MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – The Low Unemployment Rate Is a Warning, Not All-Clear, Sign The 4.4% rate looks a lot like a cycle low for unemployment, noted Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg. If 4.4% isn’t the cycle low for unemployment, it’s extremely close to it, and there is one thing that uniformly follows the cycle… Continue reading Concern Over Low Unemployment Rate
OPEN Net Positions – Understanding Our Interactive CoT Report Welcome to our new product, Net Positions. It is a short webcast explaining some of our recurring themes and ideas. We hope to make this a regular product available to those who subscribe to our conference calls. In our latest webcast, Jim Bianco offers a… Continue reading Understanding Our Interactive CoT Report
Bloomberg – U.S. Job Gains Rebound; Unemployment Falls to Pre-Crisis Low U.S. payroll gains rebounded in April by more than forecast and the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 4.4 percent, signaling that the labor market remains healthy and should support continued increases in consumer spending. The 211,000 increase followed a 79,000 advance in March that was… Continue reading Employment In Pictures
Wall Street Journal – Retail Sector Adds Jobs The beleaguered U.S. retail industry added 6,300 job in April after seeing two months in a row of large declines, according to the Labor Department. Retail lost 29,700 jobs in March and 31,000 in February. The rise of e-commerce and its impact on the businesses of traditional retailers… Continue reading Retail Jobs Stabilize, Retail REITs Still Suffering
Financial Times – Martin Wolf: Asia’s dynamism at risk in US and China’s competing visions for global trade The world economy is not yet deglobalising. But it is no longer globalising. While protectionism has risen, it does not appear to explain the slowing growth of world trade. The absence of liberalisation seems more important,… Continue reading Shifts in Policy Influence as Globalization Stalls
The Economist – Le Pen has not lost yet. French voters should unite against her Emmanuel Macron will probably win. But a catastrophic upset is possible PUNDITS are already looking beyond the French presidential run-off that will take place on May 7th. Emmanuel Macron, the young liberal favourite, is 20 points ahead in the polls.… Continue reading The French Vote Sunday – A Familiar Pattern?
MarketWatch – Red flag: U.S. productivity slumps in first quarter The productivity of American firms and their employees fell in the first quarter at the fastest rate in a year, reflecting a cutback in the amount of goods and services made available to customers. U.S. productivity — the key to a higher standard of… Continue reading A Long-Term View Of Productivity
Bloomberg View – Noah Smith: There’s a Lot to Like About Cutting Corporate Taxes But perhaps the clearest reason to cut corporate taxes is the waste they generate through avoidance. A key, often overlooked fact about the U.S. corporate tax is that many businesses manage to pay little or nothing. One of the most common ways… Continue reading Cutting The Corporate Tax Rate
Bloomberg View – Eric Balchunas: ETFs Become the Investing World’s No. 1 Scapegoat Despite saving investors about $20 billion a year in costs and taxes on capital gains distributions, exchange-traded funds are being blamed for most everything these days — even things that haven’t happened yet. In the past six weeks alone, ETFs were accused… Continue reading ETFs Get All The Blame
Bloomberg View – Ben Carlson: Shareholder Yields Are Higher Than You Think Earnings growth and the change in price/earnings ratio are tough to pin down because one depends on how profitable corporations are in the future while the other boils down to how much investors are willing to pay for stocks at any given… Continue reading Stock Market Valuation
The Financial Times – ‘50 Cent’ trading mystery focuses on $20bn London fund Wall Street bankers say Ruffer is investor buying insurance against market meltdown For several months, the identity of a mystery buyer of millions of dollars of insurance against financial meltdown has consumed Wall Street traders. The investor, who has been regularly sweeping… Continue reading Betting On A Vol Spike – Get Rich or Die Tryin