标题: 2022.09.08 中国的问题不是通胀 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-9-9 19:16 标题: 2022.09.08 中国的问题不是通胀 Britons awoke to the first day of national mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, while tributes poured in from foreign leaders. The queen died on Thursday, aged 96, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Britain’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch acceded to the throne in 1952 and led Britain, and the Commonwealth, through a period of intense change. Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, died in April 2021. Her funeral is likely to take place on September 19th.
The queen’s eldest son, Charles, has succeeded her as monarch. King Charles III is expected to address the country on Friday evening, having met with Liz Truss, the new prime minister, whom his mother appointed just three days ago. In a statement the king said that the royal family would be “comforted and sustained” by its “knowledge of the respect and deep affection” in which the queen was held.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, celebrated the counter-offensive launched by his country’s armed forces, saying that 1,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory and “dozens of settlements” had been reclaimed from Russian forces since September 1st. Meanwhile Antony Blinken, the American secretary of state, promised a further $2.2bn in military financing for Ukraine and other countries deemed at risk of Russian aggression.
The euro rose back above parity with the dollar, following the European Central Bank’s decision to sharply increase rates to temper euro-zone inflation. The dollar, which has served as a safe harbour for investors fleeing the euro and pound, fell in value by 0.95% against a basket of major currencies.
North Korea passed a law enshrining its right to have nuclear weapons and to protect itself “automatically” by using them in pre-emptive strikes. Kim Jong Un, the country’s leader, said that the law means the country will never denuclearise. International observers suspect that North Korea is preparing to resume nuclear testing, for the first time since 2017. Sanctions have failed to discourage it.
India, the world’s biggest exporter of rice, restricted its international sale in an effort to safeguard domestic supply. From Friday a 20% duty will be applied to most grades (though not basmati). Shipments of “broken rice”, eaten in some parts of Africa but otherwise feedstock, were banned outright. The tax will squeeze global food prices, already inflated by the war in Ukraine, and drive demand towards Thailand and Vietnam.
America’s Department of Justice said it would appeal against a judge’s order to appoint an independent arbiter to review documents seized from Donald Trump’s estate in Florida. The former president had requested the review, claiming the material was covered by executive privilege and should therefore be withheld from investigators looking into his handling of classified material.
Fact of the day: 20%, the amount by which the dollar has climbed over the past year. Read the full story.
The queen’s death: what happens now
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
For years the days following the death of Queen Elizabeth II have been subject to meticulous planning, under the codename “London Bridge”. According to the plan there will be ten days of mourning between the queen’s death and funeral, during which most official business will be suspended.
The queen’s successor, King Charles III, will broadcast to the nation today. He will be formally proclaimed by the Accession Council tomorrow. After that the plan calls for a tour of the kingdom. His mother will lie in state in Westminster Hall for four days, during which time thousands are expected to file past her coffin. Her funeral is expected on September 19th. The new king will be crowned ceremonially months later.
Elizabeth’s impossible act to follow
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Crowned on June 2nd 1953, Queen Elizabeth was Britain’s longest-serving monarch. The first of her 15 prime ministers was Winston Churchill; the last, Liz Truss, was sworn in just a few days ago. Elizabeth presided over an era of dramatic change in her country’s fortunes. Having acceded to the throne of a fading empire, she leaves behind a fissiparous, barely united kingdom. Yet she maintained a dignified silence through it all, as the constitution demanded. Only rarely did she hint at her own views; over the referendum in 2014 on Scottish independence, for instance, warning her subjects to “think very carefully” before voting.
The troughs of her reign were often caused by familial impropriety: the miserable marriage of Charles and Diana; the involvement of Prince Andrew in a transatlantic sex scandal. That the monarchy as an institution remained so popular was mostly down to Elizabeth’s personal example of duty and self-discipline, qualities less obvious in many family members. Queen Elizabeth II will be an almost impossible act to follow. Nonetheless, according to the line of succession, Charles has now become king.
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Musk v Twitter
PHOTO: REUTERS
Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter smacked of recklessness and mercuriality from the off. Witness his baiting of the social-media firm’s board to his U-turn in July, when he sued Twitter to exit the purchase agreement. His argument that the company had misrepresented the extent of its spam accounts seemed, to many, a flimsy excuse to abandon a deal on which he had simply soured. In May Mr Musk texted one of his bankers that the bid “wouldn’t make sense…if we’re heading into world war three”, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But August brought a fillip to Mr Musk’s case. Twitter’s former security chief, Peiter Zatko, filed a whistleblower complaint alleging lax data privacy at the company, as well as bots aplenty. On Friday Mr Musk’s lawyers will question Mr Zatko under oath. Twitter, however, alleges that Mr Musk wanted out because he feared overpaying. Mr Musk will have to prove that bots amounted to a “material adverse effect” on the business—a high legal bar. The trial proper starts on October 17th.
China’s problem is not inflation
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Ask an investor to name the world’s most pressing economic problem, and many would say inflation. But that worry is largely absent from the world’s second-biggest economy. Figures released on Friday showed that China’s consumer-price inflation fell to 2.5% in August, compared with a year earlier, still comfortably below the government’s ceiling of 3%.
The price of pork, a key economic indicator in China, has begun to level off and fuel costs have peaked. Price pressure elsewhere in the economy remains subdued. The unremitting threat of lockdowns in response to covid-19 outbreaks is depressing confidence and spending. The debt distress of China’s property developers is undermining home sales, which is only deepening the distress. Even exports, which have propped up China’s growth this year, have slowed sharply. China does not have the world’s inflation problem, but it has a world of problems all of its own.
Tackling Europe’s energy crisis
PHOTO: DPA
Another crisis, another emergency European Union meeting. On Friday it is the turn of national energy ministers. Europe is grappling with mind-boggling fuel prices. Economy-wide spending on gas and electricity could balloon from €200bn ($199bn) before the crisis to €1,400bn, or almost 10% of EU-wide GDP, over the next 12 months. Policymakers need to find ways to help households and businesses through an expensive winter, and to do so in a co-ordinated fashion, since gas and electricity markets across the continent are linked.
The ministers will discuss proposals by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to try to reduce peak electricity demand during morning and evening hours. The hope is to bring prices down, and to redistribute to consumers excess profits made by power, oil, and gas businesses. But ministers face a dilemma. The less they meddle with prices, the stronger the incentives for households and firms to cut back on energy use. But clawing back profits to help hard-hit consumers is justified, too.
Daily quiz
Our baristas will serve you a new question each day this week. On Friday your challenge is to give us all five answers and, as important, tell us the connecting theme. Email your responses (and include mention of your home city and country) by 1700 BST on Friday to QuizEspresso@economist.com. We’ll pick randomly from those with the right answers and crown one winner per continent on Saturday.
Friday: Which vehicle, first introduced at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, is Ford’s longest-produced car brand?
Thursday: What is the term for the smallest unit of information in a computer?
The winners of last week’s crossword
Thank you to everyone who took part in our new weekly crossword, published in the weekend edition of Espresso. The winners, chosen at random from each continent, were:
Asia: Yumi Arim, Tokyo, Japan
North America: Corien Kershey, Ottawa, Canada
Central and South America: Sebastian Agudelo-Restrepo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Europe: Sven Nilsson, Copenhagen, Denmark
Africa: Paul Leigh, Pretoria, South Africa
Oceania: Roberta MacDonald, Runaway Bay, Australia
They all gave the correct answers of Rosetta Stone, Rwanda, toxic and empire. Check back tomorrow for this week’s crossword.