Elsewhere on Tuesday,
– The NSA, Microsoft and WannaCry… blame the business model?
– How Trump gets his fake news. Apparently “his staff have made a habit of slipping news stories on to his desk.”
– And Lawfare blog with some initial, balanced, thoughts on the WashPo’s classified info Trump story.
– How (absurd) noncompete clauses keep workers locked in. Again, these aren’t top level executives with bargaining power.
– Felix Salmon with a few notes on Spotify’s potential direct listing. Levine good on this too.
– Ray Dalio on ‘the big picture’.
– Andy Mukherjee on the divergence between what India’s central bank says some banks’ NPAs are and what those (in this case private) banks say they are. Separately, a good Credit Suisse report laid out the numbers:
Now Mukherjee does add that “the $3 billion of additional bad loans that ICICI, Axis and Yes have been forced to disclose don’t add significantly to what’s already a $180 billion heap of stressed banking assets, including both nonperforming and restructured loans”. And a bunch of these loans may have already been sorted out/written off/ whatever. But SBI — the country’s monster public bank — reports on Friday and that will be worth watching extra closely as a result of this.
– Fyre Festival update, its mountain of debt edition.
– Singapore ‘vending machine’ dispenses Ferraris, Lamborghinis.
– From Bowie bonds to Turkish soap opera bonds:
Borsa Istanbul Chief Executive Officer Himmet Karadag says he plans to securitize the income of the Ottoman drama, which is now in its third season, and narrates the 13th century origins of the dynasty that ruled from almost Vienna to Tehran at its height…
“Is the series successful? It’s successful. Does it have fixed income stream? It has a fixed income stream,” said the head of the securities exchange in an interview in his Istanbul office, where he was about to receive the show’s producers. “I’m going to wrap a special purpose vehicle around its income and I’m going to sell it. Why wouldn’t I?”
– This Caribbean bank wants Chinese money nobody else will touch.
– In cashless Sweden, even God now takes payment via an app.
– On Walmart, banking, incumbents and regulation:
One question to ask might be, “Why should Walmart be allowed to enter banking?” But a more relevant question would be, “Why shouldn’t Walmart be allowed to enter banking?
– Setser: China still wants to import commodities, not manufactures.
– News you probably shouldn’t use from 538: How to trade $100 for $8.20 in 34 complicated steps.
– The curious rise of the ‘white left’ as a Chinese internet insult.
– Ninja shortage in Japan.
– Further, further reading.
