Weekend Links April 26-27

China

• Downfall of two top China Resources officials came in quick succession, say sources (SCMP)
• Is China Really Prepared to Shift to Market Driven Interest Rates (Institutional Investor)
• Albert Edwards: China Headed Toward Outright Deflation (ValueWalk)
• China to play big role in new regional lender (SCMP)
• The changing fortunes of the Chinese renminbi – is the latest round of RMB weakness policy or market induced? (Bruegel)
• Suspicion grows that China is exporting deflation worldwide by driving down yuan (Telegraph)
• Budget Law Revision Proposes Letting Local Gov’ts Issue Bonds (Caixin)
• China’s Debt Endgames (Economonitor)
• How Vulnerable are Chinese Banks to a Real Estate Downturn? (Petersen Institute)
• China opens up infrastructure to private capital (Finance Asia)
• China’s Central Bank Looks for Better Monetary-Measuring Tools (RTE WSJ)
• Land Sales: The Ever-More Lucrative Habit China’s Officials Just Can’t Kick (RTE WSJ)
• Projects ‘should not be seen as stimulus’ (China Daily)
• View downward pressure on China’s economy correctly (China Daily)

Japan 

• What is Mrs Watanabe Buying Now? (Marctomarket)
• Japan’s inflation rate has stalled as impact of yen depreciation wanes (Sober Look)
• Obama and Japan’s Abe fail to reach trade accord (LA Times)
• Costs keep mounting for idled reactors (Japan Times)
• Abe’s disturbing lack of focus (Reuters)

United States

• U.S. Said to Ask BofA for More Than $13 Billion Over RMBS (Bloomberg)
• The Chinese take Manhattan: replace Russians as top apartment buyers (Reuters)
• Will the Weak Housing Market Pinch the Economy? (Economonitor)
• American state-backed mortgages are a $5tn millstone (FT.com)
• Why the housing sector won’t save the broader economy (MarketWatch)
• Why the Fed’s Taper Has Done Little to Move Mortgage Rates (National Mortgage News)
• Will the Weak Housing Market Pinch the Economy? (Economonitor)
• The “rental affordability crisis” is real, but it’s about declining real wages, not a bubble in rents (Bonddad)
• Americans think owning a home is better for them than it is (Washington Post)
• Fed Follies, U.S. Housing Market Fiasco (Market Oracle)
• Summers: Economic pickup could come on unstable ground (MarketWatch)
• The Next Massive Bailout: Student Loans (Time)

Canada

• Restaurants barred from using Temporary Foreign Worker Program (The Globe and Mail)
• In new world order, Canadian factories to fall behind (The Globe and Mail)…classic chart showing Australian labour costs in this…
• Reality Sinking In At The Bank Of Canada (Seeking Alpha)
• How Canada’s temporary foreign workers program became a victim of its own success (Financial Post)
• Federal government introduces wide-ranging pension reform plan (Vancouver Sun)

United Kingdom

• U.K. Retail Sales Unexpectedly Rise as Growth Gains Momentum (Bloomberg)
• FCA Said to Observe Banks’ London Gold-Fixing Calls (Bloomberg)
• Tougher mortgage rules come into force (Guardian)
• The strong pound is a myth – but in any case, bring it on (Telegraph)

Europe

• Europe’s Next Moral Hazard (Project-Syndicate)
• Dark clouds threaten the EU’s respite (European Voice)
• Shrinking times – ECB excess liquidity falls below €100 billion (Bruegel)
• ECB QE: real prospect or fantasy game? (FT.com)
• Get Ready for Europe to Print – Core Euro CPI Annual Rate Matches Multi-Decade Low (Financial Sense)
• Europe is impotent in the face of deflation (Telegraph)
• Swedish lessons show even deflation cannot cure the house price bubble (Telegraph)
• France Is Right to Cut Runaway Social Spending (Petersen Institute)
• Putin Presents Bill To Include Crimea In Gambling Zone While Bank Of Russia Restricts Operations Of Ukrainian Banks In Crimea (IB Times) ….Crimea will make a spectacular gambling playground
• Battling for Ukraine with capital instead of combat (Institutional Investor)
• Weapon of Last Resort: ECB Considers Possible Deflation Measures (Der Spiegel)

Australia/New Zealand

• The next Canada? Rich mainland Chinese push New Zealand migration to 11-year high (SCMP)
• BHP link to impounded Japanese ship (The Age)
• Revenue squeeze is Joe Hockey’s sticking point (The Age)
• Sultans of super set on ‘developing’ your wealth (The Age)
• No tears shed for backward taxi industry (Pascoemeter SMH)
• High-risk loans akin to US subprime mortgages return to Australian markets (ABC)
• Coalition banks on blind faith in budget ‘fix’ (ABC)

Commodities

• Shanghai to Allow Raw Material Exchanges in Trade Zone (Bloomberg)
• Banks Exit from the Commodities Business Could Spell Market Woes (Institutional Investor)
• China opens Beijing to gold imports, cutting into Hong Kong’s transit role (SCMP)
• Bigger food price swings hit consumer goods groups (FT.com)
• Metals demand to slow in line with economy (SCMP)
• Everybody but the ‘Singapore curve’ thinks iron ore is going down (SCMP)
• How a Coordinated IEA SPR Release Could Enable Russia Energy Sanctions (Economonitor)
• Commodity Investors Brace for El Niño (MoneyBeat WSJ)

Global Macro

• Strip private banks of their power to create money (FT.com) …a very good read…
• MMT Does Do Policy (Economonitor)
• The Future of the Captured State (Project-Syndicate)
• The Democratic Disruption of Finance (Project-Syndicate)
• Shiller: What We Can Learn from Past Crises (Caixin)
• Water Wars: The Next Clash between India and China (OilPrice)
• What Are the Economic Consequences of Climate Change? (The Atlantic)
• A billion shades of grey (Economist)
• Solar Power Is Booming, But Will Never Replace Coal. Here’s Why. (Forbes)
• The reckoning (Economia) ….Good review of The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and The Making and Breaking of Nations
• The Curse Of Riches: Resource Wealth And Social Progress (Seeking Alpha)
• The One Chart That Explains Our Grim Economic Future (Huffington Post)
• The Neo-Fisherite Rebellion (Noahpinion)
• Demography + Debt = Doom (Zero Hedge)

Egalité

• The Oligarchy Fallacy (Project-Syndicate)
• Oligarchy and Democracy in America (Huffington Post)
• Piketty’s “Capital,” in a Lot Less Than 696 Pages (HBR)
• Economic policy in a post-Piketty world (RWER)
• Inequality Is Not the Problem (NY Review of Books)
• Why We’re in a New Gilded Age (NY Review of Books)
• Ukraine’s path to oligarchy: Lessons for the U.S.? (Berkeley)
• Human capital and income inequality: Some facts and some puzzles (VoxEU)
• Want to Fix Income Inequality? Relink Wages to Productivity (Globalist)
• VIDEO – Piketty, Krugman, Stiglitz, and Durlauf on ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ (EconomistsView)…..a good listen if you have 90 minutes spare…

Research

• What makes systemic risk systemic? Contagion and spillovers in the international sovereign debt market (Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research – pdf)
• Federal Reserve Bank Governance and Independence during Financial Crisis (Levy Institute – pdf)
• Sectoral interdependence and business cycle synchronization in small open economies (Norges Bank – pdf)
• How the Swedish mortgage market has shaped the financial system (Riksbank – pdf) …..if only the RBA could come out with something like this…
• The long-term level ‘misalignment’ of the exchange rate: Some perspectives on causes and consequences (RBNZ) ……….what is the link between NZ productivity and immigration?…

And Furthermore…

• The world’s boozing habits revealed. There are some surprises. (Washington Post)
• The Origins of Office Speak (The Atlantic) …. good quiz in this…