The Monday Read

Recovery Edition

Well, shingles is no fun. Got the all clear from my doctor on Friday but still feeling very much drained. Went to my jiu-jitsu tournament on Sunday and competed in my own weight class but withdrew from the open class. Disappointing but didn’t want to risk it.

That was also the reason we didn’t have a blog post last week!

The Tsukuba seminar is looking good. We still have some places left if anyone is in the area and wants to attend. Please do mention it to friends -should be a good chance to get started thinking about personal finance 🙂

This week’s links

1. This is hilarious. The government is completely failing to recruit the pitiful number of foreign workers it plans to import, and yet also wants to crack down on immigration: Japan’s new Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai pledges reform with a focus on immigration
2. Good news, but I think it would be better to raise wages for staff and address the shortage of places rather than make it free and put more pressure on: Japan’s preschool and childcare become free
3. I think they probably are, although inheritance taxes with no loopholes might work better: Are wealth taxes a good idea?
4. It would have been nice to exempt necessities (food, children’s clothes, etc) from consumption tax: Tax hike adds to woes for low-income households in Japan
5. This reminds’s me of Harry Browne’s How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: Shun nuisance ‘obligations’ and do what you want to do
6. Ouch: Where to find the hours to make it happen
7. Interesting to think of potential knock-on effects: 73 Mind-Blowing Implications of Driverless Cars and Trucks
8. Need more good jobs outside of major urban centres: Japan’s countryside empties as young women set out for Tokyo
9. I think this might have some upside: Fertility crash: Japan’s births headed below 900,000 this year
10. Pretty shocking. Hope this gets more attention: Bread & Roses: Is Your Attending Physician Working for Free?
11. I think so, or just increase taxes on fossil fuels by 10% a year, forever: ‘A deadly problem’: should we ban SUVs from our cities?

This week’s discussions:

• Reddit monthly finance thread

This week’s books:

• Father Brown the Complete Collection, by G.K.Chesterton. I am really enjoying rereading this.
• A Little Hatred, by Joe Abercrombie. His new novel. Big fan of his horribly violent fantasy writing. This one has the daughter of Glokta!
• Marvel 1602, by Neil Gaiman. This was on sale, and I really liked the way Gaiman puts the Marvel characters into the time of Elizabeth I.
• Stillness is the Key, by Ryan Holiday. Really enjoy his writing, looking forward to this one.
• The Institute, by Stephen King. This was good. I have grandchildren, so found it really hard going in a way that I wouldn’t have before. It’s hard to read and not take it as political commentary.