Boardroom Governance Newsletter #2

July 2020 Edition

Hello friends and colleagues,

As of this writing there are 13.3 million+ cases of COVID-19 globally (with over half a million deaths), including 3.4 million+ cases in the U.S. with a staggering 136,463 deaths. The pandemic is far from over, and the social and economic consequences of this annus horribilis are still to be played out in full.

But not everyone is faring badly. There are record highs in the stock market, and some companies - particularly in the technology sector - are thriving. Per the Economist, “it has been a golden era for American and Chinese tech. The industry now has a colossal market capitalisation of $20trn and accounts for a quarter of the world’s stockmarket value.” But the signs of an all out economic cold war between the U.S. and China are clear at this stage, the latest salvos including the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and the ban of Huawei technology in the UK. I recommend this podcast from Ben Thomson and James Allworth discussing some of these tensions, includin…