Are Amazon Effects Reshaping the Economy?; Hedge funds seek data fees review

First Read

A Couple of Takes on the Voice of Blockchain Conference
By Sarah Rudolph and Chuck Mackie – JLN

A few folks from JLN attended the Voice of Blockchain Conference at Navy Pier this past Friday and Saturday. Here are some observations from two of them:

Sarah Rudolph:
The Voice of Blockchain event at Navy Pier was big – at least, the room where it was held was enormous, with the microphones on each stage just loud enough to drown out the echo from the microphones on the other stages. There was perhaps an overabundance of stages and topics from which to choose, but there were some interesting speakers as well as startup companies with vendor booths.

Denny Chared of DC Finance provided some outspoken humor at a panel on Funds of Funds vs Family Wealth moderated by Kim Parnell, CEO of Blank. Chared called many of the ideas and whitepapers coming out of the crypto sphere “crazy,” and said some of the people involved are “fanatics” who wanted to get rid of mediators (“referees” who have a role in keeping matters impartial or safe).

For the rest of the story, go here.

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Hits & Takes
JLN Staff

U.S. Senator John McCain died over the weekend. What I think about with John McCain is the life defining moment when he chose trustworthiness and loyalty to his fellow soldiers over his own personal well being after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam war and he was taken prisoner. He was offered the opportunity to go home because of his stature as the son of a high ranking U.S. Navy admiral. However, he would not leave until those who were captured before him were released. It took courage and fortitude to make that decision and stay with it. I will always remember him for his trustworthiness, loyalty and courage.~JJL

“London is adding 40,000 trees to its skyline in a bid to turn the sprawling British metropolis into a “national park city”.~World Economic Forum

From the MFA and AIMA petition to the SEC on trading fees: “many exchanges have continued to increase securities market data fees year-after-year, by some estimates 20 percent or more a year for the last five years.”~JK

Take a look at Dan Basse’s presentation from MarketsWiki Education World of Opportunity. It is a great primer on the importance of fundamentals and the current state of grain fundamentals around the world.~JJL

I will be in JLN’s Chicago offices again today. This will be my second day in the office after my recent hip replacement surgery. Let’s see if this goes any better than the last time.~JJL

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Bridging the Week: August 20 to 24 and August 27, 2018 (CCOs; Annual Compliance Report; Bitcoin Futures ETPs; Reg SHO: Virtual Currency)
Gary DeWaal – Bridging the Week
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission revised its rule related to the responsibilities of chief compliance officers of futures commission merchants, swap dealers and major swap participants, as well as the obligations of such registrants for the annual compliance reports they are mandated to prepare and file with the CFTC. The goal is to make the rule simpler and clearer. Separately, on August 22, the Securities and Exchange Commission through its staff declined to approve two exchanges’ proposed rule changes to authorize the listing and trading of nine exchange-traded products based on CFTC-sanctioned bitcoin futures contracts.
/goo.gl/3Vz9b4

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Friday’s Top Three
Our top read story by a long shot yesterday was the case update on Jitesh Thakkar in Finance Feeds’ piece Illinois Court refuses to dismiss indictment against software developer in spoofing conspiracy case. Second was the intro to Optiver’s new technology blog page. More to come from that firm. And third was Bloomberg’s coverage of CabbageTech in CFTC Wins Permanent Ban Against ‘Vicious’ Bitcoin Operator

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MarketsWiki Stats
131,816,609 pages viewed; 23,257 pages; 214,720 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

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Lead Stories

Are Superstar Firms and Amazon Effects Reshaping the Economy?; The biggest companies may be influencing things like inflation and wage growth, possibly at the expense of central bankers’ power to do so.
Neil Irwin – NY Times
Two of the most important economic facts of the last few decades are that more industries are being dominated by a handful of extraordinarily successful companies and that wages, inflation and growth have remained stubbornly low.
/jlne.ws/2PEtgeK

Hedge funds seek review of market data fees, ‘pickles’ and all
John McCrank – Reuters
The two main hedge fund trade groups have joined a growing chorus of stock market participants asking U.S. regulators to reign in “unreasonable” data fees charged by some exchanges, which they said restrict trading and harm competition.
/jlne.ws/2whIttZ

When independent directors are not so independent; Three recent cases question whether investors were properly represented in deals that benefited insiders
Sujeet Indap – FT
Just what makes a director of a listed US company “independent”? Elderly care company New Senior Living argued in court that a board member was unconflicted when he helped approve a 2015 buyout that benefited private equity titan Wes Edens. This director also happened to get the chance to buy a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team whose lead owner happened to be Wes Edens.
/jlne.ws/2whksTV

The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined
Ben Miller – NY Times
Millions of students will arrive on college campuses soon, and they will share a similar burden: college debt. The typical student borrower will take out $6,600 in a single year, averaging $22,000 in debt by graduation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
/jlne.ws/2whbrKJ

Goldman Cashes In on Passive-Investing Boom With Big 4 P.M. Trade; Banks crash exchanges’ end-of-day party
Alexander Osipovich and Liz Hoffman – WSJ
In lower Manhattan, the New York Stock Exchange’s bell rings at 4 p.m. ET each trading day, signaling a giant auction that determines the closing prices for thousands of stocks.
/jlne.ws/2whcQAP

Not Even $515 Million in New Tether Can Help This Crypto Dump
Matt Leising – Bloomberg
It’s getting hard to pump amid the dump in the $209 billion cryptocurrency market.
At least that appears to be the case when you look at Tether, one of the most-traded digital assets and also one that’s allegedly been used to manipulate the price of Bitcoin. Over half a billion dollars of Tether has been created in August alone, a move that in the past would have often coincided with a rally in Bitcoin, yet the larger cryptocurrency has fallen 15 percent.
/goo.gl/o1SC88

Tinkering will not deliver a stronger role for the euro; Giving the currency a bigger global function means rewiring the EU’s machinery
Wolfgang M¸nchau – FT
Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, was right to call on the EU to play a bigger geopolitical role. I wish him well, but fear that the most important part of his proposal may be not have been sufficiently thought through.
/jlne.ws/2PHrIRd

St. Louis Fed’s Bullard warns of recession risk in raising rates
Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider – Reuters
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard on Friday raised new alarm bells over the U.S. central bank’s plan to keep raising interest rates, warning that even one more rate hike could set the stage for recession.
/jlne.ws/2PHlZLl

Field of contenders for ECB top job widens after Weidmann setback; If Germany does not push its leading candidate, who will succeed Mario Draghi?
Jim Brunsden, Mehreen Khan and Claire Jones – FT
Much of the speculation over who will succeed Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank next year has centred on one man: Jens Weidmann of Germany.
/jlne.ws/2PEGeZT

Exchanges, OTC and Clearing

HKEX’s USD Gold Futures Receive Approval in Taiwan
HKEX
The Financial Supervisory Commission of the Taiwan Securities and Futures Bureau approved the inclusion of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited’s US dollar Gold Futures (GDU) contract in its list of offshore exchanges and contracts for which FCMs have trading authorisation.
/jlne.ws/2PEMyAJ

OCC Recovery Tools, Recovery and Orderly Wind-Down Plan Approved by SEC
OCC
OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the company’s proposed recovery tools and proposed recovery and orderly wind-down (RWD) plan, providing critical tools designed to enable OCC to successfully manage extreme market disruptions in future financial crises.
/goo.gl/jUWpxx

What’s Driving 24-hour Trading of WTI Options?
Jeff White – CME Group OpenMarkets
You may already know CME Group’s NYMEX WTI options on futures are among the most actively traded commodity options in the world. You may also know that traders from global macro hedge funds to physical oil producers all use WTI options each day to hedge risk or express market opinions. What you may not know is that trading during non-U.S. hours by traders outside the U.S. has been the fastest growing component of the WTI options market. Volume growth outside U.S. hours has outpaced U.S. trading hours volume by over 20% year-to-date in 2018.
/goo.gl/Bxotn6

Regulator tightens rules on foreign-invested futures firms
Asia Times
According to the new rules, the proportion of shares held by foreign shareholders, including direct holding and indirect control, of foreign-invested futures companies shall be in line with the country’s arrangements for the opening up of the futures industry.
bit.ly/2Mzq71V

Renewal of FCM Regulations; Amendments to the Clearing Conditions and the Price List of Eurex Clearing AG; Consultation on amendments to Special Provisions
Eurex
In February 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) granted Eurex Clearing the Status of a Derivatives Clearing Organization (ÑDCO”) for the clearing of Swaps.
/jlne.ws/2PHKmIz

SGX welcomes the listing of Nikko AM SGD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF, the first-of-its-kind in Singapore
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today welcomed the listing of Nikko AM SGD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF, the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) that offers investors easy access to a basket of Singapore Dollar-denominated, investment grade corporate bonds in affordable units.
/jlne.ws/2wcd64f

Borsa Istanbul begins work on setting up swap market
Reuters Staff
Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul has started work on setting up a swap market, beginning with foreign currency markets, the stock exchange said in a statement on Monday.
/jlne.ws/2PHOZlQ

MCX to roll out rubber futures contracts from August 16
Sutanuka Ghosal – ET
Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) will commence trading in rubber futures contract effective August 16, 2018. This new agri contract is targeted towards offering an effective hedging solution to the rubber value chain participantsógrowers, traders, exporters, importers, and tyre manufacturing companies among others.
/jlne.ws/2wfRwfe

London Stock Exchange Registers Netherlands-Based Identifiers for Turquoise; Identifier codes for Turquoise have been registered ahead of a potential hard Brexit in 2019.
amsterdam-city-skyline
Hamad Ali, James Rundle – Waters Technology
Turquoise offers 4,500 stocks with uniform access to 19 major European markets. The multilateral trading facility is majority owned by the LSEG, in partnership with 12 banks.
/jlne.ws/2PBUEKi

Fintech

Look, no beard: Goldman Sachs’ Marcus subverts the fintech story
Patrick Collinson – The Guardian
Goldman Sachs breaks into fintech with the launch of Marcus. Photograph: Richard Drew/AP
We’ve seen the future of banking. Those fintechs clustered around London’s “Silicon roundabout”, such as Monzo (900,000 current account customers already) and Revolut (2 million customers since launch in 2015) have attracted smartphone-obsessed millennials with their digital prowess. But a new bank quietly launched on Thursday, called Marcus, turns the conventional fintech story upside down.
/jlne.ws/2wgPHhY

Nokia secures 500 million euro EU loan for 5G development
Reuters Staff
Finnish telecom network equipment maker Nokia has secured a 500 million euro ($572 million) loan from the European Investment Bank to step up development of next-generation 5G technology capable of faster speeds, wider coverage and more stable connections.
/goo.gl/J8Ruk5

New digital exchange seeks to host Islamic finance startups
Bernardo Vizcaino – Reuters
A new digital exchange aims to attract listings from sharia compliant financial technology startups, its chief executive said on Monday, part of a growing number of firms looking to modernize Islamic finance.
/goo.gl/c9yn93

Cryptocurrencies

It Was Meant to Be the Better Bitcoin. It’s Down Nearly 90%
Alexander Osipovich – WSJ
The bear market in cryptocurrencies has punished investors who bought bitcoin at the height of cryptomania last year. But losses have been even more brutal for those who invested in once-promising rivals of bitcoin.
/on.wsj.com/2o9oeKU

Crypto Tycoons Are About to Learn How Rich They Really Are
Blake Schmidt – Bloomberg
Mining-gear moguls are prepping for initial public offerings; Their firms have grown quickly, but crypto crash poses risks Some of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency tycoons are about to find out how much they’re really worth.
/jlne.ws/2wgEYnC

India Central Bank Forms New Unit to Tackle Blockchain Regulation
Wolfie Zhao – Coindesk
India’s central bank has reportedly formed a new unit devoted to researching regulatory frameworks for blockchain, cryptocurrencies and other technologies.
/goo.gl/a95yXW

UK Government Pilots Storage of Digital Evidence on a Blockchain
CCN
The UK Government has disclosed plans to conduct a pilot project for storing digital evidence on a blockchain.
/goo.gl/TCUnp5

Chinese bitcoin mining rig makers aim to raise billions in HK IPOs: sources
Alun John, Julie Zhu – Reuters
Three of the world’s largest bitcoin mining equipment makers plan to raise billions of dollars with initial public offerings in Hong Kong, even as other companies report plunging demand for the chips needed to make bitcoin and a halving in the price of the cryptocurrency.
/goo.gl/LCihqr

Cryptocurrency: Virtual money, real power, and the fight for a small town’s future
CBS News
Driving into the small town of Wenatchee, Washington, about three hours east of Seattle, a sign welcomes you to the “Apple Capital of the World.” But not far from the abundant orchards, a very different industry is taking root. As unlikely as it may seem, this rural community has become a hub for cryptocurrency mining.
/goo.gl/2DFntt

Bitcoin advocate Charlie Shrem: Here’s how long you should hold your crypto
JP Mangalindan – Yahoo Finance
Cryptocurrency may be notoriously unpredictable, but don’t let the price volatility deter you from investing, advises Crypto.IQ Chief Visionary Officer Charlie Shrem.
/jlne.ws/2PH6nqT

Politics

Mexico-U.S. Nafta Negotiators Signal Confidence After Marathon Sunday Session; ‘If we weren’t on track, we wouldn’t be coming back’ Monday, Mexico’s chief trade negotiator said
Josh Zumbrun – WSJ
Trade negotiators from the U.S. and Mexico are set to resume talks Monday morning after they worked late into Sunday evening haggling over a dwindling list of issues, and sending new signals they were close to resolving their bilateral differences.
/goo.gl/GXXG9e

Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?
Cade Metz – NY Times
In a May memo to President Trump, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis implored him to create a national strategy for artificial intelligence.
/jlne.ws/2PBMmSG

The Prosecutors Who Have Declared War on the President; The Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York isn’t done digging into the Trump Organization.
Noah Feldman – Bloomberg
In the span of one week, we learned that the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York had both secured a guilty plea from Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen and offered an immunity deal to the company’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. President Donald Trump should be worried. Once the Southern District gets its jaws onto a string of crimes, it doesn’t let go.
/jlne.ws/2PEX8rt

The Full-Spectrum Corruption of Donald Trump; Everyone and everything he touches rots.
Peter Wehner – NY Times
There’s never been any confusion about the character defects of Donald Trump. The question has always been just how far he would go and whether other individuals and institutions would stand up to him or become complicit in his corruption.
/jlne.ws/2PFVjdC

Is capitalism losing or socialism gaining? Yes.
Greg Krieg – CNN
Sen. Bernie Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she is a capitalist to her “bones.” And yet, the pair are widely viewed to be competing for the same territory in a potential 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Not that anyone should be surprised. Both Sanders and Warren made their names railing at the excesses and failures of an increasing unequal economy — one that voters across the ideological spectrum routinely describe as unfair or, in many cases, “rigged.”
/jlne.ws/2PHUC3s

Regulation

ASIC requires Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Australia to amend false claim of independence
Eurex
ASIC has required Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Australia Pty Ltd (MSWMA) to amend a false claim of independence that could mislead consumers and investors.
/jlne.ws/2PI6JxI

Revised FINRA Transaction Fee Transfer Agreement
FINRA
FINRA has revised the FINRA Transaction Fee Transfer Agreement to clarify the intended scope of paragraph 2b. The FINRA Transaction Fee Transfer Agreement applies to FINRA members and their respective clearing firms that choose to utilize FINRA Trade Reporting Facilities – the Alternative Display Facility (ADF), the FINRA/Nasdaq TRF, the FINRA/NYSE TRF, or the OTC Reporting Facility (ORF) – to transfer a transaction fee on trades between FINRA members reported to one of the Facilities, pursuant to applicable FINRA rules. Firms that currently have an executed Agreement on file with FINRA do not need to execute a new Agreement. Firms executing a new Agreement after the date of this Notice should use the revised version, which is now online at FINRA.org.
/jlne.ws/2PIe5kW

Sebi plans ‘on tap’ bond market
Reena Zachariah, Sugata Ghosh – ET
‘Bond tap’, which gives corporates the flexibility to time the market, prune cost, and dramatically cut down on paperwork for raising money, will soon be a reality in India. Capital market regulator Sebi is preparing the ground to allow ‘on tap public issue of bonds’ ó a mechanism that will let corporates use stock exchanges to sell bonds directly to investors, including retail investors, any time and as many times during a financial year, after filing a single prospectus.
/jlne.ws/2PEGgRz

Sebi planning to deploy technology to beef up monitoring activities; Sebi has invited expression of interests (EoIs) from companies for enhancement of analytical capabilities and setting up of private cloud to provide infrastructure, storage and computing capacity
Press Trust of India
Eyeing a major technological leap in its surveillance and investigation functions, markets watchdog Sebi plans to build a private data storage cloud, automate its inspection of brokers and make greater use of data analytics.
/jlne.ws/2weO5FI

Musk’s U-turn on Tesla deal could intensify his legal, regulatory woes
Michelle Price – Reuters
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk’s decision to abruptly abandon a plan to take his electric carmaker private will not resolve his mounting regulatory and legal woes, and may even make them worse, some securities lawyers said.
/goo.gl/t3EcXW

Investing and Trading

Public Bravado, Private Doubts: Inside the Unraveling of Elon Musk’s Tesla Buyout; As his team hustled to put form to his idea, lining up investors willing to put up tens of billions of dollars, Mr. Musk was having second thoughts
Liz Hoffman and Tim Higgins – WSJ
The Tesla Inc. board convened Thursday at the company’s factory in Fremont, Calif., in a conference room where Elon Musk often spent the night. His sleeping bag was still on the floor.
/jlne.ws/2wgt4dJ

Ferraris a Better Bet Than Stocks in Age of Market Exuberance
Adam Haigh – Bloomberg
A day after U.S. stocks smashed out yet another record, a vintage Ferrari went under the hammer for the highest price ever — the latest sign that while investors may grumble about frothy financial asset valuations, they’re still prepared to pay up.
/jlne.ws/2PFYiCQ

Noble Group Shareholders Back Survival Plan as Brough to Bow Out
Krystal Chia – Bloomberg
Chairman says commodity trader had ‘near-death’ moment in 2017; Debt-for-equity proposal follows default, billions in losses
Noble Group Ltd.’s shareholders have endured years of torment as a default, billions in losses, and allegations of improper accounting pushed the commodity trader to the brink. After a 90-minute meeting Monday, they backed the company’s bid to salvage itself.
/jlne.ws/2wiSeZ5

****Reuters here

‘I Was Cheated’: Tales From the Collapse of a Commodity Giant
Krystal Chia and Andrea Tan – Bloomberg
Noble Group retail investors tally losses before vote on deal; Plan was approved by 99.96 percent of votes cast at SGM Monday
Francis Tay feels cheated. The former Singapore civil servant said he lost almost S$50,000 ($36,600) in the implosion of Noble Group Ltd., the commodity trading giant. He also said shareholders like him have been let down by regulators whose job it is to protect them from the sort of crisis that’s brought the company to the brink.
/jlne.ws/2PEx2EV

U.S. stock fund investors show no fear of King Dollar
Trevor Hunnicutt – Reuters
U.S. fund investors are in no rush to shore up defenses against the strong dollar. The greenback’s 6 percent leap over the past six months has flummoxed markets from Turkey to Argentina, whose governments have to repay debt in dollars.
/goo.gl/rXrqDL

Opinion: How to invest in a stock market that’s due for a hard landing
Vitaliy Katsenelson – MarketWatch
I simply don’t trust the fundamentals of the global economy right now. The system is built on quicksand.
/jlne.ws/2wgOyH6

At Fed’s Jackson Hole Retreat, Central Bankers Eye New Economic Risks; Without mentioning Trump by name, global economic leaders make clear they are concerned about his trade policy
Nick Timiraos and Paul Kiernan – WSJ
Central bankers around the world have finally reached the point, after many years, when a period of strong economic growth allows them to unwind their postcrisis easy money policies.
/jlne.ws/2why5Tc

Franchise Quality Score: A Metric for Intangibles
Gautam Dhingra and Christopher J. Olson – CFA Institute Blog
The high valuations of Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, Netflix, and other tech stocks can be puzzling ó especially for value investors. The prices of these stocks have skyrocketed despite valuations that are already exceptionally high based on traditional metrics like price-to-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) ratios.
/goo.gl/5ChzYh

Direct Indexing: Passive investment with potential tax benefits
Rolf Agather – FTSE Russell Blog
In the United States – and many other countries – investors are required to pay capital gains taxes on profits generated from their investments. Since US regulations require mutual funds and ETFs to pass any capital gains to shareholders annually, tax efficiency can be limited for these index vehicles. Separately managed accounts (SMAs) that fully replicate an indexóthus providing a solution that can offer a tax benefitóhave generally only been available for large investors. An innovative solution called Direct Indexing enables indexes to be passively tracked even in accounts with small balances.
/goo.gl/9Pm1BP

Institutions

Vanguard nips at BlackRock’s heels for fund crown; Money manager attracted $112bn of net new flows in first half while bigger rival brought in $77bn
Owen Walker, Asset Management Correspondent – FT
Vanguard is fast catching up on BlackRock as the world’s biggest money manager as the two titans of the global asset management industry, who collectively manage $11.5tn, battle for even greater market share.
/jlne.ws/2wiSreF

Deutsche-Commerzbank deal seen as a question of when, not if; Bankers point out that any merger would have to be radical to be successful
Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt – FT
To many observers in Frankfurt a tie-up between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank is not seen as a question of if, but when.
/jlne.ws/2wpc3OD

The Big Hedge-Fund Strategy That Isn’t Working; Despite terrible returns, so-called trend-following funds have attracted $300 billion in assets
Laurence Fletcher – WSJ
Following trends in financial markets was once one of the most profitable investment strategies around. Now the approach is being battered as cheap replica funds crowd into the space.
/jlne.ws/2whdA95

Top oil hedge funds suffer big losses after July price plunge: sources
Devika Krishna Kumar, Maiya Keidan – Reuters
Two of the world’s largest energy-focused hedge funds, Andurand Capital and BBL Commodities, suffered double-digit percentage losses in July as oil prices plunged by the most in two years, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
/jlne.ws/2PH9wY0

New Mizuho chief pledges to save Japan from SME succession crisis; Tatsufumi Sakai foresees M&A boom as demographic fall threatens corporate know-how
Leo Lewis in Tokyo – FT
Mizuho Financial Group has a “big mission” to protect decades of accumulated Japanese technological know-how from demographic decline and a national business succession crisis, said the bank’s new chief executive.
/jlne.ws/2wiv5WR

Rising number of bankers switch to careers in private equity; Study finds uptick in job moves despite marginally lower average pay
Javier Espinoza, Private Capital Correspondent- FT
A rising number of former bankers are joining the ranks of private equity groups in Europe despite sometimes taking a pay cut to do so, according to new research.
/jlne.ws/2wgPJ9u

Regions

Saudi Aramco loses its ‘in perpetuity’ oil and gas rights; Kingdom’s switch to a 40-year contract reveals power struggle with state energy group
Anjli Raval – FT
Saudi Arabia has cut the length of time that its state energy company has exclusive rights to the kingdom’s vast oil and gasfields, raising questions about Saudi Aramco’s long-term production and revealing a power struggle between the company and the government.
/jlne.ws/2whGTZn

Has the emerging markets crisis cycle ended?
JosÈ Antonio Ocampo – Financial News London
Judging by the limited contagion from the Turkish crisis, it seems that longstanding patterns in emerging markets may no longer apply
/goo.gl/b2PpZZ

Emerging Vulnerabilities in Emerging Economies
Michael Spence – Project Syndicate
For many emerging economies, it is imperative to pursue a rebalancing of growth patterns, with a more active approach to managing debt and capital flows and their effects on asset prices, exchange rates, and growth. Otherwise, the dangers of unsustainable growth patterns will bring expansion to an abrupt halt.
/goo.gl/swmxVc

Why World Worries About Russia’s Natural Gas Pipeline
Elena Mazneva, Anna Shiryaeskaya – Bloomberg
A planned new natural-gas pipeline into Europe from Russia is shaking up geopolitics. Nord Stream 2, as it’s called, worries leaders in Eastern Europe, has stirred the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump and has put German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the hot seat.
/jlne.ws/2whnVC2

Brexit

More Brexit-influenced austerity will add to public debt, and hurt British exporters. It’s time the government understood that
Ann Pettifor – The Independent
On holiday in the safe Tory seat of Richmondshire in the Yorkshire Dales this week, we watched as a dedicated sheep farmer demonstrated the skills and athleticism of his working dogs. Five generations of Richard Fawcett’s family have, since 1918, farmed The Croft at Hardraw, Wensleydale. Today, he explained to the watching crowd, the family enterprise was under threat from the possible removal of subsidy.
/jlne.ws/2PDMEsa

EU contracts safe after Brexit, say most insurers; Groups say they will be able to pay claims regardless of the outcome of talks
Oliver Ralph – FT
Most large UK insurers have executed contingency plans to ensure cross-border contracts are honoured if there is a no-deal Brexit.
/jlne.ws/2whrdFh

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