What We Read Today 28 March 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 Economy Under Mounting Stress (Wayne Arnold, The Wall Street Journal) China has trillions of dollars of financial assets and are unlikely to allow the economy to collapse. But, quoting Standard & Poor’s:

“Even viable investments could struggle to get financing. China’s growth could fall sharply for at least a few quarters, led by investment.”

See further discussion about China in the first three articles ‘behind the wall’.

• Can Evolution Outrace Climate Change?(Sarah Laskow, Five Thirty Eight) The question is partly rhetorical and partly answered. The answer seems to be that given genetic diversity adaptation will depend on rate of change of the environment. Our thought is that there is a possible analogy to the frogs in a slowly heated pot. If the pot comes rapidly to a boil of course the live frogs are scalded and die. If the rate of heating is much slower then the frogs get comfortable, fall asleep and expire peacefully when the temperature is high enough. But what Laskow describes as a possibility is that the rate of heating could be so slow that the frogs would have a survival rate dependent on their adaptability to warmer temperature, those adaptable would reproduce, their offspring would likewise be selected for survival and reproduction and the frog species would evolve to be acclimated to warmer environments.

• Fed’s Bullard: Financial stability concerns loom large (Laura He, MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal) The St. Louis Fed President doesn’t see a bubble forming right now but considers it a risk as the Fed tightens.

• JPMorgan defeats appeal in U.S. silver price-fixing lawsuit (Jonathan Stempel, Reuters) In an appeal of a lower court opinion, a three judge panel for the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the original verdict that JPMorgan did not violate antitrust and commodities laws by amassing huge short positions in silver and then submitting very large trades when market trading was thin. In other words, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck it could possibly not be a duck if you do not have DNA evidence.

• Former Prime Minister Announces Candidacy for President of Ukraine (Patrick Reevell and David M. Herszenhorn, The New York Times) Yulia Tymoshenko has announced she will run for the presidency of Ukraine in May elections. She lost a previous run for the office in 2010 to the recently overthrown Vitali Klitschko. Econintersect suggests she assume the nom de politik “Viking Princess” for reason’s discussed ‘behind the wall’ two days ago (26 March).

• More than 6 million Americans enrolled under the ACA, White House says (Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post) The enrollment seems headed for a number of enrollees exceeding scaled back estimates of 6 million by the end of March. The number also is assured of falling short of the original CBO (Congressional Budget Office) estimate of 7 million. But even with the latest reports there are still many uncertainties regarding just how well the ACA (Affordable Care Act) is doing. See GEI News article by Christian Stellakis.

Today there are 15 articles discussed ‘behind the wall’.