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This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: Marxism degrees are having a moment in China

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, July 7th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

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Marc Filippino
The US Supreme Court ruling on environmental protections could also diminish the power of other regulators. In China, college students with Marxism degrees are finding themselves in hot demand.

Sun Yu
A lot of Chinese private enterprises, they are very keen to engage with the government. So Marxism graduate students are very well placed to help these private companies.

Marc Filippino
But first, the upheaval in British politics. I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

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Marc Filippino
The storm clouds over Boris Johnson continue to gather along with calls for him to quit. He and opposition leader Keir Starmer went head to head in the House of Commons yesterday.

Keir Starmer
And he’s only in power because he’s been propped up for months by a corrupted party defending the indefensible. (Crowd saying “yeah”)

Boris Johnson
(Background noise) Mr. Speaker, the difference between this government and that opposition is we have a plan and they do not . . .

Marc Filippino
But later in the day, Johnson met with members of his own cabinet who also urged him to resign. Johnson said though he’s not going anywhere. And the British pound hasn’t gone anywhere either. Despite all the turmoil, currency traders seem unfazed by all the drama. To find out more, I’m joined by our markets editor, Katie Martin. Hey, Katie.

Katie Martin
Hey, how are you doing?

Marc Filippino
I’m doing well. So what’s going on here? Why is sterling barely moved since ministers in Johnson’s government began quitting en masse on Tuesday?

Katie Martin
It’s really easy to say, oh, look, you know, sterling’s been having a bad time over these past few weeks. Boris Johnson’s been having a bad time over these past few weeks. They must be one and the same thing, and they’re not, right? So there’s a couple of things going on at the same time, and that’s kind of a little bit confusing, I guess. So the dollar is screaming higher because the dollar always does scream higher when people look for safety because bad things are happening. And currently investors are looking down the barrel of a recession. So the dollar is pushing higher. So it’s pushing higher against sterling. It’s pushing higher against the euro. The big picture for sterling is bad, but there is no short-term movement making it any worse that’s coming out of the politics and that’s kind of really weird.

Marc Filippino
So what could unsettle sterling, if anything?

Katie Martin
The only thing that can really move sterling a lot around is calling a general election, if you can imagine such a horror show. (Laughter)

Marc Filippino
Yeah.

Katie Martin
But you know, it’s not hugely obvious that that’s going to happen imminently. The promised referendum on Scottish independence from the UK, that could be a market mover.

Marc Filippino
Mmm.

Katie Martin
Or, as one hedge fund manager put it to me yesterday, it is possible that if Boris Johnson does go, then there could be a rally because it would just like put an end to this kind of ridiculous charade of (chuckle) UK politics.

Marc Filippino
That’s the FT’s Katie Martin and her crystal ball. Thanks so much, Katie.

Katie Martin
You’re welcome to borrow my crystal ball, if you like.

Marc Filippino
(Laughter)

Katie Martin
It breaks sometimes, but you know.

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Marc Filippino
The US Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that reduced the power of the country’s top environmental regulator. It curbed how much the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate greenhouse gases. The ruling isn’t just a blow to climate activists, though. It could handcuff other regulators as well. The FT’s Stefania Palma explains.

Stefania Palma
So the ruling is important because it essentially has put forth a specific legal doctrine that could potentially be used to challenge and bring lawsuits against other regulators. And the reason is the Supreme Court’s decision essentially said unless regulators in the US have been expressly again authorised by Congress to regulate in a certain way and implement certain rules, if they try to propose new types of measures, it could become far, far harder for them.

Marc Filippino
So, Stefania, I imagine a lot of people like Democrats who believe in regulation are extremely upset by this. But who’s celebrating? Republicans probably, right?

Stefania Palma
Absolutely. So (laughter) all of the lawmakers and largely they’ve been Republicans so far. For instance, someone that we spoke to was Pat Toomey, who’s the most senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. And he, he’s often spoken about the SEC, who under chair Gary Gensler, has proposed a truly sort of flurry of new rules, covering everything from special purpose acquisition vehicles to hedge funds and climate change disclosures seeking to expand. Pat Toomey has been very, very critical of Gensler’s approach and has accused him of essentially taking on powers that he doesn’t think the SEC has. So as soon as the Supreme Court’s handed down the ruling involving the EPA, Pat Toomey immediately said this could be pertinent to the SEC. He singled out as an example the climate change disclosures that Gensler is trying to expand.

Marc Filippino
Stefania Palma is the FT’s US legal and enforcement correspondent.

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Marc Filippino
In China, college graduates with a degree in Marxism are having a moment, even though it’s the worst labour market in years for college grads. A leading job search website shows a 20 per cent increase in job openings that require degrees in China’s ruling political ideology. Here’s the FT’s China economics correspondent Sun Yu on why this is happening for Marxism grads.

Sun Yu
Because the government now has a plan to hire one Marxism teacher for every 350 university students. And they also have a plan to greatly beef up Marxism or the so-called ideology and politics education at all levels, from a student or, from primary students at age ten. So that greatly boosted demand for ideology instructors nationwide. And secondly, the salary for Marxism teachers has also increased quite a bit. So in the western Shaanxi province, where a typical worker only makes around Rmb50,000 per year, a recent Marxism PhD graduate could make at least Rmb200,000 a year, plus Rmb20,000 signing bonus, plus free housing for at least a year. So that’s very attractive.

Marc Filippino
Yeah, I would say that’s a huge difference. So I guess, I’m wondering why is there such a big push for Marxism grads right now?

Sun Yu
There’s this growing concern about China’s rivalry with the west, especially of the US. So President Xi is very keen to sort of inspire some sort of loyalty towards China’s political system, especially of the Communist party. Just to give it one example, so if you look through these Marxism curriculum, you will never find any mention of the late leader Deng Xiaoping, who launched China’s reform and opening up in the late 1970s, which laid the foundation for China’s economic success. And the idea is that he paid too much attention to economic prosperity, sometimes at the expense of equality, social equality. There was a long time that Chinese people would only pay attention to economic wellbeing and has largely ignored the ideology sort of thinking, which President Xi thought would undermine the party’s grip on power. So in order to correct this, he thought that it would be a good idea to greatly beef up Marxism studies so that people across China would basically think along the same line.

Marc Filippino
Sun Yu, is there a demand for Marxism majors outside of teaching jobs?

Sun Yu
There’s a great demand for Marxism teachers within China’s government departments. They recruit new staff through a pretty rigorous examination. And Marxism graduates are best placed to excel in these exams because they study President Xi’s speeches and writings all the time. And that’s what these examinations are all about. Secondly, a lot of Chinese enterprises, they are very keen to engage with the government. So Marxism graduate students are very well placed to help these private companies to communicate their thinking and their concerns with the authority.

Marc Filippino
That’s the FT’s China economics correspondent Sun Yu.

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Marc Filippino
You can read more on all of these stories at FT.com. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the latest business news.

This transcript has been automatically generated. If by any chance there is an error please send the details for a correction to: typo@ft.com. We will do our best to make the amendment as soon as possible.

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