What We Read Today 30 April 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• China’s Income Inequality Surpasses U.S., Posing Risk for Xi (Lorraine Woellert and Sharon Chen, Bloomberg) The gap between rich and poor incomes in China is now one of the highest in the world, exceeding even the U.S. Researchers at the University of Michigan say that the GINI coefficient for China has nearly doubled over a 30-year period from 1980-2010. This article quotes analysts who say social unrest is a real risk for China if the trend is not reversed.

• CNOOC to Team Up with BG for Prince Rupert LNG Project (LNG World News) Hat tip to Macro Business. This will be a big shipping facility, equal to about 0.2% of global annual consumption from only one port.

• Crude & Brent Oil Finally Tumble As The World Floats In Petroleum (Barry Norman, FX Empire) Will a glut of supply finally overcome the geopolitical risk factors that have been supporting the price of crude?

• It’s Good – no – Great to be the CEO Running a Huge Criminal Bank (William K. Black, New Economic Perspectives) William K. Black contributes to GEI. This is a follow-on to a GEI Opinion article posted today: The New Book on Regulation I Just Decided to Write: Blame it on Monaco. In this article Black starts out by giving an “alternative headline” to a Wall Street Journal article “U.S. Banks to Help Authorities With Tax Evasion Probe“. The alternative suggest, based on the facts in the WSJ:

“Senior Officers of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Aided and Abetted Tax Fraud by Wealthiest Americans, Failed to Make Required Criminal Referrals, and Demanded Immunity from Prosecution for Themselves and the Banks before Complying with the U.S. Subpoenas: U.S. Department of Justice Caves in to Banker’s Demands Continuing its Practice of Effectively Immunizing Fraud by Most Financial Elites.”

Today there are 13 articles discussed ‘behind the wall’.

The first three articles are about Mario Draghi’s equivocation regarding QE operations for the ECB.

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