Links 5 November 2018

Global Macro / Markets / Investing:

• The New Retirement Plan: Save Almost Everything, Spend Virtually Nothing – WSJ
• The Perversion of Fiscal Policy – NY Times
• Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Repurchases More Than $900 Million of Stock – WSJ
• Bitcoin’s ‘First Felon’ Faces More Legal Trouble – NY Times
• Investors dump Treasuries after strong wage data – FT
• Preserving the Wealth That Conservation Built – NY Times
• Sometimes, It’s Bonds For the Long Run – WSJ
• Blame the Economists? – Project Syndicate
• Wall Street Moves to Gut Post-Crisis Financial Rules – The Interecept
• Your Smartphone’s Location Data Is Worth Big Money to Wall Street – WSJ
• Elon Musk says electric scooters “lack dignity” – VOX
• The High Cost of Rising Tariffs – WSJ

Americas:

• Trump Administration Spares Corporate Wrongdoers Billions in Penalties – NY Times
• Why Aren’t Democrats Walking Away With the Midterms? – NY Times
• Young and new voters surge in early voting – The Hill
• The battle for America – FT
• Immigration crisis? The stats tell a different story – Politico
• President Trump has made 6,420 false or misleading claims over 649 days – Washington Post
• Wages Rise at Fastest Rate in Nearly a Decade as Hiring Jumps – WSJ
• U.S. Added 250,000 Jobs in October; Unemployment at 3.7% – NY Times
• Workers are finally seeing higher wages, but it’s a fraction of record corporate profits – Washington Post

Europe:

• Bosses demand ’people’s vote’ on final Brexit terms – Sky
• Interwar British fiscal policy and economic growth – VOX
• If there is a Brexit deal this is what it will look like – Irish Times
• Russian Propaganda Veterans Push Candace Owens’ ‘Blexit’ – Daily Beast
• ‘A time bomb’: how social tensions are rising in a corner of northern England – The Guardian
• The Cold War bunkers that cover a country: Albania – BBC
• Germany, Poland pushing for Brexit deal in next few days: Merkel – Reuters

Asia:

• Journalist’s Expulsion Casts Shadow on Hong Kong’s Future – NY Times
• A chapter closes: last Hong Kong bookshop selling titles banned in China shuts – The Guardian
• China is committing ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang – it’s time for the world to stand up – The Guardian
• Combating attacks by Beijing’s cyberarmy – Taipei Times
• Why Democracies Are Turning Against Belt and Road – Foreign Affairs
• Why Does China Have So Many School Stabbings? – New Republic
• China is making the internet less free, and US tech companies are helping – The Verge
• China’s developers bracing for major shakeout – Business Times

Trans-Tasman:

• Major oil spill off Australia’s coast would dwarf Deepwater Horizon disaster, documents show – The SMH
• Surveillance state: NSW intensifies citizen tracking – The Age
• Former UN climate chief says world doesn’t need Australia’s ‘toxic’ coal – The Age
• Scott Morrison is stuck in the permanent present – and Australia’s getting nowhere – The Guardian
• AWU subpoenas another of Senator Michaelia Cash’s former staff to stop donations investigation – ABC
• ACCC wary of NBN price shock for telcos, consumers – Computer World
• Years of savage cuts leave Australian cultural institutions struggling to survive – The Guardian
• Tax benefits of legalising cannabis – The Saturday Paper
• Unions key to workers’ wage growth – The Saturday Paper
• Cricket viewers in for a shock with Australia-South Africa ODIs behind paywall – ABC
• Excess network profits about to be baked into the National Electricity Law – Renew Economy
• Tiwi blackout highlights flaws in the cashless welfare card system – ABC
• Greens seek to shame Labor by vowing to restore carbon tax – The SMH
• ACCC wary of NBN price shock for telcos, consumers – Computer World
• John Bolton looks at whether econmic storm clouds could portend a property crash here – Interest.co.nz
• KiwiBuild should be targeting the poor – Interest.co.nz
• New car sales take off in October – Interest.co.nz