MacroBusiness Weekend Links February 14-15

China/Asia

• China’s Credit Growth Accelerates in Boost to Economic Outlook – Bloomberg
• The Global Economy’s Chinese Headwinds – Project-Syndicate…good read from Adair Turner…
• What Happened to the Chinese Shopper? – Bloomberg
• China’s growing appetite for SA mining assets – Mineweb
• China’s Current Account in 2014 – Peterson Institute
• Without corruption, some ask, can the Chinese Communist Party function? – Washington Post …probably not…
• Major Developers See Big Sales Declines in January – Caixin
• Ministry Said to Allow Larger Iron Ore Ships to Enter Chinese Ports – Caixin
• Recovery in China’s home market still weak – SCMP
• Banks cautious about easing of funding rule in Shanghai free-trade zone – SCMP
• Chongqing leads decline in new home prices in China – SCMP
• New China law targets tax avoidance offshore – SCMP…apartment in Sydney, anyone?…
• Inequality in Japan:The secure v the poor – Economist
• Chinese Economy More Sustainable Now: China Central Bank – IB Times
• India’s Economy Seen Rising Through Fog Of Data – IB Times
• China’s central bank injects liquidity to reduce cash pressure – China Daily
• Indonesia’s twin deficits becoming chronic – Nikkei Asian Review
• State capitalism pushing out market economy in China – Nikkei Asian Review
• Paint peeling off South Korea’s economic miracle – Nikkei Asian Review

US/Americas

• U.S. consumer sentiment falls in February – Reuters
• U.S. January import prices post largest drop since 2008 – Reuters
• Yes, Yellen Can Have It All as She Gets Ready to Raise Rates – Bloomberg
• Why the Fed Needs ‘Extended Patience’ – Bloomberg
• Has AIG’s Comeback Stalled? – WSJ
• The Canadian housing market – in charts – Sober Look…every Australian should look at these too…
• How Mortgage Fraud Made the Financial Crisis Worse – NY Times
• Central banking hits its limits – Financial Post
• “It’s just a recovery in low wage jobs.” Not anymore – Bonddad
• West Coast port slowdown could cost U.S. economy billions – CBS
• Feds say mortgage firms used deceptive ads – CBS
• ​A sharp rise in new jobless claims last week – CBS
• Where Have All the Construction Workers Gone? – The Atlantic
• Enriching the rich in the US – but what about the rest? – BBC

Europe/UK

• Eurozone Growth Exceeds Expectations – NY Times
• Greek Debt Standoff Awaits a Decisive Move – NY Times
• Greece, Germany Said to Offer Compromises on Aid Terms – Bloomberg
• Greece promises to do ‘whatever we can’ as debt talks cheer markets – Reuters
• German Growth Surprise Driven by Domestic Demand – Bloomberg
• The Troika That Greece Should Really Fear – Bloomberg
• The Greek Austerity Myth – Project-Syndicate
• Euro zone economy accelerates thanks to German ‘thunderbolt’ – Reuters
• Growth, not Grexit – Project – Syndicate
• Reforming Greek Reform – Project-Syndicate
• A Cynical Ukraine Deal That Just Might Work – Bloomberg
• Ukraine’s IMF Bailout Is Small Enough to Work – Bloomberg
• Why German Growth Beat Expectations – Bloomberg
• Über-unemployment in the Eurozone: a question of design – RWER
• Germany’s surprise growth spurt leaves slowing France behind – Telegraph
• Germany faces impossible choice as Greek austerity revolt spreads – Telegraph
• Mark Carney: enjoy low prices while you can – Telegraph
• Sweden cuts rates below zero as global currency wars spread – Telegraph
• Concern in Denmark as Its Currency’s Peg to the Euro Is Strained – NY Times
• GDP growth masks a broken eurozone – Guardian
• France says it did not restrict UK from using HSBC files to pursue bank and criminals – Guardian
• Germany owes Greece money for the war – but morality needn’t come into it – Guardian
• Analysis of developments in EU capital flows in the global context – Bruegel (pdf)…worth a look when you have time…
• Europe: No country for young people – Vox
• Sanctions push Russian banks toward Islamic finance – BNE
• How to Defeat Putin in Ukraine – Slate
• Welcome to Italy, where stagnation is an achievement – Quartz
• Ukraine is heading for a total economic collapse – Quartz…it has been heading there for a generation…
• HMRC failed to prosecute tycoon over tax evasion – BBC
• The deflation that isn’t deflation – BBC
• HSBC whistleblower: There are ‘more revelations’ – BBC

Local

• Canberra, We Need to Talk About Debt – Bloomberg …..we do, in all its glorious manifestations…
• Olympic Dam output to be crimped for 6 months – Mineweb
• Chart of the day: Australian rate calls wrong-footed again – SCMP
• RBA governor Glenn Stevens denies warning cabinet over budget impasse – Guardian
• Six Darrell Lea staff denied redundancy payments as shell company DL Employment enters liquidation – ABC
• Business Council attacks increased scrutiny of foreign investment in agriculture – ABC
• Foreign investors to transform vacant Sydney office blocks into luxury apartments – ABC
• RBA’s Stevens says rate cuts now less effective but still worthwhile – ABC
• Leadership turmoil may prove an economic disaster – Kohler, ABC
• Tony Abbott decision to dump Philip Ruddock after spill motion angers backbench – Fairfax…but wait, there’s more!…
• Treasure Joe Hockey hangs tough despite jobs slump – Fairfax…he will be hanging tougher, and tougher, and tougher…
• Peri-urban planning failure a ticking “time bomb” – Fairfax…ticking rather loudly about now…
• RBA waves red flag over ‘very concerning’ Sydney property market – Fairfax
• Tabcorp and Tatts Group knocked back by High Court over $84m pokies levy in Victoria – Fairfax
• What the RBA can’t say: the government is the problem – Fairfax, Pascoemeter…in partisan mode…
• Politics in Australia: No fillip – Economist
• Australian labour market – deteriorating and approaching crisis – Bill Mitchell
• Tracing the origins of the fetish against deficits in Australia – Bill Mitchell
• Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Says Opposition Caused ‘Holocaust Of Jobs’ – IB Times
• The West Coast Difference – Idiot Tax
• Tony Abbott’s leadership is going backwards – Farifax…could Tone reverse over one if his own in the driveway?…
• RBA channelling hopes for economy – Fairfax, Gitto…makes the RBA sound like a drug dealer….
• Animal spirits: still on the leash, and ownerless – Fairfax….. they been tamed by debt, private debt….. 

Capital Markets

• Greek Bonds Rallying With Stocks Show Markets See Crisis Defused – Bloomberg
• Central Banks and the Bottom Line – Project – Syndicate
• An Accidental Currency War? – Project-Syndicate, El-Erian…worth a read…
• Currency Wars Have a Nuclear Option – Bloomberg
• Inflation is dead: It’s below 1 percent in the U.S., U.K., Europe, China, and Japan – Washington Post
• Bonds and the 40-year itch – Washington Post
• Bond market liquidity: Pre-trade info is key for investors – Euromoney
• Money markets: Short-term bank funding costs hit by Fidelity move – Euromoney
• 7 danger signs of stocks’ coming bear market – Market Watch
• “The Wisdom Of Insecurity” In The Stock Market – The Felder Report
• Growing Appeal Of Short Duration ETFs – ETF.com
• Russia Equity ETFs Rising After Beat-Down – ETF.com
• Nobody Understands Debt – NY Times
• How the unspoken currency war threatens to be a silent killer in world markets – Financial Post
• This time the random walk loses – Vox

Commodities

• Oil tops $60 for first time in 2015, industry cutbacks support – Reuters
• Oil prices rise above $60 for the first time in 2015 – Guardian
• As U.S. oil tanks swell at record rate, traders ask: for how long? – Reuters
• LNG tankers lie unused around Singapore as gas downturn turns to crisis – Reuters
• Statoil gives go ahead for $29 billion oil project – Reuters
• New China credit policy to hit copper imports in Shanghai trade zone – Reuters
• Falling Indonesian supply fails to support tin price – Reuters
• S. Rigs Are Being Idled, but the Oil Boom Is Not Ending – Bloomberg
• Anglo warns of more headwinds after $3.9bn charge – Mineweb
• Central banks buy enough gold for 75 Dreamliners – Mineweb
• Chart of the Week: Australia, New Zealand, and the Chinese Dairy Market – Peterson Institute
• How low can you go? Doing the Petrobras Limbo! – Musings on Markets
• Can Technology Save Fracking? – Oilprice.com
• Russia’s Complicated Relationship With OPEC – Oilprice.com
• Oil Prices May Recover, But Not LNG – Oilprice.com…someone should tell Joe…
• Gold’s Bear Market – ShortSideofLong
• Mass layoffs complicate oil industry’s long-term plans – Reuters , Kemp

Global Macro

• Here’s a $9 Trillion Question – Bloomberg…how would the world cope with the Fed lifting rates?…
• Erdogan’s Plane May Have Made Unscheduled Stop in Houston – Bloomberg
• Argentina’s Lessons for Greece – Project-Syndicate
• What We Know About Recessions Might Be Wrong – Bloomberg
• You Say Debt, I Say Tax Dodging – Bloomberg, Bershidsky…yep, that’s exactly what it all too often is…
• Band-Aids for Greece, Ukraine and Global Economy – Bloomberg
• Chart of the day: How US$2.4tr will vanish from global growth – SCMP
• Second-Guessing the Global Economic Funk – NY Times
• Labour mobility and wage discrimination: Theory and evidence – Vox
• Norms of tax compliance – Vox…or avoidance, as the case may be…
• Premature deindustrialisation in the developing world – Vox

And furthermore

• One Hundred Years of Austerity – Bloomberg….has it ever really worked?….
• Are National Champions Really Winners? – Project-Syndicate
• You’re Smart, But You Can’t Forecast – Ritholtz, Bloomberg…well worth a read…
• One of the world’s largest airlines makes its flight attendants ask permission before getting married – Washington Post
• ‘The Bachelor,’ billionaires and the problem with farm subsidies for the rich – Washington Post
• The super-rich don’t care about us. It will be their downfall – Guardian…only if people work to make that happen…
• As HSBC shows, we’ve been timid and pathetic in dealing with tax dodgers – Guardian…we being the developed, rich, world…
• If You Aren’t Rich by 45, Give Up – Slate
• Five shocking Dominique Strauss-Kahn quotes from his pimping trial – Quartz
• A troubling college divide between rich and poor – CBS
• Your “smart” home devices can easily be hacked – CBS
• The Middle East That Might Have Been – The Atlantic

Last moment thoughts

• Extract Text and Calculate the Reading Level of Any Article Using the Analysis Engine – Priceonomics