[NEWS] Five economics links: Brexit, Italy, college admissions, Donbas, China and Japan

• Don Pittis at CBC looks at the well-intentioned but potentially harmful black humour in the UK over Brexit and the economy.
• Italy signing up to the Belt and Road program of China is a major moment in world economic history. Global News reports.
• Seeing the United States’ college admissions scandal in the context of post-Soviet-style oligarchy is an unsettling but necessary lens. Bloomberg has it.
• Open Democracy notes that the economic collapse linked to the war in the Donbas will soon be accompanied by an environmental catastrophe, here.
• The SCMP notes that China, on the verge of a trade war with the Untied States, is seeking to learn from Japan what not to do, so as to avoid any equivalent to the lost decades suffered by China’s East Asian neighbour.