As world economic leaders (sans the U.S. government) gather in Davos this week, China’s economic cooling (coming just “when the world needs its spark”) is both a hot topic of conversation and a cause for concern – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Puerto Rico is nearing finalization of a mammoth $18 billion in bond restructuring as the US territory—still struggling to rebuild from Hurricane Maria—looks to renegotiate some of its most “crushing debts” – WSJ
We’ve looked previously at Amazon’s big play into the online ad space. Here’s some more details on the tools (and data. My god, the data) that it’s using to eviscerate the competition – NYTimes
Theresa May’s dealmaking prospects took an additional hit over the weekend after she informed her Cabinet that there was “little prospect of cross-party Brexit talks yielding a workable alternative plan to the one that Parliament overwhelmingly rejected last week” – Bloomberg
In a move that definitely qualifies as the other GDPR shoe dropping, France’s data privacy authority has fined Google parent company Alphabet $57 million under the new privacy law for allegedly not going “far enough” to get “valid user consent to gather data for targeted advertising” – WSJ
Carlos Ghosn still isn’t done making a play for bail with Japanese courts, and he’s putting plenty of cash on the table as part of the effort – WSJ and Bloomberg
Fannie & Freddie’s regulator, FHFA acting director Joseph Otting, revealed last week that it’s working on a plan to lift the two institutions out of conservatorship for the first time since the financial crisis – MarketWatch
The GAO’s not buying it (or any other plan floated so far) – Law360
The Journal checks in on the dollar’s status as the world’s go-to currency and finds that, despite some recent challengers, the dollar’s primacy is stronger than ever at the moment – WSJ
A bipartisan House Committee on Financial Services bill would push the SEC to get tougher on insider trading by amending its corporate insider rule – Law360
Since our thing here comes squarely in the form of a giant lumberjack and his trusty blue ox, we’re happy to cede the giant-moose warring to Norway and Canada – NYTimes