Memorable reads of the week 1

Original source: Windels, V. (2018, September 17). Zonder de Chinezen bestond Delvaux vandaag niet meer. De Standaard.

I this article interesting because it shows a couple of things:

1. Delvaux wasn’t that well known outside of Belgium
2. They considered their prices to be too low and only now are they priced correctly (i.e., more expensive for the same good)
3. The Chinese company bought Delvaux in 2011

It’s point two that I found striking. The price of their goods increased to be more appealing to their target audience.

Original source: Vanbrussel, E. (2018, September 18). Iedereen wil een tweedehands Tesla. De Tijd, p. 15.

Did you also think the title was “clickbaity”? Yeah, me too. Regardless of the title, the content itself was pretty interesting.

The article starts by stating Teslas surprisingly don’t lose their value as much as the German brands.
From the title, you can already anticipate why that is. The demand is higher than the supply (in Belgium).

The reason for the high demand seems to be because wannabe Tesla owners can’t wait for the Model 3 that is still months, if not years away. Instead of waiting for the Model 3 to become available, potential Tesla buyers look for secondhand Model S’. There is also a problem with the supply side. There are just not that many secondhand S models available.

Original source: Reuters (2018). Alibaba’s Jack Ma says U.S.-China trade war ends 1 million U.S. jobs promise: Xinhua. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-alibaba/alibabas-jack-ma-goes-back-on-promise-to-create-one-million-u-s-jobs-xinhua-idUSKCN1LZ2KH

This article piqued my interested because I distinctly remember how at the beginning of 2017 Ma reportedly called Trump “smart” and “open-minded.”(Reuters) after their talk about bringing jobs to the States.
When I read that now, given these new developments, I can’t help but wonder: did Trump already had a trade war in his mind while talking to Ma? It’s really interesting to see all of this unfold in real time and being able to just look up what was said and “promised” earlier.
The first reports of Trump’s “attack” on China started in January of this year with tariffs on solar panels, so about a year after their talk.

I don’t have any strong opinion about this recent development because Europe luckily doesn’t get the full brunt of Trump’s “attack”.

I’m pretty skeptical about one thing. Ma’s statement on this trade war. he said this war “could last decades”. I find that highly unlikely. Never say never of course but 20 years and more is a long time.