Joseph Cotterill

Former TSMC staff arrested for alleged theft of chipmaker’s technology Taiwanese prosecutors probe ‘potential trade secret leaks’ in first case since key technologies added to national security legislation

”Investigators have also searched the premises of Japanese chip tool maker Tokyo Electron in Taiwan... Prosecutors declined to explain why Tokyo Electron’s premises were searched as part of the investigation.“ www.ft.com/content/ad9d...

This event was like a parody of how the UK under-prices the (southern) African diaspora that wipes its care-home bums and does its accounts. Demand (hourlong queues at a Kings Cross brewery) massively outstripped capacity even at up to £33 a head. People had come from across the UK for community.

Even in very fancy and overpriced restaurants in Angola, which I always found a lot more wired into Portugal than Mozambique, I noticed they had South African whites (not even very good ones tbh) over vinho verde. Quality wins out!

I’m at an amapiano event in London (called Stokvel’a, it’s really more like a recreation of a Joburg shisha nyama for the diaspora) and the white wine option is a Portuguese vinho verde. Uwrongo

Sooo… who will be the Li Keqiang of the eventual US Li Keqiang index?

Tariffs on Taiwan stir fears over waning US support against China Taipei faces 20% levy as it worries Donald Trump is prioritising trade talks with Beijing

Taiwan's 20% tariff does not include electronics which will get separate sectoral tariffs (or not, if there's also a carveout there in time). Also, it had 8% GDP growth in Q2 year on year and a C/A surplus over 15% of GDP last year. So... not all doom and gloom then www.ft.com/content/3c48...

IMF Executive Board Completes First Review of the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility for Argentina The IMF Executive Board completed the first review of Argentina’s 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF), enabling a disbursement of about US$2 billion.

IMF on Argentina. Our bailout needs to rebuild reserves to work. They missed the very first target for rebuilding reserves. Still, nevertheless, www.imf.org/en/News/Arti...

The Ghanaian stock market laughs in the face of your global trade war! Up 3% today.

South African inflation is currently about 3%, and the market has been pricing in a 3% target... but the Treasury is still well off making a formal decision (and it might need a lot of social buy-in). So, quite an interesting strategy by the SARB.

The South African Reserve Bank de facto named 3% as its inflation target today. Formally the target is set by the SA Treasury and is still a 3-6% range... but the bank's MPC said it “now prefers inflation to settle at 3%” in that range. So that's that apparently! www.resbank.co.za/en/home/publ...

Ghana's stock market is up 100% YTD in US dollar terms. (Merely 43% in cedi.)

(On the other hand, it would be interesting to do this kind of piece from, Tamil Nadu, and see what compares and contrasts!)

Global Trade Raised Living Standards for Millions. New Barriers Are Reversing the Trend. In Indonesia and elsewhere, export manufacturing helped narrow the wealth gap with the West, creating a consumer class, but that transformation has stalled.

Indonesia meets China's export surge/need to keep factories operating. “There was a hope that as labor costs in China rose, there was going to be a shifting of manufacturing to other low- and middle-income countries,” said Dani Rodrik. “That’s largely not happening.” www.wsj.com/world/asia/t...

What’ll happen if we spend nearly $3tn on data centres no one needs? Nineties adults remember

“In 2000, at the telecoms bubble’s peak, communications equipment spending topped out at $135bn annualised. The internet hasn’t disappeared, but most of the money did.” www.ft.com/content/7052...

Zhao Fen owns four “IP toy” factories, which produce merchandise designed around specific intellectual property, either original or under licence from other brands. Chain-smoking in her office in Dongguan, in China’s southern industrial province of Guangdong, where she is surrounded by Winnie the Pooh toys and anime figurines, she says the biggest change in her business over the past decade was the rise of juan — excessive competition — which has reduced the selling prices of her goods by about half in that time.

You'd think a Chinese factory making Winnie the Pooh toys might already be living rather dangerously... but apparently the overwhelming problem is overcapacity (or ‘involution’). Big read on China's local government frenzy for investment/avoiding factory closures: www.ft.com/content/f797...

The theatrical trailer looked very grimdark and pouty by the way. Even if it technically featured a wine-dark sea.

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Wades Into African Territorial Dispute Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie is sparking controversy in North Africa, with the decision to shoot some scenes in a long-disputed territory incurring the ire of a rebel grou...

I missed that Christopher Nolan has filmed part of ‘The Odyssey’ in Western Sahara, which has attracted Polisario's ire. (And also implies some of that wine-dark sea may not be the Mediterranean.) www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Tariffs are by definition a subsidy, transferring money from consumers to protected industries, but their special attraction to politicians was (and is) that most consumer-voters don't recognize this point. Tariffs were the great theological question of nineteenth-century politics, and not just in Canada. Though the debate over free trade versus protection was stilled in Britain for most of the nineteenth century, it lurked in the background as one of the great taboos of British politics. In the United States tariffs remained a lively issue, especially among farmers who received little benefit from higher prices for farm machinery or textiles. The miracle was that in a predominantly agrarian country the tariff could be so powerfully sustained as to be practically untouchable. Robert Bothwell Penguin History of Canada #kindlequotes

“Tariffs were the great theological question of nineteenth century politics.” Sure I’ve shared this quote before, but to the extent that the post facto justification for US tariffs now seems to be their value as a tax revenue source, it is all going a bit nineteenth century.

I liked ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’. It wasn’t as bold as ‘Superman’ in being what I call a ‘comic book film’ versus a superhero film, but it really got the feel of the classic. FF. I also liked that it totally ransacked ‘Interstellar’ for a very good space sequence!

I loved the glimpses of this in Superman as a reference both to the big DC Comics theme of legacy, and to the original Winold Reiss murals for the Cincinnati Union Terminal. That’s Madame Xanadu/Sister Symmetry and Silent Knight as the first two on the left!

The polarising power of Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s other wartime leader President Zelenskyy’s right-hand man is fuelling concerns over creeping authoritarianism

Unelected. Unapologetic. Uncompromising.
Andriy Yermak is not Ukraine’s president. But he often acts like one. He handpicks government officials—and dismisses them. The prime minister and military brass frequently defer to him.
My FT Mag profile of Ukraine's Green Cardinal
www.ft.com/content/4d61...

Confronting & Celebrating the Limits of the Body: Black Sabbath Live at Villa Park  | The Quietus Black Sabbath began with a broken body – Tony Iommi's industrial accident – it is both fitting and inspirational they end in the same way.

This, on the frailties of human bodies fighting the passage of time and Ozzy Osbourne’s last gig, is well worth a read. thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

The Fantastic Four: First Steps review — Pedro Pascal tries to save a simpler world The star leads an Earth-rescuing team alongside Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in Marvel’s latest superhero offering

Four FT stars for ‘Fantastic Four’! on.ft.com/4nZ36U2

Ukraine moves against independent anti-corruption institutions Parliament backs legislation to tighten executive control after series of moves targeting anti-corruption campaigners

"Shame!" shouted many Ukrainian lawmakers as a majority formed from Zelensky's ruling party, pro-Russian oppo bloc & Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna voted to, in effect, dismantle Ukraine's independent anticorruption institutions. My story on a grim day: www.ft.com/content/21cf...

“Norinco, China’s state-owned arms manufacturer, operates a lab-grown diamond business [for industrial applications] alongside its defence operations, complete with its own jewellery brand.”

How the diamond industry lost its sparkle The explosion of lab-grown stones from China has shaken up the sector, leaving established players struggling for relevance

Botswana’s economic model is in serious trouble (its public finances already are this year). On the rise of Henan’s lab-grown diamond industry: on.ft.com/4m1WIcR

Lena A note from the author You can now buy this story as part of my collection, Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories. This collection also includes a sequel story, titled "Driver". This articl...

Rereading Lena, one of the greatest works of horror fiction in this millennium qntm.org/mmacevedo and realising with some discomfort that if you inserted the words “LLM” at some point in the first paragraph’s jargon, a lot of people would refuse to accept it as horror any more

I get Today in Tabs but shamefully rarely get around to reading it. Which one should I look for?

In terms of this year's spurt you can really see this in countries in Southeast Asia (Vietnam in particular), which are also seeing healthy exports to the US. So re-routing is a thing. But then so is just that wall of cars to Mexico, solar panels to Pakistan, etc.