The rate of overbuilding by UK telecoms providers has been flagged as a cause for concern by challenger provider CityFibre, saying the market could regress to a duopoly of the biggest companies.

CityFibre founder and CEO Greg Mesch said the current rate of overbuilding, especially by Openreach and Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), is good news for the UK consumer given the better availability and choice afforded them butregressing to a market duopolycould lead to stifled innovation in the networking industry.

The only people that are building over each other are these two, and they naturally should because we're overbuilding them, and they have to upgrade their network, said Mesch speaking at Connected North 2022. The reason they're having to upgrade the network is that we're going to take all the customers. It's quite simple. Were going to take them all unless they upgrade.

So, the only overbuilding is really taking place is by Virgin, and suddenly ah, me too, I'm going to upgrade. Openreach: me too, I'm fibre first, which is fantastic for you, the UK nation, the UK citizens. But to be very, very clear, the world will not look very good if it's re-monopolised and the only providers are these two. It wont look good again.

Overbuilding is a practice in the telecoms industry whereby one provider will build a network where a competing provider already has one. If Openreach already had an active network in Prestwich, Manchester, for example, and VMO2 decided to build there after the fact, this would be known as overbuilding.

Overbuilding provides additional options for consumers but brings with it concerns of market dominance given the cost of building is so prohibitive.

Paul Kells, director of network strategy and engineering at VMO2, said its rate of overbuilding is currently at 30%, that the situation is being monitored very closely, but its not something thats concerning us at the moment.

Mesch also claimed the incumbent broadband providers in the UK didnt have investment plans for fibre infrastructure before challenger brands like CityFibre were introduced to the market.

Matthew Hemmings, managing director of fibre and network delivery at Openreach, refuted the claim, saying that Openreach had focused on delivering widely available superfast broadband before targeting fibre builds.

We've been investing billions in our network for years, said Hemmings. What we focused on is Openreach, not BT. Openreach has taken our network as fast as we can, and we delivered superfast for over 95% of the UK.

That's one of the fastest superfast roll outs in the world and we think it brought greater availability to a broader population as possible in a very quick timeframe, he added. Now we agree the future of is fibre and we're getting on with building fibre across the UK as possible.

Mesch added that Ofcom needs to ensure challenger providers survive because as long as we survive, they will invest massively. He said the UKs service-based economy is reliant on internet delivered by pure fibre infrastructure and to maintain a strong digital economy, strong internet needs to be prioritised through the enablingof competition.

Mesch suggested that competition is also under threat given the prohibitive cost of building new networks. All panellists at the Connected North 2022 event - Openreach, VMO2, and CityFibre - agreed that a shortage of skilled labour is driving up the costs of building.

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We definitely are competing with Virgin and Openreach all the time for labour resource, and we're doing something that's silly which is: I go after a contractor that Openreach has, and I get them over on my pitch, and then we pay him money. And then Openreach comes along and says no, I want them back to my pitch and he pays them a little more, said Mesch.

So, we're just chasing around the same labour pool and we're driving up wages, and it's, you know, nutty stuff, he added. But I guess that's what you do in a competitive, challenging environment with scarce resources.

Matthew Hemmings, managing director of fibre and network delivery at Openreach, said the company is trying to bring in 4,000 new workers every year to meet the demand for skilled labour that can install the fibre networks needed in the UK.

We've got everybody - butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, coming into our trading schools and 16-17 weeks later, they're coming out and then we're putting them in the field and turned them into fibre joiners and cablers.

Kells agreed that resources are scarce but added that VMO2 doesnt need a large resource base to upgrade its fixed fibre network. Kells admitted the resource strain is most felt in the companys expansion programme which involves the building of new networks altogether, rather than maintaining existing ones.

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Dear Editor,

To understand the ongoing brutal contretemps between representatives of the Guyanese and Trinidadian business community we need to do so from a class perspective.

A significant component of the Guyanese capitalist class of the pre-independence era had their genesis in older family businesses who were dominant in the mercantile, timber, saw-milling and mining enterprises as well as the agricultural and services sectors.

This component was represented by the Muneshwers, the Sankars, the Raymans, the Baichandeens, the Deygoos/Boyers, the Thanis and the Kirpalanis, the Tangs, Kwang Hing and Yong Hing, and the Majeeds, among others. They had been competing with, but eventually replaced the Portuguese businessmen and others including, JP Santos, the Willemses, the de Caireses, the Davsons, the Abdelnours,and the Eliases, save for the DAguiars in the brewery and rum industries, the Bettencourts in hand bag-making, the Fernandes, in shipping and land transportation and the Meckdecis in mining and land transportation. They were considered the Old Guard of the pre-independence business era.

Later came a number of Indian nationals including the Mohans, the Bhojwanis, and many others. By that time a new generation of Guyanese businessmen had sprung up, they were heirs of older businesses belonging to the Kissoons, the Seepersaud-Marajs, the Alim-Shahs, the Sankars, the Persauds, the Jaikarrans, the Nagar Sawh, the Jaigobins, the Mazaharallys, the Boyer/Deygoos, the Beepats, the Puris, the Gafoors, and Lysons whose rise to prominence came in the early post-independence era.

Some in this new wave of Guyanas capitalist class took to the manufacturing sector, while others entered into the services sector and wholesale and retail business. But many were birthed when the PPP Government of 1957 -1964 established the first industrial estate at Ruimveldt. This crop of post-independence entrepreneurs ruled the roost for a number of decades.

In pre-independent Guyana, the capitalist class was dominated by foreigners including the Booker Group, WM Forgarty, Sandbach-Parker and Wieting and Richter among others.

They co-existed with the nascent local petit bourgeois and entrepreneurial class beginning from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s when they were severely routed by the 1962-1964 disturbances. Many, especially the Portuguese business elite fled the country. From the early 1970s to mid-1980s, rigged elections, the emergence of a dictatorship who pursued a policy of ownership and control of the commanding heights of the economy squeezed many out of business.

The growth and development of market forces in Guyana was stymied during the 1970s and early 1980s as a result of the mismanagement of the economy, a heavy debt burden, as well as the marginalization and near destruction of the business community.

Compounding what eventually became an economic crisis, was the severe shortage of foreign exchange and the concomitant restrictions imposed on imported goods

Under these conditions, many businessmen opted to engage in illicit financial, economic and trade activities claiming it was for the good of the country when in fact it was clearly aimed at blatant profiteering by exploiting the weaknesses of a tottering economy and a corrupt and degenerate political apparatus.

The mid-1980s saw a marked freeing up of market forces when the once faltering economy received a shot in the arm by the then Hoyte administration.

Through privatization of a number of state entities and properties, Hoyte sought, on the one hand, to incubate another hue of the business class while on the other, attacking what remained of the Portuguese business community labeling them the Putagee mafia.

When Hoytes newly minted businessmen emerged, they opportunistically sought to flaunt their political allegiance unabashedly by establishing Committees for the Re-election of the President (Hoyte) at home and abroad

Thus from the 1990s to 2015 and much later, another genre of Guyanese capitalists had sprung up. Viewed as separate but intersecting components of the Guyanese business class they morphed into a larger body resulting in a tectonic shift in the history and evolution of the business community in Guyana.

Seven years later, with the assumption to office by the freely elected PPP/C government, the new administration declared: A new government will reshape its economic agenda with emphasis on social policy. The PPP/C government will do all in its power to promote local business and the development of an economy in which Guyanese businessmen play a significant role. To expand the base of local businesses while at the same time seeking to attract foreign capital.

The PPP/C government went on to state; It will provide generous tax holidays and other incentives to encourage local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the development of resource-based manufacturing industries in all areas.

Having laid down its economic development policy, the capitalist old guard looking to earn some extra money in the new dispensation, seized the opportunity to assert themselves, while the new breed of capitalists wasted no time enriching themselves mightily by leveraging a combination of political and social platforms at their disposal.

Meanwhile, their Trinidadian counterparts, buoyed by cheap energy and powered by a dynamic oil and gas industry, had consolidated their economic power and political influence in the twin-island republic.

They had made significant progress with the support of venture capital in the manufacturing and services sector because of cheap energy.

Exports of goods and services accounted for a significant portion of the twin-islands GDP. The islands private sector was poised to assume an aggressive role within the CARICOM market flooding the internal markets of Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana with Made in Trinidad products and effectively swamping the domestic markets of the Eastern Caribbean countries.

Here in Guyana, the business community was woefully lagging behind with reliance solely on bauxite, gold timber and agricultural exports including rice and sugar. But the Guyanese capitalist class had already lost almost two decades in terms of its growth and development when compared to the rapid development of their counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago.

In the meanwhile, another genre of the Guyanese business class had emerged, their genesis was the middle class, a growing cadre of young professionals and petit bourgeois elements. Many came from rich and super rich families in the mining and farming communities including the rice and sugar industries. I call them the Young Upstarts. Afflicted by a grow up at all costs mentality, they emerged at a time when oil and gas was discovered in Guyana.

It was this group that aggressively challenged their Trinidadian counterparts who they viewed as a threat to their share of the pie as exemplified in Guyanas oil and gas industry.

These Upstarts are part of modern capitalism who spend large portions of their lives on-line and in an era of innovation and opportunity that gives them space allowing them to morph into a physical force impacting policy formulation at the level of cabinet and government as a whole.

At the centre of this maelstrom is this group of young, wealthy and charismatic business executives who have declared themselves capable of positioning their companies to take advantage of an economy that is rapidly developing. They have demonstrated extraordinary levels of boldness and ambition and a willingness to bet big as reflected in the US$300M Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base Facility.

As Guyanas economy continues to move at breathtaking speed, the fight for space in Guyanas oil and gas industry between the Guyanese and Trinidadian business class reached new heights with the passage of the Local Content legislation and when spokespersons on behalf of government made statements backing the upstarts in their fiery resentment and quest to restrict the aggressive inroads by the Trinidadian business class in Guyanas oil and gas services sector.

The class struggle has already manifested itself at CARICOM Heads of Government meetings, it will undoubtedly, reach the confines of the CCJ.

Yours faithfully,

Clement J. Rohee

See the rest here:

A class perspective on the contretemps between the Guyanese and Trinidadian business communities - Stabroek News

AP Photo/Anna Ogorodnik

Siberias seasonal wildfires burned more than 91,000 acres last week even as local lakes remained frozen, creating smoke plumes so large they turned skies pink in the Western U.S., according to The Washington Post.

Its an alarming sign for Russia, which usually relies on the countrys ground troops and aerial transport to support its forestland firefighters, the Post reported. And the past few years in Siberia have seen raging blazes across the regions vast reaches of peatland and taiga forests.

But while this year is likely to be a fiery one for Siberia, those extra resources probably wont be available, according to the Post.

Theres no question that Ukraine has been a huge drain on the ground resources for Russia, Col. Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Post.

They moved a lot of troops outside of the country. Any troops that are going back are pretty beat-up, Cancian said, adding that these fires are going to be harder to fight.

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. Were Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin.Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Today well look at how Russias decision to cut gas supplies to two NATO members has E.U. leaders crying blackmail. Then well look at a failed attempt by shareholders to get big banks to move off new fossil fuel financing.

Polish officials accused Russia of seeking to foster divisions among Western allies following Moscows decision to shut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday, the BBC reported.

Politicians in Warsaw and Sofia went so far as to describe Moscows move as blackmail, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end, according to the BBC.

Unjustified and unacceptable: Von der Leyen likewise referred to the shutdown as yet another attempt by Russia to use gas an instrument of blackmail, stressing in a statement that this is unjustified and unacceptable.

She vowed that the EU would continue to work with international partners to identify alternative sources of natural gas, adding that a coordinated E.U. response was in the works, as our colleague Caroline Vakil reported for The Hill.

What happened? Russia halted supplies of gas to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday, while threatening to do the same other countries, The Associated Press reported.

State-controlled energy giant Gazprom declared that it was shutting off these supplies because those countries refused to pay for gas in rubles, as President Vladimir Putin had demanded, according to the AP.

Blackmail vs. payment dispute: Denying claims that the move was blackmail, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a conference call that Moscow only required a transition to a new payment system, according to CNN.

Peskov blamed the situation on unprecedented unfriendly steps in the economy and financial sector undertaken against us by unfriendly countries, CNN reported.

Suspicious timing: But the move occurred just a day after the U.S. and other Western allies agreed to provide heavier weapons to Ukraine driving up gas prices in Europe the same day, the AP reported.

Poland has become a critical gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, while Bulgarias new liberal government has severed many previous ties to Moscow.

POLAND, BULGARIA NOT YET IN DIRE STRAITS

Russias decision to cut off gas to Poland and Bulgaria will not immediately lead to energy shortages for the two countries, according to the AP.

Poland, for example, has been working for years to identify other sources of energy, and summer weather will make gas less critical for households, the AP reported.

Nonetheless, Warsaw was due to receive a sizable gas delivery from Gazprom that will need to be replaced, James Huckstepp of S&P Global Commodity Insights told The Wall Street Journal.

Possible retaliation: Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described the gas shutdown as retaliation for Polands Tuesday announcement that it would be sanctioning 50 Russian individuals and firms, including Gazprom, the BBC reported.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, meanwhile, said appropriate legal steps would be taken against Gazprom, according to the BBC.

Bulgarias situation is worse: Bulgaria gets more than three-quarters of its gas from Russia, and in comparison to Poland, the country has far fewer options to replace that resource, according to the Journal.

A pipeline to Greece through which the country intends to import gas from Azerbaijan has faced numerous delays, Tom Marzec-Manser of the ICIS analytics firm told the Journal.

An economic weapon: Despite these uncertainties, Bulgarias Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said on Wednesday that his country had sufficient gas in storage for the coming month, according to the Journal.

Because all trade and legal obligations are being observed, it is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war, Nikolov said.

Shareholders at three of the nations largest banks Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo voted down a proposal on Tuesday that would have spelled the beginning of the end for financing new fossil fuel developments, according to the Sierra Club, a principal sponsor.

Management at all three banks opposed the proposals, all of which failed.

But the Sierra Club,like others in the coalition of nonprofits and faith-based organizations that sponsored the proposal, is still counting it as a landmark win.

By the numbers: Just less than 13 percent of shareholders at Citi Group supported the measure, followed by about 11 percent at both Bank of America and Wells Fargo, according to Reuters.

Whats in the proposal: The measure called for banks to put in place credible plans by the end of the year that would ensure they no longer financed new fossil fuel development, Bloomberg reported.

A claim of victory? Observers sometimes tend to think of these votes like electoral politics, where its 51 percent or bust, Gabby Brown of the Sierra Club told Equilibrium.

But with shareholder resolutions, its really the case that even 10 to 15 percent is enough to make the company pay attention, she added.

Key thresholds passed: Any resolution that receives 5 percent of the vote which all three did is eligible to be refiled in the following year, according to a statement from Sierra Club.

Anything above 10 percent of the vote which all of these measures were is considered difficult for a company to ignore, the statement explained.

A sign of pressure: Such difficulties have past precedence. A 2020 push to oust former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond from the JPMorgan Chase board also failed with less than 15 percent. Nonetheless, Raymond resigned under pressure a few months later, according to Reuters.

BREAKING DOWN THE BATTLE LINES

Major pension funds from New York State, Rhode Island, New York City, and Seattle all supported the measure,as did representative of about $86 billion in capital, according to progressive magazine The New Republic.

But far more significant at least in this round was the opposition from bank managers themselves.

Thumbs on the scale: At the annual general meeting on the morning of the vote, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser cast the proposal as an impossible attempt to shut down the fossil fuel economy overnight, The Financial Times reported.

Ben Cushing of Sierra Club told Equilibrium this was a clear mischaracterization of what these shareholder resolutions are asking for.

Instead, the proposal aimed to slow the increase in new fossil fuels, he said. And this is amid a situation in which there are already more existing fossil fuel resources than the world can safely burn, according to the International Energy Agency.

But key funders were still opposed: While none of the big three asset managers Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street responded to requests for comment, vote totals suggest that all three opposed the measure, according to The New Republic.

Thats in spite of the fact that all three are also members of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which aims to get the financial industry on track to reach NetZero emissions by 2050.

Why did the big three oppose it? We dont know for sure, but BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has been publicly skeptical about divestment.

Divesting from entire sectors or simply passing carbon-intensive assets from public markets to private markets will not get the world to net zero, he wrote earlier this year in a letter to investors.

Double game: BlackRock also played up its fossil fuel commitments in a January letter to the state of Texas after officials there called out its climate pledges, according to CNBC.

Takeaway: Expect upcoming shareholder resolutions at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to fail as well,but for these resolutions to begin impacting bank management long before votes occur on these resolutions again in 2023.

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Please visit The Hills Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. Well see you tomorrow.

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Equilibrium/Sustainability Ukraine's invasion leaves Siberia exposed to wildfire - The Hill

Car clubs, bike shares, vacation rentals. As consumers, were becoming increasingly familiar with sharing or borrowing goods that have traditionally been owned, examples of whats known as an access-based business model.

Consuming access to products instead of the products themselves can play an important role in addressing environmental challenges. However, to meet future environmental challenges, we need to extend the application of access-based business models beyond finished goods, and rethink ownership of goods across the whole value chain.

Anaccess-based business modelis based on customers accessing the function or performance of goods, rather than owning them. Businesses that offer consumers access to products are increasingly emerging. In addition to cars, bicycles and homes, the model is available for clothing, power tools, headphones, detergent bottles and power banks. Offering access to products is also common between businesses, traditionally for large expenditures such as company cars or heavy machinery, and more recently also for products such as office furniture and lighting.

Access-based business models can tackle resource depletion, waste generation and other crises. Purchasing access, instead of products, makes consumption behaviour more sustainable by default, as it reduces the under-utilisation and rapid replacement of privately owned goods. In contrast to conventional linear consumption, the incentives to reduce consumption and return goods for reuse and recycling are built in. Car sharers, for example, were found toown 30% less cars than prior to car sharing.

Access to finished goods can, therefore, minimise the environmental and economic costs of manufacturing and consumption. Although the potential of access-based business models to address environmental challenges is recognised both economically and academically, the models have been slow to take off and their application predominantly to finished goods represents only a small fraction of the opportunity for impact.For example,as of 2014 the fleet of shared vehicles accounted for less than 0.1% of the almost 1 billion global in-use car fleet.

To solve global sustainability challenges, access-based business models will soon need to be applied not only to finished goods, but also to components and materials. What this means is that future material suppliers will no longer sell semi-finished goods like stainless steel sheets or PET granules instead, they will lease them out to product manufacturers, effectively selling components andmaterials as a serviceand offering their performance.

A supplier will, for example,lease stainless steelsheets to a car manufacturer to form the tubes for a chassis. Rather than owning the sheets, the car manufacturer will be charged to access the volume of material transformed into car chassis for an agreed period of time. At the end of this period, the car will be disassembled to allow the material supplier to retrieve the components and recycle the materials.

Such an approach creates anew ownership structurein which material suppliers own the components and materials, and the manufacturer only owns the value they have added by transforming them into the final product. In this model, components and materials cannot be physically consumed by the product manufacturer or the end-user of the product.

Just as car clubs build in incentives for sustainable consumer behaviour, this approach creates several important positive incentives for material suppliers and finished goods manufacturers. Because they retain ownership of their semi-finished goods, material suppliers will be incentivised to offer materials that are more efficient and durable and easier to recover at the end of product life, facilitating the shift towardsclosed-loop supply chains.

Committing to returning these materials will motivate product manufacturers to (re)design goods for access-based business models, rather than offering traditional goods for access. This will lead, for example, to the emergence of cars explicitly designed as goods that are leased instead of privately owned and using materials and components that stay in the value chain and are returned to suppliers instead of being scrapped.

To minimise recovery costs, material suppliers will incentivise product manufacturers to design for prolonged use of goods. They will also prompt manufacturers to design products that contain the least number of materials and are easy to disassemble, which will also make them easier to repair and enhance the purity of recycled materials.

Most importantly, with time-bound access to materials, product manufacturers will have to anticipate the moment when products become obsolete, design plans to intercept them and loop products back into production processes to reuse constituent components and materials. In this way product manufacturers will balance the operational cost of the components and materials they lease, against the revenue that they make from the products they sell or service. This structure will incentivise them to optimise material use, changing the game in resource management and leading to higher functional value provided by natural capital over a certain length of time.

Going one step further, this model can be applied not only to semi-finished goods, but also to minerals. Ownership of material resources does not have to remain with semi-finished goods suppliers. What if organizations upstream of material suppliers start to trade raw goods (i.e. unprocessed or minimally processed materials) without ownership exchange?

In the future, mining companies could lease raw goods to material suppliers using access-based business models, effectively offering minerals as a service. Moving a step further, nation states could stop giving rights for exploration or mining on certain lands to mining companies instead they could provide them with licence to mine permits that allow companies to mine but not to own the mined raw goods. For example, a nation state could lease iron ore to a mining company, who would then provide it to a steel and iron supplier. Ownership of mined minerals would remain with the country of origin and the licence to mine permits would come with the expectation that mined resources are eventually returned to the nation states in the original or processed form.

In an access economy, the complexity of modern finished goods will make it hard to recover the components, materials and minerals embodied in products and route them (back) to specific material suppliers. Hence, both current production and consumption systems and goods will have to be redesigned to service the model. In particular, goods will have to be optimised for reuse and recycling, and digital information embedded in them to ensuretraceability.

Infrastructure will have to emerge to intercept, separate, sort and recover materials. Further, all organizations in the value chain will have to adopt strategies for shared value creation and invest in ongoing collaborative relationships with partners over linear transaction-oriented relationships. Finally, addressing these challenges will not be possible without policy development and changes in culture and mindset from governments, businesses and consumers.

Chemical leasingis an example of component as a service business model offering the function or performance of chemicals in the manufacturing process. However, it lacks the dimension of returning chemicals at the end of use, which is key for a true circular solution.

Extending access-based business models throughout the value chain implies a systemic change to our production and consumption systems. This calls for a holistic review of the resource flows for finished, semi-finished and raw goods. The parties who have a stake in resource flows must come together to rethink ownership of goods in the three states to identify the opportunities to create commercial value and achieve sustainable impact. Simultaneous implementation of multiple access-based models might be appropriate in some value chains. Moving to new business models with new incentives can ensure that value chains are truly sustainable and help businesses play their part in protecting the earth and its resources.

Marco Aurisicchio (PhD),Associate Professor, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London

Anouk Zeeuw van der Laan (PhD),Head of Circular Economy, Common Seas

Graham Aid (PhD),Innovation Coordinator, Ragn-Sells Group

Lars Nybom,Innovation Manager, Ragn-Sells Group

This article was first published in World Economic Forum

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What is an access-based business model and how can it tackle waste and protect resources? - Qrius

When it comes to investing in stocks, investors aim to find market-beating opportunities. However, the unpredictability and volatility of stock markets make it necessary to conduct thorough research and due diligence before investing in them. The war between Russia and Ukraine and the geopolitical tensions surrounding it has pushed up the prices of almost everything, causing the worst economic slowdown in decades and forcing international organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to downgrade the growth outlook.

This slowdown has, in turn, put huge pressure on the energy and resource sector, as it is cyclic in nature and reflects the state of the economy. The sector was already struggling due to the pandemic, and the war and subsequent supply chain disruptions mean that it will need more time to fully recover from the setbacks. Since the sector is highly speculative, investors should choose the right mix of stocks to make a profit from it.

2022 Kalkine Media

Recently, a few energy and resource stocks in the UK were in the spotlight. Let us take a look at their performance and see if they can be good investment bets.

The US-headquartered energy company is involved in the exploration and production of crude oil, and its properties are located in West Africa's Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. On Tuesday, the company made an announcement that in the Etame field, offshore Gabon, it has successfully completed the Avouma 3H-ST development well.

Vaalco reported strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2021, with a net income of $34.4 million. The net income for the whole year stood at $81.8 million. Its market cap as of 27 April 2022 stands at 323.10 million, and it has given a return of 194.28% to its shareholders in the last one year, while the year-to-date return stands at 138.98%. Vaalco's share price stood at GBX 525.00 as of 8:12 am GMT+1 on 27 April 2022.

The UK-based mining firm is engaged in the exploration of metals like gold, manganese, iron ore, and copper. The company on Tuesday announced that it had commenced the exploration of gold and lithium projects in Southwest Zimbabwe.

Galileo's shares were trading at GBX 1.20, up by 6.79% at 8:48 am GMT+1 on 27 April 2022. The company's market capitalisation currently stands at 12.44 million. Galileo's stock has given a return of 22.67% on a year-to-date basis.

The UK-based company is engaged in the development and production of minerals, and its portfolio includes gold, silver, copper, zinc, bauxite, and iron ore projects in Africa. On Tuesday, the company announced 'encouraging gold results' from drilling at its Tabakorole gold project in southern Mali.

Its market capitalisation, as of 27 April, stood at 62.18 million. In the last one year, Altus Strategies' shares have plunged by 22.06%. Shares of the FTSE AIM All-Share constituent were trading flat at GBX 53.00 on 27 April 2022 at 8.50 am GMT+1.

Note: The above content constitutes a very preliminary observation or view based on market trends and is of limited scope without any in-depth fundamental valuation or technical analysis. Any interest in stocks or sectors should be thoroughly evaluated taking into consideration the associated risks.

Read more:

EGY, GLR, ALS: Why are these energy and resource stocks trending today? - Kalkine Media

EconomyThursday April 28 2022

Biashara Street with slow business on a public holiday as most Nairobians choose to stay away from the central business district. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NMG

Investors and businesses are staring at billions of shillings in losses following the unprecedented five-day-long holiday that starts from Friday to Tuesday.

The losses will be the product of business closures in top investments like the banks, schools, courts, government offices and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) #ticker: NSE as well as the currency market.

The economy generateson average Sh25.3 billion daily and the five-day official shutdown looks set to deny workers and investors billions of shillings in earnings.

The five-day weekend comes after the government declared Tuesday a public holiday to mark Idd-ul-Fitr in addition to Mondays Labour Day rest.

The government had also declared Friday a national holiday following the death of President Mwai Kibaki.

Analysts said the holiday in the middle of a working week comes with huge costs to the economy that is yet to fully recover from the effects of Covid-19, which triggered layoffs, pay cuts and business closures.

Kenya cannot afford the luxury of more public holidays on a weekday, said XN Iraki, a lecturer of economics at the University of Nairobi.

He faulted the mid-week breaks, saying they will rob the country of man-hours and slow down economic activity.

It is very expensive, with every [formal] worker earning on average Sh2,226 a day for about half of our population. If you include the multiplier effect in the informal economy and the fact that on Thursday people will not really work and when they come back on Wednesday suffering hangover they will also be slow, then you are looking at an even bigger figure, Mr Iraki added.

The NSE on Wednesday traded shares and bonds worth Sh4.6 billion.

The bourses closure on Friday, Monday and Tuesday means loss of commissions for brokers and the stock market, and of trading profits for investors.

Manufacturers say the holidays will disrupt the production process, forcing the industrialists to reschedule production and transportation of raw materials and finished goods.

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM)the industry lobby says firms that would opt to operate will be forced to pay workers more in overtime compensation.

There will be a cost implication for those that continue production during the public holidays. This is because, depending on a specific companys human resource policies and existing labour laws, there has to be a mode of compensation, said Phyllis Wakiaga, the chief executive of KAM.

Although Kenyas banking system has gone largely digital allowing mobile banking and payments via platforms such as M-Pesa, this is mostly limited to smaller value transactions.

Larger deals that require full banking operations will be delayed as well as payments requiring clearance such as cheques and correspondence banking across borders.

Consumption will also be affected as people stay at home, cutting spending on transport, airtime and other consumer goods.

Obado Obado, the owner of a popular Nairobi restaurant Caf Deli, says five days is such a long time for his outlets located in the central business district (CBD).

He said restaurants based in town expect to see nearly 70 per cent decline in sales during the period.

For restaurants like us based in CBD we target people who work in offices and have to come to town. During holidays the best we can do is 30 per cent sales, so five days is very bad for us, it is like the Covid-19 period again, said Mr Obado.

Matatu Owners Association (MOA) chairman Jimal Ibrahim said unlike the past when the public service vehicle operators used to switch to private business serving up-country routes, this holiday comes as a surprise and most operators will not be able to make the switch.

He said as people stay at home, matatu operators expect to cull their routes by almost 70 percent, hurting vehicle owners with loan payments who will have to do without revenues during the holiday.

The Kenyan economy has barely recovered from the ravages of the Covid-19 period when it shrank to negative 0.3 percent in 2020.

Analysts said the holiday comes with huge costs to the economy whose growth forecast for 2022 is estimated at 6.0 percent from an estimated 7.6 percent in 2021 despite the August 9 General Election.

Kenyas economy has a history of slowing down during election years when firms put investment decisions on hold pending a return to normalcy in the political landscape.

Economic growth, for example, slowed to 4.81 percent in 2017 as a result of the bitterly contested presidential election from 5.88 percent a year earlier.

The same trend was seen in 2008 when the violence in the aftermath of the December 2007 presidential election sank economy to a growth to 0.23 percent from 6.865 percent the year before.

The notable exception was in 2013 when the economy grew 5.8 percent after the Supreme Court amicably resolved a presidential dispute compared with 4.56 percent the year before.

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Businesses face losses over five-day weekend - Business Daily

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 The World Bank has approved $187 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA)* to help Benin improve the quality of and access to primary health care services and strengthen its public health emergency response capacity.

The Benin Health System Enhancement Program, a Program-for-Results (PforR) project, will help improve the quality of and access to primary health care services, with a focus on reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, and nutrition. This project will provide essential health services to close to nine million people and basic nutrition services to more than four million children. Over 2.8 million children will be immunized and more than two million births will be attended by skilled health personnel. The project will also help improve disease surveillance in Benin and enhance its ability to respond quickly and effectively to public health emergencies.

Despite efforts in recent years, Benins health system still faces challenges to provide quality services at all levels, including maternal and child health services. Adequately training personnel and equipping facilities will lead to standardized quality basic services to bridge the current gap between adequate access to services and good results in maternal, neonatal, and child health, notes Attou Seck, World Bank Country Manager for Benin.

This new program will build on the achievements of the Health System Performance Project (2010-2017), which implemented a performance-based financing system in eight health zones and significantly improved the coverage of maternal, neonatal, and child health services, quality of care, and the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Health.

Substantial financing in the health sector is one of the governments priorities for strengthening human capital. The government is committed to developing quality infrastructure and recruiting skilled personnel to bring the health system up to standard and provide quality primary health care to women and children, says Romuald Wadagni, Minister of State in charge of Economy and Finance. This new program-for-results project reflects the governments commitment to boost social investments through optimal public resource management.

This operation is in line with the Government Action Program 2021-2026, Pillar 3 of which focuses on increasing access by the Beninese people to basic social services and social protection.

*The International Development Association (IDA) is the World Banks fund for the poorest. Established in 1960, it provides grants and low- to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor peoples lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the worlds 76 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.6 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have increased steadily and have averaged $21 billion over the past three years, with about 61% going to Africa.

PRESS RELEASE NO: 2022/061/AFR

Contacts

In Cotonou:

Gnona Afangbedji,

yafangbedji@worldbank.org

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More Than 9 Million People to Benefit from Essential Health Services in Benin - Benin - ReliefWeb

With the significant increase in automation of operations and the increase in change initiatives and project work, a new role is emerging in the executive committee. Companies are beginning to consolidate responsibility for orchestrating and successfully implementing the organizations continuous transformation and significant strategic initiatives within a single C-level executive.

Its not only multinationals and for-profit organizations. The CEO of a nonprofit that competes for government contracts to improve health care recently wrote me: I plan to add a chief project officer to my small executive team. This individual would not only lead a newly re-constituted PMO [Project Management Office] but would lead one of the most important projects we will perform over the coming year: building the structure and culture needed for project success.

These are just a few of many organizations creating a similar role. Their mandates and exact titles differ, but their primary responsibilities remains the same: to drive major strategic projects in the organization, streamline the project portfolio to accelerate growth and value creation, and deliver on the sustainability and diversity agenda. I propose a single, plain-language title for this role: The chief project officer. This article will explore the benefits a CPO can bring, how to understand whether your organization needs a CPO, and how to hire one.

The emergence of the chief project officer coincides with exponential increase in projects over the past two decades, a phenomenon I cover extensively in the HBR Project Management Handbook.

The 20th century was the golden age of operations. In 1908, Henry Ford launched the Model T, perfecting the mass production of automobiles. Three years later, Frederick Winslow Taylor presented his theory of how to improve worker productivity by determining how a task could be performed more efficiently.

To support this model, organizations were structured functionally in vertical departments such as marketing, logistics, and accounting. Staff skills were developed to reach departmental objectives. Information systems and processes were adjusted to reflect this reality. Even company profitability was broken down by department. The COO, who focused on leading, managing and running the operations of a company, emerged as a preeminent leadership role in most organizations. And it worked: Productivity skyrocketed, decade after decade.

After the turn of this century, however, something changed. Since the tech boom, productivity growth has been almost flat in the west, despite the explosion of the internet, shorter product life cycles, and exponential advancement in AI and robotics. Why? There comes a point after which a strategy of more volume, more product releases, and more brand extensions simply runs out of road. Sustainable growth through further efficiency becomes impossible, especially in times of uncertainty and rapid change. And change cannot be implemented with efficiency methods. Change must be implemented through projects.

Thirty years ago 80% of the resources in an organization were dedicated to operations, and 20% to projects; today, that ratio has flipped.

Despite this massive disruption, most organizations still dont have one senior leader overseeing all the project activities in an organization, as we had with the chief operating officer. Imagine if the manufacturing of electric cars had the sourcing of the components, the assembly, and testing of the cars all answering to a different executive sponsor rather than a single COO. Redundancy, waste, and strategic drift would be rampant. Yet thats how many organizations still run their projects.

The lack of clarity and ownership in the project space is one of the most common challenges I hear from CEOs and executives. Combined with the exponential growth in projects this obscurity leads to silo thinking, project overload, demotivation, projects not delivered, and a massive amount of resources wasted and value lost.

The chief project officer goes far beyond the direct sponsorship of individual projects. They must push their organization toward adopting a project-driven structure and foster a collaborative and empowering culture that reaches across silos. They must also collaborate with HR to ensure that project-management competencies are developed throughout the organization. The CPO has many responsibilities:

The core responsibility of the CPO is to work with the rest of the senior executives to translate the organizations strategy into programs, initiatives, and projects. The CPO will ensure that projects are appropriately selected, prioritized, and resourced, based on the strategic priorities of the organization and available capacity. The selection process must be fair and transparent, based on criteria against which both new proposals and ongoing projects are assessed. The Hierarchy of Purpose is a valuable tool to carry out this exercise.

In order to add new strategic projects, leaders must free up capacity and resources. In normal circumstances, employees and management are fully booked with projects on top of their day-to-day business activities. Projects must be stopped to make way for new ones.

There is an unwritten rule which says that if you have between one to three strategic projects, you have good chances of achieving all three. If you have between four and 10, you will only be successful with two. And if you have more than 10, you will not achieve any of them. I recommend having three strategic initiatives. Although it is painful, the CPO must be willing to ruthlessly cancel projects to increase the organizations focus and overall success.

The CPO plays a crucial role in clarifying accountability in projects and establishing a project governance committee to break silos and work together more closely as one organization. This committee decides which initiatives the firm will invest in and which will be stopped or delayed. The chair should be the CEO, with all the executives as members, and the CPO will facilitate the meeting. The committee should meet at least once per month. (The head of projects at Chipotle recently told me that they meet on a weekly basis due to their need to innovate constantly.)

Ineffective resource allocation leads to organizations launching more projects than they can carry out, overwhelming employees and harming their performance and engagement. The CPO will ensure that projects are not launched until the right resources have been selected and people have been freed up from some of their ongoing responsibilities.

Likewise, project managers and the executive sponsors need to be able to dedicate sufficient time to carry out the project successfully. In my experience, an organization in standard circumstances can stop about 50% of their projects without any real impact on the business.

The CPO, in partnership with learning and development teams, ensures that the organization develops the right capabilities to deliver diverse projects, including waterfall, agile, and hybrid frameworks, as well as introduction of new technologies, such as AI, to improve project implementation. They also make sure that business cases go beyond the narrow scope of projects deliverables to address broader issues such as sustainability and diversity. An essential last area for the CPO to champion is to create a more agile and project-driven organization that will help to deliver projects more successfully.

Beyond making sure that projects are progressing and completed, the CPO is responsible for ensuring that the full bottom-line targets of the projects are delivered and benefits are accelerated to deliver early when possible. The CPOs compensation should be linked to performance, with potential incentives for over-delivery. Finally, the CPO must ensure that projects are officially closed and that value and benefits delivered are measured and evaluated.

Every organization needs projects to generate value and keep their business alive. However, not every organization needs a CPO. The role is particularly effective within the context of large and midsized companies (both public and private). Consider the following seven questions to help determine whether your organization would benefit from a CPO:

If you answer yes to five or more of the questions, then your organization will undoubtedly benefit from a chief project officer. If you answered yet to three or four, you might consider establishing the role, as your organization will benefit from it soon.

When looking to hire, most organizations are surprised to realize that they may have already had an unofficial CPO in fact, many CEOs played the role of the CPO during the first months of the pandemic in 2019 and 2020. They focused all their time on selecting the most important projects mostly about the survival of their business ruthlessly canceling all the others, assigning the best resources to these few projects, and dedicating most, if not all, of their time to implementing these projects successfully.

My recommendation is to appoint an internal candidate to the chief project officer position, someone that has demonstrated several of the abilities required for the job and that board wants to groom as a potential candidate for CEO succession. As the role is an executive position, the hiring should be done by the CEO with the support of HR and eventual advice from the board. When an organizations situation is critical and radical changes are needed at speed, external candidates with the required competencies and experience should also be considered.

It is important to note that a CPO is not a project manager or a director of a project management office; the role goes beyond traditional project management and requires additional skills. Here is what to look for when hiring or appointing a CPO:

Most of these skills are part of the typical path of the MBA degrees, executive education, and grooming for the C-Suite. However, the final bullet, project management and project sponsorship are usually not. This should change now. In the project economy, potential CPOs and CEOs must find ways to develop these skills. HR leaders should be part of this vital change.

To be successful, the CPO should be independent and have full support from the board and the organizations CEO. The role can coexist with the COO, who will focus on operations, while the CPO will focus on projects. They should be fully integrated into the C-suite. Just as COOs have in the past, CPOs should behave like an extension of the CEO or even the board and, as such, hold the top managers accountable.

Now is just just the beginning for the chief project officer, and their rise will surely have ripple effects on executive teams. I even predict that within in the next 10 years the CPO role will overtake the COO in terms of seniority, power, and prestige. Today, most senior leader recognize that their organizations need to adapt and rapidly embrace new technologies such as AI and automation. This will lead to a further shift of focus and resources to project-based work and away from operations. CPOs may not be common yet in the C-Suite, but their steady emergence is a leading indicator of how companies will organize themselves to thrive in the project economy.

More:

The Rise of the Chief Project Officer - HBR.org Daily

Throughout history, most production processes relied on a steady stream of resource processing of raw materials extracted directly from nature. However, those resources are not renewable at least not as much as we need them to be to sustain the production cycles.

One of the possible solutions to that problem may be found in the model of circular economy, which emphasizes the use of waste materials in the production process. That should effectively reduce the amount of raw materials we need to take from nature and divert most waste from landfills.

But even though that alternative sounds pretty appealing, its not without challenges. With that in mind, RTS wanted to talk about some of the resource processing difficulties people might come across in the next two decades as people slowly transition to a circular economy.

The current state of affairs is far from sustainable. According to a recent report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, G20 countries account for about 75% of global resource use and 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past three decades, annual material consumption has increased from 37 billion tons in 1990 to 88 billion tons in 2017. Naturally, the countries that are the main drivers of that change should take on the responsibility of pushing for a more resource-efficient economy model.

The report mentioned illustrates the wasteful nature of the past and current production models. However, it also leaves space for a more hopeful future. More than anything else, the document shows that material processing industries need to change as soon as possible.

On the one hand, people need to reconsider the amount of raw resources theyre using during production processes. Then, theres the question of the methods companies are using to process those materials. Its not enough to recycle metals, plastics and paper products. Instead, people have to expand their reach by improving processing methods and making them more accessible.

As mentioned, the circular economy model aims to close the linear mode of production into a loop. Instead of using new materials from nature, people would simply divert waste materials from landfills to processing plants. Of course, material efficiency strategies dont begin and end with the production of goods.

Instead, people need to consider their daily use of materials such as the fuel vehicles use. Until now, many have considered car ownership to be the end goal of a young professionals life. However, moving toward a more sustainable future would include a move toward ride-sharing practices and using public transportation. So while many usually talk about resource processing in terms of industrial manufacturing cycles, a circular economy would require concessions on an individual level as well.

According to a report from the International Resource Panel, taking steps towards establishing a circular economy would have several positive effects in the long run. For one, doing so would reduce the use of raw natural resources by as much as 28% by 2050. Moreover, it would also result in a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions. This would naturally affect the planets climate as well.

Before anyone can see the benefits of a circular mode of production, they need to implement certain changes on a global scale. The International Resource Panel has long advocated for a complete reimagining of the way we manufacture goods. To do that, we need to change the way we value resources we have already used.

Instead of considering items spent once people are done with them, they should make an effort to repair, refurbish and reuse them. When theyre no longer useful to a plant, they should be put back in circulation by donating, selling or recycling them. That should help these objects retain value even when they lose their original purpose. But, establishing the circular economy will take more than individual actions.

Rather, governments and multinational entities alike need to incentivize industries to incorporate those values too. Instead of participating in an endless cycle of resource extraction and waste creation, companies need to invest in recycling. Unfortunately, the main obstacle that stands in the way of achieving that goal is the fact that companies dont have a reason to transition to sustainable resources.

After all, the extraction of raw materials remains cheap and widely accessible. The use of natural resources is too ingrained in manufacturing processes to disappear with the kind of incentives the EU and other governmental bodies have proposed. With that in mind, people need to make sure manufacturers have easy access to recycled goods.

To that end, recycling needs to be easily available to individuals as well as companies. Whats more, using sustainable resources during the production process needs to be financially accessible to manufacturers.

As established, the goal of a circular economy is the preservation of natural resources and the elimination of waste. Due to this, people can understand why the industry around resource processing needs to develop quickly.

If manufacturers can choose between raw material extraction and sustainable resources, their decision wont be based on environmentalism. Rather, theyll go for the cheaper option. Thats why there are tax benefits for going green but clearly, those kinds of incentives are still insufficient.

So what can people do to make sure the following two decades bring everyone closer to the circular economic system our planet needs? As individuals, people need to make their voices heard through voting and community organizing. People need to get behind the scientific community, which has been advocating for a transition to sustainable resources for decades.

This move toward a more sustainable future will ultimately reduce the cost of production and lower greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, itll also create countless jobs. People just have to clear any hurdles that stand in the way of the future everyone deserves.

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Plant Engineering | Resource processing challenges that ...

This is a guest opinion post from Tram Vo, Co-director + Founder,MOBI.

The convergence of multiple rapidly maturing technologies, such as AI, IoT, and blockchain, permits any connected entity whether a person, vehicle, device, package, piece of infrastructure, or data set to communicate and autonomously participate as an independent economic agent in transactions. These usage-based (pay as you go) economy-of-things transactions will:

These transactions the exchange of value, goods, and data between entities in the economy of things will produce a multi-trillion-dollar pay-per-use ecosystem weve termedThe New Economy of Movement.

The New Economy of Movement requires a new way of identifying people and things, one which is blockchain-based, self-sovereign, decentralized, and machine readable. These are known asdecentralized identifiers(DIDs).

DIDs give individuals and organizations the power to own and control their digital identifiers, breaking the reliance on third party authenticators and centralized authorities. In a decentralized system, DIDs are embedded inVerifiable Credentials(VCs). Those VCs may be created by trusted entities, such as government agencies, businesses, universities, or employers and issued to a holder of the VC. If we think of the DID as a global ID, then VCs are like digital passports, or unique stamps which serve to attest to specific information about an entity associated with a specific DID.

In the New Economy of Movement, Web3 federated networks and decentralized platforms are needed to manage DIDs and VCs to enable trusted data sharing and business automation. MOBIs Web3 infrastructure consists of three member-owned and operated layers collectively the MOBI Technology Stack (MTS) needed to verify decentralized transactions between connected entities. Each layer with a different architecture and function, together forming a holistic approach to Web3 applications developed for decentralized connected ecosystems.

The three layers are illustrated below. The foundational layer is the MOBI consortium, which createsstandardsto identify connected entities and shared business processes. The middle layer ismobiNET, a layer-two, protocol-agnostic digital infrastructure to provide trusted decentralized identity (DID) services. The top layer isCitopia, a trustless decentralized platform to onboard DIDs and enable VC issuance for business automation; monetizing assets such as infrastructure, services, and data.

Beginning with Vehicle Identity (MOBI VID, a vehicles digital twin based on the internationally accepted vehicle identification number, or VIN) in 2019, MOBI has published thirteen blockchain-based standards (including nine in 2021) outliningsustainabledecentralized solutions fordigital identitymanagement,supply chain,vehicle electrification,mobility data, and mobility-related IoT commerce. The most recent of these theMOBI Trusted Trip(MTT) Standard is perhaps the most important pillar of the New Economy of Movement.

For a trip to be useful to entities in a decentralized usage-based ecosystem, it must be trusted by all entities in the transaction. The MTT Standard links an entitys DID with its timestamped location in the form of VCs and enables the linkage to be certified throughout any trip in a trusted network. It is the key to decentralized privacy-preserving pay-per-use mobility.

MTT Verifiable Credential is based on W3Cs DID and VC Specifications. Using DIDs allows holders, on their own terms, to share trusted data with other verified entities without disclosing identity-related information and other selective attributes. MTT allows a holder of such credentials to prove to verifiers that it was present, completed a trip, used a resource, provided a service, or performed other relevant activities while safeguarding their Personally (or organizational) Identifiable Information (PII). MOBI Trusted Trip is the key primitive of the multi-trillion-dollar New Economy of Movement.

Linking decentralized identities with reliable and immutable location tracing, provenance, and chain of custody for data, people, and devices enables business automation and interoperability in the economy of things. This includes a huge new class of automated pay-per-use services in The New Economy of Movement. Specifically, MOBI Trusted Trip enables marginal cost pricing where users are charged based on the additional cost, including social cost, of what they consume for many new classes of transactions such as:

Movement reveals our most valuable preferences and behaviors. Web3 holds the potential to expose new dimensions of our personal data, while giving us the tools to control, protect, and monetize it. Web3 business models will upend and outcompete todays dominant Web2 centralized platforms as quickly and decisively as those Web2 platforms replaced the platforms that dominated earlier industrial and digital eras.

MOBI participants and other adopters will enjoy access to the cutting-edge markets, customers, and business models made possible in the New Economy of Movement. More importantly, the architectural and business decisions made by Web3 pioneers, including the MOBI community, will determine the experience of future users.

Will Web3 realize the original web vision of decentralization, equal access, and fairness? Or will it strengthen the market power of centralized platforms? We hope that the MOBI community, through their contributions to the New Economy of Movement, can positively influence the outcome.

Originally posted here:

Web3 digital infrastructure for connected vehicle and IoT commerce in the New Economy of Movement - Ledger Insights

Mapped: Economic Freedom Around the World

How would you define a countrys economic freedom?

The cornerstones of economic freedom by most measures are personal choice, voluntary exchange, independence to compete in markets, and security of the person and privately-owned property. Simply put, it is about the quality of political and economic institutions in countries.

Based on the Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Organization, we mapped the economic freedom of 178 countries worldwide.

The index uses five broad areas to score economic freedom for each country:

In 2021, the global average economic freedom score is 61.6, the highest its been in 27 years.

But from Mauritius and smaller African nations being beacons of hope to East Asian and Oceanic countries epitomizing economic democracy, every region has a different story to tell.

Lets take a look at the economic freedom of each region in the world.

Even though the U.S. and Canada continue to be some of the most economically free countries globally, some markers are suffering.

The regional average unemployment rate has risen to 6.9%, and inflation (outside of Venezuela) has increased to 5.2%. The regions average level of public debtalready the highest globallyrose to 85.2% of its GDP during the past year.

Across many Latin American countries, widespread corruption and weak protection of property rights have aggravated regulatory inefficiency and monetary instability.

For example, Argentinas Peronist government has recently fixed the price of 1,432 products as a response to a 3.5% price rise in September, the equivalent to a 53% increase if annualized.

More than half of the worlds 38 freest countries (with overall scores above 70) are in Europe. This is due to the regions relatively extensive and long-established free-market institutions, the robust rule of law, and exceptionally strong investment freedom.

However, Europe still struggles with a variety of policy barriers to vigorous economic expansion. This includes overly protective and costly labor regulations, which was one of the major reasons why the UK voted to leave the EU.

Brexit has since had a major impact on the region.

Even a year later, official UK figures showed a record fall in trade with the EU in January 2021, as the economy struggled with post-Brexit rules and the pandemic.

Dictatorships, corruption, and conflict have historically kept African nations as some of the most economically repressed in the world.

While larger and more prosperous African nations struggle to advance economic freedom, some smaller countries are becoming the beacon of hope for the continent.

Mauritius (rank 11), Seychelles (43) and Botswana (45) were the top African countries, offering the most robust policies and institutions supporting economic self-sufficiency.

From property rights to financial freedom, small African countries are racing ahead of the continents largest in advancing economic autonomy as they look to build business opportunities for their citizens.

When Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords last year, there was a sense of a new paradigm emerging in a region with a long history of strife.

A year into the signing of this resolution, the effects have been promising. There have been bilateral initiatives within the private sector and civil society leading to increasing economic and political stability in the region.

Central Asian countries once part of the Soviet Union have recently starting integrating more directly with the world economy, primarily through natural resource exports. In total, natural resources account for about 65% of exports in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and more than 90% in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Despite this progress, these countries have a long way to go in terms of economic freedom. Uzbekistan (108), Turkmenistan (167) and Tajikistan (134) are still some of the lowest-ranked countries in the world.

Despite massive populations and strong economies, countries like China and India remain mostly unfree economies. The modest improvements in scores over the last few years have been through gains in property rights, judicial effectiveness, and business freedom indicators.

Nearby, Singapores economy has been ranked the freest in the world for the second year in a row. Singapore remains the only country in the world that is considered economically free in every index category.

Finally, its worth noting that Australia and New Zealand are regional leaders, and are two of only five nations that are currently in the free category of the index.

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Mapped: Economic Freedom Around the World - Visual Capitalist

Mexico City, Mexico This years political moves surrounding Mexicos lithium reserves have tested the limits of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors (AMLO) pledges to keep the countrys most precious natural resources firmly in Mexican hands.

In October, AMLO unveiled a sweeping energy reform bill that included nationalising Mexicos lithium deposits as a strategic mineral a move that threw into doubt Chinas ability to lock in a critical reserve of lithium to support its green energy transition plans.

Also known as white gold and the new oil, lithium is a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries that are used for green energy storage, including powering electric vehicles.

Chinas Ganfeng Lithium had set its sights on upping its stake in a massive lithium mining project in Mexicos Sonora state by buying all the concessions held by its partner in the project, United Kingdom-based mining and exploration giant Bacanora.

After the news of AMLOs nationalisation plans hit the markets in October, the government scrambled to assure firms with active lithium mining permits in Mexico that they would be exempt from any new legislation. That, in turn, was interpreted to apply to Ganfeng, because construction had started on the Bacanora Sonora Lithium deposit in February.

Last week, Mexican regulators made good on that theoretical grandfather clause and without fanfare gave the green light to Gengfengs takeover of Bacanoras Sonora lithium mining concessions.

The official exemption illustrates that AMLOs government is willing to concede some of Mexicos natural resources to a foreign economic power. It also reveals what analysts see as a vector of tension between AMLOs quest for Mexican strategic mineral sovereignty and the much larger geopolitical race surrounding lithium.

Not everyone was supportive of Ganfengs takeover of Bacanoras Sonora lithium mining rights.

A cohort of individual shareholders in Bacanora who call themselves the Think BIG Bacanora investors group, has campaigned against the takeover.

Think BIG spokesperson Dawood Patel, told Al Jazeera that they were originally promised that Ganfeng would not try to monopolise the Sonora lithium reserves that had proven to be larger with every survey. He also said that private shareholders had been recommended by Bacanoras board to accept Ganfengs offer, even though a significant proportion of the risks associated with mining exploration had already been mitigated, allowing Ganfeng to solely profit.

We feel the Board and Ganfeng only spoke about partnerships and production to keep us small shareholders invested until Ganfeng could take control at an opportune moment, Patel said, adding that his group is also concerned about the geopolitical risks in allowing one of the worlds largest lithium resources to fall under the control of a single country.

This is a resource that the world including Mexico should benefit from, he said.

Ganfeng did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment.

As economies around the world decarbonise, the race has only intensified to lock in lithium supply chains.

Ganfeng, which supplies Tesla with lithium, accounted for 24 percent of the global output of lithium hydroxide last year, according to China Minmetals a substantial increase of the 18 percent market share it commanded in 2019.

With warnings of potential lithium shortages looming, Mexicos lithium deposits, as well as those in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, have become prime prizes in the ever-heating competition between Washington and Beijing for economic supremacy and influence over the most powerful industries of the near future.

Margaret Myers, director of the Asia and Latin America Program at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said that China will rely on lithium in order to ensure that it grows efficiently in the coming years.

As such, lithium in Latin America is a critical mineral for its (Chinas) own growth, and also a potential choke point with the US or with other countries that may rely heavily on lithium, as well as rare earths and other tech essential minerals.

AMLO had already taken steps to reduce any potential fallout from grandfathering a Chinese company against his high-profile pledges to nationalise strategic minerals.

As talk of nationalising lithium ramped up in October, Mexico hosted an international mining conference in Acapulco, during which the Mexican federal geological service downplayed the significance of the Sonora lithium deposit, describing it as in reality, clay and saying that claims of large reserves of lithium in Mexico had been exaggerated.

That balancing act, analysts have said, is born of AMLOs need to maintain Chinese investment in Mexico.

Carlos Flores, an expert on Mexicos energy sector, told Al Jazeera that Mexico and China have been growing closer in recent years.

Chinese companies, for example, are responsible for the refurbishment of one of the lines of Mexico Citys subway, he said. [They] are also in charge of the construction of one of the sections of the Mayan Train (Tren Maya) located in the Yucatan peninsula. There is also one Chinese company that invested in renewables in Mexico, they own wind farms.

But Myers noted that China is nevertheless very concerned by AMLOs efforts to potentially nationalise certain sectors of Mexicos economy, or to impose regulations that would make certain sectors unprofitable and untenable for Chinese companies.

This is evident among oil companies, she said. [Chinas] CNOOC, in particular, has assets in Mexico.

At the same time, said Meyers, of all of the countries in Latin America, especially the major economies, Mexico is the least dependent on China economically speaking noting that the vast majority of Mexicos trade is with the United States, while the extent of Chinese investment in Mexico is minuscule in comparison to whats coming from the US.

So in Mexico, China just doesnt have the sort of leverage in Mexico that it does in other places, she said.

See the article here:

Mexicos lithium and the global race to lock in white gold - Al Jazeera English

Five years after its implementation, the Tsai governments flagship policy initiative aimed at boosting engagement with South and Southeast Asian countries has delivered some encouraging economic results. But observers say that to fulfill the policys goal of developing more comprehensive relations, a greater focus on people-to-people ties is needed.

Taiwans Executive Yuan reported this September that overall trade between Taiwan and the 18 countries targeted under its New Southbound Policy (NSP) reached US$68.4 billion in the first half of 2021, a 32.14% increase from the same period last year. Trade in agricultural goods also experienced significant growth of 12.3%, which included a 31.7% rise in Taiwanese exports of fertilizer, pesticides, and farm machinery and equipment to the NSP countries.

In addition, approved or planned investment by Taiwanese businesses in NSP markets saw major increases between January and June this year. Sixty projects totaling US$2.24 billion were applied for or given the green light during that time, a year-on-year increase of 58.8%. Government-approved investments from NSP countries in Taiwan came to US$297 million; while a comparatively small amount, it represented a 57.5% increase from the first half of 2020.

For Taiwan and the Tsai Ing-wen administration, whose stated purpose for the NSP was in part to reduce economic overreliance on a single market, China, these numbers appear to indicate that the policy has been a smashing success. Of note is that the impressive growth in trade and investment has occurred despite a global pandemic that continues to impede economic recovery around the world.

Much of that growth can be traced to the consistent movement of Taiwanese business operations out of China due to issues such as the U.S.-China trade dispute, the emergence of COVID-19, and the Chinese governments increasing hostility toward foreign and Taiwanese business interests. While a significant portion of capital has been directed toward Taiwan, Southeast Asian countries particularly Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia have been the recipients of an increasing amount of investment by Taiwanese businesses.

According to Alan Hao Yang, a professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at National Cheng Chi University, this movement is part of a global trend, as countries look to diversify their supply chain networks as a way to mitigate risk and increase resilience to shocks like another pandemic. The idea is not to terminate their Chinese factories but rather to set up another network in neighboring countries like Vietnam due to [its status as an] emerging market and its abundant labor force, he says.

Yang, who also serves as executive director of the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF), a think tank that focuses on Taiwans relations with ASEAN and South Asian countries, says that while this years trade and investment numbers have indeed been impressive, theyre not large enough to meet the goal of weaning Taiwan off of the Chinese market. And in any case, the aim of the NSP is not solely to bolster commercial ties with the programs countries.

As President Tsai has mentioned, it is imperative to engage comprehensively with neighboring countries, he says, referring to the NSPs four pillars of promoting economic cooperation, conducting people-to-people exchanges, enhancing resource sharing, and forging regional links.

Over the past five years that the NSP has been in effect, Taiwan has made significant efforts to engage its regional partners in a number of different areas. Considerable effort has gone into talent training, particularly in attracting students from NSP countries to study in Taiwan. The Ministry of Education (MOE) in late November reported that while the total number of international students enrolled in Taiwanese schools fell by 30,000 in 2020 due to the pandemic, those from NSP countries decreased by only 2,000. Furthermore, such students constituted 56% of the foreign student population in Taiwan last year, a nearly 30 percentage point increase from 2016, the year the NSP was launched.

In addition, the Chinese-language Liberty Times reported that 75% of students that came to Taiwan in 2017 through the MOEs International Programs of Industry-Academia Collaboration in Taiwan continued on in Taiwan after their studies. The scheme, which combines targeted degree programs with internships in related industry areas, is available exclusively for students from NSP countries.

Yet while a growing number of students from ASEAN and South Asian countries are choosing to come to Taiwan to pursue educational and career opportunities, the reverse cannot be said of Taiwanese students. Huynh Tam-Sang, a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and research fellow at Taipei-based think tank Taiwan NextGen Foundation, cites MOE data showing that last year fewer than 1,000 Taiwanese students chose to pursue a degree at Southeast Asian universities. In comparison, 23,700 went to the U.S. for their studies and 9,500 to Japan.

In order for Taiwanese to gain a deeper understanding of Southeast Asia and vice versa, Huynh says that the government needs to better incentivize its students, researchers, and scholars to engage in academic exchanges with educational institutions in NSP countries. These can be short-term programs, around six months, or they can be one to two years, he says, adding that cultivating a pool of young Taiwanese that are familiar with the local customs and bureaucracy around the region can also help Taiwanese firms minimize the costs and challenges of doing business in NSP markets.

Another issue is that the vast majority of international students and aspiring talent coming to Taiwan through the NSPs flagship education programs are from Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, countries that are home to substantial ethnic Chinese populations and with which Taiwan already maintains deep ties. However, some say that more needs to be done to engage those countries that have not traditionally been on Taiwans radar but have nonetheless been identified as key partners under the NSP.

One such country is India. Relations between Taiwan and Asias largest democracy have warmed significantly since they established representative offices in each others respective territory in the mid-1990s. Sana Hashmi, a visiting fellow at the TAEF and an expert on Taiwan-India relations, cites such developments as the establishment of the Taiwan-India Parliamentary Friendship Association in 2016, as well as activities organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in India, as demonstrating the two sides desire to further institutionalize their relationship.

Hashmi says that economic and commercial development has long been the focus of relations between India and Taiwan. However, she noted in a recent report for the French Institute for International Relations that several previous attempts to accelerate that development were less than successful. As a result, bilateral trade and investment between the two sides have remained relatively low compared with other countries in the Indo-Pacific. In her report, Hashmi noted that overall trade between India and Taiwan in 2020 totaled US$5.6 billion, a small fraction of the approximately US$89 billion in trade Taiwan conducted with ASEAN last year.

One issue she raises is that while the work of TAITRA and other organizations set up to foster better commercial relations between Taiwan and India is important, formal mechanisms like a free trade agreement are needed to really drive the economic relationship forward.

Furthermore, Hashmi notes that the traditionally risk-averse approach of Taiwanese businesses has caused them to invest in places they are more familiar with, namely China and Southeast Asia. She suggests that these companies look to the examples of Singapore and Japan, whose firms have been making inroads in India for several years.

Although on paper the NSP has not yet garnered the kinds of economic results that Taiwan and India might have hoped for, Hashmi explains that the policy and the outreach it encourages have succeeded in expanding the breadth and depth of cultural and people-to-people ties. Given the increased attention paid to Taiwan by the Indian government and public in recent years, thanks in no small part to Taiwans skillful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its offers of medical equipment and assistance to India, the time seems ripe for the two sides to build on their mutual goodwill.

Most observers agree that the main impediment to Taiwan further deepening ties with its NSP partners is intervention by China, whose expansive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) allocates significant resources toward economic development projects in South and Southeast Asia. Furthermore, the desire of regional leaders to avoid antagonizing China has caused them to take a more cautious approach to dealing with Taiwan.

China is paying attention to Taiwans every move, says Yang of the TAEF. They target the areas where we have an advantage. And because they are a larger economy, they have a lot of resources to fully promote those areas and then squeeze our diplomatic and other space in the region.

Joyce Juo-yu Lin, professor emeritus of the Graduate Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at Tamkang University, says that Chinas 14th Five-Year Plan, released this March, seeks to incorporate Taiwanese overseas businesspeople (known in Mandarin as Taishang) into the BRI, but that is not easy to accomplish.

Chinese state-owned enterprises are huge in scope and have lots of power, she says. But the Taishang are overwhelmingly small and medium-sized enterprises, which makes it much harder to compete in the targeted markets. So now these Taiwanese businesses that want to diversify their overseas investment are increasingly looking to the American market. [U.S. President] Bidens infrastructure bill, which was recently passed by Congress, makes the U.S. very attractive for the Taishang.

In addition, Lin says, Taiwans exclusion from the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), trade pacts that combined include virtually every other Asia-Pacific country, has further discouraged Taiwanese enterprises from expanding into those markets.

In spite of the challenges, Lin is determined to put her three decades of observing the region, including a stint in the early 1990s as Southeast Asia correspondent for the China Times, to use in bolstering engagement. Earlier this year, she founded the South and Southeast Asia Association Taiwan, a nonprofit that aims to promote industry, government, education, and research ties between Taiwan and its regional neighbors through the integration of area research, political and economic development, trade and investment, and social and cultural resources.

I think we can enhance mutual understanding between Taiwan and the ASEAN member states, as well as South Asian countries, Lin says. Because the more relations that are established and the deeper they become the more important that understanding will be.

The global shortage of semiconductors also presents opportunities for Taiwan in NSP countries. India, for example, has expressed interest in working with Taiwan to develop its own chipmaking capabilities. In November, Indian media reported that the country was in talks with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), as well as other major chip producers, to invest in India under a massive incentive program coordinated by Prime Minister Narendra Modis office.

The TAEFs Yang says that while developing economic engagement can be considered the main theme of the NSP, it spills over into other dimensions, including social resilience and other areas where Taiwan has comparative advantages. He says that over the past few years, the TAEF has promoted the notion of Taiwans warm power its willingness to share knowledge, experiences, and resources with NSP countries which has endeared them to Taiwan.

As these countries continue to refer to Taiwan and increase their curiosity about Taiwan and Taiwanese people, they will learn more about our position and challenges, which are common to their countries as well, he says. Our suffering and responses are quite useful for their reference.

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New Southbound Policy Offers New Prospects for 2022 - Taiwan Business TOPICS - Taiwan Business TOPICS

All roads lead to the brain. Depression and anxiety, loneliness, Alzheimers disease, learning disorders, substance misuse disorder, long-haul COVID (i.e., brain fog), the toxic effects of air pollution on the brain, and even deaths of despair are all brain-based challenges. These issues typically fall through the proverbial cracks given they cut across policy areas and sectors of government. We need a coordinated approach to manage and ultimately prevent these issues: Such an approach will boost economic dynamism through reduced suffering, optimized brain performance and productivity, and new industries.

Brain-based challenges all involve brain health and wellness at an individual and societal level. They all represent internal or external disruptions whether biological, economic, structural, environmental, or social. Collectively, they were reducing life expectancy in the United States, long before the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. The pandemic, in turn, has made all of these brain-based issues profoundly worse.

Brain function and the myriad of conditions that influence it are rarely considered in current economic or public policy approaches. This may in part be due to scientific advancements in the brain sciences outpacing economic and policy change. It is also a result of the siloed and growing knowledge of the brain and economics rarely converging to inform the development and implementation of policy.

Our collective failure to connect neuroscience and social policy may be most conspicuous in matters of social justice. Increasing homelessness, mass incarceration, and deaths of despair are all driven, in part, by untreated brain disorders. With the rising threat of automation, workers who are not brain ready for the knowledge economy will face job losses, loss of purpose, despair, and fall further behind. Further, over a dozen institutions within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) engage in brain research, which results in imperfect coordination, artificial siloes, resource waste, and redundancy. This is particularly troubling given many of the fundamental brain disease mechanics are shared across many disorders, and dysfunction in mood and cognition is common among brain challenges across the lifespan.

A new approach to improve economies and societies is long overdue. To this end, we have developed a novel asset, Brain Capital, which we believe can inform better policy development. Brain Capital incorporates brain health and brain skills and drives economic empowerment, social resilience, and emotional connection. As brains are indispensable drivers of human progress, Brain Capital provides an opportunity to invest in these valuable assets and nurture healthier, more resilient, and flexible brains. And yet, remarkably, Brain Capital is not captured by any existing measure of gross domestic product (GDP).

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Build brains better: A proposal for a White House Brain Capital Council to accelerate post-COVID recovery and resilience - Brookings Institution

Carbon pricing is among the most prominent policy instruments being used or considered by governments to reduce emissions today. Proponents argue that carbon pricing may allow us to reach internationally accepted temperature targets at minimal cost (Borissov et al. 2019, Gollier and Tirole 2015, Rausch et al. 2011).

However, most studies suggest that carbon taxes will negatively affect output and could be regressive (Grainger and Kolstad 2010, Mathur and Morris 2014, van der Ploeg et al. 2021), though some emerging empirical studies challenge this (e.g. Klenert and Hepburn 2018, Metcalf and Stock 2020, Shapiro 2021). Mitigating factors that can reduce output losses or reduce rising inequality have received substantial attention in the literature, particularly the mechanism for redistributing carbon-tax revenue.

What has received less attention is the mitigating role of policies that promote education quality. Better quality education has the potential to (1) improve the supply skills needed to enable green technological innovation in response to carbon pricing, leading to lower output losses and higher reductions in carbon emissions; and (2) reduce inequality resulting from carbon pricing by ensuring that green skill acquisition is accessible to all.

Emerging research suggests that green technological change relies on human capital. For example, the role of education and skilled labour for the transition to green growth in the report of the Commission on Carbon Pricing (Stiglitz et al. 2017) explains that production using clean technologies is human capital-intensive so education decisions become closely interlinked with the energy transition (Yao et al. 2020). At the same time, shortages of skilled labour may constrain the decarbonisation process of an economy (OECD 2017). Human capital has also been linked to firms better adapting to climate change and environmental regulations (Lan and Munro 2013, Pargal and Wheeler 1996).

Carbon pricing through its impact on human-capital accumulation may not only be the cornerstone of climate policy but may also act as a development policy, fostering technology switches and education of the labour force. However, if green technological change relies on higher-skilled workers and, as a result, is skill-biased, then the increased demand for higher-skilled labour resulting from carbon taxes may further widen the earnings gap between high- and low-skilled workers.

In a recent paper (Macdonald and Patrinos 2021), we consider how education quality interacts with carbon pricings effect on emissions, output, and wage inequality. Education quality as a determinant of the elasticity of skill supply in the economy may act as a mitigating factor both for the impact of carbon pricing on emissions reduction and on economic outcomes, including wage inequality and output.

This argument is parallel to skills and automation: if automation complements higher-skilled workers productivity, then the elasticity of skill supply for example, through the quality of education enhances the economic benefits of automation and mitigates its costs (Bentaouet Kattan et al. 2020).

We test the hypothesis that cognitive skills, as an indicator of overall human capital, are associated with a lower reliance on emissions in aggregate production technology and estimate the subsequent mitigating effect of education quality on carbon pricings effectiveness and economic consequences, including wage inequality.

Using data on workers cognitive skills and their industrys emissions for 21 European countries, we find that cognitive skills are associated with lower emissions per output and faster reductions in emissions per output across time. All three measures of cognitive skills in the OECD dataset literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving were associated with reduced emissions per unit of output (see Figure 1). We found this association to be true within countries, controlling for level of education, and primarily associated with the cognitive skills of professional and managerial occupations, which would be most involved in innovation and adaption.

Figure 1Association between one-standard-deviation-higher cognitve skills of employees and average annual growth rates in industries' CO2emissions per unitof value-added in percentage point terms

Notes: Estimates using OECD PIAAC data 2012 merged with EU EmissionsAccounts by Industry for 2012 to 2019. Observations are 67,877 workers in 21 countries for numeracy and literacy skills; 44,446 workers and 17 countries for problem-solving skills. Associations estimated using linear regression models controlling for education level, sex, age and fixed effects for each country.Source: Macdonald and Partinos 2021.

Variation in the reduction of reliance on emissions across industries and within countries is likely the result of technological change, either through innovation or adaption. The association between cognitive skills and reduction in reliance on emissions by industries is consistent with skill-level as an enabler of innovation or technology adoption. This is further supported by the finding that the association between skills and reduced reliance on emissions are predominantly among managerial and professional occupations, which are most involved in innovation and driving technological change.

These findings are also consistent with green technology which enables production with fewer emissions being skill-biased: workers with a higher level of literacy skills contribute more to reducing the production functions reliance on emissions relative to capital.

To understand how education quality can interact with carbon pricing, we estimate a general equilibrium macroeconomic model for 15 European countries and predict the marginal effects of an increase in the price of carbon on output, emissions, and wage inequality defined as differences in wages that children from wealthy and poorer households earn when they reach adulthood to capture inequality of opportunity. Using the OECD PISA data for each country, we estimate the overall ability of households to acquire cognitive skills for their children as well as differences in ability between richer and poorer households to acquire cognitive skills. Higher-quality education systems are, in our model, able to provide more cognitive skills for a given level of investment in education and can do so more equitably.

Our estimated baseline models predict that a carbon tax reduces emissions but also negatively affects output, consistent with standard macro models of carbon pricing. A carbon tax also increases wage inequality which, in our model, is a result of green technological change being skill-biased and the inequality in skill acquisition between richer and poorer households measured in PISA.

We then study how the marginal effects of a carbon tax for each country compare between the baseline education quality regime as measured in PISA and each of two counterfactual education quality regimes. In the first counterfactual, we compared how the marginal effects of a carbon tax would change if each country had the same level of education quality as Finland the country with the highest level of education in our estimates. In the second counterfactual, we compared how the marginal effects of a carbon tax would have changed because of changes in the quality of education measured in PISA across time (see Figure 2).

Figure 2Projected annual percentof GDP saved according to countries' current education quality (compared to Finland's, as measured in PISA)if a carbon tax were used to reduce emissions by 55%

Note: Estimates not statistically significant for Denmark, Greece, and Norway. Source:Linearised projection based on marginal effects presented in Macdonald and Patrinos 2021.

For both simulations, we found that improvements in education quality (1) strengthened the marginal effect of a carbon tax on reducing emissions, (2) reduced the negative effect on output, and (3) reduced the positive effect on wage inequality. The magnitude of effect varies by country depending, in the first scenario, on the difference in education quality between Finland and the country in question and, in the second scenario, by how much education quality has improved (or declined) across time.

By projecting the changes in the marginal effects, we can offer a sense perspective of the impact. For example, in the early 2000s, Poland implemented a significant education reform that improved its education quality substantially. The reform, which raised the age of streaming into vocational programmes among other policy changes, had few recurrent cost implications but a large impact on cognitive skills. In our estimated model, if Poland increased its carbon tax to achieve the EUs carbon reduction targets, the loss in GDP would be a quarter of a per cent less thanks to the increase in education quality from the reform.

Our findings that cognitive skills are associated with industries that are more efficient in terms of emissions per output and, subsequently, that education quality plays a mitigating role is consistent with greener technology requiring a higher level of skills than existing technology. These findings also echo the literature showing that firm-level human capital improves environmental compliance and practices, and higher educations association with reduced emissions at the macro level. Green technology is skill-biased. However, our model does not explain why this would be the case, and the topic deserves further research.

Our model could be extended in several ways in future research. First, labour mobility could be added to understand how the variation in education quality across the EU may affect the impact of carbon pricing. For example, countries with lower-quality education systems may have higher elasticity in skill supply by attracting foreign-trained labour; however, the presence of low-quality education systems within the EU may lower the elasticity of skill supply for the EU as a whole.

A second extension of the model would be to include other mitigating factors, such as progressive or otherwise targeted redistribution of a carbon tax, and compare the strength of the mitigating effect with increased education quality.

Finally, a third extension is to transform the framework into a growth model and examine steady-state growth outcomes. This would allow us to better understand how the elasticity of skill supply affects carbon pricings impact on annual changes in carbon emissions and other macroeconomic outcomes including output.

Carbon pricing to reduce emissions that is accompanied by improvements in education quality will result in better environmental and economic outcomes. In this context, investing in education quality is not to change the values or behaviours of consumers but rather to enable technological change that can reduce emissions. Human-capital investment should improve cognitive skills and enable technological change to mitigate the costs and enhance the benefits of increased carbon pricing.

Borissov, K, A Brausmann and L Bretschger (2019), Carbon pricing, technology transition, and skill-based development, European Economic Review 118: 25269.

Bentaouet Kattan, R, K Macdonald and H Patrinos (2020), The role of education in mitigating automations effect on wage inequality, Labour 35: 79104.

Gollier, C, and J Tirole (2015), Negotiating effective institutions against climate change, Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy 4(2): 528.

Grainger, C A, and C D Kolstad (2010), Who pays a price on carbon?,Environmental and Resource Economics 46(3): 35976.

Klenert, D, and C Hepburn (2018), Making carbon pricing work for citizens, VoxEU.org, 31 July.

Lan, J, and A Munro (2013), Environmental compliance and human capital: evidence from Chinese industrial firms, Resource and Energy Economics 35(4): 53457.

Macdonald, K, and H Patrinos (2021), Education quality, green technology, and the economic impact of carbon pricing, Policy Research Working Paper No. 9808, World Bank.

Mathur, A, and A C Morris (2014), Distributional effects of a carbon tax in broader US fiscal reform, Energy Policy 66: 32634.

Metcalf, G E, and J H Stock (2020), Measuring the macroeconomic impact of carbon taxes, AEA Papers and Proceedings 110: 101106.

OECD (2017), Boosting skills for greener jobs in Flanders, OECD.

Pargal, S, and D Wheeler (1996), Informal regulation of industrial pollution in developing countries: Evidence from Indonesia, Journal of Political Economy 104(6): 131427.

Rausch, S, G Metcalf and J Reilly (2011), Distributional impacts of carbon pricing: A general equilibrium approach with micro data for households, VoxEU.org, 10 June.

Shapiro, J (2021), Pollution trends and US environmental policy: Lessons from the last half century, VoxEU.org, 2 December.

Stiglitz, J E, N Stern, M Duan, O Edenhofer, G Giraud, G M Heal, E L La Rovere, A Morris, E Moyer, M Pangestu and P R Shukla (2017), Report of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, World Bank.

van der Ploeg, R, A Rezai and M Tovar (2021), Carbon tax recycling and popular support in Germany, VoxEU.org, 2 November.

Yao, Y, K Ivanovski, J Inekwe and R Smyth (2020), Human capital and CO2 emissions in the long run, Energy Economics 91.

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Education quality, green technology, and the economic impact of carbon pricing | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal - voxeu.org

US Summit for Democracy. (Photo: via Social media)

By Jim Miles

The US Summit for Democracy has come and gone without too much fuss. It was a strange little show with the leader of the so called free world being those democratic countries that for whatever reason support US dictates attempting through rhetoric and probably a few winks and nods to maintain its establishment as the groups leader. From what I saw in the MSM it really amounted to little and may well have shown how weak the supposed leadership is.

It did however raise the very good question of what democracy is. From its etymological roots, it simply means essentially power by the people although even that has various interpretations, none straying far from that simplicity. As for practical applications, there are many different routes that can be taken, different levels of democracy depending on initial premises. For example, the idea that capitalism is the main pillar of democracy is a premise that allows all kinds of actions that are decidedly non-democratic. To present arguments as to what democracy leads into a mess of philosophical arguments leaving no verbiage unturned in pursuit of its definition to support politicians practical applications.

It is therefore not a good argument to get into. Instead what makes more sense is to look at how societies apply their laws domestically in practical situations towards their citizens and with foreign affairs against others. In other words, the following is more a look at actions taken that are definitely non-democratic, a view that seriously limits the understanding of democracy as power by the people.

Freedom and Democracy

There needs to be a differentiation between freedom and democracy. While the two go together well, freedom can be had without democratic control, according to the whims of the government, and according to the perhaps unseen aspects of domestic control (laws and belief systems) that are disguised as freedom. An example of the latter would be the theorized rugged individualism as propounded by many US authorities which really indicates that, if one cannot make it in society it is all your own fault and not societys.

Domestic

There are some big obvious practical issues that deny democracy. Probably the biggest is racism in its many forms. Different laws for different sections of the population based on race or ethnic background are decidedly non-democratic. This includes various reservation systems as applied to all the British colonial heritage countries, mainly the Five Eyes, the imperial system as exercised in Canada, the US New Zealand, and Australia. It includes apartheid states like Israel, and formerly South Africa.

Domestic spying is another form of non-democratic action. Still, with the Five Eyes, their nominal designation is based on their actions of spying on foreign countries, including those within the group one of their main purposes is to avoid the legal entanglement of a government spying on its own people. Other countries are not so constrained and any government that has a security system for internal security certainly spies on its citizens. Canadas government has its Communications Security Establishment (1946) and its better-known component, CSIS. The USas various spy and policing agencies, the FBI being the best known, keeping records on many of its citizens mainly for political reasons. Israels Shin Bet works hand in hand with the military to control the indigenous Palestinian population.

Along with those spy organizations goes a highly militarized police force. These forces are used to control opposition street-level (democratic) protests against mostly corporate actions supported by governments. This comes back to reservations and apartheid as much of the use of militarized police is to control domestic protests originating from land and resource arguments from indigenous populations. Accompanying this on various levels are outright murder, torture, inhumane treatment, and outright deniers of humanitarian law. Examined in this light, the Five Eyes and Israel are decidedly non-democratic.

Election laws and rules have a large impact on the application of democracy. For all its self-vaunted mastery of democracy, the whole US system is clearly non-democratic. They put on a great show with constant year-round electioneering and much less governing for the people. The current system of the Electoral College was mainly established to keep the rabble, the factions from having any say in governance. The gerrymandered districts effectively assure certain areas of remaining with a particular party and are usually based on race or ethnic background although in Ireland it contains the religious component as well (although that is mostly ethnic-immigrant Scots versus indigenous Irish). Many other smaller seemingly innocuous laws limit democracy, some being simply outright petty and stupid, such as Georgias law against giving water to voters.

One of the larger factors in the US is the huge amount of money corporations are allowed to spend on elections as determined by Citizens United in which donations of money are considered free speech and corporations are people. Supposedly intelligent people believe this stupidity mainly as it serves their own power and finances. There is no peoples power when corporations are usually able to buy their favored candidate. The combination of predatory financialization (meaning most of us to live in debt servitude of some kind) to some bank or other) and corporate militarism (spending huge amounts of money liberally distributed throughout the country for political gains) certainly do not give power to the people.

Corporations

The corporate world straddles the domestic and foreign affairs realm. Basically, corporations are non-democratic by nature. Their purpose is to make profits and protect owners against financial losses as well as externalized costs such as environmental damage which includes the poisons of resource extraction, the removal of land from public or indigenous jurisdiction, and the creation of an impoverished workforce.

Much of that profit recently has come from the huge amounts of Quantitative Easing supplied by the US Government in liaison with the Federal Reserve (a series of private banks supposedly directing the economy). The stock markets and commodities markets are all manipulated and serve mostly the wealthy who benefit most from the tax cuts, low-interest rates, and government subsidies.

Corporations can be simply about business, but as seen above, corporations are also well tied into the security apparatus of the country, from the militarized police forces to laws that generally protect the rights of corporations over the rights of citizens, in particular indigenous citizens. Further, many that appear to be superficially benign are highly involved in the production of equipment and materials for various spy agencies and military agencies. Boeing, Kodak, Intel, General Electric, Amazon, Facebook are all well known domestic names with strong ties to the military and security apparatus of the US Israeli corporations are highly militarized as is the state and its field-tested security and military equipment is sold around the world to various other governments acting in a non-democratic manner.

Canadas corporations act decidedly in a non-democratic manner in certain situations apart from the externalized costs. Mining, forestry, and energy companies frequently intrude on indigenous land and retain special rights also to public lands. With the ultimate control of all land-based on the sovereign as per millennia-old racist laws, governments and corporations operate together against the will of the people.

Foreign Affairs- Economic

Apart from domestic non-democratic actions, actions taken within or against other countries are frequently non-democratic. It is a combination of military and economic actions that are used to deny the sovereignty of other nations even if many are nominally democratic.

Free trade is one of the more obvious non-democratic sets of rules globally. Designed in secret without public input, seldom if ever voted on either by referendum or representatives[1], these agreements are designed to give freedom only to the movement of money and profits. Any impedance to that movement is generally fought not in the courts but in private arbitration structures that abide by the decisions of the theoretical experts chosen by the aggrieved complainant, usually a large international corporation.

The agreements have nothing free for the workers and end up weakening workers rights. There is nothing free for the environment and quite the opposite pretend losses due to environmental laws are liable to lawsuit compensation against governments. Which adds to the point that people are not able to sue governments, in some cases governments cannot sue corporations, yet corporations are free to sue governments.

The global financial institutions are not democratic by any definition. Mostly controlled by the US the US or EU based international corporations (banksters et al) democracy is not available to those coming under the dictates of the IMF and World Bank [2], nor the larger constraints of the SWIFT settlement system or the rulings of the global oversight Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

Beyond the manipulations of financial institutions is the use of sanctions. Sanctions can be applied in a positive manner as exemplified by the BDS sanctions that worked to eliminate apartheid in South Africa [3] and are currently being used to support Palestinian rights in occupied Palestine (being all of Israel). Both of these uses developed from grassroots initiatives, truly democratic actions against oppressive non-democratic regimes.

Using sanctions as an economic/military weapon has become the main method of international relations with the US. Arguably better than outright war, they cause enormous suffering mostly to the citizens of the countries they are applied to. What is currently working against them is the indigenous resistance against ceding to the demands of the sanctions. Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria are all surviving the sanctions imposed by the US and its allies of the west, establishing a resistance to empire supported by other countries with more resources.

Russia to a degree has actually benefited from sanctions as it, fortunately, has a large resource base and has become a strong agricultural center. It has also divested itself of ties to US debt obligations and on a debt to GDP ratio is probably one of the strongest economic countries in the world. Counter to desires, sanctions have also pushed Russia and China much closer geopolitically creating a new multipolar world that does not necessarily make it all democratic, but it puts a preventative in place against US military and economic aggression.

Foreign Affairs Military

There is not much really needed to say about how military interventions and occupations are anti-democratic. Having ones country destroyed by someone elses military on any pretense simply denies democracy. The supposed right to protect mantra used by the US and NATO on several occasions has proven to be a total disaster which arguably is one of the hoped-for outcomes as these disasters are profitable for the corporate militarized world and ideal to shape a failed country that needs submit to imperial desires.

The US/NATO are the primary guilty party for all kinds of military interventions used to serve the purpose of the empire. Yugoslavia/Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia are all current examples of either direct western military interference or subsidized military manipulation. There are many other smaller events occurring globally, directed and supported by the US and allied (MI6, Mossad, CSIS) covert services. It is tiring to repeat it, but it is significant with over 800 military bases around the world in over 125 countries, U.S./NATO/EU foreign policy is mainly determined by illegal military interventions.

Democracy Now?

Contemporary geopolitical currents make global democracy a highly contentious issue. The US empire is continually looking for a bad guy as required by the military-industrial-financial community in order to maintain their power over the people of the world. They are currently acting aggressively against both China and Russia with two areas Ukraine and Taiwan being possible flashpoints for some kind of war, while continuing their smaller aggressive actions in areas of geopolitical interest Ethiopia and Yemen being two of many current hotspots.

Beyond wars, the current world of financial manipulations has led to huge inequalities within countries and between countries. Structured mostly on debt manipulations of one kind or another, the US economic system is slowly having its impact reduced, but its overall enormity mostly due to the global reserve nature of its currency keeps it powerful. But power built on debt and large manipulations of economic factors could also lead to an equally enormous collapse.

Finally, one of the more discussed but practically ignored situations is climate change. Lots of greenwashing occur but until the grassroots of society change and demand change to the overall debt-burdened consumer society powered by economic structures and military structures, climate impacts will simply be absorbed and placed under the rubric of disaster capitalism, and the corporate interests will harvest their profits until flooded or burned out.

In sum, democracy is a wonderful ideal, superficially widespread, but with major aspects of society that truly deny it. Many places have personal freedom, but limited also for many by economic, social, educational, and other civic structures, many racist, many class-oriented. Until the non-democratic aspects of the financial world, the military world, and global climate change are dealt with, democracy will be a commodity in name only.

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When Democracy is Commodified: On the US Summit for Democracy and Other Ruses - Palestine Chronicle

As the UN climate talks draw near, Canada has enormous work left to do to reach its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Collectively, Canadians have to cut overall greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions across the economy by 2050.

And whereas countries like the U.K. have dramatically slashed their emissions levels, Canada's one of the few nations where emissions keep skyrocketing, and where fossil fuel extraction keeps increasing every year despite our climate targets.

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Given its track record, how will Canada achieve its goal of getting to net-zero by 2050?

In the upcoming online Conversations event on Thursday, 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET, host and Canada's National Observer deputy managing editor David McKie will discuss how renewable energy can put the country on track to hitting its targets with Clean Energy Canada executive director Merran Smith, Canadian Institute for Climate Choices senior economist Dale Beguin, and WaterPower Canada CEO Anne-Raphalle Audouin.

If we wanted to be powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity, Canada is one of the countries where this is actually possible, said Audouin.

She says for that to happen, it would take a slate of clean energy providers working together to fill the gaps, rather than competing for market dominance.

You couldn't power Canada just with wind and solar, even with batteries. That being said, renewables happen to work very well together she said. Hydropower already makes up more than 90 per cent of Canadas renewable generation and 60 per cent of the countrys total electricity needs are currently met thanks to this flexible, dispatchable, abundant source of baseload renewable electricity. It isnt a stretch of the imagination to envision hydropower and wind and solar working increasingly together to clean up our grid. In fact, hydropower already backs up and allows intermittent renewable energies like wind and solar onto the grid.

She noted that while hydropower alone won't be the solution, its long history and indisputable suite of attributes hydroelectricity has been in Canada since the 1890s will make it a key part of the clean energy transition required to replace coal, natural gas and oil, which still make up around 20 per cent of Canada's power sources.

Canada's vast access to water, wind, biomass, solar, geothermal, and ocean energy, and a federal government that has committed to climate goals, makes us well-positioned to lead the way to a net-zero future and eventually the electrification of our economy. So, what's holding the country back?

According to Clean Energy Canada, it's possible to grow the clean energy sector, but only if businesses invest massively in renewables and governments give guidance and oversight.

A recent modelling study from Clean Energy Canada and Navius Research exploring the energy picture here in Canada over the next decade shows our clean energy sector is expected to grow by about 50 per cent by 2030 to around 640,000 people. Already, the clean energy industry provides 430,500 jobs more than the entire real estate sector and that growth is expected to accelerate as our dependence on oil and gas decreases. In fact, clean energy jobs in Alberta are predicted to jump 164 per cent over the next decade.

Currently, provinces with the most hydropower generation are also the ones with the lowest electricity rates. Wind and solar are now on par, or even more competitive, than natural gas, and that could have big implications for other major sectors of the economy. Grocery giant Loblaws (which owns brands including President's Choice, Joe Fresh, and Asian grocery chain T&T) deployed its fleet of fully electric delivery trucks in recent years, and Hydro-Qubec just signed a $20-billion agreement to help power and decarbonize the state of New York over the next 25 years.

In The New Reality, Smith writes that many carbon-intensive industries, such as the mining sector, could also potentially benefit from the increased demand for certain natural resources like lithium and nickel as the world switches to electric vehicles and clean power.

Oil and gas may have dominated Canadas energy past, but its Canadas clean energy sector that will define its new reality, Smith emphasized.

Despite its vast potential to be one of the world's clean energy leaders, Canada has a long way to getting on the path to net zero. Even though the country is home to some of the world's leading cleantech companies, such as B.C.-based hydrogen fuel cell providers Ballard Power and Loop Energy and Nova Scotia-based carbon capture company CarbonCure, the country continues to expand fossil fuel extraction to the point that emissions are projected to jump to around 1,500 MtCO2 worth by 2030.

We still are a resource-based economy, and one of the largest emitting countries of greenhouse gases per capita in the world, Audouin said. Climate targets are one thing. But we now have the right environment, we have the right policies... Everybody's getting on board the climate bus. What we need now is strong action to propel renewables centre stage.

Join Canadas National Observer on Oct. 21 to discuss how Canada will get to net-zero emissions by 2050. Register here.

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Canada's race to net-zero and the role of renewable energy - National Observer

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japans export growth weakened to its slowest in seven months in September, while a surge in imports added to worries that pandemic-led global supply chain snags could derail the countrys fragile economic recovery.

A laborer works in a container area at a port in Tokyo, Japan, March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/Files

Exports are losing steam at a time when a weaker yen and a spike in oil prices have pushed up import costs, hurting resource-poor Japans terms of trade and potentially undermining Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas pledge to correct wealth gaps.

The trade data will be among factors the Bank of Japan will scrutinise when it releases fresh quarterly growth and inflation projections at its policy meeting later this month.

Exports rose 13.0% in September from a year earlier, Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday, compared with a median market forecast for an 11.0% rise, as car shipments tumbled 40.3%, the first drop in seven months.

While ahead of forecasts, export growth weakened from 26.2% in the previous month and was the slowest since February.

While the effect of auto production cuts will abate once supply bottlenecks are resolved, fundamental concerns for growth peak-outs in the United States and China are unchanged, said Kota Suzuki, economist at Daiwa Securities.

Exports will still be in the weak state for a while.

Shipments to China, Japans largest trading partner, rose 10.3% in September year-on-year, led by semiconductors and plastic materials, while car exports fell 71.9%.

U.S.-bound exports, another key destination for Japanese goods, fell 3.3% to mark the first decline in seven months, as demand for cars and airplanes weakened.

Imports, meanwhile, jumped 38.6% in the year to September, following the prior months 44.7% gain, driven by increased costs for oil, coal and medicines.

Imports have now risen for eight straight months, fuelling concerns that a recent yen weakening and surging oil prices are adding to the cost of living in Japan.

Rising import prices hurt the terms of trade for Japanese companies, said Ryosuke Katagi, market economist at Mizuho Securities. As consumer price inflation remains stagnant in Japan, companies cannot pass on the soaring costs to consumers, damaging corporate profits.

Japans trade balance swung into a deficit for a second straight month at 622.8 billion yen ($5.43 billion), with the yen-based cost of imports the highest since November 2018.

The data may add to worries among policymakers hoping for an export-led recovery, while rising import costs will stoke fears of stagflation, or a combination of rising inflation and stagnating growth.

Policymakers are under pressure to maintain Japans economic recovery from last years pandemic-induced doldrums, despite additional strains from a resurgence of the pandemic in other parts of Asia.

The worlds third-largest economy is expected to have expanded a meagre 0.8% in the third quarter, a Reuters poll showed, as parts shortages and supply constraints caused by Asian factory shutdowns disrupted automakers.

($1 = 114.6200 yen)

Reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Tetsushi Kajimoto; editing by Richard Pullin

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Japan's export growth slows; import costs weigh on recovery hopes - Reuters

This week, while reporting on Connie Morelands Facebook group, Free To Good Home, I was struck by her personal motto.

Everything we need, we already have, she said.

The Facebook group allows members to give and take things (clothes, furniture, toys, trinkets, etc.) at absolutely no charge.

The groups ground rules are radically simple: Be kind and courteous, no bullying or hate speech, and no buying and selling. The rules comprise an ethic that is badly needed in our current consumptive society.

The world is too much with us, wrote the Romantic poet William Wordsworth in the early 1800s, as the Industrial Revolution was heating up in Europe. Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours.

If that observation was acute then, its beyond cliche in our present age of Apple, Google, Netflix, Amazon and Facebook.

A few hundred years after the start of the Industrial Revolution, we are now living in a digital revolution thats powered by data. We havent moved beyond our dependence on fossil fuels, weve just discovered a new non-renewable resource to mine for profit: ourselves.

The philosopher Shoshana Zuboff describes our current moment of surveillance capitalism, which claims human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data.

Although some of these data are applied to produce or service improvement, the rest are declared as a proprietary behavioral surplus, fed into advanced manufacturing processes known as machine intelligence, and fabricated into prediction products that anticipate what you will do now, soon, and later, Zuboff writes.

This translates into that advertisement for Nike running shoes that mysteriously follows you around the web. Thinking about traveling? Where? Google already knows and is more than happy to deliver to you the answer that its algorithm has already predicted youll stumble on.

During your travels, you may notice aspects of what New York Times reporter Nelson D. Schwartz calls the Velvet Rope Economy. First-class flights. Luxury vehicles. Separate VIP sections on the cruise ship.

This isnt your great-grandparents conspicuous consumption, Schwartz writes. Whats new is how the manipulation of envy and status is being used to sell services, a much bigger market that includes everything from air travel and cruises to financial advice and entertainment.

And sometimes its not the service being sold that brings envy into play its how these services are delivered, whether that means a faster check-in line thats side by side with the slow lane at the airport or being called by name to board before everyone else.

Feeling lonely? Theres an app for that.

Its a sign of our times that today I can order companionship as easily as I can a cheeseburger with just a few taps on my phone, that what I call a Loneliness Economy has emerged to support and in some cases exploit those who feel alone, writes economist Noreena Hertz.

Even before the coronavirus triggered a social recession with its toxification of face-to-face contact, three in five U.S. adults considered themselves lonely, she writes. All over the world people are feeling lonely, disconnected, and alienated. We are in the midst of a global loneliness crisis. None of us, anywhere, is immune.

Whats more, the key elements of the Velvet Rope Economy that Schwartz describes and the Loneliness Economy that Hertz writes about are mutually reinforcing.

As the world becomes increasingly unequal, the lived social infrastructure becomes even more cruel and closed off to the have-nots, driving us further apart and exacerbating our collective loneliness.

For instance, Hertz observes elements of hostile architecture in cities across the world from separate entrances in apartment buildings for VIP residents to metal grates on the pavement outside shops from which spikes emerge at night (the latter is supposed to be a deterrent against those experiencing homelessness, as if human beings without means are akin to pesky bugs).

This hostile infrastructure, Hertz writes, has its roots in the broken windows policing of the 1980s, when everyday activities such as standing, waiting, sleeping (especially when committed by people of color) began to be criminalized as disorderly and antisocial.

Its worth noting that the 1980s is when the wealth and income divide were living with today gained its greatest momentum. Right now, the wind is at the backs of the rich.

If our society had $2 to share between the richest 0.1 percent and the bottom 90 percent, it would give $1 to the guy in the private jet and the other $1 to the other 900, or about enough to fill 20 city buses, writes the historian Matthew Stewart. Back in the 1960s, by contrast, the people on the buses shared $4 for every $1 among the sky people.

In between the 0.1 percent and the 90 percent, there is a collection of percentiles that has held on to its share of the growing economy, Stewart explains. It has pulled away from the 90 percent, even as it has fallen far behind the 0.1 percent. Taken on the whole, the 9.9 percent is the richest segment of the distribution and controls more than half of the personal wealth in the nation.

In other words, over time this country has cannibalized its citizenry and the cannibalization is accelerating every year, with more and more people falling out of the middle class as more and more billions accrue to fewer and fewer people at the top. And with the increasing stratification comes yet more brutality that is become harder and harder to conceal behind elegant facades.

The irony is that this country and many parts of the world have never been wealthier. The late philosopher Ivan Illich described this paradox back in the 1970s with the term modernized poverty, which appears when the intensity of market dependence reaches a certain threshold.

Subjectively, it is the experience of frustrating affluence which occurs in persons mutilated by their overwhelming reliance on the riches of industrial productivity, Illich wrote. Simply, it deprives those affected by it of their freedom and power to act autonomously, to live creatively; it confines them to survival through being plugged into market relations.

I believe more and more people are starting to sense what Illich articulated decades ago. This impulse to check out of our impoverishing dependence on market relations is what drives Facebook groups like Morelands Free To Good Home.

And there are other autonomous, community-building projects and initiatives that have been spreading across Oak Park and the surrounding suburbs from Anthony Clarks and Suburban Unity Alliances Community Fridge to Little Free Library installations to Oak Park Mutual Aid.

These projects are radically simple and theyre premised on meeting peoples physical, social and emotional needs, rather than servicing their desires or manufacturing envy.

For the most part, they arent means tested. They dont require anyone to prove their worth as a condition for satisfying a basic need (i.e., you dont have to fill out an application of eligibility to reach into the Community Fridge and get food). This kind of means testing only feeds into the social stratification that is tearing us apart from each other.

Critically, they also occur in the physical world, not exclusively online. As Moreland told me, she has a vision to see her group grow beyond Facebook (where its subject to the platforms surveillance). Thats why she hosted a free flea market in Rehm Park last month. She understands the importance of old-fashioned face-to-face connection.

These projects are some of the most powerful antidotes to the cruelty and brutality that runaway inequality only exacerbates. They engender empathy and fairness and kindness and joy. They are, in the words of Illich, convivial.

The next step is to transform this localized convivial energy into something more large-scale, systematic and sustained. As Illich writes:

New, convivial politics are based on the insight that in a modern society, both wealth and jobs can be equitably shared and enjoyed in liberty only when both are limited by a political process.

Convivial politics. I like it. Lets make the practice go viral.

CONTACT: info@vfpress.news

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How to check out of the Lonely Economy - Wednesday Journal

Photo by Artiom Vallat on Unsplash

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzingas in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Phunware Inc. (NASDAQ: PHUN) announced that it has acquired privately-held Lyte Technology Inc., a fast-growing provider of high-performance computer systems, and financed the closing consideration of $3.32 million with cash-on-hand and unsecured, non-dilutive debt. The Company also expects to report net revenues exceeding $5 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 in newly issued revenue guidance.

Founded in 2018, Lyte is a profitable, rapidly growing system integrator that specializes in marketing and distributing custom, high-end computer systems off-the-shelf with advanced graphic processing units for gaming, streaming, and cryptocurrency mining. Currently located in Illinois, Lyte employs more than 25 people and ships thousands of computer systems per quarter to a unique customer network that has largely grown through word of mouth. The company prides itself on delivering the highest quality machines to its customers using high-end components from manufacturers such as NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD).

Lyte enables Phunware to enter the high-performance personal computer market. The HPC market is worth $32 billion and is expected to grow at a 20.4% CAGR over the next 5 years, according to an estimate from JPR. Lytes customers represent gamers, developers, content creators, and crypto enthusiasts who will support the adoption, scale, and infrastructure required for Phunware to deploy its decentralized data economy powered by PhunCoin and PhunToken.

Pre-acquisition, Q3 organic net revenues are expected to exceed 50% quarter-over-quarter growth sequentially when formally announced in mid-November, so this accretive inorganic acquisition puts us in a great position to not only continue that organic momentum in Q4, but also leverage a brand new, strategic distribution network for our recently announced blockchain initiatives, said Alan Knitowski, president, CEO, and co-founder of Phunware. Software exists at the pleasure of hardware, so much like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) invested in the resources necessary to deliver a global on-demand economy, Phunware is investing in the resources necessary to deliver a global decentralized data economy.

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Since inception, our demand has always outpaced our supply, so I am excited to better resource and scale Lyte within an innovative public company that has a strategic focus on decentralizing data, said Caleb Borgstrom, Founder, and CEO of Lyte Technology. I expect Lyte to materially contribute to Phunwares operational and financial success rolling forward, while delivering a worldwide distributed network of high-performance computing platforms to serve as decentralized oracles, validators, and nodes that efficiently bridge the gap between external data on the existing web and blockchain-based applications on mobile.

With this move, Phunware moves closer to empowering consumers by giving them ownership of their data. The companys blockchain ecosystem which is managed by PhunWallet on Apple iOS and Google Android, will allow people to monetize the data companies collect on them and decide when and to whom they sell it.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzingas in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.

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Phunware Acquires This Innovative High-Performance Computer Company - Yahoo Finance