Happy Sunday.
To be ITK, know this:
On this episode of Brigadoon Radio entitled "Channeling Castro," Gerald Ashley and I discuss:
+ Inflation
+ Supply chain challenges
+ Central banks moving too slowly
+ Mortgage rates
+ Depressed discretionary spending
+ How alcohol lost its cool
+ Moves by OPEC+
+ The need for nuclear energy
+ Political plays by Team Truss
+ Biden suggesting Putin is ready for Armageddon
+ How does NATO respond to a chemical attack
+ Psyops of the Russo-Ukrainian War
+ What they are reading and watching
For actionable insights, click here.
Hybrid warriors and the war in Ukraine: Two new books — by Anna Arutunyan and Samir Puri — do a fine job of placing the hostility in its larger historical, geopolitical, and social contexts. FT
+ The conflict is in its eighth month and shows no sign of ending soon.
China’s chip industry set for deep pain from US export controls: FT reports experts predict ‘tsunami of change’ for the semiconductor industry as Washington wields tools tested on Huawei.
+ @bgurley: Super dangerous game US is playing. First, our economy benefits from low-cost Chinese goods (does our gov't believe in comparative advantage?) Second, action could promote a move on Taiwan (or is this a bargaining chip in that discussion?).
The National Party Congress has long been one of the most watched political events in China, but the upcoming one is set to be even more significant. Here's what is so significant. SCMP (Video)
China’s Communist Party Congress: What it means for business: The opening speech by Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, could provide clues to policies with broad economic and financial implications. A new leadership team will be chosen. NYT
+ Get to know ‘Common Prosperity’
+ Get to know ‘Dual Circulation’
+ COVID Zero
+ Taiwan
+ New leaders
4 weeks out, Senate control hangs in the balance in tumultuous midterms: The GOP claimed the momentum in the spring. Then the overturning of Roe v. Wade galvanized Democrats. As the momentum shifts again, the final stretch of the 2022 midterms defies predictability. NYT
+ Republicans remain favored to take over the House in November, but momentum in the pitched battle for the Senate has seesawed back and forth.
+ Three states in particular — Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania — that are seen as the likeliest to change party hands have emerged as the epicenter of the Senate fight with an increasing volume of acrimony and advertising.
+ The challenge for Democrats is that they also have no margin for error. Clinging to a 50-50 Senate and a single-digit House majority, they are seeking to defy not only history but Biden’s unpopularity.
+ “With 30 days to go until Election Day, polling averages suggest Democrats and Republicans are each poised to win 50 Senate seats. Each party currently has the lead in just one seat currently held by the opposition: The Republican is slightly ahead in Nevada, while the Democrat has the lead in Pennsylvania." -- Politico's elections guru Steve Shepard on Election 2022
Would you say that things in the United States are heading in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
+ Right Direction: 29%
+ Wrong Track: 71%
HT Morning Consult
Meta has chucked $70 billion at the Metaverse.
TC: Instagram to increase ad load as Meta fights revenue decline
What I’ve been up to lately Marc Andreessen
Even after $100 billion, self-driving cars are going nowhere: They were supposed to be the future. But prominent detractors—including Anthony Levandowski, who pioneered the industry—are getting louder as the losses get bigger. Max Chafkin
+ While the industry’s biggest names continue to project optimism, the emerging consensus is that the world of robo-taxis isn’t just around the next unprotected left—that we might have to wait decades longer or an eternity.
+ Our driverless future is starting to look so distant that even some of its most fervent believers have turned apostate.
+ “You’d be hard-pressed to find another industry that’s invested so many dollars in R&D, and that has delivered so little”
+ One of the industry’s favorite maxims is that humans are terrible drivers.
+ “You think the computer can see everything and can understand what’s going to happen next. But computers are still really dumb.”
+ For now, here’s what we know: Computers can run calculations a lot faster than we can, but they still have no idea how to process many common roadway variables.
Charles Saatchi by Dave Dye.
+ He changed British creativity, global advertising, and the world of art.
+ ‘He said all his important customers won’t use the big fancy entrance on the street, they’ll come in through the little back door direct to his office.’
Wedding planners on their biggest scams: You know what your wedding doesn’t need? Doughnut walls. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry for a reason. Vox
Is there a future for late-night talk shows? Big changes are coming to the longtime staple of television programming as the genre struggles to make the leap to the streaming world. NYT
No.
Possibly yes.
Absolutely.
Welcome to the post-sneaker era: Millennials are reacting to the ubiquity of trainers by revisiting formal shoes — even with leisurewear. Grace Cook
Finally.
+ "Consider sneakers the footwear equivalent of Facebook: Somewhat passé now they’re pervasively co-opted by baby boomers and billionaires."
+ This shift is “a reaction against ubiquity”, according to Fraser Moss, co-founder of the hip British label YMC, which released a collection of Derbies, monk-straps, and Gibsons for AW22.
+ Brendon Babenzien, the founder of Noah and former creative director of Supreme, thinks a backlash was “inevitable . . . We all love sneakers, but there are limitations stylistically and creatively if sneakers are all you wear,” he says.
+ Oliver Hooson, a 32-year-old photographer in London, thinks most millennials are “sick to death of StockX” and the inflated prices that come with resale culture.
Red River beatdown: Texas’ 49-0 thumping of Oklahoma yesterday was one for the history books. The Longhorns tallied their largest victory and most points scored in the rivalry’s history while handing the Sooners their worst shutout loss in school history.
Norman, we have a problem.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Caracal produces ITK Daily.
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