What to watch for today
Jamie Dimon’s raise. The JPMorgan board has voted to increase the CEO’s pay package despite billions in fines over the past year, according to the New York Times. Details will be released “possibly as soon as Friday.”
Davos rolls on. UK prime minister David Cameron spoke in favor of fracking, US secretary of state John Kerry met with Israel prime minister Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is scheduled to speak. Yesterday, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani failed to impress Western policy hawks, Ukraine’s prime minister was summarily disinvited, and LGBT activists were sidelined.
Canadian inflation (or deflation). There’s been plenty of discussion about a housing bubble in Canada, but that hasn’t translated into higher consumer prices, with economists more concerned about the persistent specter of deflation.
Shaken emerging markets. US and UK markets may react after Argentina, Turkey and other developing nations’ currencies plummeted. The Nikkei fell Friday.
While you were sleeping
Samsung got squeezed, as fourth-quarter earnings fell short of analyst expectations. The company’s flagship smartphone division is facing pressure from Apple on the high-end and new competition from Indian and Chinese manufacturers on the low-end.
China unemployment ticked up. The urban jobless rate was 4.05% at the end of December, up from 4.04% but still comfortably below the 4.6% that the country tries to keep below.
More evidence for water on Mars. A NASA rover confirmed the findings of another rover, adding to signs that at least some of the conditions needed for life to form once existed on the red planet. The next step is to find out whether the water contained the right chemicals.
Ratings agencies were busy in Europe. S&P raised its outlook for Iceland, to “stable,” but it cut the rating for Croatia. Fitch reaffirmed its AAA rating for Germany.
Bomb blasts in Cairo. Five people were killed and dozens wounded by bombs that appeared to be targeted at police.
Quartz obsession interlude
Matt Phillips on why so few Germans own the homes they live in. “Isn’t home ownership a crucial cog to any healthy economy? Well, as Germany shows—and Gershwin wrote—it ain’t necessarily so. In Spain, around 80% of people live in owner-occupied housing. (Yay!) But unemployment is nearly 27%, thanks to the burst of a giant housing bubble. (Ooof.) Only 43% own their home in Germany, where unemployment is 5.2%. Of course, none of this actually explains why Germans tend to rent so much.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
It’s time for the lottocracy. Elections are irredeemably flawed, so why not choose our leaders at random?
The China gold rush is over. Costs and competition are rising and the government is being tough, meaning foreign companies will need to adapt (paywall).
The world needs a “circular economy.” Companies shouldn’t sell goods, but rather services based on the use of goods, to encourage re-use and recycling.
A century year-old idea could end San Francisco’s class war… A simple change to land taxes could alleviate the Bay Area’s gaping inequality.
…Or maybe it couldn’t. For densely populated, built-up cities, changes to zoning policy might be a better solution to stratospheric property prices, which are at the root of inequality.
Surprising discoveries
South Korean plastic surgeons really know how to advertise. A popular Gangnam clinic was fined for its decorative tower of patients’ shaved-off chin bones.
Seeking the sound of silence. Thanks to jet airplanes, there are almost no places left on Earth that are free of man-made noises.
Hipsters are getting into hunting. They already had the lumberjack shirts and the deer antlers, all that was missing was the animal killing.
How life emerges from inanimate matter. A British physicist has a theory that says it’s pretty much inevitable.
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