The Economist – The trust machine The technology behind bitcoin could transform how the economy works BITCOIN has a bad reputation. The decentralised digital cryptocurrency, powered by a vast computer network, is notorious for the wild fluctuations in its value, the zeal of its supporters and its degenerate uses, such as extortion, buying drugs and… Continue reading How Blockchain Technology Could Change The Economy
<Click on graphic for larger image> CB Insights – The Increasingly Crowded Unicorn Club In One Infographic Visualizing the rise of today’s unicorn companies since 2011. Things are getting crowded in the once-exclusive unicorn club. There are currently 141 unicorn companies globally. Recently, Mark Suster and the team at Upfront Ventures published their Venture Outlook 2016… Continue reading Unicorns
The Chicago Tribune – Phil Rosenthal: Who’d tell Yellen flat, shrunk and stupid’s no way to keep Fed rates? The scene: A Senate hearing room. The witness: Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve System board of governors. Chairwoman Yellen, thank you for joining us today to explain the Fed’s monetary policy. I’ve been going… Continue reading Yellen’s Animal House
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: Fed Holds Rates Near Zero, but Signals Possible Hike ‘at Its Next Meeting’ Officials remove explicit mention of concern at overseas tumult, but inflation remains a point of worry Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday kept short-term interest rates unchanged near zero, but… Continue reading The FOMC Meeting
Comment After each FOMC meeting, we highlight a St. Louis Fed study on the rising complexity of the FOMC statement. As the charts below show, both the word count and the Flesch-Kincaid level have come down from their peaks of the past couple years (the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measures the number of years of school… Continue reading Understanding Fedspeak
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Economic Growth Cools in Third Quarter U.S. economic growth cooled in the third quarter as firms let inventories dwindle and the pace of spending on the part of consumers, businesses and governments all decelerated. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, advanced… Continue reading Market Capitalization As A Percentage Of GDP
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – What U.S. Growth Looks Like Without the Government Spending Slowdown If the government hadn’t pulled back on spending since 2010, the economy would have grown at near a 3% pace. In that case, economists may have a more rosy assessment of the mostly sluggish expansion. From 2010 through the… Continue reading Government Spending’s Effect On GDP
<Click on chart for larger image> CFA Institute – Hedge Funds and the Active Management Crisis Active management and hedge funds have suffered what amounts to a mini-meltdown in recent years as ambitious client expectations have collided with complex market conditions and slow, tectonic shifts in the finance landscape. James Bianco, CFA, president of Bianco… Continue reading Speaking On Hedge Fund Performance
<Click on chart for larger image> Fortune.com – A strong dollar could derail the Fed’s interest rate plans …But what should the rest of us make of the Fed feeling a-okay about the global economy? Currency markets don’t seem to buy the complacency, as the U.S. dollar index shot up 1.3% in the minutes following… Continue reading The Dollar And The Fed
The Financial Times – Oil majors rush cuts to hit $60 break-even This week’s third-quarter results show the speed at which the industry is reacting to the market collapse. As cash flow dwindles, the oil majors are scrambling to cut costs in order to maintain their dividends. As a result, any new project requiring an… Continue reading Oil’s $60 Breakeven