Good morning. The election news: France’s shift to Front National

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-25/euroskeptics-surge-live-results-2014-european-parliament-election
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101704019

As for the markets: the biggest shock there is low volatility….

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-23/tick-tick-tick

Ha ha ha! Those Italians will find a way to reduce the deficit as a percentage of GDP, even if it means raising GDP…
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-22/cocaine-sales-to-boost-italian-gdp-in-boon-for-budget.html

Oh, oh…. “Piketty findings undercut by errors” (plus some reactions)
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/e1f343ca-e281-11e3-89fd-00144feabdc0.html (critique FT)
http://blogs.ft.com/money-supply/2014/05/23/piketty-response-to-ft-data-concerns/ (Piketty’s response letter)
http://jonathanhopkin.blogspot.nl/2014/05/debunking-debunking-of-piketty.html
http://brankomi.wix.com/inequality
http://mainlymacro.blogspot.nl/2014/05/mistakes.html

Best of last week, as always….

https://lukasdaalder.com/2014/05/23/best-in-economics-this-week-may-23/

The M&A pick-up in the US versus Europe

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-23/5-things-ponder-hookers-bubbles-memorial-day

So far, this has not been a spectacular year any which way you turn it…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-25/and-worst-performing-strategy-2014

Newspaper advertising revenues…

http://www.businessinsider.com/generational-shift-in-media-usage-2014-5

Standard & Poor’s tries to assess the vulnerability of credit ratings (?) to climate change

http://qz.com/212892/credit-ratings-agencies-just-realized-that-climate-change-is-a-threat-to-the-world-economy/

Italy in the euro: success or not?

http://www.voxeu.org/article/italy-and-euro-myths-and-realities

The death of the US labour market, part 56

http://fatasmihov.blogspot.nl/2014/05/the-us-labor-market-is-not-working.html

The question is asked by the Richmont Fed: “Should the Fed Have a Financial Stability Mandate?”
http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/annual_report/2013/pdf/article.pdf

And the schedule for the week to come: Memorial Day!
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/05/schedule-for-week-of-may-25th.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/monday-scouting-report-may-26-2014-2014-5

Cool street art pictures… (I forgot who twittered these: sorry!)

http://brekend.nl/2014/05/21/15-x-street-art-die-met-de-omgeving-speelt/

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