Gloomy tidings today.

Martin Wolf details the recovery risks in the global economy, Italy slides into irrelevance, Roger Cohen’s fearful world albeit written from Happy Montreal. China’s naming warning, Charlie Fell on stock markets and icebergs, and rethinking the Holocaust.

Also a light sentence for a whistler blower and rich summer reading ideas.

Martin Wolf details the bumpy patch that the developed economies have fallen into and warns against worrying about the wrong things.

Financial Times – The Road to Recovery Gets Steeper
What is one to make of recent economic data, particularly in the advanced countries?

 

Italy the world’s 7th largest economy, and 4th largest European economy, is shrinking, endlessly.

Economist – Oh For a New Risorgimento
ON A WARM spring morning in Treviso, a town in Italy’s north-east, several hundred people have gathered in the main square, in the shadow of a 13th-century bell tower, to listen to speeches.

 

Related.

Economist – World’s Worst Menu
VIENNA’S glories are largely faded but its name is being mentioned with increasing frequency by the euro area’s policymakers.

 

Related.

Seeking Alpha – Greek Default Within Hailing Distance
We're not sure if the markets have interpreted the noises surrounding the Greek bailout correctly.

Uber-globalist Roger Cohen compares life in Montreal to other places he knows well, happy and sad.

New York Times – When Fear Breaks Out
Whenever I come to Canada I think the world should be simple.

Quote worth quoting.

“Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for.”

A rose by any other name, and China’s new aircraft carrier is named after the 17th century Chinese hero who conquered Taiwan …

Yale Global – Chinese History and Reality
As China pursues rapid economic growth and increases military spending, the government insists the ultimate goal is a peaceful rise.

Charlie Fell argues caution.

Charlie Fell – Iceberg Ahead!
The Cunard liner, SS Slavonia, became the first ship in history to transmit the Sierra Oscar Sierra (SOS) distress signal, as it encountered difficulty in the deep waters off the Azores on this day in 1909. 

Can the Holocaust’s causes be re-thought, apparently yes.

New York Review of Books – A New Approach to the Holocaust
It is fruitless to reduce the manifold evil of the Holocaust to a single cause.

Thomas Drake gets off lightly. Thanks to Simon of Victoria for sending this in.

New York Times -- Ex-N.S.A. Aide Gains Plea Deal in Leak Case; Setback to U.S.
A former spy agency employee agreed late Thursday to plead guilty to a minor charge in a highly publicized leak prosecution, undercutting the Obama administration’s unusual campaign to prosecute government officials who disclose classified information to the press.

Morgan Stanley’s top 10 summer reading list sent out to its high net worth (aka rich) clients.

Wall Street Journal – Here’s What the Rich are Reading this Summer
Every June,  J.P. Morgan Private Bank sends its rich clients its official “Summer Reading List,” a collection of 10 books specifically chosen to appeal to the tastes and preoccupations of the wealthy.