We are fast cruising to the end of the year, and lots of major stories as we close out the rapid news cycle before the holidays.

The nation-state of the internet

This was my most in-depth, thoughtful article the past two weeks. It’s maybe a little heady, but essentially, the internet is creating the context for a new form of the nation-state. That discussion was in the context of Imagined Communities, a book that is one of most cited of all time in the social sciences and discusses how the printing press was the enabling technology for the first nation-states to form. May try to follow up on this in the coming weeks.

Nvidia newsletters

After losing half its value, Nvidia faces reckoning

On

This week, I focused on several major Asia tech and finance stories that will radically reshape the divide between the U.S. and China. Several of these stories have been issues debated for years that are now seeing resolution, such as MSCI’s decision below. It’s a constant reminder in Silicon Valley that despite the region’s power in tech, many others around the world are plotting to compete effectively.

Xiaomi CDRs, SoftBank’s successors, and China’s Samsung investigation

China is launching a new financial vehicle known as Chinese Depository Receipts, which are mirrors of a similar vehicle in the United States known as American Depository Receipts. This mechanism allows local investors to invest in foreign companies, without the logistics of moving money

I just finished up this Bloomberg article on Steve Bannon about his “war” on the Chinese as part of his economic nationalism policy agenda.

The key quote from Bloomberg:

In Bannon’s view, China is harming the U.S. by engaging in unfair trade practices, such as the forced transfer of U.S. technology to Chinese companies. While many experts agree, Bannon has a more dire view of the consequences. “There have been 4,000 years of Chinese diplomatic history, all centered on ‘barbarian management,’ minus the last 150 years,” he says. China’s historical disposition toward trading partners, he contends, is exploitative and potentially ruinous. “It’s always about making the barbarians a tributary state,” he says. “Our tribute to China is our technology—

Cross-posting this from Facebook: