Top links: China has yet to defuse the ‘time bomb’

A roundup of what The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow is reading this morning on the World Wide Web.

News flow is a bit slow today as the Americans head off for their annual festival of fireworks and gluttony. Still, Bloomberg details China's potential economic pitfalls with the help of Credit Suisse economist Dong Tao.

"'They haven't deactivated the time bomb,' said Dong Tao, a Hong Kong-based economist at Credit Suisse. 'When the trust funds can't make interest payments and it looks like no one is going to roll them over, they ask local governments to take over their assets. Local government financing vehicles don't have money, so they ask the banks.'"

"China Trust 'Timebomb' Ticks as Credit Suisse Sees Rejig" – Bloomberg

See also: "How Bad Would a Housing Market Crash Be for China?" – Bloomberg Businessweek

The Globe and Mail presented a list of domestic corporations ranked by how deeply their noses were planted in the taxpayer trough last year. A suspiciously large segment of the top 50 are based in Quebec. No matter what your political affiliation, there's ample fodder for outrage here.

"Top 50 companies that received Canadian government funding" – Report on Business

Walter Kurtz's economics blog Sober Look takes a detailed look at the prospects for the U.S. housing market. Mr. Kurtz presents a number of useful charts that, in the end, view housing prices as a function of wage growth.

"Merrill Lynch for example shows that current home prices may already be above where they should be, based on Merrill's 'fair value' index (that is driven to a large extent by wages)."

"Some thoughts on slowing house price appreciation in the U.S." – Sober Look

Reuters reports that the prospects for rising crude exports from Iran and Libya have caused the worst weekly price decline for Brent crude since January. The softer commodity price, however is expected to be temporary.

"Victor Shum, vice-president of energy consultancy IHS Energy Insight [said] 'It's a combination of improving demand outlook and supply worries. One would have to be really brave to sell in this market.'"

"Brent holds near $111, U.S. oil in longest losing streak since Dec '09" – Reuters

See also: "Crude falls as Libya's oil crisis 'ends'" – Financial Times

Tweet of the Day is from (vastly underrated) Canadian venture capital bazillionaire Paul Kedrosky, "@pkedrosky "Laura Palmer house from 'Twin Peaks' for sale. Bob not included." http://feedly.com/e/QK4QSDyz

Diversion: "Infographic: Famous writers who hated each other's guts" – Fast Company

Follow Scott Barlow on Twitter @SBarlow_ROB.