Why drought management is no longer optional. How the Kremlin’s propaganda machine is outpacing the EU – with serious consequences. Why the Chinese property market could be in for a hard landing. Some experts’ reflections on the pros and cons of remote working. Making the right decision isn’t as rational a process as we might think is.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Ibrahim Thiaw, Confronting the Growing Drought Risk
(Project Syndicate, 22 July 2022)
Owing to climate change and land degradation, droughts are becoming more frequent, more severe, and more widespread. This article focuses on the issue of building national and regional risk-management systems that can endure what is coming and also discusses drought management systems in countries as different as India and the US. It does not address the investment dimension, but drought risk should now be on the radar screen of any investor for it can affect dramatically the value of a business (metered paywall that may require prior registration – reads in 6-7 min).
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Mark Scott and Ilya Gridneff, Putin’s propaganda machine hammers EU while Brussels sleeps
(Politico, 25 July 2022)
The Russian foreign minister just toured Africa, blaming Europe for the global food crisis, the EU chief diplomat’s response was to publicly push back against the Russian narrative. The outcome: Borrell garnered just one mention on Facebook while Lavrov had a tidal wave of coverage. The sad truth: in the fast-evolving disinformation battle between Russia and the EU, the latter is outmatched, outgunned and under-resourced to combat the Kremlin’s sophisticated playbook. Read on to understand why and grasp what some of the consequences might be (metered paywall – reads in about 10 min).
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Martin Farrer, China property sales could plunge by one-third, analysts say, as crisis deepens
(The Guardian, 27 July 2022)
This year, according to S&P, Chinese property sales could fall by about one third, spelling more trouble for the country’s giant real estate sector. This is twice as bad as the rating agency had forecast a few months ago and is announced at the same time as reports that the government might be preparing an industry bailout of 300bn yuan ($44bn). The fear is that contagion from weakening sales and loss of confidence could take down previously solid companies (free access – reads in 6-7 min).
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Rani Molla, The future of remote work, according to 6 experts
(VOX, 24 July 2022)
Remote work will not go away. However, there are several ways to make it better and more commonplace, and to ensure that it doesn’t harm more than it helps. Six prominent experts discuss the fine line that exists between arguing for remote work and arguing yourself out of a job, how remote work makes employees less visible and forces them to find other ways to let those higher-up know they exist, and more (metered paywall – reads in 7-8 min).
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Russ Roberts, How to Make a Decision When There’s No ‘Right’ One
(The New York Times, 21 July 2022)
The author of the forthcoming book “Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us” uses Darwin’s problem with a critical decision he had to make (to marry or not to marry) to explain how we should proceed when facing such a conundrum. When it comes to the big decisions of life, rational choices based on minuses and pluses can lead us astray. In fact, there isn’t a rational route to the right decision. Life is about more than just the sum of the day-to-day pleasures and pains that follow from our choices: we want purpose – and meaning. We want to belong to something larger than ourselves (gifted article behind a paywall – reads in 7-9 min).
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