Category Archive: 5) Global Macro

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Darn, This Is Inconvenient: Apple Is Destroying the Planet to Maximize Profits

2019-11-25

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2019-11-25

Stripmining the planet to maximize profits isn't progressive or renewable--it's just exploitive and destructive. How do we describe the finding that the planet's most widely-owned super-corporation is destroying the planet to maximize its smartphone sales and profits? Shall we start with "inconvenient?" Yes, we're talking about Apple, famous for coercing customers to upgrade their Apple phones and other gadgets if not annually then every couple...

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Drivers for the Week Ahead

2019-11-25

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2019-11-25

The dollar was surprisingly resilient last week; we look for further dollar gains ahead. It is a holiday shortened week in the US, but there are still some major data releases. There is a fair amount of eurozone data this week; UK Prime Minister Johnson unveiled his Tory manifesto. Hong Kong held local elections this weekend; tensions between Japan and Korea appear to have eased, but questions remain.

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Seriously, Good Luck Dethroning the (euro)Dollar

2019-11-24

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2019-11-24

US TIC, 1996-2018
Scarcely a week will go by without some grand prediction of the dollar being dethroned. Set aside how if anything is to be deposed it would have to be the eurodollar, these stories typically follow the same formulaic approach: Country X is moving away from dollar reserves, “diversifying” its holdings because of the geopolitics of Y.

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What’s Been Normalized? Nothing Good or Positive

2019-11-23

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2019-11-23

What's been normalized are policies and cultural norms that seek to enrich and protect the few at the expense of the many. When the initially extraordinary fades into the unremarkable background of everyday life, we say it's been normalized. Put another way, we quickly habituate to new conditions, and rationalize our ready acceptance of what was previously unacceptable.

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The Financial System Is Broken (w/ Jeff Snider)

2019-11-22

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Jeff Snider, head of global research at Alhambra Investment Partners, has been covering the repo market breakdown since May 2018. With the recent spike in repo rates, it seems like the rest of the market has finally started to take notice. Snider explains why this problem is not coming up out of the blue and breaks down why he views recent market moves as a sign that the banks are telegraphing their knowledge of major threats to the monetary...

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Could impeachment benefit Donald Trump? | The Economist

2019-11-22

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The impeachment hearings have raised yet more questions about Donald Trump’s conduct in office. The Democrats are hoping impeachment will undermine support for the president, but could it have the opposite effect? Read more here: https://econ.st/2OHB5Ro Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy For more from Economist Films visit: http://films.economist.com/ Check out …

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Dollar and Equities Sink as Trade Pessimism Rises

2019-11-22

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2019-11-22

Pessimism regarding a Phase One trade deal has intensified; further muddying the waters are recent US Congressional actions. FOMC minutes contained no surprises; regional Fed manufacturing surveys for November continue. South Africa is expected to cut rates by 25 bp to 6.25%. Korea reported trade data for the first twenty days of November; Indonesia kept rates steady at 5.0%, as expected.

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EM Sovereign Rating Model For Q4 2019

2019-11-22

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2019-11-22

Emerging Markets Sovereign Ratings Model Q4 2019
We have produced the following Emerging Markets (EM) ratings model to assess relative sovereign risk. An EM country’s score directly reflects its creditworthiness and underlying ability to service its external debt obligations. Each score is determined by a weighted compilation of fifteen economic and political indicators, which include external debt/GDP, short-term debt/reserves, import cover, current account/GDP, GDP growth, and budget balance.

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US-China trade war: live Q&A with The Economist

2019-11-21

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What do you want to know about the US-China trade war? Soumaya Keynes, our trade and globalisation editor and Henry Curr, our economics editor, were live to answer your questions. Here are the questions that you asked Soumaya and Henry: 0:52 – What are the challenges of covering the US-China trade war? 2:10 – Where …

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DM Equity Allocation Model For Q4 2019

2019-11-21

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2019-11-21

Global equity markets continue to power higher US-China trade tensions have eased. MSCI World made a new all-time high today near 2290 and is up 23% YTD. Our 1-rated grouping (outperformers) for Q4 2019 consists of Ireland, Sweden, Israel, Denmark, and Australia. Our 5-rated grouping (underperformers) for Q4 2019 consists of the UK, Hong Kong, Greece, Germany, and Portugal.

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Political and Social Conflict Is Accelerating: Here’s Why

2019-11-20

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2019-11-20

Macro Messages 2019
All the status quo "fixes" only hasten the collapse of the status quo. That economic, social and political conflict is accelerating is self-evident. What's open to debate are the core drivers of conflict / disorder /unraveling. Here's the core self-reinforcing dynamic in my view: 1. The status quo elites can no longer mask soaring costs of essentials nor soaring wealth / income inequality between the top .01% (Oligarchs), the top 9.99% who enrich...

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EM FX Model for Q4 2019

2019-11-20

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2019-11-20

EM FX has rallied sharply in recent weeks, helped by growing optimism that we’ve seen the worst of the US-China trade war. Given our more constructive outlook on EM, we believe MSCI EM FX should eventually test the 1657.50 high from July. We see continued divergences within the asset class. Our 1-rated (strongest fundamentals) grouping for Q4 2019 consists of TWD, THB, PHP, CNY, and KRW.

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Dollar Stabilizes as Markets Await Fresh Drivers

2019-11-19

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2019-11-19

Press reports suggest that the mood in Beijing is pessimistic after President Trump pushed back against tariff rollbacks. Fed Chair Powell met with President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin yesterday. Hungary is expected to keep rates steady; the deadline to form a government in Israel is fast approaching. RBA released dovish minutes from its November policy meeting.

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If Not-QE Is QE, then is Not-a-Blowoff-Top a Blowoff Top?

2019-11-19

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2019-11-19

Fed balance sheet 2018-2019
Can $300 billion, or $600 billion, or even $1 trillion continue to prop up an increasingly risk-riddled, fragile $330 trillion global bubble in overvalued assets? When is "Not-QE" QE? When Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell declares QE is not QE. We can constructively recall the story that Abraham Lincoln famously recounted in 1862: 'If I should call a sheep's tail a leg, how many legs would it have?'

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All-Stars #78 Jeff Snider : Market complacency is misplaced!

2019-11-18

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Please visit our website www.macrovoices.com to register your free account to gain access to supporting materials.

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How modern families increase social inequality | The Economist

2019-11-18

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Modern families with two working adults are richer than those with a single breadwinner, and can afford to take a different approach to parenting. This is exacerbating inequality between rich and poor families. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy The family has always been a central building block of society. But …

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EM Preview for the Week Ahead

2019-11-18

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2019-11-18

EM FX was mostly weaker last week due to doubts about a Phase One trade deal between the US and China. Those talks continue this week and while we expect a deal to be struck, there is likely to be a lot of last minute posturing that will likely keep markets volatile over the short-run. In the meantime, investors need to beware of idiosyncratic country risk within EM.

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QE’s and Rate Cuts: Two Very Different Sets of Sentiment Drawn From Them

2019-11-17

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2019-11-17

IFO World Economic Climate Index, 2007-2019
The stock market’s dichotomy grows ever wider. On the one side, record high prices which are being set by the expectations of a trade deal plus renewed worldwide “stimulus.” Sure, officials everywhere were late to see the downturn coming, but they’ve since woken up and went to work.

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Emerging Market Risk Map

2019-11-15

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2019-11-15

BBH Risk MingMap
With year-end upon us, we review some of the key risks to EM assets and how we think they progress from here. In short, the two most significant downside risks would be a decisive improvement in Elizabeth Warren’s polling figures and an upset in the US-China trade negotiations.

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America v China: why the trade war won’t end soon | The Economist

2019-11-14

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America and China are edging closer to signing a deal in the trade war. But that won’t mark the end—the issues at the heart of the conflict will be very difficult to resolve. Read more here: https://econ.st/2qQItl6 Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy The world’s leading superpowers are locking horns. Over …

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