The Wall Street Journal – Greg Ip: Workers: Fear Not the Robot Apocalypse Automation commonly creates more, and better-paying, jobs than it destroys. A case in point: U.S. retailing Retail is easily the largest U.S. industry now facing digital disruption and yet there is strong evidence e-commerce hasn’t reduced overall employment and has likely added to… Continue reading The E-Commerce Job Boom
Project Syndicate – Financial Globalization 2.0 What has emerged in the eurozone and beyond is a potentially more stable financial system, at least where banking is concerned. Banks have been required to rebuild their capital, and new rules on liquidity have reduced leverage and vulnerability. Stress testing and resolution preparedness – the sector’s so-called living wills… Continue reading The Reshaping Of The Global Financial System
CNBC – The orange juice market is going crazy ahead of Hurricane Irma Frozen concentrated orange juice futures, the contract made famous in the 1983 Eddie Murphy movie “Trading Places,” spiked higher on Tuesday as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida. The Category 5 storm has already set records, with the National Hurricane Center on Tuesday setting… Continue reading Orange Juice Bounces Off Its Recent Lows On Irma Concerns
Bloomberg View – Presidential Powers Pose a Problem for Markets Examples of deregulation under a Trump administration are legion and growing. Through the middle of the year, the federal government made 1,731 preliminary, proposed or final rules, down 40 percent from the 2011 peak under President Barack Obama and a 17-year low. And many actions taken… Continue reading Trump’s Push For Deregulation
Bloomberg View – Public Quant Funds Aren’t Always What They Seem Quantitative equity strategies are a fast-growing retail product. There is more than $150 billion in quant equity public mutual funds, and such ETFs are on track to top $1 trillion this year. Unfortunately, there’s little agreement on what these funds are. The two most common… Continue reading Quant Funds
Bloomberg View – To Raise Wages, Make Employers Compete for U.S. Workers One of the more confounding aspects of the U.S. labor market is why, even with unemployment hovering at around 4% a year, wages and salaries remain flat. Economists offer a range of explanations for wage stagnation, from the decline of organized labor to the automation of jobs once held… Continue reading Wage Growth And Immigration Laws
Tim Duy’s Fed Watch – Mediocre To Solid Data Flow, But Weak Inflation Still Key So where does this leave us? The Fed continues to be caught between the push of the generally positive momentum of the US economy and the pull of the surprise weakness on the wage/inflation front. Luckily for them, they don’t need… Continue reading U.S. Treasury Yield Curve at a Fork in the Road
Bloomberg – Gasoline Falls to 1-Week Low as Some U.S. Refiners Plan Restarts Texas processing plants seek to resume operations after floods Futures for October delivery lost 3.3 percent in New York after their biggest monthly gain since March of last year. While about one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity was halted, according to data compiled by… Continue reading Refineries Recovering But Pipeline Disruptions Linger
Barrons – Ready? September Could Torpedo Stocks The old adage suggested, “to sell in May and go away, and come back on St. Leger’s Day.” The latter referred to the St. Leger Stakes, an English horse race held in mid-September. It seems the aristocratic types depicted in Downton Abbey would take off the entire summer.… Continue reading Your Annual Note Of Caution On Buying Stocks In September
Bloomberg – Bitcoin Halts Decline After Plunging on China’s Coin Offerings Ban Decline follows 11% tumble Monday after China banned ICOs Bitcoin steadied after its biggest drop since June as investors and speculators reappraised the outlook for initial coin offerings. The cryptocurrency pared a decline of as much as 6 percent on Tuesday and was at $4,390… Continue reading Another Bureaucratic Blow to Bitcoin in China
Bloomberg Business – Lisa Abramowicz: Wall Street Can’t Shake Its Bond Blahs This was supposed to be the year that Wall Street regained its bond-trading mojo. And that did seem plausible during the initial weeks of the year — but as the year dragged on and August crawled to an end, it’s become abundantly clear that things… Continue reading Bond Trading Volume Falling But Not ETF Trading