The Financial Times – Remember the debt passive funds owe active managers Active managers are struggling but passive investment boom needs them In the current low-return environment savers can be forgiven for asking, why should an ever-larger fraction of their meagre gains be paid to active asset managers? After all, the alternative — passive investing… Continue reading Why Passive Funds Owe A Debt To Active Managers
<Click on chart for larger image> AQA – Ben Breitholtz: Further Improvements in Small Business Hiring Needed to Support 3+% Wage Growth The NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index continues to tepidly rebound ticking higher for July to 94.6. More importantly, hiring and compensation plans are moving higher.
The Financial Times – Renminbi shock a distant memory for currency markets Old maxim ‘don’t fight the Fed’ joined by ‘don’t push the PBoC’ This time last year, the biggest early-day news about the renminbi appeared to be an announcement of a new, improved Rmb100 note to fight counterfeiting. It was until China’s central bank… Continue reading The Chinese Renminbi
Comment On August 11, 2016 at 9 AM CT (10 AM ET, 7 AM PT and 15:00 BST) Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. Join us Thursday as we discuss helicopter money. How does it work and why could it be critical for… Continue reading Helicopter Money and Interest Rates
<Click on chart for larger image> Central Banking (WSJ Blog) – Hilsenrath’s Take: Dollar Gives Fed Some Room to Breathe Easier Fed officials are watching the dollar carefully right now, as evidenced by a speech delivered in Indonesia last week by New York Fed President William Dudley. A close adviser to Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, he said… Continue reading Will The Fed Hike?
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch – Treasury bond yields tugged by contrasting interest-rate expectations U.S. Treasury prices were virtually unchanged on Monday, leaving yields pinned near their highest level since just before the late-June U.K. vote to leave the European Union sent global yields plunging. August vacations limited trading volume to start a new… Continue reading Interest Rate Expectations
Brookings.edu – Ben Bernanke: The Fed’s shifting perspective on the economy and its implications for monetary policy The bottom line is that, broadly speaking, FOMC participants’ views of how the economy is likely to evolve have not changed much: They still see monetary policy as stimulative (the current policy rate is below r*), which should… Continue reading Bernanke Speaks About The Fed
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Stocks a Screaming Buy in Fed Model That May Never Prove Right It’s getting harder for bulls to justify the lofty valuations in U.S. stocks, and one of the last arguments left, that equities are actually cheap when compared against bonds, is increasingly being called into question.… Continue reading The Fed Model Does Not Work!
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Analysts Extend Profit Slump Another Quarter as S&P 500 Meanders Third-quarter to extend earnings contraction to sixth period The profit recovery has been pushed back. Again. Even as the S&P 500 Index sits near a record, analyst forecasts just turned negative for a sixth straight quarter for… Continue reading Q3 Earnings Expectations Turn Negative
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg View – The Yield Curve Isn’t Infallible In recent months, the yield curve has started to flatten, prompting some of Wall Street’s seers to declare that a recession is in the offing while others say this is just a blip. What is this much-watched method of economic divination… Continue reading Questioning The Yield Curve
Bloomberg Business – The Feds Don’t Care If You Dropped Out of College. They Want Their Money Back Half of recent dropouts are delinquent on their student debt. When it comes to collecting on student loans, the U.S. Department of Education treats college dropouts the same as Ivy League graduates: They just want the money… Continue reading Delinquent Student Loans