The New York Post – Labor Dept. acts to hide older data in job surveys The Labor Department has made it more difficult for the Census Bureau to screw around with the nation’s unemployment report. More difficult — but not impossible. In case you are just joining this ongoing drama, the Labor Department pays Census… Continue reading How The Labor Department Hides Data
Zero Hedge – CNBC Viewership Drops To Lowest Since 1997, Cramer Has Worst Month Ever While those in the financial industry who are forced to make profits by trading other people’s money (note: never their own) enjoy CNBC for the comedic content and the endless barrage of humorous propaganda (while getting their actionable info from… Continue reading CNBC Viewership Continues To Fall
The Financial Times – Bank of England: Crashing the party The central bank has new tools to stop bubbles. Now they face their first test Officials in the Federal Reserve and elsewhere are working on additional regulatory levers that could help trim risks in financial markets – by controlling margin requirements on transactions or introducing… Continue reading How The BofE Plans To Stop Bubbles
Bloomberg.com – Abe Declares Deflation End as Growth Plan Confronts Skeptics “Through bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy and the growth strategy we have reached a stage where there is no deflation,” Abe, 59, said in an interview yesterday at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo. With the first sales tax rise since 1997… Continue reading Japan
None Today
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Bond Market Has $900 Billion Mom-and-Pop Problem When Rates Rise It’s never been easier for individuals to enter some of the most esoteric debt markets. Wall Street’s biggest firms are worried that it’ll be just as simple for them to leave. Investors have piled more than $900… Continue reading Another Day, Another Story Saying Bonds Will Crash And Everyone Will Lose Despite 99% Already Being Short
The Wall Street Journal – Big Investors Missed Stock Rally Pension Funds, University Endowments Diversified Into Other Investments With Disappointing Performances Corporate pension funds and university endowments in the U.S. have missed out on much of the rally for stocks since 2009, following a push to diversify into other investments that have had disappointing performances.… Continue reading Underperforming The Rally, Why Is Anyone Surprised?
Money Beat (WSJ Blog) – World Cup Surprises Trip Up Goldman Sachs The most unpredictable soccer World Cup in a while has confounded Goldman Sachs‘ statistical model. Ahead of this year’s tournament, some of the bank’s economists had analyzed reams of data to predict the outcome of every game. The results have been less than… Continue reading Models Don’t Work!
Bloomberg.com – Housing Market Falters Amid Rising Prices, Lower-Paying Jobs The two-year-old U.S. housing recovery is faltering. The Mortgage Bankers Association yesterday lowered its forecast for combined new and existing home sales in 2014 to 5.28 million — a decline of 4.1 percent that would be the first annual drop in four years. The group… Continue reading Housing Struggles Down Market
The Financial Times – John Plender: Don’t bank on a comfortable interest rate ride Conventional wisdom has it natural interest rates have fallen With debt in the developed world standing at higher levels than before the financial crisis, one of the more disturbing threats to financial stability is an unexpectedly sharp rise in global interest… Continue reading The Exit Strategy Will Be Bumpy
Money Beat (WSJ Blog) – Why the ECB’s Liquidity Plan Might Struggle to Do Its Job Earlier this month, the European Central Bank launched a liquidity program designed to nudge the region’s banks into providing credit to households and firms. The ECB’s idea was to provide cheap funding to the banks, but at the same… Continue reading Will The ECB’s Plan Work?
The New York Times – Steven Rattner: Fear Not the Coming of the Robots To be sure, technology has changed the nature of work — more specialized training is now required for many jobs — and consequently, it has contributed to the sharp rise in income inequality. But technology is not the prime culprit behind… Continue reading Will Robots Put Everyone Out Of Work?