Economist, June 15, 2019 (I)

choi

(1) Hong Kong's economy | Garrotting the Golden Goose; Erosion of the rule of law puts Hong Kong's privileged economic status at risk.
("The framework for that relationship [between HK and US] is the US-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which established continued separate economic treatment for the territory beyond its handover to China in 1997. * * * More recently it [Act] has meant freedom from America's tariffs on China. As restriction on China led to diversion of more transactions via Hong Kong, its privileged position inevitably attracted attention. Transferring technology to Hong Kong may increasingly be seen as equivalent to passing it to China -- not the intent of Policy Act. * * * A lot is at stake. Hong Kong is China's conduit. It accounted for nearly 60% of direct investment both into and out of China on 2012-16. It has a mighty share of yuan-denominated payments. Western firms put money and headquarters there because it is seen as part o Western system. * * * its banking assets are worth a whopping 851% of GDP.  Such might make it vulnerable. A belief that its financial system is no longer fungible with the West's would be devastating. Erosion of the rule of law, and louder questioning of Hong Kong's trading status, [pses a growing threat")

Note:
(a) The cover of this issue is Hong atop Kong, with the "o" of each word highlighted and form rings of a pair of handcuffs.
(b)
(i) garrote (variants of the verb, past tense and present participle)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/garrote
(ii) garrote
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrote
(c) fungible (adj; etymology; Did you Know?)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fungible
(i) Latin noun masculine fungus (plural fungī) is mushroom.
(ii) Latin verb fungī is, with a different etymology, the present active infinitive of fungor ("I perform").
(A) "This is a deponent verb. It gave up ('deponere') its active forms (even though they still exist). Such verbs occur in passive voice but are translated in active voice." from the Web.
(B) Lesson 22 Deponent and semi-deponent verbs. In Latin. The National Archives of Hong Kong, undated
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/lati ... semi-deponent-verbs
("When a Latin verb is passive in form, but has an active meaning, it is called a deponent verb. For example: sequor, sequi, secutus sum (3) means 'to follow' and not 'to be followed.' Even though it appears to be passive, it is translated with an active meaning and can have an object following it. For example: Robertus Willelmum sequitur – Robert follows William")
(ii)
(A) Latin conjugation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_conjugation
(section 1 Number of conjugation: "four conjugations, according to whether their active present infinitive has the ending -āre, -ēre, -ere, or -īre (or the passive equivalent of these), for example: (1) amō [I love] , amāre 'to love' * * * ")
(B) deponent verb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deponent_verb
(section 1 Languages with deponent verbs [English not one of them], section 1.2 Latin: view table to understand it is passive form but active in meaning. see, eg, hortor "I exhort" compared with amor "I am loved")

choi

(2) Race and life expectancy | Black Lives Longer; The life-expectancy gap between black and white Americans has steadily declined.
https://www.economist.com/united ... s-long-as-white-men

After the first 2 paragraphs: "But then it began a sustained, steady fall. In 2011 the black-white hap had narrowed to 4.4 years for men (5.7% less) and just 3.1 years less (3.8% less) for women.

Note:
(a) If one search images.google.com with (Race and life expectancy  economist.com) without quotation marks, the first image is the only figure in the article.
(b) The figure mentioned above is condensed from Table "20. Survivorship, by age, race, and sex: Death-registration states, 1900–1902 to 1919–1921, and United States, 1929–1931 to 2016" in List of Detailed Tables at page 9 of
Elizabeth Arias, Jiaquan Xu and Kenneth D Kochanek. United States Life Tables, 2016. National Statistics Reports (by CDC), May 7, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_04-508.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_04-508.pdf
What is also interesting is at page 4: "Figure 1. Life expectancy at birth, by race and sex: United States, 1970–2016," which shows black women outlived white men throughout the period.


(3) Japanese names | Flipping out; A chrysanthemum by any other name would smell as sweet.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2 ... hould-refer-to-them

After the first 2 paragraphs: "Mr Kono is no mationist firebrand. The cabinet and the wider population are split on the issue. * * * The debate is an illustration of Japanese culture's unique, and sometimes awkward, blend of east and west, which stems not only from the Meiji era but also from the American occupation after the second world war. * * * Japan's relaxed and unselfconscious blending of foreign and local customs

Note:
(a) flip out
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flip%20out

In daily life, the phrase means "becoming angry."
(b) "Japan's foreign minister, Taro Kono—or rather Kono Taro, as he would like to be known."

Tarō KŌNO (father 河野 太郎 (father is Yōhei Kōno 河野 洋平, the 1993-1994 leader of LDP when it lost power)