* NYT (Saturday): The political showdown over the delivery of aid to Venezuela turned deadly Friday when security forces fired on protesters near the country’s Brazilian border in a confrontation that could signal a violent and destabilizing struggle over who can claim to be the country’s legitimate leader; “The dollar has in recent years amassed greater stature as the favored repository for global savings, the paramount refuge in times of crisis and the key form of exchange for commodities like oil,” despite $22T in public debt in the U.S.; Donald Trump will nominate Kelly Knight Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, to succeed Nikki R. Haley as ambassador to the United Nations, days after his first choice for the position withdrew from consideration; House speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled a vote for Tuesday on legislation to block Trump’s emergency declaration to get border wall funding, a bid to force congressional Republicans to choose between their president and the prerogatives of their branch of government; The U.S. and China are moving closer toward a trade agreement, with Trump suggesting that the fate of Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant facing criminal charges along with its chief financial officer, could be resolved as part of a final trade deal with Beijing; (Sunday): Front page story reports on a “an elaborate real estate scheme to make millions” by unlawfully renting 130 Manhattan apartments to almost 76,000 guests through Airbnb, circumventing city regulations intended to keep blocks of apartments from becoming makeshift hotels; An ambitious plan by Venezuela’s opposition to peacefully import foreign aid in truck convoys degenerated into deadly skirmishes Saturday, with a smattering of supplies getting past the border but most of it blocked by armed loyalists of President Nicolás Maduro; China’s entrepreneurs are are concerned about the future—behind the scenes, businesspeople worry Beijing is more interested in solidifying its control over people’s lives than in promoting economic growth; Doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for all before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item, based on their belief the Affordable Care Act is working reasonably well and should be improved, not scuttled; +/- PCG: Restructuring the troubled California utility will affect 40 percent of the state’s residents, and will test whether governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders can push to create a company free from what critics say has been a culture of cronyism with regulators; Sunday Business: Fashion brands such as Denmark’s Carcel use prison labor to provide inmates with jobs and training, but the process raises questions about whether it’s ethical to build a profitable business behind bars.
* WSJ (Weekend): Citing progress in U.S.-China trade talks, Donald Trump said he will consider extending a deadline to raise tariffs, and hopes to meet next month with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to complete a broad trade agreement; +/- FB: Millions of smartphone users share data, including personal health information, with apps, but few are aware that in many cases that data is being passed on to Facebook without their permission or knowledge; Brazilian investment firm 3G hit the scene a decade ago with a string of acquisitions, and then cut costs using a hard-nosed budgeting tactic to create efficient production machines, but after shaking up the American consumer landscape, its strategy appears to be running out of juice; Health clinics that provide on-site abortions, or refer women for the procedure, are set to lose millions of dollars in federal family-planning funds, according to a new Trump administration rule; California Republicans convening for their spring convention this weekend will have to decide whether the path to a comeback lies in minimizing their relationship with Trump, or strengthening it; Eight states led by Democratic governors launched a campaign to pressure the Trump administration to reconsider a measure in the 2017 tax overhaul that high-tax states say has led to a sharp revenue decline; Republican lawmakers in Virginia said they planned to invite lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax and two women who have accused him of sexual assault to testify before a legislative committee, a move that drew criticism from Fairfax and other Democrats; Saudi Arabia signed a wide-ranging set of agreements on energy and trade with China, as crown prince Mohammed bin Salman accelerated efforts to court an economic power that offers a potential counterweight to the U.S., which has become increasingly critical of Riyadh; U.S. stocks have bypassed a nine-consecutive-week winning streak, and are on track for their biggest early-year advance in three decades, a major turnaround that has given investors renewed faith in the nearly 10-year bull market; + TSLA: Automaker rushed a batch of Model 3 vehicles across the Pacific to beat a looming tariff deadline in China, were Tesla hopes the car can deliver the same kind of boost as it did in the U.S.; +/- TWTR: Co-founder and former chief executive Evan Williams is stepping down from the company’s board, closing a 13-year run that started with a simple idea to use up some leftover money; “Volatility measures in markets from stocks to currencies have retreated this year—a sign that investors are shedding caution even as uncertainties linger in the global economy”; H.O.T.S.: It’s becoming clear that KHC’s radical cost-cutting strategy can’t be considered a success, and that food companies must stay ahead of changing consumer tastes; Wayfair is accustomed to spending more money on acquiring customers than it gets back—a habit it should consider breaking; With a market value of nearly $90 billion, BKNG is one of the largest internet companies on the market but is undervalued relative to its peers.
* FT (Weekend): New York Fed president John Williams said the chronically low inflation rates that have plagued developing countries since the financial crisis are creating risks that central bankers must now confront; A study by the UN that amounts to its first assessment of biodiversity warned that a decline in the number and variety of living species poses a “severe threat” to the world’s capacity to produce sufficient food; Big Read piece says HMC’s plan to close a U.K. factory in Swindon “has rocked a sector seen as a British manufacturing story,” and reflects “not just Brexit but a wider set of pressures that are leading carmakers to change gear”; Lex Column: KHC management, long accustomed to a strategy of “slash and burn investing” needs a fresh approach to pull off a recovery; Non-Standard Finance’s performance raises doubts it will be able to deliver should it succeed in a hostile bid for Provident Financial; Newmont shareholders should rightly ask why an underappreciated Goldcorp would deserve even a modest premium in a tie-up while their company received none; Comment: The political deadlock in the U.K. over Brexit may be breaking apart, says Camilla Cavendish, as a recent rebellion among independent politicians in Parliament changes the atmosphere and causes old fault lines to disappear
* NY POST (Saturday): +/- UA: Story reports that MSBNC anchor Stephanie Ruhle was only of several people at the network who had close ties to chief Kevin Plank by serving as his consultants; TSLA chief Elon Musk uses mortgages to keep himself liquid financial, and recently took a $61M on five California homes—some of which he will use to refinance a Bel Air mansion he acquired in 2012; (Sunday): “New York business owners are feeling harassed and baffled by the latest city and state campaigns to tackle workplace sexual harassment—moves that researchers say won’t effectively curb abuse.”