Xi Jinping and the congress that can’t say no

Plus: Your Zara shopping cart and more [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an idiosyncratic assemblage of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Must-Reads - [Elon Musk]( is right: OpenAI isn’t open. - Nigeria’s — and Africa’s — [currency crisis](. - Capital gains taxes [don’t scare the rich](. - Time to invest in [stopping Putin](. - [Double trouble]( for a Danish-American carmaker. - Britain’s next [pension]( crisis. - The [markup]( of Zara. - Huawei [with wings](. - Singapore’s [golden oldies](. Does Xi Jinping Really Want to Fix China? As China prepared for this year’s sessions of its rubber-stamp legislature, the economy’s not looking rosy for President Xi Jinping.  Repeating 5% growth in 2024 will be a tough order, given the country’s aches and pains. What can Xi do to reverse this? Karishma Vaswani [says](he “needs to follow the model of some of his predecessors, who were able to guide China through periods of both difficulty and stability, but ultimately understood that to make the nation mighty, Chinese people need to feel positive about their prospects.” There’s much to grumble about: unemployment is at a record high, especially among the younger cohorts of the population. Says Karishma: “All the signs are pointing to a generation that will be worse off than the ones before it.” Minxin Pei [agrees](: “The party’s propagandists are deluding themselves if they believe China’s savvy private entrepreneurs and consumers can be coaxed into investing and spending with happy talk.” India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not be an ideal democracy — indeed, the national political dialogue is more like diatribe, and statistics released by his government this week may have [overstated]( growth.  But there is a tremendous amount of pride in the country’s economic accomplishments, including becoming the darling of international investors agog over a rate of expansion that is greater than China’s. He and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party appear to be comfortably ahead as the country wends its way toward general elections in the next couple of months. It’s a way of turning popular enthusiasm into political power unavailable to Xi and the Chinese. Instead, China’s leader seems to be opting for the deepening of state power to impose order at the expense of spontaneity and innovation. He may not even be really concerned about the evaporation of foreign investment. That’s because capital is increasingly controlled and dispensed by the state, including [at provincial and city levels](, establishing ever greater official financial dominance over business and private enterprise. Xi’s China is wrapped in an ever-tightening regulatory strait jacket, far from the breathtaking structural liberalizations of the 1980s and 1990s. As Karishma says of those go-go years: “It was a symbiotic, transactional relationship” between the Communist Party and the Chinese people, a win-win situation of stability and prosperity. “For decades, it worked. Not anymore.”  The Markup of Zara Zara has always been quick on the draw — and the drawing board. Once the posh couture shops marched their haute designs down the catwalk, Inditex SA’s flagship brand would almost instantaneously release their much cheaper interpretations into the broader consumer marketplace. But Zara is now setting its sights upmarket. On the web and in some shops, [writes]( Andrea Felsted, it now “boasts a camel coat costing $699 and a dress at $489. That’s a far cry from the $30 tops the brand has been known for.” How’s that price jump working out? Andrea says it’s paying off. “Unlike the super wealthy, middle-class shoppers in the US and Europe are under pressure. As the big luxury groups report seeing these customers retrenching, it looks like they may be choosing Zara — along with sister label and quiet-luxury favorite Massimo Dutti — instead,” she says. Telltale Charts “There are lies, damned lies and statistics – and then there’s IRR. The internal rate of return metric used by private-capital managers has long had critics in finance and academia because it is easily manipulated and hard to compare with the transparent returns of, say, stocks and bonds. Still, it survives because there is no killer alternative. Now, after a spell when private equity has struggled to sell portfolio companies due to unpredictable stock markets and a lack of high-yield debt funding, investors in such funds are increasingly looking at cash-based measures of performance. The numbers aren’t great.” — Paul J. Davies in “[What Have You Made in Private Equity? Who Knows?!](” “Once described as the ‘the world’s most frugal auto executive,’ Stellantis NV boss Carlos Tavares has made an eye-catching exception to his legendary penny pinching — his own pay. … A compensation package more than 500 times larger than the average Stellantis worker and far above European corporate norms is destined to provoke trade unions and politicians. … [But] there’s no question that Tavares has delivered an exceptional performance. “ — Chris Bryant in “[Stellantis’ ‘Frugal’ Boss Earns $40 million. He’s Worth It](.” Further Reading The curse of the [Brexit undead](. — Adrian Wooldridge Europe can do more to arm [Ukraine](. — Editorial Board Things you can [hide in Britain](. — Marcus Ashworth Electric scooters are the [enemy]( … of oil. — David Fickling Japan’s not worried about [Trump](. — Hal Brands Ukraine’s [Dead Poets Society](. — Howard Chua-Eoan Hail the anti-smartphone [warriors](. — Parmy Olson Walk of the Town: You Can’t Read That in Public! I’ve been carrying around a 646-page book around London with me over the last few days. When I put it down on the counter of a favorite restaurant, the server stared at it, her eyes popped, and she said, “Erotic Vagrancy? You can’t read that in public!” I smiled and quipped, “It’s a how-to guide.” My reputation would have been better served if I had left on the dust jacket; its subtitle would have been visible — Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor — as well as an oversaturated and grainy image of the mythic celebrity couple of the late 20th century. Not that a younger generation will remember. Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away in 2011, would have turned 92 on Feb. 27. She was born in London to expat Americans before her quintessential state mom took her to Hollywood, where she became a star at the age of nine. Richard Burton, who died in 1984, was the broodingly charismatic Welsh actor she wed and divorced twice over a tumultuous relationship that, for all intents and purposes, was lived in the public eye across two decades. They were married to others when their affair began in Italy in 1962, on the set of Cleopatra — a movie that nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox. The romance so scandalized the Vatican that the Sunday edition of its de facto official newspaper thundered against them: “You will finish in an erotic vagrancy, without end or without a safe port.” Roger Lewis’ book is caustic, encyclopedic and trenchant as it dissects the lives of Taylor and Burton before, during and after their marriages. It’s not a pretty portrait of either — or the demimonde that created them. But Lewis has also been merciless with previous books on Peter Sellers, Anthony Burgess and Laurence Olivier; his trademark wit, wisdom and acid make Erotic Vagrancy irresistible. It is so easy to see in Taylor and Burton the patterns of movie star romances ever since (from hormonal hook-ups to hotel room-destroying breakdowns). So, in a very real way, I wasn’t really joking: Erotic Vagrancy is a how-to book. Drawdown Things are going swimmingly for you, I hope. Have a little treat. ”Please stay for a bite! I’ll break my fast. It’s intermittent anyway.” Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send morsels and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. 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