Does China Own the Future?

File image of Chinese President Xi Jinping. LUONG THAI LINH / POOL / AFP

The FT columnist Gillian Tett argued this week that global markets are revealing an interesting paradox: on the one, hand, rising stock prices show that investors are feeling somewhat more optimistic about the future. On the other, gold and bitcoin (both seen as hedges against losses and volatility) are rallying too.

Tett explains this contradiction — that the market seems both bullish and bearish on risk — as a sign of our time. We’re balancing short-to-medium term upturns against numerous medium-to-long term risks, including climate, geopolitics, and yawning structural inequalities.

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by Cobus van Staden

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