Why Trump and Clinton are angry about Oreos
Oreo cookies are in subject of presidential candidates’ furor, as Mondelez International plans to cut 600 jobs in Chicago.
Source: Why Trump and Clinton are angry about Oreos
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Can tiny homes solve homelessness?
Alan Graham has built a 27-acre development of tiny homes and RVs to give Austin’s homeless a place to live. But he says it’s not just about the housing — it’s the sense of community.
Source: Can tiny homes solve homelessness?
Ben Carson Endorses The Donald Press Conference – Live Feed
By Tyler Durden
Opposites attract? Softly-spoken Dr. Ben Carson is reportedly set to endorse The Donald this morning but Trump’s press conference will, we are sure, have more to offer than just that…
As The Hill reports, Trump confirmed the endorsement on Thursday night’s GOP debate, saying Carson “will be very much involved” in advising him on education, calling it Carson’s “expertise.”
The retired neurosurgeon is expected to accompany Trump on the campaign trail as the real estate mogul attempts to cement his lead in Florida ahead of next week’s pivotal primary in the Sunshine State.
Live Feed:
Source: Ben Carson Endorses The Donald Press Conference – Live Feed
The Good, The Bad, And The Petulant Child: Three "Morning After" Reactions To The ECB’s All-In Gamble
By Tyler Durden
As can be seen by the violently volatile markets themselves, over the past 24 hours there has been substantial confusion about the implications of the ECB’s “all in” gamble, with the initial kneejerk euphoria leading to a rapid selloff and surge in the USD, followed by an overnight levitation in all risk assets as virtually the entire ECB move has now been faded on both sides.
Still, much confusion remains as can be seen by the following three reactions by financial pundits, two of whom even work for the same company.
First, here is Bloomberg’s Mark Cudmore with “The Good“:
“The euro is stronger, therefore the European Central Bank’s new policy measures have failed.” That seems to be the dominant sentiment after Thursday’s expansion of stimulus. But far from disappointing, the ECB’s shift to focus on the credit channel over the FX channel is a master-stroke -– if only markets can catch up with them.
It seems to have been forgotten that exchange rates are not the ultimate target of central bank policy -– even by some central banks themselves. A weaker exchange rate is a means to an end, not the end itself. And it’s just one of several tools a central bank has at its disposal, not the only one
Analysts’ misplaced focus on the currency means they’re confusing the bigger picture. They spend weeks criticizing negative rates and then bemoan the fact the ECB says it won’t go even more negative
European banks have been in a bad place the last few months, not least due to struggling with negative rates. As of yesterday and the advent of the ECB’s new four-year T-LTROs (targeted longer-term refinancing operations), banks will now be paid to both borrow and lend. That’s one problem solved. And with a simultaneous boost to lending
After a week many commentators criticizing China for focusing on further credit growth to stimulate the economy, the ECB have followed suit. And whatever else you can say about each country’s monetary policy, they are definitely reflationary. This will be a boost to commodities, and also emerging markets over time
The euro zone has a structural deflation problem, partially caused by labor market reforms in the region, and yesterday’s moves may not solve it. But they are an innovative and ambitious step in the right direction, and they should at least help headline inflation tick higher over time
These policies aren’t even long-term euro-positive –- they’re just smart moves which have caught euro zone bears offside in the short-term
Then, here is Bloomberg’s Richard Breslow with “The Bad“:
If I were ill and there was only one doctor in town, I’d still make an appointment even if my complaint was chest pains and the sign over the door read “fallen arches a specialty.” The ECB is being forced …read more
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Global Markets Surge After Traders "Reassess" ECB Stimulus
By Tyler Durden
Three months ago, on December 4, when the ECB clearly disappointed markets and European stocks tumbled as the Euro soared, it took a speech by Mario Draghi at the Economic Club in NY to send stocks soaring…
… when Draghi explained that the ECB’s announcement was not at all “disappointing”, and subsequently held this exchange with former BOE head Mervyn King who asked “was today’s speech deliberately designed to try offset some of the reaction yesterday?” to which Draghi responded “Not really… well, of course.” As shown in the chart above, stocks promptly soared if only briefly.
Fast forward to the price action over the past 24 hours, when markets again stumbled into a world of mayhem after stocks first soared and the EUR tumbled, only for the move to reverse itself after Draghi hinted that there would be no more rate cuts. The markets clearly ignored the fact that at the same time, Draghi announced a far more important expansion of QE, one including corporate bonds to unclog what had been a largely blocked bond issuance pipeline together with 4 TLTROs which would end up paying banks to lend money.
It took a while, but market participants got it: “Draghi made the mistake of essentially saying that the ECB was done with stimulus, and the market overreacted to this,” said Teis Knuthsen, CIO at Saxo Bank’s private- banking unit. “At the end of the day, the ECB delivered more than expected and is pumping a lot of money into the system. A few years ago this would have marked the start of a significant rally, but now there seems to be a widespread fatigue with monetary policy.”
Maybe, but not today, because the result has been that after “reassessing” – in Bloomberg’s parlance – what the ECB did, following yesterday’s plunge, risk has soared overnight with both Asian and European stocks surging, sparing Draghi the indignity of having to explain why he did what he did, and that it was all to prop stocks higher. Sure enough, as of this moment European bourses are all broadly higher led by banks, with the DAX and FTSE both up over 2.7%, while the Stoxx 600 is higher by 2.3% as of this writing.
Nowhere is the return of euphoria clearer, however, than in bank stocks, which as seen below are soaring.
Still, as Bloomberg notes, despite today’s advances, European equities are heading for their first weekly drop in four, with the Stoxx 600 down 0.6 percent. Commodity producers, automakers and banks – the most battered in the recent selloff – had led a 13 percent rebound from February’s low through a five-week high on March 4. As of yesterday, the index traded at 14.6 times estimated earnings, still far below the 16.7 multiple reached last April.
As Bloomberg adds, “investors have had to deal with increased volatility this year, and Thursday’s market reaction exemplifies a trend that’s been intensifying in …read more
Source: Global Markets Surge After Traders "Reassess" ECB Stimulus
China’s rust belt is feeling the squeeze
As steel and other heavy industries in China prepare for a round of brutal downsizing, cities like Benxi are struggling.
Source: China’s rust belt is feeling the squeeze
Desperate oil companies sell stock to raise cash
U.S. oil and gas companies are on track to sell more stock than ever before. It’s a fresh sign of the financial stress energy companies are under given the crash in oil prices.
Source: Desperate oil companies sell stock to raise cash
Central Bank Economists: Bad Central Bank Policy Is INCREASING Inequality
While the leaders of the Fed and other central banks claim that their extraordinary monetary policies haven't significantly increased inequality, economists with the world's most prestigious financial agency, the Bank of International Settlements – known as “the Central Banks' Central Bank” – just released a report showing otherwise.
BIS notes:
Our simulation suggests that wealth inequality has risen since the Great Financial Crisis. While low interest rates and rising bond prices have had a negligible impact on wealth inequality, rising equity prices have been a key driver of inequality …. Monetary
policy may have added to inequality to the extent that it has boosted equity prices.
***
Inequality is back in the international economic policy debate. Evidence of a growing dispersion of income and wealth within major advanced and emerging market economies (EMEs) has sparked discussions about its economic consequences. Although there is no consensus on the relationship between inequality and growth, there are concerns that rising inequality may become a serious economic headwind. [Right.]
***
Moreover, the faster rise in remuneration at the very top of the income distribution relative to wage growth in the lower percentiles has been linked both to the rapid growth of the financial sector since the 1980s [correct] and to changes in the social norms that contribute to the determination of executive pay (Piketty (2014)).
***
The share of securities holdings, equity in particular, tends to be even higher at the top 5% or 1% of the distribution. [Obviously.]
Conversely, housing accounts for a higher share in the lowest net wealth quintile, for which low net wealth is in many cases a reflection of high levels of mortgage debt. In a number of cases, net wealth is negative, suggesting that liabilities, in the form of mortgage, consumer and other debt, exceed assets.
***
Unconventional monetary policies might have had the most significant effects on the dynamics of wealth inequality through changes in equity returns and house prices. The evidence suggests that unconventional policies had a relatively strong and immediate effect on equity prices (see eg Rogers et al (2014)). As investors reshuffle their portfolios away from assets being purchased by the central bank towards other, potentially riskier, assets, the equity risk premium should decline, boosting equity prices further. And a low interest rate environment is likely to have encouraged a search for yield.
***
Monetary policy may affect household wealth through different channels. Interest rate changes directly affect the valuation of both financial assets (eg equities and bonds) and real estate as well as the cost of leverage. Conventional easing of monetary policy by lowering short-term interest rates tends to boost asset prices. This works through a lowering of the discount rates applied to future income flows from these assets, and possibly by raising profit expectations and/or reducing …read more
Source: Central Bank Economists: Bad Central Bank Policy Is INCREASING Inequality
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Rigged Democracy – Nearly 10% Of Democratic Party Superdelegates Are Lobbyists
By Tyler Durden
You might think the supposedly “liberal” Democratic Party would take this sort of thing to heart, but you’d be wrong. Not only is the super delegate system intentionally undemocratic, but a remarkable 9% of superdelegates are actually lobbyists.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
From ABC News:
Hillary Clinton holds a substantial edge among a particular and little-noticed kind of delegate to the Democratic National Convention: Superdelegates.
On July 25, these superdelegates will cast votes at the Democratic National Convention for whomever they want, regardless of primary and caucus outcomes. Democrats like to describe superdelegates as mostly elected officials and prominent party members, including President Obama and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
But this group, which consists of 21 governors, 40 senators and 193 representatives, only makes up about a third of the superdelegates. Many of the remaining 463 convention delegates are establishment insiders who get their status after years of donations and service to the party. Dozens of the 437 delegates in the DNC member category are registered federal and state lobbyists, according to an ABC News analysis.
In fact, when you remove elected officials from the superdelegate pool, at least one in seven of the rest are former or current lobbyists registered on the federal and state level, according to lobbying disclosure records.
That’s at least 67 lobbyists who will attend the convention as superdelegates. A majority of them have already committed to supporting Hillary Clinton for the nomination.
Of course they have.
Superdelegates are unique to the Democratic nominating process. Of the 4,763 delegates who will attend the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, 717 will be superdelegates — almost a third of the total required to win the nomination.
Meanwhile, former presidential candidate and current Democratic Party superdelegate, Howard Dean, shared his personal thoughts on democracy via Twitter the other day.
@D_Born @BernieSanders Super delegates don't “represent people” I'm not elected by anyone. I'll do what I think is right for the country
— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) March 5, 2016
Any questions?
Source: Rigged Democracy – Nearly 10% Of Democratic Party Superdelegates Are Lobbyists
