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Writer's pictureJohn Foulis

Newsletter 28th June 2020

The "Let's go to the beach, all of us" edition



Meet the new boss, different from the old boss


We start with some heady stuff from INSEAD and the HBR. It seems to be a metaphor but to be honest I'm only pretending to have understood it. Perhaps you'll have better luck.


More practical advice from the world of poker to help you think under pressure, from the world of teenage girls to help you organise your thoughts, and from simple companies to help you get the most out of meetings.


After all that you can try to work out whether you are a keen, tough or edgy leader. They all sound quite cool really.



I'll not go if you don't go


,Who doesn't love a parade? I don't know, but I do know who really loves one and that's Vlad Putin. He finally got his corona-postponed shindig on the streets of Moscow, just a week before the referendum which will make him leader pretty much forever.


Hopefully one of the things he'll be doing is renewing one of the last vestiges of arms control.



What is it good for?

Lockdown hasn't managed to stop the conflicts raging across the globe.


In a rare example of something possibly good emerging from the Trump administration, sanctions on Syria could turn the screws on Assad. Maybe they named the act that to get Trump to sign it.


There don't seem to have been further fisticuffs in Ladakh this week but both sides may be at fault diplomatically. China hasn't taken good care of its relationship with India, and India has neglected its neighbours.


The civil war in Libya is attracting the attentions of both Turkey and Egypt.


And the Saudis still can't find a way out of Yemen.



Both, can I choose both?


When you first immerse yourself in the world of economics it's easy to be impressed by the stentorian pronouncements of the big guns, especially if they carry the imprimatur of a Nobel Prize. Then at some point you think "Hang on" and you realise the trot out the same thought pieces every time. Of course that doesn't necessarily make them wrong, so if we don't reshape capitalism it's back to the 70s for us, and if you thought 2009 was a credit crisis, well this is a credit crisis.


After that it's nice to read a bit of optimism, especially if it's about places where you don't always find it. It's part of a book plug but here is a positive take on Africa's prospects. (I'm not too proud to admit I didn't know there was an African free trade area.) There are solid facts to support the assertion that Italy's economy is sound, at least if you ignore legacy debt repayments. And someone is even prepared to make a case for a future for the WTO.



Bols Up


Our authoritarian friends have also been busy.


For fans of Jair, here is a comprehensive summary of the pig's ear he's made of the Corona crisis.


The government in Poland continues it's efforts in the race with Orban to see who can be the first non-democratic member of the EU.



Not my corona

Remember how one of the first conclusions of the crisis was that lockdown would drive us all to drink? Well, it may not be true.


But if you want to get with the latest, and healthier, lockdown craze you've got to get porching.


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