Links 23 January 2018

Global Macro/Investing/Economics

• The Rate of Return on Everything – Promarket
• What’s a House Worth? Wall Street Turns to Drive-By ‘Appraisals’ – WSJ
• Why willpower is overrated – VOX
• World’s top 1% earn 82% of wealth generated in 2017, says Oxfam – Vanguard
• The World Bank is no longer supporting the oil and gas industries. – Business Insider

Americas

• A President Not Sure of What He Wants Complicates the Shutdown Impasse – NYT
• A Year Ago, Davos Thought Trump Would Be a Normal President – Bloomberg
• Shutdown to enter a third day as Senate plans to vote Monday after failing to reach deal – CNBC
• By Adding to the Debt, Tax Cuts Could Complicate Next Downturn – WSJ
• Drug violence blamed for Mexico’s record 29,168 murders in 2017, the highest annual tally in decades, official figures show. – The Guardian

Europe/Middle East

• Deliveroo riders go on strike in Belgium and Netherlands, after company plans to treat all workers as self-employed – Telegraph
• 83 percent of Russians think gay people are ‘reprehensible – Pink News
• Turkey starts ground incursion into Kurdish-controlled Afrin in Syria | World news – The Guardian
• Just one in four Britons trust news on social media, finds survey. Love affair with social media may be over, reputation damaged by fake news scandals, the spread of extremist propaganda and child safety issues. – The Guardian
• UK growth upgrade could ‘dwarf’ Brexit hit – BBC
• Yemen’s children face ‘worst diphtheria outbreak’ – AlJazeera

Asia

• China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials – WSJ
• Bill Introduced to Make South Korean Officials Declare Their Cryptocurrency Investments – Embernews
• China says shutdown shows U.S. democracy chaotic and chronically flawed – Newsweek
• Exiled Maldives leader says Chinese deals on islands are ‘land grabs’: Ex-president Mohamed Nasheed said Chinese interests had leased at least 16 islets among the 1,192 scattered coral islands and were building ports and other infrastructure there. – SCMP
• China invites top paleontologists and planners from across the world to participate in developing a world-class dinosaur theme park at Pu’an Township in Yunyang County. – Inquisiter

Australia/New Zealand

• Push for the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement plans, which include UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, recently gained momentum – Globalnews
• ‘Global embarrassment’: Critics deride plan to stop plant and animal extinctions – Brisbane Times
• Australia’s financial regulator wants to go undercover on dark web The Guardian
• Australian property ‘severely unaffordable’, Sydney crowned ‘second least affordable market’ – ABC
• 150 ABS staff will be made redundant in the next 18 months Canberra Times

….and more

• Scientists Just Got Closer to Speaking Dolphin – Azula
• Pentagon Document Confirms Existence of Russian Doomsday Torpedo – Business Insider
• Big Gamble to Find MH370 Begins: Robot Swarm Deployed to Find Jet – A ship full of the world’s most advanced deepwater technology has arrived at the missing plane’s suspected final resting place. – The Daily Beast
• The average rooster crow is about 130 dB, about the same volume as standing 15m from a jet taking off. To prevent deafness from their own calls, roosters have evolved soft tissue that covers half of the eardrum while crowing. Science Mag
• Emergent constraint on equilibrium climate sensitivity from global temperature variability – Nature (Translated: “a central estimate of 2.8 degrees Celsius with 66 per cent confidence limits (equivalent to the IPCC ‘likely’ range) of 2.2–3.4 degrees Celsius”. In other words, the IPCC likely range of 2 degree plus Celsius is on track……)