Links 11 February 2019

Global Macro / Markets / Investing:

• I’ve covered nine financial crises since the 1960s. Here’s what I learned – The Guardian
• Bezos Selfie Controversy Triggers Alarm For Billionaires Worldwide – Bloomberg
• The case for an active fiscal policy – VOX
• Trade war opens commodity floodgates – Nikkei Asian Review
• Two hundred years of health and medical care – VOX
• Wealth concentration returning to ‘levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties,’ according to new research – Washington Post
• The economic geography of transition countries – VOX
• The macroeconomic implications of a global trade war – VOX
• Low-level inflation will prevent an economic heart attack – FT
• Tesla’s delivery team gutted in recent job cuts – sources – Reuters
• Cashing In: How to Make Negative Interest Rates Work – IMF
• Export booms in sluggish economies – VOX

Americas:

• Here’s Why So Many Americans Feel Cheated By Their Student Loans – BuzzFeed
• John Dingell: My last words for America – Washington Post
• Average tax refund down 8% so far this season – CNN
• U.S. steel tariff ‘boondoggle’ offers more exclusions to China than Canada – CBC
• Tax code changes leave Americans asking, ‘What happened to my refund?’ – NBC
• New poll finds overwhelming support for an annual wealth tax – The Hill
• Wall Street’s Slide Hurts New York; City Loses Nearly $1 Billion in Tax Revenue – NY Times
• The problem with Silicon Valley’s obsession with blitzscaling growth – Quartz
• Democrats Aim to Limit Corporate Windfall From Trump Tax Cut – NY Times
• The Global Con Hidden in Trump’s Tax Reform Law, Revealed – NY Times

Europe:

• No Deal is pretty likely – Medium
• No-deal Brexit risks rise as UK-Japan trade talks stall – FT
• No-deal Brexit ferry contract scrapped – BBC
• ’Real chance’ of Irish unity poll if no deal – BBC
• Why Labour is dangerously foolish to turn against freedom of movement – New Statesman
• Finland’s ’free cash’ experiment fails to boost employment – The Guardian
• How London won the race for the renminbi – FT
• German Regulators Just Outlawed Facebook’s Whole Ad Business – Wired
• Brexit has already cost average UK worker more than week’s wages due to post-referendum price rises, research shows – The Independent
• Where Europe Would Be Hurt Most by a No-Deal Brexit – NY Times

Asia:

• The Internet, Divided Between the U.S. and China, Has Become a Battleground – WSJ
• Chinese firms are not all serial intellectual-property thieves – The Economist
• China Is Having an Unexpected Privacy Awakening – Slate
• Chinese Officials Force Muslims to Drink, Eat Pork At Festival – RFA
• China is worried an AI arms race could lead to accidental war – The Verge
• How Japan (Eventually) Changed the World With Zero Rates – Bloomberg

Trans-Tasman:

• Malcolm Turnbull received direct warnings about paid lobbyists who were simultaneously occupying powerful roles in the Liberal party – The Guardian
• The caretaker government where little care is being taken – Canberra Times
• NBN write-down inevitable after ‘disastrous’ rollout, says ex-boss – The Age
• Royal commission finds Barnaby Joyce ‘ignored the law’ – Canberra Times
• GetUp poll points to Abbott electoral defeat – The SMH
• Regional NSW becomes key battleground in state election, as voters look for alternatives – ABC
• Migrants face deportation if they move, under population control visas – The SMH
• Is Howard’s Kyoto con trick about to be played out again? – Michael West
• Uighurs fled persecution in China. Now Beijing’s harassment has followed them to Australia – Washington Post
• Green waste-to-energy power plant could solve power reliability in regions – ABC
• Auckland’s housing shortage may be about 20% smaller than earlier estimates – Interest.co.nz
• ‘We can do better than a capital gains tax’ – Interest.co.nz

Video

Ghost Immigrants: Paying for Canadian citizenship – The Fifth Estate…..what odds the same schemes operating in Australia and New Zealand?…