December 10 2024

1. China's Auto Supremacy: A Revolution In Global Manufacturing
2. US Financial Confidence Rebounds
3. Skill Divide Deepens: US Workers Struggle With Basics
4. Data Center Boom Strains Communities and Power Grids
5. Iran's Regional Power Wanes Amid Middle East Chaos
December 10, 1922: Canton Bulldogs claim NFL’s first title

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1. China's Auto Supremacy: A Revolution In Global Manufacturing

China has, according to the New York Times, the capacity to produce over 40 million internal combustion engine (ICE) cars a year. Goldman Sachs thinks China will also have the capacity to produce around 20 million electric vehicles by the end of 2024. It should have the capacity to produce something close 25 million EVs by late 2025, as production is currently increasing by close to 4 million cars a year and Chinese firms continue to invest heavily. As the New York Times story makes clear, China now has an incredible—and I would argue unprecedented—capacity to supply over half the global market for cars, which is typically around 90 million cars a year. China’s internal market is around 25 million cars, and not really growing—so rising domestic EV sales progressively frees up internal combustion engine capacity for export. Domestic demand for traditional cars is likely to be well under 10 million cars next year given the enormous shift toward EVs now underway inside China. Put differently, China currently has the capacity to produce over two times its own domestic demand and is adding to that capacity quickly thanks to the rapid expansion of its electric vehicle sector. It thus has almost unlimited potential capacity to export.* That sets the scale for a potential revolution in global manufacturing.  

Article Source: CFR

2. US Financial Confidence Rebounds

A. The share of US households expecting their financial situations to improve over the next year climbed in November to the highest level since early 2020, according to a survey released Monday.  

B. U.S. small-business confidence surged to the highest level in nearly 3-1/2 years in November amid post-election euphoria. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index jumped 8.0 points to 101.7 last month, the highest level since June 2021.

Article Source: Bloomberg, Reuters

3. Skill Divide Deepens: US Workers Struggle With Basics

When it comes to basic skills such as creating a complex travel itinerary, reading a thermometer or finding information from a website, American workers are falling behind those in other rich countries. That is according to a global test of adult know-how, which measures job readiness and problem-solving among workers in industrialized countries. The results, released Tuesday, largely show that the least-educated American workers between the ages of 16 and 65 are less able to make inferences from a section of text, manipulate fractions or apply spatial reasoning—even as the most-educated are getting smarter. It also suggests that employers might have a hard time finding workers capable of basic levels of critical thinking. “There’s a dwindling middle in the United States in terms of skills,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of a statistical agency at the Education Department. “Over time we’ve seen more adults clustered at the bottom.”  

Article Source: WSJ

4. Data Center Boom Strains Communities and Power Grids

QTS, the data-center developer that Blackstone bankrolls, is building 10 hulking bunkers over a stretch of land that’s more than 600 acres. They’ll hold thousands of computers for companies including Microsoft Corp. The complex is expected to consume as much electricity as about a million US households — leaving utility Georgia Power rushing to build the infrastructure to meet demand. Around Fayetteville, a community ringed by creeks and pine trees, the data center has stirred discord over how to accommodate the unprecedented power needs. Local officials say they were caught off guard. Neighbors are divided on whether to accept Georgia Power’s offers for access to their land. Looming over everyone’s negotiations: the prospect of having property seized by eminent domain. Residents are up against forces unleashed by the state’s most influential utility and a company backed by the world’s largest alternative-asset firm. It’s a consequence of America’s race to harness the artificial intelligence boom with critical — but resource-intensive — data centers. The costs and benefits of those properties aren’t borne equally, and some pay the price more than others. What’s happening in Georgia is coming to more US towns as investment firms and tech giants pour ever-bigger sums into data centers, creating new stresses on the land and fabric of communities. Connection requests for big data centers “are stretching the capacity of local grids to deliver and supply power at that pace,” according to an Energy Department working group report this year.

Article Source: Bloomberg

5. Iran's Regional Power Wanes Amid Middle East Chaos

Iran spent decades and billions of dollars building a network of militias and governments that allowed it to exercise political and military influence across the Middle East, and deter foreign attacks on its soil. In a matter of weeks, the pillars of that alliance came crashing down.  The departure of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is the latest strategic catastrophe that will force Iran to rethink decades-old security policies, just as it is confronting the election of President-elect Donald Trump and his promises of new pressure on Tehran. Assad’s removal is also the climax so far in a cascade of events catalyzed by the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, which resulted in the most fundamental change in Iran’s security landscape since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. But, while the toppling of Saddam Hussein ultimately provided Iran with opportunity, this time Tehran is at a disadvantage. In more than a year of attacks, Israel has devastated Hamas, Iran’s main Palestinian ally. Since September, Israel has killed most of the leadership of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that is Iran’s most powerful ally, and sent its surviving top commanders into hiding.  “The Islamic Republic thought that Hamas’s 7 Oct. attack was a turning point in history. That’s true, but in the entirely opposite direction to what it hoped for,” he said. “The dominoes for its western front have fallen one after the other.”

Article Source: WSJ

December 10, 1922: Canton Bulldogs claim NFL’s first title

On December 10, 1922, the Canton Bulldogs defeat the Toledo Maroons, 19-0, and are declared the first champion of the newly renamed National Football League. Canton finishes the season 10-0-2, allowing 15 points and producing nine shutouts. The league champion is determined by best regular-season record. "The Maroons never got within striking distance of Canton's goal," according to a newspaper account. The Bulldogs won unofficial championships in 1916, 1917 and 1919 in the Ohio League before joining the American Professional Football Association in 1920. That league was renamed the National Football League in June 1922.

Sources

2. https://www.cfr.org/blog/will-china-take-over-global-auto-industry

3. A https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-09/us-households-views-of-finances-are-brightest-since-early-2020
B https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-small-business-sentiment-nears-3-12-year-high-november-2024-12-10/

4. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/america-us-math-proficiency-falling-1b5ac73c?st=NyKhpx&reflink=article_copyURL_share

5. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-12-08/georgia-s-blackstone-backed-qts-data-center-hits-resistance-over-ai-power-needs

6. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/syria-iran-assad-axis-of-resistance-6289667a?st=ttktmj&reflink=article_copyURL_share