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Good morning from Madrid, where the revolution is definitely being televised. More below.
NETFLIX’S GLOBAL CONTENT REVOLUTION
It’s now becoming commonplace to make a global TV or film hit in your own language, in your own country. That’s the lesson from both new statistics released by Netflix on the company’s Squid Game hit, and an exclusive tour Global Insider got this morning at the company’s massive new Secuoya Studios outside of Madrid.
South Korean-made Squid Game is neither Netflix’s first non-American, nor its first non-English language, success: think French-made Lupin, or British-based Bridgerton. But it’s in another league: viewed by around 120 million people in four weeks, Squid Game sits as the top Netflix show in 94 countries.
European production hub: These hits are driven by investments such as “Madrid Content City,” a 140,000 square meter (1.5 million square feet) development on the outskirts of Spain’s capital, that is anchored by Netflix but not owned by it. Built from scratch in three years, it will soon have 10 sound stages (each so large they can build fake three-story buildings within them) on top of dozens of editing suites, and a private university offering only audio-visual degrees. There are no temporary trailers parked all over the lot here: It’s a one-stop content shop that, while not bigger than Hollywood, gives the impression of being more efficient. Squid Game, in other words, is likely only the start of the global content revolution.
NEW PODCAST EPISODE — MARGRETHE VESTAGER
Europe’s most powerful regulator, Margrethe Vestager, who flexes the EU’s executive competition powers and leads its digital and tax policy efforts, sat down with Global Insider over a glass of red wine to talk about what it will take to get Big Tech within democratic guardrails.
Vestager hearts Biden: Vestager is embracing President Joe Biden’s antitrust appointments and competition executive order — ”a dream come true” — and the new-found Congressional vigor for antitrust action: “I’m 100 percent convinced you really need the Legislature as a complement to competition law enforcement.” She also explains in detail why she thinks the new Transatlantic Trade and Technology Council went “much better than what could have been expected.”
No time for Facebook’s corporate governance: “The really important decisions concerning how we use technology” must be “taken in our democracy and not in closed boardrooms” by unfireable CEOs, Vestager said. “You need to say to companies who have a role as gatekeepers in a market: ‘These are the things that you can do. These are the things that you cannot do.’” She also believes Facebook acted in bad faith when applying for merger approval with Instagram and WhatsApp.
On whether a global corporate tax rate will be officially confirmed: “Basically, I’m an optimist because I think this is the only realistic option,” but she urges citizens and NGOs to get loud now to avoid OECD plans derailing.
Listen to the episode to hear more about what she did when she found out an EU court had overturned her decision to make Apple pay $15 billion in unpaid taxes, what she really thinks about Bitcoin and her efforts to limit her screen time at the urging of her daughters.
GLOBAL ECONOMY GROWING BY GLIDING DOWNWARDS: The International Monetary Fund ever so slightly downgraded its outlook for the global economy — due to supply chain disruptions in industrialized countries and vaccine inequity between rich and poor nations.
GEORGIEVA KEEPS HER JOB: The IMF executive board on Tuesday morning said it has “full confidence” in IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, amid allegations she skewed data during her time as chief executive of the World Bank to appease Beijing. It took the board several days to decide it had this full confidence — which points to both heated internal debate, and American skepticism at the heart of the debate. In a statement, the IMF board said the evidence “did not conclusively demonstrate” Georgieva “played an improper role.” What emphatic support!
Backlash to the Gerogieva backlash: Georgieva’s many allies have rushed to her public defense over the past week. Now Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center of Economic and Policy Research, is calling for a congressional investigation into the attempt to remove her. “It’s clear that the law firm [WilmerHale] hired to do this investigation targeted Georgieva and misrepresented what it was doing,” Weisbrot said. Georgieva has previously said she was “never afforded an opportunity to review the notes taken during my interview for accuracy and to offer clarification,” and branded the investigation as non-compliant with World Bank procedural standards.
IMF AND WORLD BANK MEET COP26: There’s no escaping climate change in this week’s meetings, which are taking place in Washington and virtually, of course. Rockefeller Foundation’s Raj Shah made the link explicit Tuesday, calling for a Covid Charter — aka a war-time leadership response to end the Covid crisis and help the world (paging Boris Johnson who tried to deliver just that at the G-7 summit in June). Why now? Shah wants IMF and World Bank shareholder nations to free up resources for the pandemic response in the developing world, “in part by leveraging these legacy institutions and their existing mechanisms more aggressively and creatively.”
Shah’s point is that the World Bank-IMF meeting this week could loosen some of the biggest sticking points at next month’s COP26 climate summit. That includes G-20 finance ministers’ meeting Wednesday — who could make an announcement on the unmet pledge of rich countries to deliver $100 billion per year in climate finance to developing countries, to help fund their shift away from fossil fuels. The problem has become only more urgent since Covid-19: Those same developing countries are now deeper in debt thanks to Covid and less able to make green shifts on their own.
Aside from simple generosity, the easiest way for rich countries to deliver the cash would be to redirect some of the $650 billion in special drawing rights (a special IMF asset that can be converted to cash) that the Fund has recently issued. If the G20 doesn’t make a big announcement, they still have the G-20 leaders summit in Rome on Oct. 29-30 to make good.
COP26 — THE DAVOS CIRCUS COMES TO GLASGOW
Sure, 1 in 3 governments has missed a Tuesday deadline to submit new climate plans to the U.N. ahead of the COP26 climate conference, including heavy polluters such as China and Australia (World Resources Institute has a country-by-country rundown), but there’s no lack of enthusiasm from corporations, celebrities, royals and religious leaders who plan to pile into Glasgow from Oct. 31-Nov. 12.
Call it climate FOMO: “It has reached a critical mass moment,” said a British official not authorized to speak to the media. Names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are anticipated. The U.K. royal family, led by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles wouldn’t miss it, nor will President Joe Biden, though Xi Jinping is skipping (he’s still living in a Covid bubble).
Davos-on-Clyde: For multinationals COP26 is both a time for action, and a branding opportunity. “Glasgow is our Business” a group that includes top executives from Amazon, McDonald’s, Mars, Starbucks, LinkedIn, Microsoft and United Airlines is already warning that “the future is watching” and United Airlines has taken to calling its customers “Sky Huggers” (which definitely sounds nicer than calling its frequent flyers “planet-killers”).
Green but still VIP: There are few private meeting rooms available, however, leaving CEOs like J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Dimon wondering whether he should turn up. (Boris Johnson has begged him to twice in recent weeks, but insiders at the bank are doubtful it will happen — since no-one can guarantee CEOs their usual top access to politicians.) That’s not a message top CEOs are used to hearing. “Right now we’ve got senior executives not knowing if they can travel to Glasgow, or if they should, because they don’t know if they’ll get a … pass,” said Michael Liebreich, who’s helping to ease the way of CEOs by hosting them at stately homes and fancy restaurants in and around Glasgow.
Keeping the most famous climate faces out of the diplomatic “blue zone” of the conference brings its own challenges. “The true nightmare scenario for organizers is the security of Greta Thunberg,” the Swedish climate activist, said a Spanish official involved in organizing the previous COP conference, COP25, which took place in Madrid in 2019. “Everywhere she went, she was followed by hundreds of people. We tried to get her people to agree to an itinerary so we could protect her. They refused.”
The team behind “Davos House” — the most exclusive after-hours social venue at the World Economic Forum in Davos — will be running a COP26 “Goal House” at a former steel plant, designed by Henry Royce, of Rolls-Royce fame. Organizers told POLITICO they plan panel discussions alongside an “exclusive club space” that includes bilateral meeting rooms for CEOs and celebrities who can’t snag them inside the official venue.
Green groups have complained that U.K. government logistical briefings were too focused on details like where private jets will land, rather than how delegates from Pacific islands would actually get to Glasgow amid travel difficulties and extended quarantines. The COP26 unit, which is paying for quarantine stays and ran a vaccination program for delegates, disputes this.
If you haven’t already booked your Glasgow accommodation: Good luck! One of the few three-bedroom townhouses still on offer in central Glasgow will set you back $31,639 for the 13 nights of COP26. A room at the three-star Merchant City Inn is available for $14,360. The cheapest options POLITICO found: a twin bunk bed in a six-bed female dorm room with shared bathroom at Tartan Lodge for $300 a night.
Turkey encapsulates the COP process problem: One of the last countries to meet the U.N. deadline for submitting new climate targets is Turkey. There’s relief that they did submit — but it’s conditioned on how generous you are about what qualifies as meeting the deadline. Turkey finally ratified the Paris Agreement (six years after the fact) and approved a 2053 net zero emissions goal. But it is also insisting on defining itself as a developing country — when it no longer meets any of the standard definitions.
TECH — BRAIN DOWN ON CAPITOL HILL: Silicon Valley and the telecom industry are snatching up top Democratic policy experts on Capitol Hill — just as Congress gears up for fights with the companies. They’re headed to lobbying roles at powerhouses including Facebook, Verizon, Apple, Charter Communications, the National Association of Broadcasters and the cloud company VMware.
ARAB YOUTH SURVEY — U.S. IS UP, WOMEN ARE DOWN: Optimism is rising, the U.S. is seen as the most influential foreign power in the region, and there’s a significant decline in perceptions of gender equality, according to a new survey of young people in 17 Arab states and territories. The survey, in its 13th year, was conducted for consultancies ASDA’A and BCW.
NATO MADRID SUMMIT DATES CONFIRMED: June 29-30, 2022.
IVANKA TRUMP’S WORLD BANK AMBITIONS: She came close to getting the top job, per Bess Levin for Vanity Fair.
STRICTLY COME CONFERENCING — MILKEN, MERIDIAN AND BLOOMBERG GO BIG ON SAFETY: The Milken Institute is hosting its first in-person global conference since 2019, starting Sunday Oct 17, and the safety protocols are strict: everyone in the Beverly Hilton must be fully vaccinated, submit a recent negative test results and “wear CDC-approved masks indoors; KN-95 masks will be provided, as needed.” (Watch out for special editions of Global Insider next week from Milken.)
It’s a nearly identical story at DC’s social highlight — the annual Meridian dinners and ball, taking place Oct. 22
The Bloomberg New Economy Forum is meanwhile trying to pull off what the World Economic Forum (WEF) couldn’t: a VIP conference in Singapore. The event is set for Nov. 16-19 for around 300 mostly CEOs, heads of state, entrepreneurs and scientists, at the chichi Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island. Bloomberg has the same protocols as Milken and Meridian, with the added requirement of allowing the Singapore government’s Trace Together app to track you, and using SafeEntry, a Singapore digital check-in system for venues.
EUROPEANS AND CANADIANS STILL GROUNDED: Many American consulates in Europe are still closed, and there’s no specific date set for when Europeans will be allowed to once again travel directly from Europe to the U.S. The Biden administration indicated Sept. 20 that the ban would be lifted in November. A Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) says the United States is planning to lift Covid-19 restrictions at its land border next month for fully vaccinated Canadians.
ICYMI — AUSTRIAN CHANCELLOR SEBASTIAN KURZ RESIGNS, SCHALLENBERG INSTALLED: The former Chancellor was embroiled in a corruption scandal. His replacement is Alexander Schallenberg, promoted from the foreign ministry. Read Schallenberg’s 2021 interview with Global Insider here. The top takeaway: he promised to stand with the U.S. “when the shit hits the fan.”
PUTIN’S MONTE CARLO MYSTERY: An alleged affair with Putin. A child born with no father listed but with the middle name “Vladimirovna” (daughter of Vladimir). A shell company in Monaco. A $4 million apartment bought directly after the girl’s birth in 2003.
Thanks to editor Ben Pauker and Karl Mathiesen.
