Category Archive: 5) Global Macro

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Can We Finally Have an Honest Discussion about the Opioid Crisis?

2018-01-26

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2018-01-26

A Lethal Record, 1999 - 2016
The economy no longer generates secure, purposeful jobs for the working class, and so millions of people live in a state of insecure despair. The opioid epidemic is generating a lot of media coverage and hand-wringing, but few if any solutions, and this is predictable: if you don't face up to the causes, then you can't solve the problem.

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Bassem Youssef: Why we should laugh at leaders | The Economist

2018-01-25

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Bassem Youssef has been called “the Jon Stewart of the Middle East”. On the seventh anniversary of Egypt’s Arab Spring he talks to The Economist’s award-winning cartoonist, KAL, about political satire and what it means for democracy. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: http://econ.st/2GgGB8d Dr Bassem Yousef is a television comedian. He …

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The Dismal Boom

2018-01-25

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2018-01-25

Friedman's Plucking Model of Trend-Cycle
There is a fundamental assumption behind any purchasing manager index, or PMI. These are often but not always normalized to the number 50. That’s done simply for comparison purposes and the ease of understanding in the general public. That level at least in the literature and in theory is supposed to easily and clearly define the difference between growth and contraction.

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Central Bank Transparency, Or Doing Deliberate Dollar Deals With The Devil

2018-01-25

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2018-01-25

Hong Kong HKD, Jul 2012 - Jan 2018
The advent of open and transparent central banks is a relatively new one. For most of their history, these quasi-government institutions operated in secret and they liked it that way. As late as October 1993, for example, Alan Greenspan was testifying before Congress intentionally trying to cloud the issue as to whether verbatim transcripts of FOMC meetings actually existed.

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Charles Hugh Smith // What’s Your Job Worth / work, money and automation

2018-01-24

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Money & Work Unchainedm started when Charles asked himself: When we dream of the future of our society, are we hoping for the right things? The current conventional-wisdom. Money & Work Unchainedm started when Charles asked himself: When we dream of the future of our society, are we hoping for the right things? The current …

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Obesity: not just a rich-world problem | The Economist

2018-01-24

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Obesity is a global problem, but more people are getting fatter in developing countries than anywhere else. If current trends continue, obese children will soon outnumber those who are undernourished. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: http://econ.st/2rAAQPL People are fatter than ever. Obesity has more than doubled since 1980. But the biggest …

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CHARLES HUGH SMITH What we want to do is make society rich

2018-01-24

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CHARLES HUGH SMITH What we want to do is make society rich ———————————- $ Help Finance News reach 1000 subscribers: $ ANDREW HOFFMAN: SUBSCRIBE for Latest on FINANCIAL CR / OIL PRICE / PETROL/ GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE / DOLLAR COLLAPSE / GOLD / SILVER / BITCOIN / ETHERIUM / CRYPTOCURRENCY / LITECOIN /FINANCIAL CRASH /. …

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Central Banks: From Coordination to Competition

2018-01-23

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2018-01-23

ECB, BoJ and BoE Buyings, 2008 - 2017
This is one reason why I anticipate "unexpected" disruptions in the global economy in 2018. The mere mention of "central banks" will likely turn off many readers who understandably have little interest in convoluted policies and arcane mumbo-jumbo, but bear with me for a few paragraphs while I make the case for something to happen in 2018 that will impact us all to some degree.

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RMR: Special Guest – Charles Hugh Smith – Of Two Minds (01/22/2018)

2018-01-22

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“V” and Charles have a great discussion regarding cryptocurrencies, the future of money and the current broken banking model. We are political scientists, editorial engineers, and radio show developers drawn together by a shared vision of bringing Alternative news through digital mediums that evangelize our civil liberties. Please subscribe for the latest shows daily! http://www.roguemoney.net …

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Emerging Markets: Week Ahead Preview

2018-01-22

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2018-01-22

EM FX ended last week on a soft note, but still enjoyed a relatively positive tone for the week as a whole. Best performers last week were MXN, ZAR, and CNY while the worst were ARS, TRY, and CLP. With little on the horizon to give the dollar some traction, we think EM FX will likely continue to firm this week. However, we again urge caution and look for divergences within EM.

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What About 2.62 percent?

2018-01-22

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2018-01-22

US Treasury Curve, Nov 2000 - 2006
There’s nothing especially special about 2.62%. It’s a level pretty much like any other, given significance by only one phrase: the highest since 2014. It sounds impressive, which is the point. But that only lasts until you remember the same thing was said not all that long ago.

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It’s Time to Retire “Capitalism”

2018-01-21

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2018-01-21

The Fruit of Financialization, 1980 - 2014
Our current socio-economic system is nothing but the application of force on the many to enforce the skims, scams and privileges of the self-serving few. I've placed the word capitalism in quotation marks to reflect the reality that this word now covers a wide spectrum of economic activities, very little of which is actually capitalism as classically defined.

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The Blatant Dishonesty of the ‘Boom’

2018-01-20

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2018-01-20

China Fixed Asset Investment, June 2013 - Dec 2017
Why do humans tend to behave in herds? It’s a fundamental question that only recently have researchers been able to better understand. On the one hand, it doesn’t take an advanced degree in some neurological science to see the basis behind it; survival for our ancestors often meant getting along with the crowd. There are times when that very trait applies still.

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U.S. Unemployment: The Dissonance Book

2018-01-20

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2018-01-20

US Federal Reserve, Jan 2010 - 2018
I’ve found the word “dissonance” has become more common in regular usage beyond just my own. Whether that’s a function of my limited observational capacities or something more meaningful than personal bias isn’t at all clear. Still, the word does seem to fit in economic terms more and more as we carry on uncorrected by meaningful context.

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Good or Bad, But Surely Not Transitory

2018-01-19

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2018-01-19

US Consumer Price Index, Dec 1997 - 2017
When Federal Reserve officials first started last year to mention wireless network data plans as a possible explanation for a fifth year of “transitory” factors holding back consumer price inflation, it seemed a bit transparent. One of the reasons for immediately doubting their sincerity was the history of that particular piece of the CPI (or PCE Deflator).

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Is Un-Humming A Word? It Might Need To Become One

2018-01-19

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2018-01-19

U.S. Industrial Production, Jan 1968 - 2018
Industrial Production in the US was up 3.6% year-over-year in December 2017. That’s the best for American industry since November 2014 when annual IP growth was 3.7%. That’s ultimately the problem, though, given all that has happened this year. In other words, despite a clear boost the past few months from storm effects, as well as huge contributions from the mining (crude oil) sector, American production at its best can only manage to reflect...

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Charles Hugh Smith–What’s Your Job Worth? #3845

2018-01-18

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Money & Work Unchainedm started when Charles asked himself: “When we dream of the future of our society, are we hoping for the right things?” The current conventional-wisdom view of our soon-to-be future is rose-tinted: automation will free millions of people from the drudgery of work, then by taxing the robots doing all the work, we can …

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China: FX reserves rise again

2018-01-18

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2018-01-18

According to the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), China’s FX reserves amounted to USD3.14 trillion at end - December 2017, up USD20.7 billion from the previous month. This marks the 11th consecutive monthly increase in Chinese FX reserves since February 2017.

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Nous sommes colonisés par le numérique des multinationales américaines

2018-01-18

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2018-01-18

E-commerce
La révolution numérique est une réalité qui envahit tous les jours plus les sphères publiques et privées…. Qu’en est-il du commerce de détails? Les visuels ci-dessous nous montrent d’abord que certaines habitudes d’achats dans les commerces traditionnels sont maintenues.

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Retail Sales, Consumer Sentiment, And The Aftermath Of Hurricanes

2018-01-17

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2018-01-17

US Retail Sales in Feb 2016
Consumer confidence has been sky-high for some time now, with the major indices tracking various definitions of it at or just near highs not seen since the dot-com era. Economists place a lot of emphasis on confidence in all its forms, including that of consumers, and there is good reason for them to do so; or there was in the past.

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