China Exports & Imports Log Sharp Growth

China’s exports and imports logged sharp growth in August despite COVID-related port closures, official data showed on Tuesday.

Data released by the General Administration of Customs revealed that exports advanced 25.6 percent year-on-year in August, bigger than the economists’ forecast of 17.1 percent and July’s 19.3 percent increase.

Reflecting low of comparison, imports increased 33.1 percent annually after rising 28.1 percent in July. Economists had forecast an annual increase of 26.8 percent.

As a result, the trade balance showed a surplus of $58.34 billion, which was above the expected level of $51.05 billion. In July, the surplus totaled $56.6 billion.

The trade surplus with the US rose to $37.68 billion in August from $35.4 billion in July.

With trade volumes still well above their pre-virus trend, they will drop back over the coming quarters, Sheana Yue and Julian Evans-Pritchard, economists at Capital Economics, said.

Outside a few narrow product categories where demand is being temporarily buoyed by the pandemic, foreign demand for Chinese exports is already coming off the boil, the economists noted.

Semiconductor related sectors such as autos are once again under the spotlight and could provide China with a comparative advantage in production, Iris Pang, an ING economist said.

Ford poaches top tech executive Doug Field who helped lead Apple's top-secret car project

DETROIT – Ford Motor has hired former Tesla and Apple executive Doug Field as its chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer, the company announced Tuesday.

Field,  who led development of Tesla's Model 3, most recently served as vice president of special projects at Apple, which reportedly included the tech giant's Titan car project.

Ford said Field will lead its vehicle controls, enterprise connectivity, features, integration and validation, architecture and platform, driver assistance technology and digital engineering tools.

"His talent and commitment to innovation that improves customers' lives will be invaluable as we build out our Ford+ plan to deliver awesome products, always-on customer relationships and ever-improving user experiences," Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. "We are thrilled Doug chose to join Ford and help write the next amazing chapter of this great company." 

El Salvador divided over making bitcoin legal tender

New York (CNN Business)It’s a volatile day for bitcoin, which briefly fell by about 10% Tuesday — below the $43,000 mark.

The drop comes after El Salvador made good on a plan announced in June and adopted the cryptocurrency as legal tender, making it the first country in the world to do so.
That’s good news for the mainstreaming of bitcoin. But the crypto fell Tuesday on the “buy the rumor, sell the news” phenomenon related to the Salvadoran policy finally coming to be, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda.

The Central American nation had bought 200 bitcoins previously, and it purchased another 200 late Monday ahead of the formal adoption plus another 150 on Tuesday, bringing the country’s total to 550 bitcoins. It will also give residents $30 worth of bitcoin with the download of the state-run Chivo wallet app to incentivize citizens to try crypto payments.

Bitcoin had traded as high as nearly $53,000 per coin Monday on the Salvadoran activity.

As the New York stock exchange opened Tuesday, the digital currency was more or less flat, and by midday it had fallen to a 24-hour low of $42,921, according to CoinDesk data.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a right-wing populist who rose to power in 2019, tweeted around midday that he was “buying the dip.”

The crypto has since come off its lows, though it remains down some 8.5%. Bukele tweeted that “it appears the discount is ending.”
–CNN Business’ Merlin Delcid contributed to this report.

Luka Jones, Marin Ireland & Sasheer Zamata Star In Audible Cold War Comedy Podcast From Paul Young’s Make Good Content

EXCLUSIVE: Audible is launching a Cold War-era scripted comedy podcast series from Paul Young’s Make Good Content.

The Amazon-owned audio service has set Operation Cordelia, created by Berlin-based writer/director, Kevin Napier and produced by Young.

The series, which launches on September 9, stars Luka Jones (Shrill), Marin Ireland (The Umbrella Academy), Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics), Andy Daly (Veep), James Urbaniak (Venture Brothers), voice-over legend Phil Proctor (Firesign Theatre), and audiobook veterans Scott Brick, John Lee, Ray Porter, and Simon Vance.

Set in the early 1970s, the espionage-comedy follows the CIA’s most emotionally unstable case officer, voiced by Jones, as he attempts to stop a mass terror attack in West Berlin, all told using “found audio” such as news reports, tapped phone calls, bugged offices, and people secretly wearing wires.

Napier is best known for his work on FX’s Married and Young from Comedy Central’s Reno 911 and Key and Peele.

Mike Griffin from Make Good Content and audiobook veteran, Eric Jason Martin, are additional producers on the project.

Watch the trailer below:

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Opinion | What Comes After the War on Terrorism? War on China?

By Thomas L. Friedman

Opinion Columnist