Links December 28 2021

Macro & Markets

• Omicron: bleak New Year or beginning of the end for the pandemic? – Guardian
• Infrastructure battle between global powers is a waste of money and resources – SCMP
• Why the Federal Reserve is taking a modest approach to raising interest rates – SCMP
• World economy to top $100 trillion in 2022 for first time: report – Reuters
• The pandemic pushed nearly 100 million people in poverty. They’re struggling to escape – CNN
• Climate change: Huge toll of extreme weather disasters in 2021 – BBC

Americas

• New reforms target US military’s missing weapons problem – AP
• U.S. holiday retail sales rise 8.5% as online shopping booms -Mastercard – Reuters
• Brazil: Two dams give way as heavy rain swamps the northeast – DW
• Cuba records runaway inflation of over 70% – DW
• Harris says Americans under the pressures of student loan debt ‘are literally making decisions about whether they can have a family, whether they can buy a home’ businessinsider.com
• Woman who knocked out a flight attendant’s teeth after being asked to wear a mask faces 20 years in prison after pleading guilty – Deadstate (but, mah freedumbs!)

Asia

• China’s Xi Jinping puts focus back on food security – SCMP
• China c.bank says to promote healthy development of property market – Reuters
• Taiwan, Japan eye ‘all round cooperation’ on chips – Reuters
• UN ‘horrified’ by reports of massacre of civilians in Myanmar – Yahoo
• The Chinese city of Xi’an, where 13 million residents are currently confined to their homes, announced tightened restrictions on Sunday as the country recorded its biggest Covid-19 infection numbers in 21 months – France24

Europa

• Oxford Street: why London’s shopping mecca can’t trade on past glories – Guardian
• Home-seekers despair as affordable property vanishes from UK hotspots – Guardian
• The UK will be stuck with low wages until productivity goes up – Guardian…and Australia?…
• Russian court slaps Google, Meta with massive fines – AP
• Putin says ‘diverse’ options open to fight Western ‘threat’ – DW
• German import prices see highest jump in almost 50 years – DW
• France sees over 100,000 daily virus infections for 1st time – ABCNews
• Pope says Italy’s plunging birthrate is a ‘tragedy’ – Reuters

Terra Specufestor

• Inside Australia’s growing pirate electric car market – Ninefax
• Hundreds in Australia mistakenly told coronavirus test result was negative when they were positive – skynews
• Australia in 2021, governed by a smirk of a man, in a script worthy of Stanley Kubrick – Crikey
• Palmer, Hanson, Joyce lead the list of least liked politicians– The Age
• ‘Meet Barnaby Joyce!’: Amber Heard names dog after Australia’s deputy PM – Guardian
• COVID-19: NSW government considers lifting isolation for healthcare workers – SMH
• Woman, 94, becomes SA’s fifth person to die with COVID as state records 842 new cases – ABC
• Queensland records 784 new COVID 19 Cases. – ABC
• NSW records 6394 new Covid-19 cases amid warning ‘we’re all going to get’ Omicron – news.com.au

…and furthermore…

• ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Becomes First Pandemic-Era Movie to Smash $1 Billion Milestone Globally – Reuters
• Finnish Man Passes on Paying $22,600 to Replace His Tesla’s Battery, Blows Up Car Instead – A Tesla repair shop told a Model S owner that replacing the battery would cost more than $22,600. He decided to stick 66 pounds of dynamite on the car.Society (gizmodo.com)
• Chinese scientists develop AI ‘prosecutor’ that can press its own charges – SCMP
• Australian Medical Association Tells Parents Not To Circumcise Their Boys Unless Absolutely Necessary – LADBible (is it too late for Barnaby Joyce though?)