The Financial Times – Confidence based on shared ‘facts’ can be deceptively durable The price war in US mobile also highlights how US inflation is another area in which confidence is high in a shared set of assumptions: that inflation is going to remain moderate and steady despite the sometimes violent movements in constituents of the… Continue reading U.S. Inflation, Shared “Facts” And Markets
CNBC – Bullard says US inflation is ‘worrisome’ and markets are wrong on Fed rate path Federal Reserve (Fed) policymaker James Bullard has declared that the path of inflation in the U.S. is “worrisome”, speaking in Tokyo on Friday. The U.S. central bank’s plan for raising interest rates in the coming years is also too aggressive,… Continue reading Bullard On U.S. Inflation
Bloomberg View – Mohamed A. El-Erian: Labels Matter: What to Call the Stock Rally “Trump Trade,” “Reflation Trade” or “Liquidity Trade”? Although they are from perfect, labels play an important role in providing shorthand signals for bigger phenomena. This, in turn, influences how people think about the past, present and future, and which actions would be warranted… Continue reading Labels Matter
The Financial Times – A changing oil market threatens Saudi reform When the Saudis increased oil production in 2014, they hoped that tumbling prices would drive US shale producers out of business. The price pressure had almost the opposite effect: some shale drillers went bust, but the survivors became much more efficient. Production costs have fallen,… Continue reading Saudi Arabia And The Changing Oil Market
MarketWatch – When Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg sound the same dire warning about the future of American jobs, it’s time to listen Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates built billion-dollar technology companies in two very different areas, but they both agree on the biggest threats to American jobs. At his Harvard University commencement speech on Thursday,… Continue reading Bill Gates And Mark Zuckerberg Warn Students About Technology Destroying The Job Market
Bloomberg View – Noah Smith: Offset Corporate Tax Cuts With Hikes for Investors There might be another reason to raise the capital gains and dividend taxes: discouraging corporate short-termism. Many industry leaders worry that financial markets focus too much on annual stock performance, forcing public companies to spend too much energy on meeting quarter-to-quarter… Continue reading Corporate Tax Cuts
h/t Barry Rithotlz The Big Picture – Happy Birthday, Dow Industrials Average! Dow Jones Industrial Average is 121 years old today. When it was launched — published is more accurate — its price was $40.94. The holdings in the index were American Cotton Oil, American Sugar, American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding, General… Continue reading Happy Birthday, DJIA!
MarketWatch.com – Wall Street laughed at a call for bitcoin at $25,000—but after a 400% surge, the laughter is fading Bitcoin prices have been on a tear over the past 12 months, but one bullish market watcher says it could hit stratospheric levels in the next 10 or 15 years Yuk it up! But will… Continue reading Cryptocurrency Mania!
The Wall Street Journal – ‘Secular Stagnation’ Even Truer Today, Larry Summers Says Larry Summers is doubling down on his secular-stagnation hypothesis. The Harvard economist and former Treasury secretary first offered the bleak diagnosis in November 2013 at an International Monetary Fund conference. The U.S. and much of the rest of the world, he suggested, was… Continue reading Larry Summers On Secular Stagnation
MarketWatch.com – Rex Nutting: America’s most successful companies are killing the economy The economy is indeed rigged against the majority in favor of a few. It’s not just a few banks that are “too big to fail.” It’s not just a few heavily regulated industries, or the new frontiers of high-tech. Most of the highly successful… Continue reading Why “Winner-Take-All” Companies Drive Down Wages And Destroy The Economy
ETF Trends – Energy and Oil ETFs Waiting on OPEC… Again The Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLE), the largest exchange traded fund dedicated to energy equities, is down nearly 10% year-to-date, underscoring the point that the energy sector is the worst-performing group in the S&P 500 this year. Some of the struggles of oil and… Continue reading Oil and Energy ETF Flows Ahead of OPEC