Europe’s Populists Are Here to Stay

Date: 15-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Matthew Goodwin

New parties are finding success by addressing the concerns of voters who feel neglected and disdained by liberal elites.

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“Only five years ago the newspapers were talking about the League being extinct. Now we are the biggest party in the north and the south [of Italy].” This was the triumphant statement of Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister, after his national populist party, the League, finished first among Italian voters in last month’s election for the European Parliament.

“It is not only the League that is the first party,” continued Mr. Salvini, the de facto head of Europe’s growing national populist family. “Marine Le Pen is the biggest party in France. Nigel Farage has the biggest party in Great Britain. It is a sign of a Europe that has changed.”

Mr. Salvini and his allies have reason to feel confident. The percentage of seats in the European Parliament now held by populists of all stripes—whether left populists, right populists or others that aren’t easily defined, like the 5 Star Movement in Italy or Britain’s new Brexit Party—hit an all-time high of 29%. But it is the national populists who are most successful. From the League in Italy to National Rally in France, Vox in Spain and the Sweden Democrats, this party family has a record 16% of seats in the European Parliament. They are nowhere near a majority, but they have consolidated and are now a more disruptive force.

National populist parties share a common approach and program. They seek to advance what they see as the interests and culture of their country’s ethno-cultural majority; they present themselves as giving voice to people who feel neglected, even held in contempt, by distant, self-serving liberal elites.

Foxconn Says Prepared to Move Apple Production Out of China if Necessary

Date: 11-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Taiwan-based company tries to brush off investor worries over U.S.-China trade row

A Foxconn executive said the company’s manufacturing capacity outside of China is sufficient to meet demand in the U.S. from Apple and other customers.

HONG KONG— Foxconn Technology Group said it is ready to shift production out of China if necessary for Apple Inc., its biggest customer, as the electronics assembler tried to assuage investors’ concerns over the U.S.-China trade conflict.

In its first-ever investor meeting and conference call since going public in 1991, senior executives at Taiwan-based Foxconn sought to address investor uncertainty as it prepares for a leadership transition.

Tuesday’s events were aimed at outlining a succession plan for when Terry Gou, Foxconn’s founder, stands down as chairman to focus on his campaign for Taiwan’s presidency.

G-20 Financial Leaders Criticize Trade Tensions for Impact on Growth

Date: 10-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. was at odds with most countries on how tariffs have impacted global growth and how to resolve trade conflicts

Finance ministers and central bankers fretted about trade and geopolitical tensions and agreed to stand ready with action in case those risks intensify, according to a statement released Sunday after a weekend Group of 20 meeting in Japan.

FUKUOKA, Japan—The Group of 20 major economies decried worsening trade tensions and their impact on global growth, with the U.S. and China locked in a protracted trade battle since negotiations fell apart a month ago.

Finance ministers and central bankers fretted about the trade and geopolitical tensions and agreed to stand ready with action in case those risks intensify, according to a statement released Sunday after a weekend meeting in Japan. Their statement didn’t mention the tariffs the U.S. and China have used, though the measures and their effect weighed on the officials’ closed-door discussions.

Unwinding the Personal Productivity Paradox

Date: 09-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Irving Wladawsky-Berger

So much tech, so little time

The past 10 to 15 years have seen a number of technology advances, from smartphones to machine learning. Yet, despite these impressive advances, economies around the world have been stuck in an era of slow productivity growth. Opinions abound, but in the end, there’s no consensus on the causes of this apparent productivity paradox, on how long the slowdown will likely last, or on what to do about it.

Companies and industries are not the only ones trying to adjust to our fast changing digital economy. Individuals are also experiencing their own version of the productivity paradox.

In principle, the advent of smartphones, apps, and other major technologies should save us time and make our lives easier. But, as we well know, that’s not quite been the case. Article after article reminds us that thanks to the internet and smartphones, everybody is available all the time; that work can feel like a never-ending cycle of overflowing inboxes and urgent demands; that no matter how hard we work, we’re overloaded and overwhelmed because there’s far more to do every day than there is time to do it.

New Huawei Phones Won’t Come With Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp

Date: 07-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Facebook is the latest company to restrict access to its products following the U.S. blacklisting of the Chinese tech giant

Facebook will no longer have its apps pre-installed on Huawei smartphones.

Facebook Inc. will no longer allow its apps to come pre-installed on mobile devices made by Huawei Technologies Co. following the U.S. blacklisting of the Chinese tech giant, dealing another blow to its booming smartphone business.

Facebook, which owns popular apps including Instagram and WhatsApp, is one of many software makers whose apps come pre-installed on Huawei phones, which outsold Apple Inc.’s iPhone globally in the first quarter of this year. Huawei is now second only to Samsung Electronics Co.

Huawei will no longer be able to pre-install those apps, according to a person familiar with the matter, though those who already own Huawei phones will continue to have access to Facebook apps and updates. It isn’t clear if Huawei phone users without the apps will be able to download the apps and updates themselves.

Can the West Still Govern?

Date: 06-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Daniel Henninger

Trumpian nationalism may be on the rise, but most democracies are in gridlock.

Following European election wins by nationalist and populist parties in Italy, France and Britain, former White House strategist Steve Bannon says European integration is „dead in its tracks.“

Donald Trump, the best golfer ever to set up shop in the Oval Office, announced in London this week that because of departing Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts, the Brexit deal is “teed up.” Teed up? With this remark, Mr. Trump gives new meaning to “mulligan,” golf’s infamous do-over for a failed shot. Britain’s politicians are at least 40 shots over par on Brexit, having shanked, hooked or topped every ball they’ve tried to hit.

In truth, there’s nothing funny about the British elites’ hapless efforts to make good on voters’ decision in 2016 to separate the United Kingdom from the European Union. The referendum was a classic expression of democratic will: Brexit won narrowly (with 51.9%), but in a democracy that still counts as a victory. More troubling is the possibility that the great and the good of Britain’s elected political leadership will simply fail to execute the referendum’s mandate, raising the possibility that the very idea of governance is approaching a dead end in one of the world’s oldest democracies.

Big Tech’s Weird Day of Reckoning

Date: 05-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Investors spooked by the prospect of a broad U.S. crackdown

The government even rained on Apple’s party.

The opening of Apple Inc.’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday was clouded by a report from Reuters that the Justice Department might be looking into the company’s business as part of a broader examination of Big Tech. That followed reports over the weekend from The Wall Street Journal that Google-parent Alphabet and Facebook and are undergoing similar probes from the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, respectively. Apple’s shares slipped on the news and closed down 1% Monday. Alphabet and Facebook fell more than 6% by the close.

It is easy to see why such headlines spook investors, especially given Big Tech’s unpopularity on both sides of the political aisle. But the reports also raised more questions than answers given the odd approach of the two agencies who typically oversee antitrust matters. According to the Journal, the two have agreed to have Apple and Google fall under the purview of the Justice Department while Facebook and e-commerce giant Amazon.com come under the FTC. That means two companies that generate most of their business through online advertising will be examined by two different bodies.

The case is even more muddled with Apple. The iconic iPhone that made the company the titan it is accounted for only 41% of smartphone sales in the U.S. last year, according to according to Counterpoint. Apple’s Mac computers also make up a relatively small portion of the PC market. The closed nature of the company’s App Store does effectively give it a lock over how apps can be distributed to its mobile devices. But the revenue generated from the sale of apps makes up a relatively tiny portion of the company’s business.

Trump’s Case Against Europe

Date: 04-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Walter Russell Mead

The president sees Brussels as too weak, too liberal, and anti-American on trade.

President Trump

“Why does he hate us?” is the question American foreign-policy types often hear from European friends and colleagues when the subject of Donald Trump comes up—as it often does. With Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Europe this week, it seems an auspicious time to attempt an answer.

The news isn’t all bad. When Mr. Trump and senior administration officials talk about China, they attack it for abusing the international system in a ruthless quest for global hegemony. Their reading of Europe is different: that a mix of dysfunctional policies, unrealistic ideas about world politics, and poor institutional arrangements has locked the Continent on a trajectory of decline. As Mr. Trump’s team sees it, they aren’t trying to weaken Europe; they are trying to save Europe from itself.

There are five elements of the Trump critique of the European Union. First, some of the “new nationalists” believe multinational entities like the EU are much weaker and less effective than the governments of nation-states—so much so that the development of the EU has weakened the Western alliance as a whole. In this view, cooperation between nation-states is good and through it countries can achieve things they couldn’t achieve on their own. But trying to overinstitutionalize that cooperation is a mistake. The resulting bureaucratic structures and Byzantine politics and decision-making processes paralyze policy, alienate public opinion, and create a whole significantly less than the sum of its parts.

1989 and the Birth of State Capitalism in China

Date: 04-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal

In the 1980s, Beijing allowed decentralized markets to flourish and private firms to prosper. After Tiananmen, the party took more economic control to ensure its own power and survival.

China’s 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing is remembered as a pivot point in the country’s political evolution. But the crackdown also prompted a historic shift in China’s economic reforms—one that would unleash three decades of explosive growth while laying the groundwork for many of China’s present-day troubles, including its escalating confrontation with the U.S.

The Tiananmen crackdown triggered an exodus from policy-making of a generation of young economists who, three years after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, had begun overhauling China’s collapsing command economy. One of them was Zhang Weiying, who had been drafted into service by a government-run think tank after writing an influential paper on price reform in 1984 as a 24-year-old graduate student. In the frenzied first decade of economic liberalization, Mr. Zhang was among dozens of scholars in their 20s or 30s who worked on reforms that allowed China’s farmers to sell surplus crops and open small businesses, while transferring revenues and authority from the central government to local authorities.

The A… has Landed!

Date: 03-06-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Subject: Trump Criticizes London Mayor Sadiq Khan as He Arrives in U.K.

President opens a four-day swing through Britain and France; his visit is likely to feature mostly festivities and commemorations, and little deal-making

LONDON—President Trump courted controversy before he arrived in Britain for a three-day state visit, reopening a long-running feud with London Mayor Sadiq Khan by calling him a “stone-cold loser.”

Hours before he touched down in the U.K. on Monday morning, Mr. Trump launched a Twitter spat with the popular mayor—who had previously criticized the state visit—saying that Mr. Khan has “done a terrible job” as London’s mayor and mocking the mayor’s diminutive stature. Mr. Khan responded with a video where he stated: “President Trump, if you’re watching this, your values and what you stand for are the complete opposite of London’s values and the values of this country.”