update on peculiarities of spain and barceloca as at may 2021
if you love the futures of bracelona as a youth smart city please tell us - xglagow.com cooperation youth committes ecop26- here is pat of a 4 year long conversation with friends in barcelona - they value the future of dual laguage teenagers in this case spanish and american like no other education system; we would love to map other dual language teen knowledge systems as this group has so much to action if 2020s is the last chance decade for sustaiability dev goals
manolo may i ask you to do 2 things- 1 could you write a short note to sunita explaining we need to re-review process but because of time of year the best date for marta to do this is <you choose real date> ... 2 equally the three of us need to do a re-review; however i am in no hurry; i would ask if an action suddenly pops up on one of your most important relationships eg vaccine with peru navy and michigan you tell me in case i can suggest and added contact; i had wanted to know if the idea that 11th and 2th graders need their own alumni group is research you wanted to collaborate with; it seems to me universities suck out all the place loyalty of a young person which is particularly sad in your context where arguably there are no greater alumni of the future of barcelona or spain's contributions to sdgs than your kids; that was the idea i would have liked to connect a cluster of american international schools around; it was for example desperately needed by hog kog ai school; and we could have made a map of other places it was needed -eg rome to get franciscan values linked in - and helped unite such schools with glasgow; ironically scotland has done more total revisions to green curricula over the last decade but neither london nor any of the big g7 or g20 players know about this- anyhow hope we get a chance to make a total review after marta's biggest rush of year and before she goes offline like she did last summer; one other thing when you look at win-win community web it looks as if marta has a team of say 10 people connecting her projects but since i havent really met others ; when we do chat with marta can we also discuss what is happening to these others; overall is win-win still growing or contracting beyond its purpose inside the school? assuming the world does leap beyond covid in school year 2021-2 we need a timetable if win-win is to win with other partners ; if you have a quick look at www.youthmarkets.com you can get an idea of partnerships i am still juggling because accidentally over his last decade i got a different holistic view of abed (than anyone) as world number 1 connector of rural womends sustainable development ; what yidan does in the year 2021-2 is fascinating now he has assembled 15 different views of the totality that education isresponsble for in the counil of luminaries; if at some stage you get time to discuss yidan as a wn-win-win platform for education driven by a guy with his own billion dollar budgets but the connections to anything out of hong kong or inside tencent then that is possibly educations most exciting tipping point network ever
beyond our deep conversations with people in barcelona, your editor doesnt speak spanish but is in the odd position of living in usa where there are now more sanish teens than any other ethnicity; yet the border problems of usa and latin america are being made ever worse by covid following on the 4 years of hatred trump fanned; back 17 years ago at knowledgeboard a pan eu virtual community i volunteered to make a map of the emotionally smartest cross-cultural cities; barcelona was in the top 3; the fact that the eu has since constrained the futures of barcelona more than any other people with the possble exception of my diaspora homeland scotland is unforgivable in the way i see the world albeit an extreme minority view which does not matter except where those who love youth most want it to matter www.youthmarkets.com
by 1984 our team at The Economist were asking whether we parnets and educators of millennials would track effective health services as core to why we invest in leaps in technology
current reporting in
suggest europe hasnt begun to learn that its nastions futures will not be sustained by money ments antics but last mile community health service
when you compare national health services- the uk may be underfunded but nurses are still loved in communities
spain is very peculiar- depending where you qualify annually as top 2000 medics you are assigned your health speciality- community health is not in the top rankings- this elitism and silos of health may yet turn out to be the greatest weakness
all of italy france and spain seem to me to be mixtures of 2 types or economy
idyllic ruralism
global cities where properties are now owned by international banking and by other countries richest
I dont think that idyllic ruralism of retirement has distributed health care systems of the sort the virus need to sustain idyllic rural as the place for retirees- i hope i have misunderstood and wish italy, france and spain my favorite places to relax as a holidaymaker a comeback
I dont thing the eu out of berlin and brussels gets the deepest challenge italy france spain and countries with idyllic rural now face but hope to be proven wrong.It is absolutely clear that 12 years of austerity after subprime made false savings by under-investing in local health - and by not increasingly adding the missing curriculum of peer to peer adolescent health to every nation's schools- see our summary of global missing curricula at www.economistjapan.com
back to the view out of britain where the other big story is the peoples prince charles has become corona positive ...https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8135759/Was-really-surprising-sterling-plummeted-low-week.html
The pound has plummeted to its lowest level against the dollar since the mid-80s: Why has it fallen so far when the whole world is suffering?
- The pound tumbled to $1.15 last week, its lowest level since February 1985
- Before the virus crisis, the pound had lost some appeal as a reserve currency
- U.S. Treasury markets are quite popular because of their more robust liquidity
The pound tumbled to $1.15 last week, its lowest level since 1985, and below the point it tumbled to in the wake of the Brexit vote.
But, unlike Brexit, the coronavirus crisis is a problem affecting the whole world, so why has sterling fallen so hard against the dollar?
Sterling remains a major global currency and UK government bonds are still considered a safe haven, but in times of crisis people rush to what they judge to be the safest places. And for financiers that is usually not the pound, but the American dollar and US Treasury bonds.
We look back at the last time the pound traded this low against the dollar and why it has tumbled so hard in the coronavirus sell-off.
The pound tumbled to $1.15 on Wednesday, its lowest level since 1985
When the late Paul Volcker took over the U.S. Federal Reserve in 1979, the American economy was suffering an uncommon malady known as 'stagflation' – a mix of high unemployment and inflation.
To defeat this, the Fed raised interest rates to as high as 21.5 per cent at one point. The measure instigated a massive recession that made the austere Volcker a boogeyman for many. Protesting farmers drove around the Fed building in tractors to vent their anger.
Despite the substantial economic cost, the 'Volcker shock' helped to curb price rises. But it had another significant side effect. Investors rushed to purchase U.S. government bonds, thereby causing the dollar to appreciate sharply, making exports uncompetitive.
By February 1985, sterling was trading at a record low $1.05, and the U.S. trade deficit had almost quintupled to $122billion between 1980 and 1985.
The dollar only began to devalue following agreements at a meeting of finance ministers at New York's Plaza Hotel that September.
Volcker's extraordinary actions were a watershed moment in American financial history. Monetary policy went from the control of politicians to the technocrats, and the financial system started its journey to becoming the behemoth it is today.
An even more kaleidoscopic-shaking situation is rocking today's financial markets. The coronavirus has caused extreme economic as well as social harm in the last few months.
Paul Volcker (right) raised interest rates to as high as 21.5 per cent at one point after he took charge of the U.S. Federal Reserve to help defeat the USA's high inflation levels at the time
What financiers are currently doing in response to Covid-19 is making the Volcker Shock look placid by comparison.
But the reaction of the currencies in both instances was quite similar. The pound tumbled to $1.15 last week, its lowest level since those heady days of 1985.
In many ways, this was expected. In times of crisis, people rush to the familiar and the safe. And for financiers that is usually not the pound, but the American dollar.
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As Markets.com's Neil Wilson wrote on Wednesday: 'In a crisis like this King Dollar reigns supreme.'
U.S. Treasury markets are popular because of their greater relative depth and more robust liquidity. U.S. Treasuries are the deepest and most liquid assets in the world.
So remarks Ned Rumpeltin, European Head of Currency Strategy at T.D. Securities: 'Given the circumstances, the U.K. looks like a rather risky proposition right now, so sterling has suffered accordingly.
'Within this, we also think that this highly tense environment has made it difficult for international markets to gain access to U.S. funding for various dollar-denominated exposures. That has fueled this dash for cash that we think has resulted in GBP's weakness.'
Even before the virus crisis, sterling lost some of its appeal as a reserve currency due to the uncertainty over Brexit.
The referendum in 2016 started a long period of political and economic uncertainty that has left investors nervous Britain will leave with weaker trading links with its largest trading partner.
Now that the coronavirus has relegated negotiations over the future UK-EU trading relationship to the background that uncertainty has been heightened again.
Viraj Patel, an FX and Global Macro Strategist at sotware firm Arkera, calls Brexit and Covid-19 the 'two de-globalisation shocks' to hit the pound in the last four years
Viraj Patel, FX and global macro strategist at Arkera, calls Brexit and Covid-19 the 'two de-globalisation shocks' to hit the pound in the last four years.
'Equally,' he adds, 'bank balance sheet funds moving out of the U.K. banking sector in recent years - as a result of Brexit trade uncertainties - makes the pound slightly more vulnerable this time around.
Sterling has also had to contend with a much more long-term problem that is rarely talked about nowadays. For decades, Britain has run large trade deficits with the rest of the world.
Our economy relies heavily on foreign direct investment to keep the pound relatively stable, so when the taps run low, the pound's value has to contract to make up for the lost capital.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak's £330billion bailout package did little to stop the pound sliding. Many investors are asking him to go much further in arresting this decline
Could this not be good for exports? In theory yes, remarks ING's Christopher Turner. However, he warns that spending is being hurt everywhere, 'so the benefits might not be as large as expected.'
If private spending is down everywhere, then governments need to take the mantle and 'do whatever it takes' as so many are asking. However, the U.K.'s colossal stimulus measures have been relatively tame by comparison to other countries.
In a briefing note co-written by Ned Rumpeltin and other senior T.D. Securities executives, they stated: 'Compared to other major countries in the region, it seems the F.X. market judged that the U.K. is behind the curve in terms of its contagion control efforts. Until that conclusion changes, we think sterling still faces downside risks.'
Chancellor Rishi Sunak needs to pull as many financial bunnies out of the hat as he can if he is to calm the markets. It is a tall order, but if £330billion did not do the trick, then hundreds of billions more may be necessary.
He really is going to have to do 'whatever it takes' if the pound is to avoid experiencing a major run.
Sterling was already up against it before this virus wreaked its havoc across the globe. Caution and half-measures will not stop that.
