Global Macro/Markets
- No Bank Failures in 2018; First Time since 2006 – Calculated Risk
- Should You Fear the Yield Curve? – Wall Street Journal
- Delusions – The Reformed Broker
- Forecasting the Investing Habits of the Millennial Generation – Visual Capitalist
- Fitch sends U.S. triple-A rating warning – Reuters
Americas
- A beefed-up White House legal team prepares aggressive defense of Trump’s executive privilege as investigations loom large – Washington Post (17+ investigations….)
- Trump walks out of shutdown meeting, calling talks ’total waste of time’ – CNN
- Democratic rebuttal had higher ratings than Trump’s address – Axios (even though they talked like stunned mulletts)
- Coast Guard families told they can have garage sales to cope with government shutdown – Washington Post (or just borrow $1 million from your father)
- After NAFTA fight, Trump threatens another trade battle with Central America – Miami Herald
- Congress Summons Mnuchin to Explain Russian Sanctions Removal – New York Times
- Mexican President Staying Out Of Wall Debate, Calling It An Internal US Matter – The Hill (off the record he said he wasn’t expecting a bill)
Europe/Middle East
- ’Bad and unexpected’: Germany probably just went into a recession – Business Insider
- France and Germany have agreed to deepen a 1963 treaty of post-war reconciliation in a bid to show that the European Union’s main axis remains strong and counter growing eurosceptic nationalism among some other members. – Reuters
- Wary of Palestinian Authority’s ‘corruption,’ Palestinians launch ‘Blue gloves’ protest inspired by yellow vest protests – Times of Israel
- Saudi Arabia’s massive oil reserves total 268.5 billion barrels, even bigger than previously known – CNBC
- Cambridge Analytica Pleads Guilty in U.K. Data Trial – The Daily Beast
- Germany returns Nazi-looted painting to family of French resistance member – UPI
Asia/Sub-continent
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- China car sales see first drop for 20 years – BBC
- Kenya will start teaching Chinese to elementary school students from 2020. = QZ
- China passes five-year plan to sinicise Islam, as Beijing tightens grip on major faiths in China – Straits Times (this is real identity politics…and usually ends with a rope or bullet)
- Taiwan premier, cabinet to quit after local election defeat – Reuters
- China: the US-China bilateral meeting has made progress on the forced transfer of technology and on other issues – China Underground
- VW, China spearhead $300 billion global drive to electrify cars – Reuters
Australia/New Zealand
- ‘This isn’t the drought – the government did this’: Two farmers find 100-year-old cod washed up in a river after man-made crisis kills a million fish – DailyMail
- Australia’s Facing an Unprecedented Ecological Crisis, But No One’s Paying Attention – ScienceAlert
- Scott on the rocks: Six signs it’s all going south for Morrison – Brisbane Times
- ‘Hope to god you don’t get thirsty’: Maccas warns workers about breaks – Brisbane Times
Other
- Earth’s magnetic field is acting up and geologists don’t know why – Nature
- Facebook is the new crapware – TechCrunch
- People Bet On How Much Trump Would Lie In His Oval Office Address And Won $276,424 – BuzzFeed News (the question is, who was taking the other side of the bet?)
- Repeated radio signals coming from galaxy 1.5 Billion light years away, scientists have announced – The Independent (these are fast radio bursts btw, or FRBs, not aliens)
- World’s biggest tobacco company vows to phase out cigarettes – Philip Morris International – which makes Marlboro and several other leading brands – has vowed to phase out cigarettes and move into smoke-free products instead. – Skynews
- At this year’s annual meeting of the Indian Science Congress, speakers dismissed Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity as “a big blunder”, said Isaac Newton didn’t really understand how gravity works, and asserted dinosaurs were created by the Hindu god Brahma. – NPR (insert facepalm here)