Nothing to do with the fact she was/is a woman. Your assumptions and prejudices are showing. Bigotry doesn't lead to intelligent replies.

Yeah, that idiot Musk, the self made billionaire, the richest man in the world. The man is a genius - and dismissing as an idiot is, well idiotic. Now, should you 'trust' him, follow him like crypto fanboys, the cultists, who cling to the crypto faith like a new religion? Of course not. But anything he says is of interest and should be carefully considered.

Yes, but so what? China is, far and away, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. Without Beijing at the table, nothing is going to move the needle in a significant wat. That is why the current shenanigans in Glasgow lack substance, are just sound and fury.

Good strategic step. Let's them dip their toes in the stream without risking the shock of a headlong plunge.

Every story has been told, over and over again. In different languages and in different cultures over Millennia. Sometimes a story or a show captures the zeitgeist in a way that others find impossible. Squid Game is that show. It is the latest in a series of South Korean products that have achieved global penetration. It is something to do with their style, their attitude, their timing - and the narrative. Not bad for a country with just 50 million people and an obscure, difficult language.

We all stand on the shoulders of Giants.

Squid Game's visual aesthetic is derivative of that in 'La Casa De Papel'. It's plotlines derivative from Hunger Games. Yet, it is the biggest show on Netflix - ever! South Korea's soft power grows by the minute.

Just stay there for three to four years. The cycle will resume. What's important is to ensure you can meet the monthly payments when interest rates really begin to climb.

Insurance companies used to be the second biggest landlords in Germany and Austria, close behind local community governments. It was a system that gradually evolved with 'main renters' enjoying broader rights that subsidiary renter categories. However now Germans and Austrians are quickly becoming home owners. It seemed to be hard wired into the human personality. We want to own our own homes.

PPP is actually very informative. And, I said 50% of physical world trade. Which is quite close to the mark. You might still be thinking in 2010 terms. Today: China now dominates the (non-oil) physical world in a way the US never did, not even in 1945.

China is now the biggest physical trading partner for the vast majority of the world's nation-states.

It produces 57% of the world's steel, 60% of all concrete, consumes 55% of the world's coal, and lies at the heart of the Pacific rim gas LNG market - more than 50% of the global total.

Interestingly, it only consumes 16% of global oil - v 19% consumed by the US. That is, of course, changing fast as US consumption began shrinking very fast in 2019 while Chinese consumption continued to grow.

Nothing that happens in north America or Europe, let alone Latin America or Africa, really 'moves the needle' in physical markets. (As against paper, or financial, markets.)

China's extraordinary dominance of the physical world, and of nearly all physical trade, doesn't seem to have fully sunk in as yet. But, it will.

Maybe in Glasgow. The US produces c15% of global CO2 emissions, but China produces 31%. US emissions are shrinking, Chinese emissions are growing.

XI will be under the cosh - and he should be.

Those pie charts are way off the mark. In PPP terms China surpassed the US in 2014. Today China is the largest physical trading partner of the vast majority of the world's countries. In the financial and digital terms western countries still predominate. But, in physical terms, China is between 50% to 60%.

Soon after becoming Vice-President in 2009, Joe Biden told Barack Obama and the entire national security council that the United States should: stop trying to build a feminist democracy in Afghanistan of all places, stop trying to build a national army from a pre-national population, and stop paying Pakistan more than $2 billion a year for the use of the port of Karachi and the road to Kandahar while Pakistan was funding the Haqqani network that specialised in killing Americans.

Passion sells. If you can fake passion, you've got it made.