Global Macro/Markets
- Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha ends 2018 with 14.6 pct gain -source – Reuters
- Double Whammy: High-Fee Mutual Funds Do Worse – Wall Street Journal
- Economic worries hang over U.S.-China talks – Politico
- Krugman on optimal taxes – The Grumpy Economist
- World unprepared for slowdown, says IMF’s Lipton – Financial Times
Americas
- As shutdown drags on, Trump officials make new offer, seek novel ways to cope with its impacts – Washington Post
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says “no question” Trump is a racist in 60 Minutes interview – CBS News
- How Fair Is American Society? – Yale (land of the free, home of the brave* (subject to terms and conditions))
- Fox’s Chris Wallace Repeatedly Nails Sarah Sanders on Bogus Border Terror Threat Claims – Mediaite
- The fading of the US multinational lobby – Financial Times
- Venezuela’s assembly rejects legitimacy of Maduro second term and calls for military to ‘restore democracy’ – Rawstory
Europe/Middle East
- White House national security adviser John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States’ Kurdish allies. – Reuters
- Saudi woman ‘trapped at Bangkok airport trying to flee family’ – BBC
- Brexit ’in danger’ unless MPs back deal – PM – BBC
- Labour faces ‘mass challenge’ over Brexit policy – The Guardian
- More Britons want to remain a member of the European Union than leave, according to a survey published on Sunday which also showed voters want to make the final decision themselves. – Reuters
- Yellow Vests Protests: French government spokesman evacuated from his office after protesters used a construction vehicle to break through the door into the government compound – BBC
- UK housing market is a ‘goldmine’ for wealthy foreign buyers – The global super-rich have taken advantage of the Brexit-induced decline in the value of sterling to buy up three times as many £10m-plus luxury homes as before the referendum vote. – The Guardian
Asia/Sub-continent
- Former NYT editor claims publisher drafted letter “with input from the Chinese embassy all but apologizing” to China for tough story to “appease the Chinese government because the NYT’s operation in China was at stake” – FastCompany
- How China’s worsening economic woes are shattering the dreams of its top graduate students – South China Morning Post
- China approves $125bn of rail projects in fiscal stimulus – Financial Times
- China passes law to make Islam ‘compatible with socialism’; New decree seeks to ‘guide Islam’, as crackdown against Muslims and Islamic symbols continues – Aljazeera (they spelled communism wrong)
- Earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes Indonesia: USGS – Reuters
Australia/New Zealand
- Australians are being urged to avoid so-called “sunscreen pills” that claim to offer protection from UV rays, with experts warning they are no substitute for actual creams. – ABC (or don’t go outside during summer, which will finish around late April this year)
- Bushfire in Tasmanian wilderness threatens half-billion-dollar plantation – ABC
- Australian government rejects Senator Anning’s call for Muslim, Sudanese migration ban – SBS
- Emergency warning system compromised as hackers send text and email messages to thousands – News.com.au (here I was, just about to buy one of those mobile phoney thingies…)
- Senate crossbench gave renewables $23bn boost by thwarting Abbott’s plan | Environment – The Guardian
Other
- Steven Pinker: Why Our World Is Getting Better – 52-insights.com
- Why 2018 Was the Best Year in Human History! – New York Times
- Your house is holding you back — seriously – thebehavioralscientist.com
- Toll on Science and Research Mounts as Government Shutdown Continues – New York Times (but…but…the wall/fence/thing!!!)
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The EU remainders want to overturn a referendum of 17.4 million votes because of a survey….pat Condell’s view
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh11RYjheUY
UK same as Aus really. There is an enormous chasm between the financial centres (London/Sydney/Melbourne) and the rest of the nation. I doubt the UK chasm is as big as Australia’s.
Correct. It is pretty shameful,
Dear goat … a bunch of ideologues went on a lark to stop Labour from usurping the goat given right of the Tories to manage reality and went a bridge to far, and now they have to toe the line or be seen as the lustful Sheppard’s they are … Then some will say its all the ev’bal tyrannical EU’s fualt …
Then some around here bang on about game theory and prisoners dilemmas… seems a self inflicted wound … something about swords …. chortle ….
When too much bear p0rn is barely enough:
+Duncan Hughes tarded the last quarter – quite rightly!
https://www.afr.com/real-estate/house-prices-fall-at-fastest-rate-in-35-years-as-credit-tightens-sentiment-slips-20190107-h19stn
He went full ret4rd on that.
Funny commentary on Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/addd0d/afr_house_prices_fall_at_fastest_rate_in_35_years/
City outlook: Melbourne to take Sydney’s crown in the falling house price stakes
https://outline.com/vKATGV
This outline.com site is good!
Wh-te vibrancy. What a boost to the economy.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/irish-nationals-charged-with-murder-after-alleged-inner-west-assault-20190108-p50q3x.html
Orange man to speak to the nation.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1082347305699889157
National emergency to be called?
Opens the way for the military to build the wall?
MSM going nuts?
Just when you thought the MSM would get over Trump being Potus……..get ready for them to suffer the next apoplectic fit.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not long of this earth, it seems. Imagine that……Trump appointing another Supreme court justice. It could be a clean run through the senate I imagine….with Trumps crew holding an ‘increased’ majority in the senate. [some say that Trump lost the mid terms, it could be said he gained a huge strategic advantage via the senate numbers ]
Now picture the MSM headlines that are sure to flow so freely about the above……
I wonder if during the nomination hearings process the next justice is questioned about military tribunals….just like the last guy was. It was a curious line of questioning…don’t you think?
Some extra food for thought this fine morning…
I note that Gitmo has been expanded and refurbished. If the US military is pulling out of the ME, why would they be upgrading instead of shutting it down? Along side of this…and related to the line of questioning asked of the last justices nomination hearing re Mil tribunals……on the 1st of this month a interesting amendment became active, the amendment being to the ‘Manual for Courts-Marshal’ .
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2018-amendments-manual-courts-martial-united-states/
If you step back from the noise you can see the chess board being set……this year is looking likely to be very interesting.
next 2wd? with ASC? launch control? ynot lets do it
https://electriccarsreport.com/2019/01/harley-davidson-livewire-priced-at-29799/
“The LiveWire model is designed to produce a new signature Harley-Davidson sound as it accelerates and gains speed. This new futuristic sound represents the smooth, electric power of the LiveWire motorcycle.” Interesting, I wonder what it sounds like.
Higher education is drowning in BS:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Higher-Education-Is-Drowning/242195
The march through the institutions.
“Science Mart” – Publication: April 2011
This trenchant study analyzes the rise and decline in the quality and format of science in America since World War II.
During the Cold War, the U.S. government amply funded basic research in science and medicine. Starting in the 1980s, however, this support began to decline and for-profit corporations became the largest funders of research. Philip Mirowski argues that a powerful neoliberal ideology promoted a radically different view of knowledge and discovery: the fruits of scientific investigation are not a public good that should be freely available to all, but are commodities that could be monetized.
Consequently, patent and intellectual property laws were greatly strengthened, universities demanded patents on the discoveries of their faculty, information sharing among researchers was impeded, and the line between universities and corporations began to blur. At the same time, corporations shed their in-house research laboratories, contracting with independent firms both in the States and abroad to supply new products. Among such firms were AT&T and IBM, whose outstanding research laboratories during much of the twentieth century produced Nobel Prize–winning work in chemistry and physics, ranging from the transistor to superconductivity.
Science-Mart offers a provocative, learned, and timely critique, of interest to anyone concerned that American science—once the envy of the world—must be more than just another way to make money.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674046467
“entrepreneurs have been angry about. Many feel that they have had to take on all the burden of China’s credit reforms even though state-owned enterprises hold most of the debt.”
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/chinas-economy-is-terrible-without-the-trade-war-2019-1