What to watch
G8 summit gets underway. The Group of Eight leaders try to build consensus on military intervention in Syria at their meeting in Northern Ireland. Tax evasion, trans-Atlantic trade pacts, and Abenomics are also on the agenda; Google’s Eric Schmidt thinks corporate taxes should be too.
Let’s make a deal in Paris. Airbus and Boeing battle for jet orders at the Paris Air Show. Airbus may have already secured an order for 10 or more double-decker A380 jets, worth over $4 billion, and tour operator TUI ordered 60 737MAX aircraft from Boeing for an undisclosed amount.
Czech mate. Czech prime minister Petr Necas will resign amid a bribery and spying scandal. That means the automatic departure of his entire cabinet.
Remember Julian Assange? Foreign ministers of Ecuador and the UK discuss what to do about the Wikileaks founder, who has been stuck in Ecuador’s embassy in London for the past year.
Zero is a happy number. Investors await clues on the strength of the US recovery from manufacturing and home construction data. Economists expect (paywall) June’s manufacturing index to inch up to 0 from -1.43 in May.
Over the weekend
New Snowden revelations. Those G8 ministers might want to leave their phones and laptops at home. The NSA leaker Edward Snowden released documents showing communications intercepts on foreign diplomats by British intelligence at a G20 meeting in 2009. Separately, Apple said it has received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests for customer data from US law enforcement in the last six months.
India’s central bank held rates. A week after the Indian rupee touched its lowest ever rate of 58.99 to the dollar, the Reserve Bank of India put the brakes on rate cuts. India’s trade deficit hit $20.1 billion in May, up from $17.8 billion the previous month.
Chen Guangcheng claims NYU kicked him out. The Chinese dissident was offered a fellowship after fleeing to the US, but says he was forced to leave because the university was concerned that Beijing would make things difficult for the new NYU Shanghai campus.
Ready to talk, sort of. Pyongyang proposed high-level talks with the US, just days after cancelling similar plans with South Korea. Washington said that North Korea must take steps to scrap its nuclear weapons before any discussions can occur.
A new dawn in Iran. Moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani, who supports greater personal freedoms and a softer foreign policy, was elected president by a large margin. Western diplomats say they intend to push for nuclear negotiations by August.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford on why demographics may doom Abenomics. ”The Japanese are aging faster than any country on the planet. The overall population began shrinking in 2005, while its working population peaked in 1995 (pdf, p.6). No amount of deregulation, essentially what Abe is proposing, is going to offset that demographic shift.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
HR departments don’t have a clue about hiring. Here are 10 examples of things they don’t understand.
Ego complex. Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon are vying build the best HQ, but history shows that trophy buildings don’t always breed success.
Free markets to the rescue. Monetize your personal data to protect your privacy.
Detroit’s unlikely saviors? Hedge funds and private equity firms can help Detroit avoid bankruptcy.
New clause in your contract. Corporations must purge the “every man for himself” philosophy.
The boss stops, period. A nonhierarchical workplace lets the whole office vote on hires, fires, and raises.
Surprising discoveries
The center of the airline industry is in rural Poland. Mathematically, anyway.
No licking required. The GB250 rare stamps index has outperformed most other major investments since 1995.
Messiah or Mammon? The new Superman movie is being marketed to churches; it also holds a record for the most product placements.
Is it a bird, a plane? No, it’s an internet balloon! Google’s solar-powered high-altitude balloons may bring internet to world’s remotest regions.
A swallow’s nest from the future. Taiwan dreams up a Mobius strip arts and literature center.
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