Barron’s – The Case for U.S. Treasury Bonds Without signs of inflation pressures, it could be difficult for the 10-year yield to climb much above 2.6%. The bond market is in a rut. Over the past couple of months, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has occasionally reached highs just above 2.5% and lows… Continue reading Views On The Bond Market
Berkshire Hathaway – 2016 Annual Report Berkshire’s gain in net worth during 2016 was $27.5 billion, which increased the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 10.7%. Over the last 52 years (that is, since present management took over), per-share book value has grown from $19 to $172,108, a… Continue reading Buffett Is Optimistic On The U.S. Economy
Bloomberg.com – Vanguard Cuts ETF Fees as Race-to-Zero With BlackRock Heats Up Fees lowered on emerging market and European stock ETFs Move follows expense reductions by BlackRock, State Street The race to cut fees in exchange-traded funds is getting ever more intense. Vanguard Group Inc., the second-largest provider, lowered expense ratios for 68 ETFs and mutual… Continue reading ETFs Continue Cutting Fees
Bloomberg.com – Chinese Shares’ Power Surge Leaves Global Investors Unconvinced Biggest China ETFs seeing outflows despite Hong Kong gains MSCI China Index is off to best start of a year since 2012 The biggest equity rally in Asia this year has yet to captivate global investors. The MSCI China Index, which is dominated by Hong Kong-traded… Continue reading Chinese Stocks Off To Fast Start In 2017
The Wall Street Journal – From Arab Sheiks to Dakota Frackers: The Oil Industry’s Go-To Analyst Energy economist Gary Ross brags ‘I know everybody’ in the business Nobody in the oil industry is better connected than Gary Ross. An energy economist who got his start in New York during a tumultuous period for oil in… Continue reading Gary Ross, Energy Sector Rainmaker
CNBC – The obscure Fed position with outsized power over economic growth At a time when the country is divided regarding just about everything, there is one priority we can all agree upon: the need to grow the economy and encourage the creation of more good-paying jobs. While public attention understandably focuses on the president’s high-profile… Continue reading The Fed’s Vice Chair For Supervision
The Wall Street Journal – Economic Surveys Show Deep Splits in Confidence Along Party Lines There’s more to the U.S. economy than the occupant of the Oval Office, but you might not know that looking at confidence surveys. Since the election of President Donald Trump, consumer confidence and business sentiment surveys have been scrambled like… Continue reading Consumer Confidence Is A Political Beast
The Financial Times – $10,000 for a single phone call with a bank analyst Asset managers and lenders in fierce negotiations over cost of investment research Asset managers and banks are locked in fierce negotiations over how much fund companies should pay for investment research, with some lenders demanding $10,000 for a single phone call… Continue reading Have You Ever Paid $10k To Talk To An Analyst?
The Financial Times – Zimbabwe is staring at currency chaos again A decade on from hyperinflation, signs grow of another economic meltdown Now, Zimbabwe is again staring down the barrel of currency chaos. One set of numbers says it all: at the end of 2016, the country’s commercial banks were holding $1.35bn in treasury bills… Continue reading Zimbabwe: From Hyperinflation To Deflation
Bloomberg – Now Even the Fed’s Worried That Stock Volatility Is Too Low Reduced volatility is “inconsistent” with uncertainty: FOMC Add the Federal Reserve to the list of worriers about investor complacency as stocks set new records almost daily.A few officials at the central bank “expressed concern that the low level of implied volatility in equity… Continue reading Extreme Divergence Between Equity Volatility and Perceived Uncertainty
Quartz – China’s bitcoin traders are finding new ways to trade after an official clampdown China’s central bank has stepped up oversight of bitcoin exchanges this year, leading major trading platforms to impose halts on withdrawals and other checks to appease the regulator. But Chinese traders aren’t playing along—they are apparently flocking to peer-to-peer marketplaces… Continue reading China Struggling to Keep a Lid on Bitcoin