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As the media beats the dead horse race of the American mid-term elections, we were reminded of what elections are supposed to be about while standing in line to talk to a health insurance consultant as part of our continuing struggle to restore our left knee to full functionality. A woman who had just finished talking to the benefits consultant walked past us with the look of one trapped in a DMV office for six hours, muttering, “It’s too *&%$ing hard.*” Only a few hours earlier we were helping an international visitor in need of medical help. We brought her to a health care facility who discovered that her insurance, purchased here in America to take care of her during her year-long work visit, did not provide coverage for the medical condition she had. We would not have been surprised if she too felt compelled to utter the same epithet that the other woman did, but she merely muttered, “This would never happen in my country.” The American health care system combines the worst aspects of capitalism and socialism, a Fitzgeraldian irony polishing the American dysfunctional policy shoe, the ultimate dab of the Nurse Ratched policymakers. So we limp into this week discussing change—how much there has been in the world’s top companies, the lack of it in certain European cultural views and how much immigrants to Sweden experience. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, if not trying to cure the world, placing an informational stethoscope to its beating heart.

*INTN is family-oriented. To see the unedited quote you have to subscribe to premium service.

Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.

A Change is Gonna Come…and Has

We have expressed concern in this space about the incentives and policies that favor large companies over small. In America, everything from land use to the way environmental protection is regulated to patent law gives big business an advantage. However, when we look at the global list of the largest companies in the world as measured by revenue, there has been significant change since 2008. Visual Capitalist graphs this list and finds,“43 of the 100 companies on top of today’s list were not there ten years ago.” Among the biggest changes are the increase in Chinese companies. In 2008 there were only three Chinese companies on the top 100 list, today there are 21. However, all three Chinese companies in the top ten are state owned enterprises such as China National Petroleum. Will they be there in 2028? And despite many people expressing concern over the power that technology companies have over all of us, “only a handful of tech companies have cracked the top 100.” Scan the whole list to confirm or challenge your biases, or perhaps both.

Change Hasn’t Come

Companies change more quickly then culture. This is evidenced in a Pew Global survey of European attitudes on issues such as gay marriage, acceptance of Jews and Muslims, and interest in religion. For example, according to Pew, “Majorities in all of the surveyed Western European countries favor same-sex marriage, while majorities in almost all of the Central and Eastern European countries oppose it.” Just over 73 percent of French people support gay marriage, but a gay couple may want to hold off on buying a cake in Hungary where only 27 percent support gay marriage. Central and Eastern Europeans are less willing than Western Europeans to accept Muslims and Jews into their family or as neighbors (never mind a gay Muslim or Jewish person). Perhaps Muslims and Jews in the Middle East have more in common than they realize. It may not be a coincidence that Eastern Europeans are far more religious than Western Europeans, “majorities say that being Christian – whether Catholic, Orthodox or Lutheran – is an important element of being “truly Lithuanian,” “truly Polish,” etc.” Like the United States, the EU’s constituent parts are very different.

But Change Has Come to Sweden

At first blush, Sweden may seem a homogeneous country that keeps on chugging economically and socially in a calm, never changing way. This is not true. Sweden has changed its economic policies and politics often over the years and over the last few decades has become a large recipient of immigrants. In fact, as a new paper reports, “As of 2016, about 17% of the Swedish population was foreign-born, compared to less than 7% in 1970. By comparison, the share of foreign-born in the United States was at about 13% in 2013.” So how are these immigrants doing economically? Immigrants to Sweden do relatively well when normalizing for starting income. But the paper’s author also reports, ”that immigrant children born into poor families are slightly more likely than similar natives to both reach the top of the income distribution and to stay at the bottom.” They are also considerably more likely to obtain a college degree. Immigrant children coming from “refugee-sending” countries such as Iran, Syria and Bosnia have higher incomes and inter generational mobility than other immigrants in Sweden. Why this is, is a mystery. Or, as the author says, “Further research is needed.” That is something that never changes.

We spotted him towards the back of the large event space, as always looming large just outside of the spotlight. We were attending the inaugural New Orleans Food and Funk Fest which his company was organizing in Seattle featuring chefs and musicians from New Orleans. Although we had never met him, his life had impacted ours, and countless others, in a myriad of ways, from the technology he pioneered as a young man, to his real estate endeavors that transformed the city we live in, to his research in cutting edge areas of science, to his efforts to save elephants, to his promotion of the arts, including this very festival we were attending. Years before, when our father-in-law worked for him as a janitor, he flew our father-in-law on his private plane to Portland to watch a Trail Blazers game. This night he stood quietly next to another man, perhaps a friend or bodyguard. As this most private of men saw us walking towards him, we could see a look of discomfort creep onto his face. But when we merely thanked him for organizing this festival because of our love of New Orleans, he smiled and relaxed. Both he and I expressed our admiration for the Crescent City and then we left him to his private thoughts, as we headed for alligator cheesecake and beignets. Perhaps our favorite marker of his life is the incredible diversity of friends and acquaintances lamenting his passing—musician Quincy Jones, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, comedian and fellow New Orleanphile Harry Shearer, philosopher Marshawn Lynch, rock band Pearl Jam, hack politician Newt Gingrich and many others from a panoply of life–science, sports, music and more. And, although not a friend, we too lament. RIP Paul Allen, our favorite, and this is not meant as a joke, Seattle billionaire. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, All Along Paul Allen’s Watchtower as we gaze upon and comment on our complicated world.

Like a Rolling Stone 164,765 views

We are again on the road next week. INTN is back with scary world stories on Halloween

Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.

Asia’s Most Trade Dependent Country Meets U.S.-China

As China and the U.S. continue a battle of the economic bulges, which countries may benefit? Vietnam, the most trade dependent country in Asia, as measured by exports as a percentage of GDP, is an excellent candidate. Over the last decade, Vietnam’s exports have quadrupled to well over $200 billion. According to Natixix, “Out of Vietnam’s top ten export items, eight are included in higher U.S. tariffs for China, which means that Vietnam has become a relatively more competitive location for those items via tariff arbitrage in addition to labor cost differential.” Even before the tariff war, some assembly was being moved to Vietnam because of rising labor costs in China. And, Vietnam is the fourth-largest recipient of foreign direct investment in all of Asia, behind only China, Singapore and India. Vietnam, unlike China, is seeing a decrease in the number of state-owned-enterprises (25 percent decrease since 2011), and does not have as much debt as China. Vietnam still has a rigid governance structure and perhaps someday Trump will aim his trade bazookas at this southeast nation, but for now, keep an eye on Vietnam as the U.S. and China continue to do economic battle.

Who is Winning the World Popularity Contest?

China is likely to grow in influence over the coming years, despite whatever policies are pursued by the current U.S. Administration and despite any dark roads down which President Xi may lead his country. China’s growing influence will be one of the most important factors affecting world affairs in the coming decades. Unless China moves away from authoritarianism and censorship, it won’t be an entirely benign influence. As it turns out, we are not alone in such worries. Whatever concerns people have about the United States and its current leadership (concerns we also share), there is still a clear preference over China. According to a recent Pew Global survey, “a median of 63% across the nations surveyed say having the U.S. as the world’s leading power would be better for the world. In contrast, just 19% say a world in which China was the leading power would be better.” This preference is even higher in Asia, where more than 70 percent of most countries’ residents prefer U.S. leadership to China’s. The only countries in the survey to prefer China to the U.S.? Argentina, Tunisia, and yes, of course, Russia.

Who is Getting Cyber-attacked the Most?

The last few years you may have seen a lot more news about cyberattacks—unless you’re one of the victims in which case maybe you can’t access the Internet…which I suppose means you aren’t reading this. But, which countries are victims of the most targeted attacks? The cyber security company Symantec provides some answers, including what we mean by “targeted attacks”: “an attack directed at a specific target or targets as opposed to widescale indiscriminate campaigns.” Unsurprisingly, the U.S. tops the list of countries suffering targeted attacks. But surprisingly, at least to us, India comes in second. Japan, Taiwan and Ukraine round out the top five. For malware, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand top the list. South Africa has the highest phishing rate, Saudi Arabia the highest spam rate and Ukraine, China and Indonesia suffer the highest rates of mobile malware. The whole report is worth perusing as cyberattacks are increasingly the medium of nation-state battles.

We tread trepidatiously into the roiling, boiling controversial waters of the US Supreme Court nomination to raise a, well, under raised concern. Brett Kavanaugh went to Yale. It’s not that we have anything against that prestigious institution but we would like to point out that every other US Supreme Court Justice also either attended Yale or Harvard. We’re all for more racial, ethnic and gender diversity on the court but how about some scholarly institutional diversity as well? We could point to all sorts of scientific studies on the dangers of everyone in an organization coming from a similar background, some of them perhaps even conducted by researchers at Yale and Harvard, but it should be obvious, especially in these times, how detrimental to the Republic it is to have all of our Supreme Court Justices, who hold so much power, to all come from the same caste. So let’s give someone a chance from Arizona State, or UC Davis or Willamette or some other non Ivy League school (preferably west of the Mississippi) a chance to join the mighty nine. If the voters of Washington state, or any other state for that matter, were foolish enough to elect us to the U.S. Senate, we’d vote against Kavanaugh on those grounds alone. But we expect voters around the globe will entrust us to tell you about the continued good news in our world, polluted Chinese data and who is imprisoning people. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, pounding our gavel on the under known, important data and info of our little world.

Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.

The Good Outweighs the Bad

Recently we were involved in a conversation with a few people on where a visiting Chinese professor should live in our fair region. Like my colleagues, I want to ensure the professor lives in a safe area and has a good experience. But, my colleagues talked like the Seattle region is a combination of Escape from New York and the Bride vs the Crazy 88 scene in Kill Bill 1. I tried to remind them we are living in the safest era in human history and that crime remains at historic lows.* They did not believe me and perhaps you will not believe us when we tell you that extreme poverty in the world is at an all time low so strong is the cultural zeitgeist for end-of-times thinking. But it is true. The latest World Bank findings show that “The percentage of people living in extreme poverty globally fell to a new low of 10 percent in 2015 — the latest number available — down from 11 percent in 2013.” Now there are reasons to worry. The rate of progress is slowing. And in Sub-Saharan Africa, the total number of people living in extreme poverty actually increased from 2013 to 2015, though the percentage of the extreme poor in Africa declined. There is still lots of work to do and reasons to be concerned but we should also remember, as World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said on release of this data, “Over the last 25 years, more than a billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty, and the global poverty rate is now lower than it has ever been in recorded history. This is one of the greatest human achievements of our time.” Our world is experiencing a market failure in the supply of hope and reason.

*In fact, the latest data was released this week and crime–murders, other violent crime and property crime–are all lower in 2017.  

Chinese Pollution and Polluted Data

In this space we have often expressed optimism about clean energy and prospects for soon reaching peak carbon energy usage. But if there is one recurring theme of INTN, it is that we all should be less sure of ourselves, especially, well INTN itself. We have often optimistically pointed to China’s clean energy efforts and plans but recent data shows that unfortunately their power consumption and pollution emissions are up. Industrial power consumption rose 8.8 percent year over year in August, according to China’s National Energy Administration. And Greenpeace reports that “China’s carbon emissions have risen this year by an amount that experts say is globally significant.” We are still cautiously optimistic although less so about the short term. China has been on track to meet its emission targets for the year 2030. But there are some short term worries as this data illustrates. And, of course, another worry is Chinese data itself. Some analysts point to the increases in emissions and use of power as evidence of a growing economy. But, some of these analysts claim it is also evidence of China inserting bundles of credit into the economy to prevent it from slowing. This happens at the same time China claims it is deleveraging (all the while official GDP figures maintain an eerie consistency). China’s data is more unreliable than ever, something we’ll delve into deeper in a future edition.

Help, I’m Being Held Prisoner

We have begun listening to the third season of the Serial Podcast. It focuses on the U.S. judicial system and confirms our bias that America imprisons too many people. The U.S. imprisons more people per capita than any other country in the world. But that’s fairly well known. Perhaps less famous are the other top imprisoning countries. Our World in Data tells us that El Salvador is second, followed by Turkmenistan, Thailand, Cuba and the Maldives. By contrast, the countries imprisoning the fewest people are Guinea Bissau, Faeroe Islands, the Central African Republic and Comoros which just goes to show that prison rates don’t tell the whole story of a country’s livability and success.

Context is everything. On Sunday we attended the Trombone Shorty Voodoo Threauxdown, a concert on the grounds of the zoo in Seattle. Five New Orleans bands played throughout the evening with a variety of Crescent City legends sitting in, including Kermit Ruffins, who once recognized us in the New Orleans Airport (we’ve attended many of his shows), which is perhaps the fifth-proudest moment of our lifetime. Any one who knows New Orleans, and its music, understands it is not a chamber concerto where one sits quietly and nods their heads in slight motion to the cello. This, however, did not stop the woman sitting behind us from complaining about our standing and dancing, which is perhaps the most stereotypical Seattle concert goer thing to do. Meanwhile the woman in front of us, decked out in a Clay Matthews Green Bay Packer replica jersey and hair dyed green and gold, was watching the Green Bay Packer football game on her smart phone, so engrossed in the contest that she merely flung a coat to her husband when their young son got cold, her eyes firmly on the glowing screen. Ordinarily one might have concerns about someone watching their cell phone during a concert but a) this was a bustling outdoor show and just about anything goes in New Orleans (even when in Seattle), b) the woman’s devotion to her team was very endearing and c) we too are a Green Bay Packer fan. When the sainted Aaron Rodgers threw the game winning touchdown to cap off a stunning comeback, the woman dropped to the muddy ground (it was raining through much of the concert) and raised her hands like Andy Dufrense emerging from the tunnel in the Shawshank Redemption. It was a beautiful moment as Trombone Shorty–the headliner–blew his horn and the whole crowd was on its feet swaying and dancing–save for the woman in front of us and the woman in back. So this week we give context to China’s Africa activities, Japan’s space elevator and yet another thing the world is worried about. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, neither assessing penalty points nor abusing our racket though occasionally calling “let” on the world.

Sweet and Sour Mysteries of China China’s reemergence as a global power brings with it a more assertive role on the world stage and resistance to these moves, all enveloped in the continuing mystery that is the world’s largest country. Forthwith we bring to your attention the The Strange Case of the Stolen Chinese Art and the Mysterious Unmasking of Chinese Hackers. First we point you to a fascinating article in GQ of all places about Chinese art heisted from museums around the world. The article’s author suspects the Chinese government is behind the thefts in an attempt to retrieve art the western world took from China during its down years: “In each case, the robbers focused their efforts on art and antiquities from China, especially items that had been looted by foreign armies. Many of these objects are well documented and publicly known, making them very hard to sell and difficult to display. In most cases the pieces have not been recovered; they seem to simply vanish.” Paging the Chinese equivalents of George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Second, the online tech publication Motherboard describes a mysterious group revealing the names of Chinese hackers: “Since April last year, a group calling itself ‘Intrusion Truth’ has trickled out the real names of hackers working for Chinese intelligence. Recently the group has ramped up its efforts against a Chinese operation targeting governments and businesses.” In recent years, Russia has received the lion’s (bear’s?) share of attention for cyber shenanigans, but China also has a robust cyber espionage machine, especially and including industrial cyber espionage. Now somebody is fighting back, in the form of Intrusion Truth. The golden BRIC road to the Chinese Century will be littered with such stories, mysteries and wizards. Enjoy them. It Depends on What the Meaning of “is” is There has been much talk of socialism in recent months with U.S. congressional candidates proudly claiming the moniker and others attacking them vociferously for doing so. Of course, much of this is due to a confusion of terms. Most of the candidates are not arguing for nationalizing companies but rather to adopt “social democracy” along the lines of a variety of northern European countries. And this is where we enter INTN territory. Many on the right decry these northern European countries as un-free. And yet, as Will Wilkerson points out, the Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index ranks most of these countries ahead of the United States. Denmark, Sweden and Iceland are all more economically free, according to Heritage—a conservative organization, whatever that means in this day and age—than the United States. As Wilkerson notes, they “outscore the United States in the security of property rights, ease of starting a business, openness to trade, and monetary freedom (a measure of inflation and price controls).” So which countries are “socialist” and which are “capitalist” and which are more free or less? In our estimation, 37 percent of policy misunderstandings are due to inaccurate use of labels. The Missing European Unicorn We are not a fan of the term “unicorn.” We strive to excise it wherever we find it, whether in sports, business or even Harry Potter books. But it is interesting that the EU continues to lag far behind the U.S. and China in the number of companies valued at $1 billion or more. In 2017, the U.S. had 109 such companies, China was home to 59 and Europe only 26. And Europe lags behind in companies valued at $100 million or more as well. Why? A Bloomberg article notes that the EU is still a compilation of nation-states rather than a unified whole. One grows a company in Germany but it is still difficult to expand it into France, Italy and Poland. Whereas a Chinese or U.S. company starts with a large market to begin with, no matter which province or state where it is headquartered*, and then can expand overseas. In addition, EU companies still receive less venture capital, “Last year, 3,500 European companies received a combined $19 billion in venture investment. Although that pales next to China’s $40 billion and America’s $67 billion, it’s a record for Europe and four times greater than the figure from five years ago.”  Whatever the reasons (and, of course, it is plural–don’t be seduced by the tyranny of narrative**–there are almost always multiple factors for something, not one overarching narrative), these reasons are why China and the U.S. (and perhaps some day, India) will be the drivers of global business whatever their own challenges.*** *Well, maybe not Mississippi **We hope one day to write a book about The Tyranny of Narrative, we hope you will buy it when we do ***They are many https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png 0 0 admin https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png admin2018-08-23 11:00:242018-08-25 23:04:21Sweet & Sour Mysteries of China, Definition of “Is” and Missing European Unicorns International Need to Know Your weekly source of essential, under the radar, international information and data. Subscribe Archives Over 300 International Need to Know newsletters. 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 Buy Now © 2022 Gittes Global Scroll to top Modmobilian.com: Trombone Shorty at Deluna Fest 2011 – “In Bloom” (Nirvana Cover) 592 views Last Week’s Survey Results: Nearly two-thirds of you think Aretha will be remembered with only 10 percent believing McCain will and 20 percent think neither will be remembered 200 years from now. Tough times for McCain fans. Without further ado, here’s what you need to know. China Meets Joseph Conrad China has moved upriver in the world of international investments and aid. It famously is a big player in Africa, building infrastructure and providing other sorts of aid. In fact, China’s level of aid and loans is as large as the United States. But the composition is very different as you see in the chart below from AIDDATA (a project of William and Mary—William gets all the credit but Mary does all the work). While most of U.S. expenditures in Africa take the form of aid, much of China’s is in the form of loans. The bulk of China’s efforts are in the energy sector, followed by transportation. Some  criticize China for a mercenary approach. On the other hand, just how effective has U.S. aid been over the years?* But, there are reasons to be concerned about China’s commercial activities in Africa. Case in point, a big investor in a South African newspaper is China International Television Corporation (CITVC). After the investment, a columnist wrote an article for the newspaper about the Chinese government holding more than one million Muslim Uighur’s in internment camps. He no longer has a column,  or as Joseph Conrad wrote, “It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.” *This is an honest question. Some of the aid was certainly effective, some not. Perhaps self-interested loans may have a better overall outcome? Going Up We first read about the concept of a space elevator over a decade ago. It excited our imagination but since then very little progress has been made. However, Japan is now trying to change that. Wait, what the hell is a space elevator you may ask? Well, it is a means of transporting goods back and forth via a cable tethered to the earth and reaching all the way into space. The catch is for this to work the cable needs to be very strong. Unfortunately,  progress on developing new materials for such a cable have been very slow. But according to Electronics Weekly (the world’s 352nd most exciting periodical), “Shizuoka University and contractor Obayashi aim to launch two small (10 sq cm) satellites connected by a 10m steel cable from the International Space Station.” They plan to use carbon nanotube for the cable’s material. Therein may be the catch—can they create such a material that is strong enough for these purposes? If so, the cable would transport vehicles capable of holding 30 people (though more likely they would be transporting materials). The cable would start from a platform on the sea and reach up 36,000 kilometers above earth. One assumes like more pedestrian elevators here on earth, the “open door” button won’t actually work. Here, Worry About This Because people don’t have enough anxiety as it is, Nomura Holdings has created a Damocles Index that assesses the risk of currency exchange crisis for 30 emerging markets. Their index finds that of the 30 emerging markets, seven are at risk of exchange rate crises, meaning there is doubt they have enough foreign reserves to maintain their exchange rates (those with sharp memories may remember the Asian financial crisis of 1997 when the Thai baht could no longer be pegged to the U.S. dollar). The Index gauges factors such as foreign exchange reserves, debt levels, interest rates and import cover. Any market with a score over 100 is at risk. Sri Lanka tops the riskiest markets with a score of 175 followed by South Africa, Argentina, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine. Perhaps surprisingly of the 30 emerging markets, Brazil has the least risk. Of course, that means that’s where the crisis will start. https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png 0 0 admin https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png admin2018-09-13 11:00:462018-09-13 23:59:20China Meets Joseph Conrad, Going Up, and Here, Worry about This Chinese/Korean Bakeries, Forget the Fish Eat the Tourists, and Education Levels September 6, 2018/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin We watched, either live or later online, some of both of the memorials for John McCain and Aretha Franklin. Pop quiz: which one will be more widely remembered 200 years from now? Extra credit: Which one should be more widely remembered? Which one will be more widely remembered 200 years from now? Aretha Franklin John McCain Both will be forgotten Which one should more widely remembered? Aretha Franklin John McCain Feel free to email us with more thoughts on this all important matter and we may provide answers in a future INTN edition. But more important we need to discuss our love and admiration for Jennifer Hudson. We’ve noted before in this space that she had the greatest clutch performance in music history, though Aretha’s death reminded us of a worthy contender.  But, if you did not catch Jennifer Hudson’s remarkable performance of Amazing Grace near the end of the Queen of Soul’s memorial (given it was a seven-hour service, you could easily have missed it), do yourself a favor and watch it. We are not a religious person, but it is moments like that when we feel most closely tied to humanity. As we fight off restraining orders for repeatedly watching Jennifer Hudson iconic music moments, we smell the aroma of Chinese and Korean Innovation Bakeries, advocate skipping fish and eating the tourists, and cook up some education numbers. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, hoping to arrange seating arrangements for the next icons’ memorials while dishing up international data and information. Jennifer Hudson Sings ‘Amazing Grace’ at Aretha Franklin’s Memorial Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.Chinese and Korean Innovation BakeriesFor decades, only a few countries brewed most of the world’s innovations. Or, as a new study by the IMF quantifies it, “From 1995 to 2014, three-quarters of the world’s patented innovations originated in the Group of 5 (G5) technology leaders—namely the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.” But the IMF study also notes that this is changing. It finds that China and Korea have joined the traditional R&D powers. The IMF cites two metrics illustrating this change. First is overall R&D spending: “China’s R&D spending is now second only to that of the United States ($460 billion) and is much larger than Japan’s ($150 billion). Korea, at $70 billion a year, spends close to the average of large European countries such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.” Second, the IMF looks at the number of patents (a metric we are not fond of) and the number of times new patents cite older patents, and from where. It turns out that a lot of today’s citations are increasingly citing patents from China and Korea (see second graph below). Some are worried by the rise of Asian innovation. We are not (and neither is the IMF study). Remember the world economy is not a pie with finite slices, it is a bakery. China and Korea are adding to the number of treats.Forget the Fish, Eat the TouristsMaybe a decade ago we were chatting with our Uncle in New York City, while eating a bialy, about all the tourists then inundating the city. Our Uncle, very much a wise-cracking New Yorker, turned serious and noted how all these tourists were degrading life for those living there. It was impossible to get around and markets, museums and other areas were overrun with people walking slowly, cameras at the ready. As the traditional summer tourism season closes out, we were reminded of this conversation by a column in the New York Times on Europe’s “overtourism” problems. Farhad Manjoo noted, “…the world’s most popular destinations cannot expand to accommodate an infinite flood of visitors. Advocates of curbing tourism say too many visitors are altering the character of historic cities, and making travel terrible, too.” Indeed the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO–is there an overorganization problem too?) reports that tourism in 2018 is well above forecasts, something that has been true for a number of years. In the larger picture Manjoo notes, “when the jet age began, around 25 million international trips were taken. Last year, the number was 1.3 billion.” When we were in Venice a few years ago, we noted both that it was a fabulous place to be but also that almost no one actually lives there anymore. It is no longer a city, it is a museum. Not everyone can do so but try to travel offseason and off the beaten path too. But eventually those paths will also be beaten. It is a trade-off of the world becoming wealthy.The Most Educated SocietiesWhich countries are most educated, or at least have the highest percentage of their population with a tertiary (college or above) education? It turns out Canada is number one, followed by Japan, Israel, South Korea and the U.K. The U.S. comes in number six, just ahead of Australia and Finland. All of these countries are above the OECD average of 35.7 percent. Italy, Tukey and Mexico bring up the rear among OECD countries. Note the correlation, or lack thereof, to today’s first story. 1,591,722 views https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png 0 0 admin https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png admin2018-09-06 11:00:512018-09-05 16:23:12Chinese/Korean Bakeries, Forget the Fish Eat the Tourists, and Education Levels Mighty Maya, Russia’s Rodney Dangerfield, China’s Data Problem and Japan’s Flying Cars August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin You may remember well over a year ago our young six-year-old friend, Maya (now 9???!!!), was battling cancer. Due to her resilient spirit and the good people of Seattle Children’s Hospital, Maya is cancer-free. You may also remember that the musician, Amos Lee, visited and became friends with Maya through the Melodic Caring Project, a wonderful nonprofit that “teams up with local and nationally touring artists to bring love and encouragement to children and families by streaming the healing power of music to kids in their hospital room or homes.” Last year at a sold out Benaroya Hall show, Amos debuted a song he had written for Maya called Little Light. We are happy to inform you that Amos’ new album, New Moon, drops tomorrow. On that album is the song, Little Light. It’s a ripping, inspiring, toe-tapping number that, of course, has special meaning here at the INTN worldwide headquarters. Give it a listen, clap your hands and consider buying the album and donating to the magnificent Melodic Caring Project. And as you do, we shine a little light on Russia’s Rodney Dangerfield, the real problem with Chinese data and Japan’s flying cars. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, the uplifting source of all the healthy news of our world. Amos tells the wonderful story of meeting Maya, song begins at 2:53 Amos Lee, Jefferson Center, Roanoke VA 11-1-17 652 views Without further ado, here’s what you need to know. Russia’s Rodney Dangerfield Effect Our American readers undoubtedly have strong opinions on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. But what do Russians think? As it turns out, an overwhelming majority of Russians—71 percent—“think Russia did not interfere in the American election,” according to a Pew Global survey. Russians 59 years old and older, are even more likely to think Russia is innocent of such interference (77%). Apparently Russians, especially older ones, like the current U.S. President, do not believe U.S. intelligence reports. The Pew survey is chock full of interesting data, including that 80 percent of Russians “see NATO as a military threat, with 45 percent stating it is a major threat.” Russians have also succumbed to the musical charms of Aretha Franklin with nearly two-thirds saying Russia does not get enough respect around the world. Russians are also concerned about inflation with two-thirds worried about it despite inflation rates returning to lower levels almost two years ago. High inflation, more than many economic maladies, appears to have a longer shelf-life for ETSD (Economic Traumatic Stress Syndrome).What Russians think and what is accurate are often not the same thing, but understanding what Russians believe is important, so read the whole survey. The Real Problem with China Data We originally joined Twitter to more easily follow our beloved Seattle Mariners (an unrequited love given they are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the 17th straight year). Since then we also follow a number of other Tweeters on other subjects, including China watchers. But we rarely post and even more rarely comment on others’ post. But last weekend we clicked on a link in a post to an article by Nicholas Lardy explaining worries that China’s economy is cooling because investments are down are not true.  As Lardy explains it, the methodology China has used for counting fixed asset investment has changed this year. Previously the Chinese government’s method “involved considerable double counting, which the authorities are paring back.” All well and good and a helpful explanation about investment not decreasing and makes us feel better that current Chinese growth is not slowing dramatically. But, we tweeted back, “If fixed investment was being double counted and no longer is, what does that say about economic growth when such investment was being double counted?” Nobody replied to explain. We agree with Lardy that China bears are overwrought but for China to be a true world leader, they will need more transparency, including and especially in their economy. Here’s Your Flying Cars Where are the flying cars? We’ve heard a number of people ask that who believe technological progress has been too slow.. Do not fear, the Japanese government is listening.  According to Bloomberg, Japan is working with a consortium of companies to develop flying cars in the next decade, both to alleviate traffic congestion problems and to help Japan’s industry keep up with technology. Among the companies Japan is partnering with is one just up the road from us, Boeing, as well as Uber, Toyota and others. In fact, the consortium of companies and the Japanese government met yesterday to begin “charting a road map” for the technology. Putting aside the backwards use of a metaphor,  the Japanese government push–they will set safety standards, and take care of other regulatory matters—is much needed if this new technology is to take flight soon (now that’s a more apt metaphor).   https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png 0 0 admin https://gittesglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/logo-02-300x54.png admin2018-08-30 11:00:542018-08-30 15:31:51Mighty Maya, Russia’s Rodney Dangerfield, China’s Data Problem and Japan’s Flying Cars Sweet & Sour Mysteries of China, Definition of “Is” and Missing European Unicorns August 23, 2018/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin Perhaps nothing is missing more from public life, in our discourse, on social media, in policy discussions, debates, arguments, writings and verbal jousts, than humbleness. Name the issue or the movement, and they could all use a bit more of it. People are more convinced than they should be that they are correct in their opinions. This despite life continuing to prove otherwise nearly every single day. We ourselves here at INTN are in need of more humblesness as much as anyone. For instance, we once asserted very confidently to anyone who would listen that Jim Converse would win the Cy Young Award before his career was over. Who, you may ask? Exactly. And yet even we continue to make statements like we know what is going on. And policy makers, reporters, politicians and others appear to be even more confident than we are. So we remind all of us, as we once wrote in this space over two years ago, that the three most underused and yet most accurate words in the world are, “I don’t know.” But we are sure we will describe the sweet and sour mysteries of China, question the definition of “is”, and search for the missing European unicorns. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, the world’s most humble analysis of, well, the world. Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.