19 December 2018

Opinion today: How does the tech war end?


The US says it wants to reset relations with China, but may also block its rival’s rise © Daniel Pudles Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on LinkedIn (opens new window) Save Save to myFT Miranda Green 6 HOURS AGO Print this page0 This article is from today’s FT Opinion email. Sign up to receive a daily digest of the big issues straight to your inbox. As the US and China wrangle over trade, exchanging threats, accusations, punitive measures and retaliations, Gideon Rachman writes in this week’s column that there are two ways of interpreting their confrontation. The Trump administration says it wants to reset the relationship between the two superpowers. But the US may also want to block China’s rise. “These two ways of thinking point to very different potential endings,” 


he writes. “The first approach — the reset — ultimately ends with a deal. The second approach — blocking the rise of China — points to a prolonged and deepening antagonism.” There may well have been a shift in thinking in Washington towards the latter course of action, he warns, but even the hawks need to think about how this ends. Amy Kazmin tells the story of public figures in India who fall foul of colonial-era laws used to stifle free speech on social media. Robert Shrimsley argues that No-deal dreamers could force a Brexit rethink as ministers struggle to find a path through the UK’s political crisis. John Thornhill ponders the threat of catastrophe unleashed by access to cheap but potentially destructive tech, and some possible remedies. Emma Jacobs defines “toxic”, the latest in our Year in a Word series for 2018. What you’ve been saying Brunel would struggle to gauge Crossrail complexity: letter from John Tippler, Spalding, Lincolnshire, UK Mark Peaker declares that Brunel could have designed Crossrail and completed it on time ( Letters, December 14). Brunel’s merits were great, but Crossrail is far more complex than any of his projects. And wasn’t it Brunel who persuaded the directors of the Great Western to let him build their railway as broad-gauge? Later, at huge cost, the whole thing had to be expensively converted to permit interworking with other parts of the network. 

I doubt the directors were very pleased at having to pay for that mistake. In response to “ The eurozone risks sleepwalking into a downturn”, Danmalin says: In other walks of life trying to hit an unattainable target and missing year after year might prompt a reassessment of that target, but not in the bubble surrounding monetary policy in the euro area. Real risk now the ECB has waited too long to tighten policy and will have to ease next year. Ignoring ethical factors is a dereliction of duty: letter from James McManus, Nutmeg, London, UK I read with interest the article regarding ESG groupthink ( December 13). In our opinion the growth of this segment is driven by an investment industry that has recognised that ignoring environmental, social and governance factors is ignoring the risks and opportunities from each of these areas, and is in fact a failure of fiduciary duty. This also means ensuring investments are suitable for clients’ goals, which is why high risk trusts, such as the one mentioned in the article, are so rarely appropriate for many. Concrete data and the transparency of outcomes are indeed issues in ESG investing, and we would encourage the industry to integrate, as we do, ESG data into client reporting for all portfolios.

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