Bloomberg View – Noah Smith: The Robot Revolution Is Coming. Just Be Patient. Of course, machine learning is an outgrowth of those earlier technological revolutions, so it’s possible to see the current productivity slowdown as just a pause. But it’s equally possible that the Industrial Revolution was simply a very unusual time, and that technology… Continue reading Robots Are Coming
The New York Times – Tesla Unveils an Electric Rival to Semi Trucks In an elaborately produced nighttime presentation by its chief executive, Elon Musk, Tesla on Thursday unveiled a prototype for a battery-powered, nearly self-driving semi truck that the company said would prove more efficient and less costly to operate than the diesel trucks that… Continue reading Tesla To Take On Diesel Semi Trucks
Comment Jim Bianco hosted Bloomberg TV’s Daybreak: Americas yesterday and discussed a variety of topics. The entire hour-long show is here (second half). The segment above is about revenue neutral tax reform. Bloomberg – Markets Love Tax Cut Hype, Not the Reality Looking at the S&P 500’s performance during the year before previous tax cuts,… Continue reading Tax Reform: Buy The Rumor, Sell The News
ETF investors are pulling out of utilities ETFs as the sector breaks to new highs.
OPEN Can Central Banks Talk Too Much Webcast In the webcast above, Peter Forbes discusses his recent post titled Can Central Banks Talk Too Much?
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – S&P 500 Breaks Longest Stretch of Calm in Half a Century The stock market just ended a stretch of calm that by one measure was last seen more than 50 years ago. The benchmark S&P 500 sank 0.6% on Wednesday, ending a streak of 50 consecutive days without a daily decline… Continue reading S&P Streaks
Bloomberg – Fed on Collision Course With Bond Markets in Curve Conundrum Though a flattening yield curve is seemingly a replay of previous rate-hike regimes — including the one overseen by Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, which culminated in the financial crisis — Bank of America sees extra cause for concern. A Fed that’s intent on… Continue reading Interpreting The Yield Curve
The Financial Times – Diane Coyle: The measurement that holds economic statistics back from reality Economists and statisticians are beginning to accept that our framework for economic statistics needs to change. Some argue for developing better “satellite” accounts, where all the interesting data about the environment or the household are collated. But why should all… Continue reading GDP’s Measurement Problem
Bloomberg – Fed Insiders Push for Radical Policy Review as Powell Era Dawns With Jerome Powell nominated to take over as Fed chairman in February, influential officials including San Francisco Fed chief John Williams and the Chicago Fed’s Charles Evans have taken the lead in calling for reconsidering policy maker’s 2 percent inflation target. “It’s… Continue reading Reconsidering The Fed’s Inflation Target
The Wall Street Journal – Treasury’s New Approach to Debt: Go Short The Treasury Department has unveiled a new strategy for managing federal debt that could ease pressures set to push up long-term interest rates and reduce a potential drag on the economy. Under the plan unveiled earlier this month by Treasury, the department would… Continue reading The Treasury’s Average Maturity
The Financial Times – China outbound investment down nearly 41% in 2017 China’s outbound non-financial investment fell 40.9 percent during the ten months through October, according to official figures, reflecting the enduring impact of strict capital controls. Outbound investment for the period totalled $86.3bn, according to the Ministry of Commerce. That put outbound investment for… Continue reading Chinese Capital Flows