Australia
Australians falling behind in mortgage repayments despite low rates: Fitch (ABC)
RBA Kept Rate Cut Option Open as Aussie ‘Uncomfortably High’ (Bloomberg)
The deficit we had to have: Joe Hockey needs to drop the Santa Claus act (Pascometer Fairfax)
Independent expert to investigate CommSec over pooling clients’ money (Fairfax)
LPG facility could help fill void (Fairfax)
Asia
BOJ chief drops references to timing of inflation target (Nikkei)
Massive monetary easing brings results, risks: JCER (Nikkei) Links to JCER Pdf report here
China Shibor Jumps Most in Seven Weeks on Year-End Cash Demand (Bloomberg)
Second Kunlun Energy chairman quits amid widening graft probe (SCMP)
It pays China to block global deals on climate and trade (SCMP)
China’s Private Lending (P2P) Enjoys Renaissance After 2 Years Of Banking Turbulence (IB Times)
Europe
Exclusive: Germany to propose Bundesbank deputy for ECB board seat (Reuters)
UK inflation slows again in November to four-year low (Reuters)
Thatcher’s children face bleak retirement (FT)
Germany central bank chief urges faster eurozone economic integration (FT)
Complaint to EU: German Banks Try to Torpedo Transaction Taxes (Der Spiegel)
Eurozone plans to wind up failing banks ‘too complex’, says Mario Draghi (Telegraph)
Germany’s Coming Downgrade (Project-Syndicate)
North America
Fed readies reverse repo hoping to soak up QE cash (Forbes)
Many Detect End of Line For Stimulus By the Fed (NY Times)
The US economy may never be the same after the Great Recession (Quartz)
G.M. to Invest $1.3 Billion to Upgrade 5 Midwest Factories (NY Times – could be news for Holden employees)
Vancouver’s Skyrocketing Housing Prices: Are Mainland Chinese Investors To Blame? (IB Times)
Sundries
By reading this article, you’re mining bitcoins (Quartz)
On the Causes of Declines in the Labor Force Participation Rate, Pdf – Shigeru Fujita, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Rise of alternative finance could put business bankers’ incumbency at risk (CityAM)
Born after 1960? Then you’re probably poorer than your parents (Guardian)
Some Lessons in Effective Scapegoating (Bloomberg)
Can Uruguay Handle the Pot Business? (Bloomberg)
Merging the Supply Side and Austrian Monetary Traditions (Forbes)
Our chance to slash the high costs of currency manipulation (FT, Great read by Fred Bergsten)
Private equity cashes in on Federal Reserve largesse (FT)
Minimum Wages, Employment and Inequality (Caixin, Gary Becker)
Investors charged £1.5bn a year for share research ‘no one even reads’ (Telegraph, Some of us write a lot of it)