Zeitlinks

Well folks, the summer’s finally over and it’s time to get back to work. Here’s some Zeitgeist-approved reading to ease the pain of la rentrée and help you look smarter than your colleagues.

Nick:
1. Obama's 10 worst ideas: A succinct and fair treatment of Obama's most obvious missteps. It's somewhat scary that the two most important issues of the election - the economy and energy - make up most of his problems. McCain is next week...gas-tax holiday anyone?

2. Arctic Island: Let me guess this straight. The Artic is free of surrounding ice for the first time in 125,000 years and the WSJ is primarily reporting on the "potential boon for...shipping companies"? Does anyone else see a problem with this?

3. The Digital War on Poverty: Sachs outlines the uses, implications, and lessons of mobile phones and the internet in the developing world. Fascinating stuff. Gotta love leapfrog technologies.

Patrick:
1. Renminbi rise ‘less necessary’: With a surging dollar and a declining Chinese trade surplus, does the renminbi need to continue appreciating against the dollar? This article also highlights one of China’s new worries: short-term capital flows (aka ‘hot money’).

2. What must happen to fully rebalance the US current account?: From VoxEU, a great short piece on the continuing global rebalancing of trade flows.

3. The global consensus on trade is unravelling: I meant to share this Larry Summers piece last week. Powerful, troubling stuff and a must-read.