Splitting Headache

President Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky are giving key addresses at the annual UN General Assembly in NYC. While the UN is trying to establish unity among likeminded nations, the reality is that the latest gathering is happening in a highly divided era. One way to see how dramatic that split has become is by looking at how corporations are changing they way (and with whom) they do business. “One word has been popping up increasingly on earnings calls and in corporate filings of some of the world’s biggest companies … 500 chief executives and their lieutenants have used the word ‘geopolitics’ almost 12,000 times in 2023, or almost three times as much as they did just two years ago. It’s not just talk. Hard evidence is now emerging that all the discussions of strained international relations and more than a decade of warnings over the end of an era of globalization are finally spurring corporations to pick sides with their capital … The accelerants for the shift are obvious. Pandemic-scarred governments are pressing companies to keep national interests in mind and providing subsidies and other incentives as a carrot to bring production home. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a building US-China rivalry have hastened the end of a fragile post-Cold War model that saw trade and globalization boom.” Bloomberg: The Global Economy Enters an Era of Upheaval. Listen to the politics, but follow the money.