Weekend Links June 6-7, 2015

 ….updated Sunday morning…

China

• China’s Stock Market Capitalization Set to Reach $10 Trillion – Bloomberg
• China’s retail investors don’t care what you think about their stock market – CER
• Banking on a Remote Future for Chinese Homes – Caixin

Asia

• Growth pains for Asia’s eco-capitalists – Reuters
• India GDP growth is one-third statistical illusion – Reuters
• The South China Sea Word War – Counterpunch
• Chinese expansion calls for firm challenge – China Spectator
• Abe wants G-7 to spell out opposition to muscle-flexing by China – Japan Times

Europe

• Greek PM rejects ‘absurd’ offer from lenders, delays IMF payment – Reuters
• Europe’s Last Act? – Project-Syndicate, Stiglitz
• Europe’s Pointless Deficit Targets? – Project-Syndicate
• It Would Take Europe’s 13 Richest People to Solve the Greek Debt Crisis – Bloomberg
• Greece is bankrupt: it must break free from its economic prison – Telegraph
• IMF has betrayed its mission in Greece, captive to EMU creditors – Telegraph
• Greece misses IMF payment in warning shot as showdown with Europe escalates – Ambrose
• IMF payment put off as lenders wait for new proposals – ekathimerini
• Greece delays IMF payment, PM to brief angry parliament – Reuters
• A Speech of Hope for Greece (Varoufakis invites Merkel to give one) – Project Syndicate
• Tsipras to Meet Hollande, Merkel as Varoufakis Seeks Debt Relief – Bloomberg
• Finland’s Prospects Downgraded at Moody’s as Economy Shrinks – Bloomberg
• G-7 Protesters Confront Police as Leaders Gather in German Alps – Bloomberg
• This Greek Epic Will Run And Run – WSJ
• Greek debt crisis: what will happen next? – Prospect, Magnus
• Priorities for euro area governance reforms – Bruegel
• Greece: where do we stand and what to watch. – Bruegel

United Kingdom

• George Osborne: we’ve hit banks hard enough – Telegraph
• The never-ending Greek drama will help the Brexit supporters – Telegraph, Halligan….my reading of the UK types I know is that Brexit is a serious possibility…

United States

• Robust U.S. jobs report boosts chances of Sept Fed rate hike – Reuters
• US Fed may delay rate increase until world economy improves – SCMP
• Surge in Jobs Gives Fed Clearer Path to Raise Rates This Year – Bloomberg
• Odds of September Fed Liftoff Climb After Payrolls Beat Forecasts – Bloomberg
• Fed Urged by IMF to Postpone Rate Liftoff to First Half of 2016 – Bloomie
• IMF’s Surprising Message to Yellen on Interest Rates – Fiscal Times
• US economy: the case (in charts) for optimism – FT.com…good charts…
• Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies – LA Times
• Yellen shrugs off Congressional demand to turn over documents – CNBC
• We bailed you out, and now you want what!?! – Washington Post
• Relax, the jobs recovery is back on track – Washington Post
• Egg rationing in America has officially begun – Washington Post

Americas

• Brazil’s Potential Output: A Case of Cognitive Dissonance? – Peterson Institute
• Argentina ‘Me Too’ Bondholders Found to Be Treated Unequally – Bloomberg
• Canada, Mexico Seek Over $3 Billion In Sanctions Against US Over Meat Import Laws – IB Times
• A tipping point? Canada creates 59,000 new positions as jobs shift back to Central Canada – Financial Post

Clownland

• Is honesty the best policy? Perhaps the government should be upfront about the economy – The Monthly
• Adani dud prime candidate for government support – Fairfax
• Economy spins wheels, but lacks traction – Fairfax, Gitto
• Alan Bond: a deal-making dynamo gone wrong – Fairfax…the coverage given to a convicted thief over last day has been weird…
• The property boom we had to have – Fairfax…and the bust we have to have?…
• ‘Disconnect’ in LNG prices can’t last: Citigroup – Fairfax
• Ireland, Luxembourg tax deals should be used in Australia says advisory board – Fairfax…yes we should encourage paying no tax at all…
• Economic data: The devil is in the detail – Fairfax…good read…
• The Abbott government is facing a worrying growth in long-term unemployment but many in business and politics are staying silent – Fairfax
• Performance of construction index posts mystifying fall – ABC
• Chinese companies make push for sensitive mining projects in Papua New Guinea – ABC
• Jeepers: How car maker ran off road in Australia – Business Day
• A big problem getting little attention – Business Day
• Economy spins wheels, but lack traction – Gittins !
• Is it still safe to invest in property? – AFR ($)
• Drillers to fold as exploration hits rock bottom – AFR ($)
• Farewell Alan Bond: a baron of two halves – AFR ($)
• Home bubble fears over-inflated – The Oz ($)
• New plan to curtail negative gearing would help the budget, cool property market – Fairfax
• Sydney tax: Why you pay $150,000 extra to live in Emerald City – Fairfax
• Australian Tax Office to target investment property owners in 2015 – Fairfax
• Three things that could trigger a house price crash: interest rates, unemployment, the dollar – Fairfax…anyone else spot this?…
• Greens say Australia could save $3bn by ending negative gearing – Guardian
• Arnold Schwarzenegger tells Australia cutting emissions is good economics – Guardian
• Joe Hockey may call me a clown, but GDP growth hasn’t been ‘terrific’ – Guardian, Jericho
• Abolishing negative gearing could save $3 billion in four years, improve housing affordability, Greens say – ABC
• Alan Bond’s lesson for Australia: we get the fraudsters we deserve – The Conversation
• Australia in the spotlight at climate talks, for all the wrong reasons – The Conversation
• ‘Slippers’ and ‘stickers’: the hidden victims of rising house prices – The Conversation
• War on banking’s rotten culture must include regulators – The Conversation
• Four ways we can clean up corruption in land rezoning – The Conversation…as seen earlier at MB…
• Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg bursts real estate bubble speculation – Fairfax….another defence of the bubble from someone who dare not acknowledge it for the implications it contains…..

Commodities

• For risk-wary gold miners, small is beautiful – Reuters
• Beware false dawns in the iron ore market – Reuters
• Indonesia, not Australia, doing heavy lifting on cutting coal output – Reuters, Clyde Russell…so that would have us as leaners?…
• OPEC agrees to keep pumping as oil glut fears persist – Reuters
• Iran and Saudi Arabia on a collision course over oil at Opec – Telegraph
• World’s largest sovereign wealth fund pulls out of coal – Telegraph…buying chance for Oz?…
• Russia’s IRC says new iron ore mine on stream this year despite delays – SCMP
• Post OPEC decision, traders rush to dump options positions – CNBC

Capital Markets

• Japan’s Kuroda urges vigilance over diverging Fed, ECB and BOJ policies – SCMP
• European Bond Slide Seen Easing as Redemptions Trump Inflation – Bloomberg
• An international renminbi will create a ‘Chinese world’ – FT.com…good read, Australia will be a link between that world and the USD world…
• It has been a rough ride for global benchmark bonds – Market Watch
• What the bond rout means for emerging markets – CNBC

Global Macro

• How central banks have sown the seeds for the next financial crisis – Telegraph
• IMF has betrayed its mission in Greece, captive to EMU creditors – Telegraph, AEP
• The Assets Made Combustible When Regulators Call Them “Safe” – Peterson Institute
• Apple Is the New Pimco, and Tim Cook Is the New King of Bonds – Bloomie
• On rates, jobs, stocks and the economy – The reformed broker
• Dudley: The U.S. Economic and Monetary Policy Outlook – NY Fed
• Weakening Russian Ruble Cause For Concern – Forbes
• Why companies that haven’t thought about millennials should be avoided – Telegraph…for Australian companies they are but cheap labour and the last consumers thought about…
• China may try to force US tech firms to give up code – CNBC...this is getting serious…
• Secular stagnation: The time for one-armed policy is over – Vox…good read…
• The emerging world: Debt as key risk – Bruegel

…and furthermore…

• The Impunity Trap – Project-Syndicate, Sachs…in any management structure the higher echelons become detached from reality…
• FIFA and the root of all evil – Reuters, Hadas
• As FIFA Scandal Grows, Focus Turns to Its Auditors – NYT
• How a curmudgeonly old reporter exposed the FIFA scandal that toppled Sepp Blatter – WaPo
• Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance – NYT
• Jamie Dimon Becomes Billionaire Ushering in Era of the Megabank – Bloomie
• Apple rewrites app store economics – FT ($)
• Ferris Bueller took his Day Off 30 years ago today – Independent … DE still calls a sick day a “Bueller”
• Sacca: Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba & Google Want Twitter – Bloomie
• US scientists: Global warming pause ‘no longer valid’ – BBC
• The Emerging Science of Human Computation – MIT Technology Review
• Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence meets Obama aides in Washington – Haaretz
• Millions of US government workers hit by data breach – BBC
• Why performance pay is a bad incentive for good behaviour – FT.com
• As much as 90 percent of Americans could eat food grown within 100 miles of their home – Washington Post…and in Australia?…
• How economics explains Americans’ troubled history with meters and liters – Washington Post….it can be bloody infuriating bouncing back and forth between UK and US English….
• Navy SEALs Have Become A ‘Global Manhunting Machine’ With Lax Oversight – IB Times
• Where Uber and Amazon rule: welcome to the world of the platform – Guardian
• JOHN NASH & THE VALUE OF MONEY – Pieria