Lars Karlsson: CapacityNow

Björn Borg is a former world number 1 tennis player widely considered to be one of the greatest in the history of the sport.

He is also a Swedish national hero. During a decade Borg was impossible to beat on a tennis court, having made his entrance to the international tennis circus at an age of 15. Borg won 11 Grand slam singles titles, six at the French Open in Paris and five consecutive at Wimbledon.

Borg vs McEnroe also known as Borg McEnroe, is a 2017 international sports focusing on the famous rivalry between tennis players Björn Borg and John McEnroe at the 1980 Wimbledone Championship cupminating in their legndary envounter in the men’s single final.

This is a wonderful movie. One of the best sports films I have ever seen. It also give the previously untold explanation to the Borg nickname, ‘iceman’. The movie is more about the people but still full of tennis. A fun thing is that Borgs son, Leo, plays Björn as young.

Borg was a teenage sensation at the start of his career, and his unprecedented stardom and consistent success helped propel the rising popularity of tennis during the 1970s.

As a result, the professional tour became more lucrative, and in 1979 he was the first player to earn more than one million dollars in prize money in a single season. He also made millions in endorsements throughout his career.

The downside, however, was that the constant attention and pressure eventually caused burnout and his retirement at the age of 26.

The UK must submit written proposals on how it plans to keep a frictionless Irish border after Brexit in the next two weeks, Ireland’s foreign minister has said.

Simon Coveney said if that does not happen the UK will face an uncertain summer of talks.

Both the UK and EU say they are committed to keeping the Irish border open after Brexit.

However, a practical solution has not been agreed.

The EU and Ireland both insist Britain’s withdrawal treaty must lock in a backstop arrangement guaranteeing Northern Ireland will abide by EU regulations in case a future trade pact does not remove the need for border controls.

Britain has signed up to this, but has rejected the EU’s interpretation of what the backstop means.

“In the next two weeks, we need to see written proposals, it needs to happen two weeks from the summit,” Mr Coveney told the Irish Times newspaper, referring to a June summit of EU leaders that is supposed to mark significant progress on the issue.

“If there is no progress on the backstop, we are in for an uncertain summer.

“At this point we need written proposals on the Irish backstop consistent with what was agreed. We await written proposals from the British side.”

In February, the EU proposed a backstop which would involve the UK, in respect of Northern Ireland, maintaining full alignment with those rules of the EU’s single market and customs union which support north-south cooperation.

Prime Minister Theresa May said she could never agree to that as it would “threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea”.

Source: BBC

Does a trade war have any winners? Not really. There are no good examples in modern history that protectionism over time is a successful instrument. In fact we know that trade is the driver of development, the engine making our societies better.

So why do we see an emerging trade war on the horizon? Why did it start at midnight last night?

Experts are puzzled. All advisors on these matters should know better and probably does. But what happens if decision makers don’t listen to advisors? Maybe this is the answer.

So is international trade fair and balanced? No, it is not. Is there any merit to the accusations of an unbalanced trade? Yes, there is.

However, it is really not a trade balance challenge in developed countries that had been amd is the problem with international trade. We have all in the western world lived extremely well on trade for many decades. It was developing countries limited access to the global arena that was the real challenge.

Especially the emerging economies have suffered under the oresent system, not the leading western world that to dlme extent now is questioning the system.

The international trade system has a lot problems – but it is best system we have.

So let’s change what is not working instead of trying to ruin and bring chaos into the best hope we have for a safer, more equal, fair and better world. This is also what Christine Legarde Managing Director of the International Monotary Fund (IMF) has spoken about lately. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Don’t walk away from a bridge between North and South, East and West – rich and poor. Fix what needs to be fixed instead.

The recent measures are also even worse when taking into account the historical opportunity the world had when the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevedo managed to push through the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in 2015/2016. We are about to waste the biggest breakthrough for international trade ever – due to populism! This need to stop.

It is time to solve and re-solve this issue once and for all. Let us not go down in history as the generation who really had the chance to change the world – and didn’t do it.