Recommended Weekend Reads
March 10 - 12, 2023
We thought you might find the following of interest. Let us know your thoughts and if you or a colleague want to be added to our distribution list. Have a great weekend.
· “Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community" Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Earlier this week, the heads of all the U.S. intelligence agencies testified before Congress, explaining what they see as the major threats to the U.S. Unsurprisingly, their joint report cites Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea continue to be seen as the biggest threats. But the report also discusses the risks of infectious diseases and the impact security globally from the COVID pandemic.
· "China's Hidden Tech Revolution: How Beijing Threatens U.S. Dominance” Foreign Affairs
When the iPhone X was released in 2018, not only were Chinese workers assembling most iPhones, but Chinese firms were producing many of the sophisticated components inside them. Today, Chinese tech firms account for more than 25 percent of the device’s value-added costs. Now, Chinese firms have moved beyond assembling foreign-made components to producing their own cutting-edge technologies. Along with its dominance of renewable power equipment, China is now at the forefront of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. These successes challenge the notion that scientific leadership inevitably translates into industrial leadership. Despite relatively modest contributions to pathbreaking research and scientific innovation, China has leveraged its process knowledge—the capacity to scale up whole new industries—to outcompete the United States in a widening array of strategic technologies.
· “Turning Up the Heat on Geothermal Energy Development in Latin America” Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
As climate change and energy crises grip the globe, countries have started prioritizing energy sources that are renewable and indigenous. Geothermal energy, where available, can provide renewable power that is not subject to weather conditions or international fuel price fluctuations. With many countries on the Ring of Fire, Latin America is positioned to use geothermal energy to decarbonize the electricity grid, heat, and cool buildings, and support industrial processes, among many other applications.
· “Options for Reducing the Deficit” Congressional Budget Office
The CBO regularly gets asked by members of Congress how exactly could the federal deficit be reduced. CBO Director Phil Swagel offers up a detailed set of options (many of which Congress is likely to take up since they would be politically unpopular).
Charts of the Week
The Black Sea Grain Initiative is Set to Expire This Week – Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's biggest suppliers of grains and fertilizers. When the war broke out, the U.N. and Turkey helped negotiate an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to allow shipments to continue. But that agreement expires on March 18th. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Kyiv this past week, and stressed the importance of extending the deal that’s allowed Ukraine to ship 24 million tons of crops since it was first agreed in July. While the markets are cautiously optimistic the agreement will be extended, Moscow has threatened to withdraw. How much is exported? The chart below details which gets the grains and fertilizers globally:
· The End of Rapid Population Growth, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank
“The world’s population recently reached 8 billion people—the culmination of a century of rapid population growth. Whereas it took 125 years for the world’s population to double from 1 billion (in 1803) to 2 billion (in 1928), it took only 47 years to reach 4 billion in 1975, and another 47 years to reach 8 billion last year. However, the era of rapid population growth is coming to an end. As shown in the figure below, the United Nations projects that the world’s population will peak at around 10.5 billion people later this century before beginning to decline.”
