FT: “Until recently, the main advantage Chinese EV manufacturers had over Tesla was that their products were significantly cheaper. But in February, BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu stood on stage in Shenzhen and unveiled “God’s Eye”, an advanced driver-assistance system that is a precursor to fully autonomous vehicles. A month later, Lian, who now heads BYD’s automotive engineering research institute, was on stage with Wang to announce a new battery charging system capable of adding a driving range of about 470km in five minutes — a fraction of the time it would take a Tesla to charge to that level. The startling technological advances made by BYD and others have sparked panic among legacy carmakers, who have responded by partnering with Chinese rivals to learn how to build vehicles faster and cheaper, and with better software.”
Toto Wolff on creativity [in the context of running a Formula One team]: “It means being able to reflect. Because we spend our life being busy: We have meetings, we respond to communications, we have our calls. We have the analogy of being on the dance floor and on the balcony. My role on the weekend is being on the dance floor: I’m actively involved in what’s happening. But then in my role as a CEO, I need to also step onto the balcony and look at what’s going on on the dance floor down there.”
National Review: “Argentina’s economy is growing at 7.7 percent, according to the latest year-over-year data. It grew by 1.9 percent in April, the most recent month for which data are available. The Chinese economy is growing at a rate of about 5 percent per year (if you believe the official statistics, which there are good reasons to doubt). Argentina is achieving this growth not through a strategic industrial policy or a mercantilist trade policy. It’s achieving it by rolling back the overextended public sector, slashing the government budget, controlling the money supply, and removing price controls. Milei eliminated rent controls in Buenos Aires, and the apartment market was flooded with new properties and the average real price went down. He turned a budget deficit into a surplus in his first full year in office. He eliminated half of the country’s cabinet departments. When Milei took office in December 2023, inflation was 25 percent per month. In May, it was 1.5 percent…Milei knows that these are not miracles. They may feel miraculous for people who have been suffering, but they are exactly what economic principles suggest would happen when government controls are removed and people are made free to buy, sell, produce, and consume as they see fit. People have known about this since at least the time of Adam Smith, yet they continue to be surprised when it works.”
Arnold Kling: “Across countries, institutional differences matter. For example, compare Communist countries with non-Communist neighbors. Cuba before Castro was richer than Mexico. Now their situations are reversed. Taiwan is far more prosperous than mainland China. The difference between Communist North Korea and non-Communist South Korea is especially stark, with South Koreans almost 20 times richer on average. For the forty years when the Berlin Wall separated Communist East Germany from non-Communist West Germany, East Germany fell far behind. There are important institutional differences within the non-Communist world. For example, as of 2000 it took an average of four days to obtain a business license in the United States. In Kenya or Egypt, it took over 50 days. More recently, a World Bank study found that the cost of starting a business was 1 percent of average income in the U.S., but 11 percent in India and 26 percent in Nigeria.”
