easier than ever for staff to moonlight. But how do they cope with clashing meetings and two bosses? And can the rewards be worth the lies?
Guardian
Is your company secretly monitoring your work at home? Since COVID, the practice has surged
LAT
Investors hung their hats on Peloton and Zoom last year. What now? Some “stay-at-home” stocks that were pandemic-era darlings have experienced brutal sell-offs.
NYT
Peloton said that it would raise $1 billion in cash from selling stock, just weeks after it said it didn’t need more capital. The company’s stock is down more than 60 percent this year.
Zoom is down nearly 25 percent this year.
Investors are now piling into “reopen stocks”: Shares of Live Nation, for instance, are 50 percent higher than at any time before the pandemic, although sales remain less than half what they were in 2019.
In praise of . . . Enron? Twenty years have passed since the notoriously corrupt energy-trading company collapsed. Maybe it’s time to acknowledge that it wasn’t all bad for Texas.
Texas Monthly
Best books of 2021: Economics
FT
What went wrong with Zillow? A real-estate algorithm derailed its big bet: The company had staked its future growth on its digital home-flipping business, but getting the algorithm right proved difficult.
WSJ
Amazon is considering shifting its popular co-brand credit card to Mastercard amid simmering tensions with Visa, a feud that already prompted the retailer to ban the payment giant’s cards in the UK starting next year.
Amazon’s fight with Visa is bigger than Britain: This feud started small, but it ultimately threatens MasterCard, too. The power of both credit card networks is starting to crumble.
Paul J. Davies
Apple performs U-turn on right to repair iPhones and Macs: FT reports the tech group will allow customers to purchase its components to fix devices themselves.
UPS adds Waymo as second partner to test autonomous big rigs: Bloomberg reports the delivery company is expanding an existing partnership with the self-driving vehicle company to test delivery routes between Dallas and Houston.
American Airlines, travel platform Winding Tree announce blockchain partnership: Reuters reports American Airlines and Swiss travel platform Winding Tree said on Tuesday they have formed a partnership that will enable corporate buyers to access the US airline's data on flights directly, without the need for intermediaries.
How Gary Vaynerchuk became an NFT guru and lord of his own metaverse
Benjamin Wallace
+ A Canadian teenager was arrested for allegedly stealing C$46 million ($36.5 million) worth of cryptocurrency from a US victim, the biggest crypto theft reported from one person, according to police in the city of Hamilton, near Toronto.
+ The baseball star Shohei Ohtani will invest in the crypto exchange FTX.
Staples Center in Los Angeles to be renamed Crypto.com Arena: FT reports the deal worth $700m to rebrand 20,000-seat venue comes as digital coins gain wider acceptance.
The home is the future of travel: The CEO of Airbnb thinks the lines separating life, work, and vacations will keep getting blurrier.
Derek Thompson
MARKETING + COMMUNICATIONS
Time to save the internet: After lurching from naive optimism to despairing dystopian, is the internet now entering a ‘third stage’ of civic-minded realism?
FT
SPACE + SCIENCE
Why scientists have spent years mapping this creature’s brain: An enormous new analysis of the wiring of the fruit fly brain is a milestone for the young field of modern connectomics, researchers say.
NYT
PERFORMANCE
Fake experts abound. Here’s how to find (and be) a real one.
Carl Richards
CULTURE
Go West young ski bum: The broken American idea of living the dream: Heather Hansman on trying to find a life in a Colorado ski town.
Literary Hub
Why Skyfall is a masterclass in cinematography
Kay Clay
The one that got away: Cleveland bank heist mystery solved after 52 years: Thomas Randele lived quietly in the suburbs. Now authorities say he was Theodore Conrad who walked away with a fortune in 1969.
Guardian
SPORT
Kevin Durant can score from anywhere. Defenses don’t know what to do. The midrange game has largely fallen out of favor in the NBA, but not when Durant is on the court.
NYT
Mino Raiola's rise from pizzeria worker to becoming a football super-agent: Mino Raiola continues to play kingmaker in some of football's biggest transfers but where did it begin for this super-agent and why does he have the trust of the biggest names? A look at his early years, with input from those who were there, helps to explain.
Sky Sports
An indigenous women’s softball team beats opponents, and machismo: A Mayan team from a small community on the Yucatán Peninsula has caused a sensation by excelling as its athletes play barefoot and wear traditional dresses, breaking barriers with every game.
NYT
Pittsburgh Penguins valued at more than $850m in Fenway Sports deal: FT reports the owner of Liverpool FC and Red Sox looks to expand into professional hockey with the purchase of the storied team.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Curation and commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder @ Brigadoon
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