Three Cool Stories for your mid-week CI hangover:

I don't want to start thinking I have a place blogging original thoughts. I want to retain the niche of exploring our favorite section of our favorite weekly and maybe get us all interested and a little bit better educated along the way (anybody else suddenly dropping terms like "convertable preference shares" this week?)

But in my limited reading time, and with some help from a friend, I came across these this week (although one is not from this week...) and thought you all might find them interesting. The first is an article from the New Yorker about Chinese stocks and the shadow companies they represent. China, the much feared economic juggernaut, treads fearlessly into our sacred world of capitalism with some good ol' book cooking. Fast learners.

The second was a superb radio clip from NPR's Marketplace about subsidies in the Middle East as a palliative for unrest. This phenomenon has started to really grab my interest, as countries like Yemen and Iran wrestle with how much of their public budgets should go to subsidizing prices on gasoline or bread. The IMF has made reduction of subsidies a tenet of many of its programs, but the social response may be untenable for regimes in the region.  An example of the use of IMF conditions relevant to subsidies can be found here, and a great treatment on Yemen's economy that highlights the paradox of subsidies that makes them difficult to stop can be found here. I also recall seeing an article on subsidies in Iran being the barometer for the political climate in country - I'll see if I can find it. This issue is ripe for a masters thesis.

Finally, an article provided to me by a friend (Patrick, I'm looking at you buddy) that reminds us that the winds of change can be transformative, but gradual. By the time the sky falls, we wonder how it happened. This one is short, and probably the best thing you've read today.

I know I need to get this week's version out soon, and probably stick to a schedule, but like you, I work full time, have a significant other (although she seems to be ignoring me these days for business school) and I have a dreadful addiction to terrible sports teams. (A 9-1 loss by Colorado to Calgary pretty much sums it up). This week's hopes rest with another George Mason win at Northern Iowa. I also, probably like you, dread the thought of actually sitting down and actually doing the writing it takes to keep this up - I am not, unfortunately, endowed with a furor scribendi. I'm off to see Robert Kaplan at SAIS (I know, I know...) so we'll catch up later.