Managerial Insights
US and China: signs of dialogue. Yet the Deep Chill Remains
On November 15, Xi Jinping and Joe Biden finally met in San Francisco. The chosen setting was the villa that served as the set for "Dynasty," and the occasion was the APEC summit, an organization that brings together many countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. The last time the two presidents spoke was in November of last year, on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali, while the last time Xi Jinping was in the United States dates back to 2017 when he was received by then-President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Given the upcoming American presidential elections, Joe Biden could become the first US president ...
REIstat: A Price Index for the Italian Residential Sector
When we connect to any platform, we know at every moment the trends in stock market prices and thus understand the valuation that the community provides of publicly-traded companies. Around the world, there is another asset which is quantitatively even more significant than corporate assets: real estate. In part, real estate is indirectly assessed by the stock market for the portion of assets used as instruments for the production of goods and services. However, a large part remains outside this assessment, for example concerning the vast majority of homes. This is especially true in a country ...
New Scenarios of Globalization from Beijing to New Delhi
The summer that just ended was a very active one for the diplomacies of emerging countries, marked by two major summits, the BRICS summit in Johannesburg and the G20 summit in New Delhi. What has changed for the global economy? It seems like quite a lot, but what is particularly surprising is the transformation that occurred in the two weeks between the two summits, during which Beijing quickly withdrew from the stage. Indeed, while President Xi Jinping of China was a protagonist in Johannesburg, he was not seen in New Delhi. For some, this was considered a strategic withdrawal to express dissatisfaction ...
The Crisis in the Middle East and the Chinese Balancing Act
After Hamas's fierce attack on Israel, Beijing called for "calm and an end to hostilities to protect civilians and avoid further deterioration of the situation." On the same day, President Xi Jinping met with a delegation of U.S. senators, the first since 2019, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement was reinforced with condemnation of "all violence and attacks on civilians." However, despite pressure by the United States, China did not explicitly name the Palestinian political-military organization considered terrorist by many states and the European Union. Rather, after the bombings of ...
On the Silk Road... and Back?
Ten years of the New Silk Road, or rather, the Belt and Road Initiative, as our foreign colleagues suggest calling it to avoid imbuing the aggressive worldwide infrastructure investment program launched by Xi Jinping himself in September 2013 with exotic charm. Since then, over 150 countries have joined the trillion-dollar project that has helped expand the trade and influence of the People's Republic in the rest of the world. But times have changed. The leader himself is now cautious about overseas investments, not to mention Chinese citizens who simply cannot understand how, in times of economic ...
Digital Euro: Moving Forward with Caution and 'Education'
Do we need a digital euro? The answer is affirmative if the ECB keeps its promise to create a complementary public currency that will be useful for European citizens, and also enhance effectiveness from both a monetary policy and banking supervision perspective. We must move forward, but with caution. A middle ground must be found between the skeptical positions of those who, out of ignorance or convenience, do not see the need for this innovation and, on the other extreme, the superficial enthusiasm of those who see the digital euro as the sole currency of the future, replacing both physical ...
2023: Escape from Beijing?
"Foreign investments are welcome, and China's doors will be even more open than before," said then-Vice Premier Liu He at this year's exclusive Davos forum. Less than a month earlier, President Xi Jinping had declared, "We must ensure that foreign investments already in the country remain here and work to attract others of high quality." However, despite the words the Chinese leadership has used for months seeking to reassure foreign businessmen and investors, the uncertainty about the direction the world's second-largest economy is taking runs so deep that it is undermining confidence in the ...
The Sentimental Re-education of Businesses
On April 20th, the experimental launch of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, took place. This rocket is intended to return humans to the moon and possibly to Mars. The launch was followed live by millions of people and received extensive media coverage. Just minutes after liftoff, the rocket lost control and was made to explode. In the now long history of space flights, this was not the first unsuccessful launch. So, there should be no surprise, except for that right after the explosion, the employees of SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, reacted with a long applause. The images ...
Dangerous Liaisons: Digital Bank, Social Networks, and Financial Instability
Being constantly connected is harmful to the mind, common sense tells us. However, it can also be very harmful to the wallet, as suggested by what happened with the four recent bank failures: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, and Credit Suisse. Three cases in America and one in Europe share a common lesson: regulation and oversight must be proactive. It is necessary to eliminate the possibility of conducting unlimited digital banking operations in terms of time or amount and to be very cautious about the rules for introducing the digital Euro. A couple of months after ...
In China It’s Full (Demographic) Winter
China has aged before becoming wealthy. A lengthy reportage by the Financial Times from Rudong, the county with the highest percentage of elderly people,[1] describes well the demographic nightmare that the People's Republic is facing. In the late 1960s, it was so populous that it was chosen as a pilot area for the one-child policy; today, sixty years later, nearly 40% of its inhabitants are over sixty years old. As a result, schools are closing, existing factories struggle to find workers, and the majority of the population lives on rather meager pensions. In Rudong, the percentage of elderly ...