Recommended Weekend Reads: December 2-4, 2022
We wanted to share a few of the research pieces and notable news stories that caught our eye in the past week. We hope you find it interesting and useful. And please let us know if you would like to add someone to our distribution list.
· “How to Avoid a New Cold War Over Critical Minerals” by Cullen Hendrix, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics for Foreign Policy
Will the 21st century be the century of the “green great game?” Nations are racing to convert from oil-fueled economies, and having access to critical minerals supply chains is becoming more intense by the day. To prevent a return to the zero-sum logic of the Cold War, those supply chains need to be widened.
· “Meet Europe’s Coming Military Superpower: Poland” Politco Europe
Warsaw is turning to major arms deals with South Korea to establish supremacy in Continental Europe as Russia’s war on Ukraine continues on one side, and the rest of the EU is failing to seriously ramp up their military capabilities on the other.
“Why Didn’t More Reporters See This Coming? How SBF sweet-talked the media” New York Magazine
One of the crucial prongs of Sam Bankman-Fried’s big con was his co-opting of the press, which turned out to be very easy for him. Manipulating journalists was a cinch — so few of us actually know how to write about anything having to do with crypto — and he threw money all over an industry that’s notoriously cash-starved. Now, any members of the mendicant media who have ties to him or helped launder his phony philosophies are acting sheepish, pointing fingers, or insisting they barely knew the guy. Here is how he did and who he did it with.
· “Navigating geoeconomic risk: toward an international business risk and resilience monitor” by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Geoeconomics is the new reality in which European and global businesses operate. From financial sanctions and trade embargoes to rival state-sponsored technology theft and anti-competitive practices, European companies face an urgent need to understand, assess, anticipate and mitigate a whole new range of risks. As state actors play a central role in both enacting geoeconomic measures and responding to them, the need for new forms of public-private partnership and collaboration is likewise rising.
# # #
Chart of the Week: Africa Is the Worst at Collecting Taxes
According to the OECD, African countries have the lowest rate of tax revenues in the world: 16 percent of GDP vs. other OECD countries (which come in at an average of 33.5 percent) Last week, United Nations members agreed to a resolution submitted by Nigeria on behalf of the 54 member states of the Africa Group to start talks on fundamental changes to how taxes are collected globally. The proposal would establish a UN tax convention and a new global tax body. This is something a number of developing countries have long sought but have faced resistance from developed countries.
