Xi's Bookshelf; Dialogue and Buttons; No Ma-Ant Financial Deal For Moneygram Is Dead; Water Politics; "Zen-generation" Driving Communist Cadres To Distraction

Happy Wednesday from frigid DC. As expected there has been a flurry of analyses of Xi's bookshelf, and some of the interesting findings are discussed below.

The RMB hit a 20 month high Wednesday. I have no clue where it goes next but clearly the capital controls have worked and a weak US dollar is helping. Will sentiment towards the RMB shift enough to relieve outflow pressures, or would there be another rush for the exits if Beijing relaxed some of the rules again? 

Thanks for reading.

The Essential Eight

1. Crowdsourced Analysis Of Xi's Bookshelf

Comment: Who needs Pekingologists when you have Chinese netizens…

What’s new on Xi Jinping’s bookshelf this year – Shanghaiist – Medium:

He is reading texts on understanding AI, AR, algorithms, and machine learning, including The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos and Augmented by Brett King.

His economics reading includes textbooks on ecological economics, Rostow’s stages of economic growth, Money Changes Everything by William N Goetzmann, and Th…