Our cover and special report this week is a brilliant survey of India's economy and its prospects by Arjun Ramani and Tom Easton, well worth your time. economist.com/special-report…

It might seem like a minor story outside of Scotland/the UK, but I feel like the collapse of the SNP/Green agreement is one of the best global examples so far of a govt dropping overly-ambitious climate targets despite being very ideologically committed. theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

This is a reminder too of the selectiveness of Chinese government territorial claims. The Qing actually held (outer) Mongolia for longer than Taiwan. The ROC even vetoed Mongolian UN membership and didn't recognise it until 2002!

Dreadful news. Still, I believe in Britain and I think with a concerted effort we can get this number down to 10 or 11.

Good piece here. China's property bubble, with all of it's excesses and absurdities, was on show for everyone to see. None of the vulnerabilities were hidden. The only thing that's come as a surprise is the govt's willingness (so far) to derail the train.
wsj.com/real-estate/ch…

I had a colleague, who will remain nameless, who said that she repeated anything an English person said back to herself in her head to decide whether it was actually clever, or just the accent.

In an American election year, with both parties about as prioritised with US manufacturing as they've been in recent decades, a stronger dollar is a dangerous thing.
economist.com/finance-and-ec…

The Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of Peacemakers (1996). Not because of what it was, but because I had picked up the habit of saying 'summat' for 'something,' which my parents were trying to get me to stop doing. I was incensed that Bill Clinton was allowed to say summat and I wasn't.

The outer boroughs slowly becoming London's ungovernable Zomia. The command of the imperator does not extend to the distant highlands of Hillingdon.

40% of staff at an elderly nursing home in Fukuoka are from overseas. Several mention the weak yen makes it harder to send money home. The nursing home operator says it will go out of business if can't recruit and retain foreign staff. yotemira.tnc.co.jp/news/articles/…

Mike Bird We’re gonna need a bigger moat

Global auto industry execs like

My Buttonwood column from last week's edition: why the stock market is disappearing, and why that's still a bad thing

economist.com/finance-and-ec…

We all used to laugh at Evergrande's electric vehicle ambitions in 2018-2020, but honestly the expansion of the sector since then makes me think the Three Red Lines were all that stopped them being on the roads already.

Moody Singapore sunset