Stocks and Bonds Have Taken Losses. Invest in Them Anyway. | Joe Biden should admit Republicans are (partly) right about border security | The fall of China’s "manganese king" may hit global EV supply chains | Trialling the two-day workweek

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� � � � � � You Might Like � � � � � � � � � Stocks and Bonds Have Taken Losses. Invest in Them Anyway. - The New York Times    Performance reports for the three months that ended in September are arriving now, and they are ugly. The vast majority of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds — the vehicles used by most Americans for their investments — fell. There were losses in most markets and in nearly all asset classes. If you’ve lost money, take some deep breaths, practice yoga, watch a ballgame, enjoy time with family and friends — whatever works. But don’t make abrupt changes in your investments. A good plan is better than an emotional response when markets fall. I say all that assuming you already have a solid investment portfolio set up — a simple one, ideally, containing cheap funds, preferably index funds that mirror the total market. Continued here Joe Biden should admit Republicans are (partly) right about border security - The Economist    If there were ever a good case for a centrist third party in American presidential elections—and right now there is not—the strongest reason would be the mass migration under way in the western hemisphere, which is prompting both major parties to take foolish and even inhumane positions. The surge in illegal crossings of the southern border is a complex problem. But having fed it through the polarisation machine, Democrats and Republicans have come up with simple, reciprocally stymying answers that defy not only compromise but common sense, too. The latest demonstration came in early October, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published plans to install 20 new miles of barriers along the Rio Grande in south-eastern Texas. As a candidate Joe Biden promised to build “not another foot” of wall, so reporters sensed the dangling shape of a favourite piñata, hypocrisy, and prepared to swing away. But when they bearded the president in the Oval Office, he had an explanation: Congress made him do it. True enough. In 2019 Congress appropriated $1.375bn for a “barrier system along the south-west border”. Having tried to persuade Congress to redirect what remains of that money, the Biden administration was at risk of breaking the law if it did not act. Asked if he believed a border wall “works”, Mr Biden replied, flatly, “No”. The problem turned out, in other words, to be worse than hypocrisy. It was inanity. Mr Biden could not give an answer that would strike any child as obviously true: walls do work, but only sometimes. Continued here Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium The fall of China's "manganese king" may hit global EV supply chains - The Economist    Against this backdrop, the troubles of Jia Tianjiang, a 61-year-old billionaire who built a global manganese empire, may seem unremarkable. On September 22nd a Chinese court put his company, Tianyuan Manganese Industry (TMI), into administration, after the huge debts Mr Jia accrued had gone unpaid. Yet his predicament may have consequences far beyond his business—and beyond China’s borders. That is because manganese is used to make types of high-quality steel and in lithium-ion batteries, both of which are instrumental to supply chains President Xi Jinping views as strategic. And Mr Jia, widely known in China as “Manganese King”, has been instrumental in the metal’s production. Mr Jia is the classic rags-to-riches story. One of 13 siblings from a poor town in China’s north-west, he got his start by selling apples on the street. Later he sold the cardboard used to package the apples and eventually opened his own cardboard factory. In 2003 he bought a failed manganese mine just as China’s homebuilding boom began. This eventually made him the richest man in Ningxia province, where his company is based. In the 2010s Mr Jia began diversifying into finance and moving capital offshore. He bought large stakes in several Hong Kong-based investment groups with the help of a friend, Lai Xiaomin, the financier behind Huarong, a state-owned asset manager. In 2017 Mr Jia was, to many observers’ surprise, allowed to buy a 20% stake in China Citic Bank International, the Hong Kong banking arm of one of China’s mightiest state conglomerates. Continued here Trialling the two-day workweek - The Economist    We have completed our pilot of the two-day workweek, and present our findings below. We would like to thank the leadership team for being imaginative enough to allow this experiment. We are also very sorry. Background: We are consistently looking for ways to stand out as an employer of choice. Recent trials of the four-day workweek at other companies suggest that there might be ways to improve work-life balance and satisfaction without hurting productivity. Our former head of HR, Joe King, pushed us to be bolder. If people were able to fit a whole week into four days, was it possible to go further still? The idea to trial a two-day workweek in our North American territory was born. And to reiterate the point above, you all agreed to this. Outline of the trial: Employees began work at 9am on a Monday as usual. They did a 20-hour shift until early Tuesday morning, and then had an eight-hour break, before beginning a second 20-hour shift. The workweek ended at 9am on Wednesday morning, at which point employees took the next five days off and returned the following Monday. Continued here

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