Category Archive: 5) Global Macro

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The Education Bubble: Is A Harvard MBA Worth $500,000?

2016-10-04

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2016-10-04

College students are back at their desks this month facing bleak prospects. With tightening job markets leaving kids with no place else to go, universities continue to jack up fees. The upshot is growing signs that America is in the midst of an “education bubble,” just as big as those in stock, bond, and real estate markets. Case in point: four years at Harvard University now costs nearly $250,000 [1]. If you want an MBA, add another $200,000.

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Discover Osaka: sushi, tattoos, and a flourishing nightlife | The Economist

2016-10-04

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Japan’s second city has become the country’s fastest growing tourist hotspot. Famed for its food, Osaka stands apart from other cities in Japan. A sushi chef, a poet and a tattoo artist show us why their city is the top choice for the culturally curious visitor in the latest episode of our Passport travel series. …

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Is The US Dollar Set To Soar?

2016-10-03

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2016-10-03

Hating the U.S. dollar offers the same rewards as hating a dominant sports team: it feels righteous to root for the underdogs, but it's generally unwise to let that enthusiasm become the basis of one's bets. Personally, I favor the emergence of non-state reserve currencies, for example, blockchain crypto-currencies or precious-metal-backed private currencies--currencies which can't be devalued by self-serving central banks or the private elites...

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Fun with Fake Statistics: The 5 percent “Increase” in Median Household Income Is Pure Illusion

2016-10-03

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2016-10-03

Supporters of the status quo nearly wet their pants with joy when the Census Bureau reported that real (adjusted for inflation) median household income rose 5.2% between 2014 and 2015. Too bad it was completely bogus: the supposed increase in everyone's income is pure statistical trickery.

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Emerging Markets: What has Changed

2016-09-30

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2016-09-30

Tensions between India and Pakistan are rising. The Philippine government ordered the suspension of three quarters of the nation’s mines. Czech central bank sounds more confident of the cap exit. Poland’s Finance Minister Szalamacha was sacked. Moody's downgraded Turkey one notch to Ba1 with a stable outlook. The Brazilian central bank's quarterly inflation report set the table for the easing cycle to start.

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Osaka’s Fish Market in VR | The Economist

2016-09-30

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You don’t need to wake up at 4am to visit Osaka’s fish market. Experience it through this 360° video instead, along with a tattoo studio and a sento bathhouse. A virtual tour for the culturally curious. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: http://econ.trib.al/rWl91R7 This 360-degree video experience accompanies the Osaka episode of …

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Oceans VR: Net positive | The Economist

2016-09-30

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Climb aboard the case for limiting fishing on the high seas. In this 360° video, we turn you into a yellowfin tuna to take you inside the argument. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: http://econ.trib.al/rWl91R7 “Oceans VR: Net positive” was produced by The Economist Media Lab with Object Normal, and was featured …

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You Want to Fix the Economy? Then First Fix Healthcare

2016-09-29

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2016-09-29

Business Sector: Real Compensation Per Hour, Average Hourly Earnings of Production and Nonsupercisory Employees
We don't just deserve an affordable, sustainable healthcare system--we're doomed to bankruptcy without one. What is blindingly obvious to employers but apparently invisible to the average zero-business-experience mainstream pundit is this: if you want to fix the economy, you must first fix healthcare.

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Are The ‘Invisible Americans’ the Key Players in This Election?

2016-09-28

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2016-09-28

For the bottom 90% of American households, the "prosperity" of the "recovery" since 2009 is a bright shining lie. The phrase is from a history of the Vietnam War, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. Just as the Vietnam War was built on lies, propaganda, PR and rigged statistics(the infamous body counts--civilians killed as "collateral damage" counted as "enemy combatants"), so too is the "recovery" nothing but a pathetic...

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Trump, Trade and Taxes

2016-09-27

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2016-09-27

Donald Trump has made trade agreements a central issue in this presidential election, declaring trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as unfair and subject to cancellation or renegotiation. Setting aside the issue of whether presidents can cancel trade treaties via executive orders, let's look at the underlying issue: the erosion of manufacturing and entry-level job opportunities that lead to middle-class security...

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Why the Deep State Is Dumping Hillary

2016-09-26

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2016-09-26

The Deep State Network
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Emerging Markets: Week Ahead Preview

2016-09-26

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2016-09-26

EM initially benefitted from the FOMC decision, but softened into the weekend. One culprit was lower oil prices, as reports suggest an output deal is unlikely at the OPEC meeting this week in Algeria. But it wasn’t just EM, as the greenback closed firmer against the majors as well. We still believe that risk and EM should do fine over the next few weeks, as the Fed basically set a two-month window of steady rates.

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Emerging Markets: What has Changed

2016-09-24

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2016-09-24

In the EM local currency bond space, Brazil (10-year yield -36 bp), Turkey (-26 bp), and Hungary (-17 bp) have outperformed this week, while Ukraine (10-year yield +9 bp), Mexico (+2 bp), and China (flat) have underperformed.  

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What If We’re in a Depression But Don’t Know It?

2016-09-23

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2016-09-23

Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate
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RTD Ep:46 “The FED Is Walking A Tightrope” – Charles Hugh Smith

2016-09-23

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Subscribe and share the RTD interviews and news articles… Thanks for watching this interview with author and monetary enthusiast Charles Hugh Smith. Share your thoughts below and give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed this conversation. Interview w/ Charles Hugh Smith on 8/13/15 RTD Ep:20 “Currency Created Out Of Thin Air” – Charles Hugh …

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Why the Coming Wave of Defaults Will Be Devastating

2016-09-22

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2016-09-22

Total Credit ASTDSL + ASTLL
In an economy based on borrowing, i.e. credit a.k.a. debt, loan defaults and deleveraging (reducing leverage and debt loads) matter. Consider this chart of total credit in the U.S. Note that the relatively tiny decline in total credit in 2008 caused by subprime mortgage defaults (a.k.a. deleveraging) very nearly collapsed not just the U.S. financial system but the entire global financial system.

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Julius Baer CEO says Asia revenue may excede Europe’s in 5 years

2016-09-22

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2016-09-22

Julius Baer Group Ltd. said Asia may overtake Europe as its biggest revenue-generating region, as the Swiss wealth manager steps up hiring in Hong Kong and Singapore. “In the next five years, Asia could be the biggest region for us if we grow at double-digit” rates, Chief Executive Officer Boris Collardi said Wednesday in an interview in Singapore. More than half of about 200 new bankers that Julius Baer plans to hire this year will be based in...

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The Three Stages of Empire

2016-09-21

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2016-09-21

US Defense Budget
I consider it self-evident that we are in the third and final stage of self-serving Imperial decay. Though Edward Luttwak's The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century CE to the Third is not specifically on the rise and fall of empires, it does sketch out the three stages of Empire.

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The German village that produces five times more energy than it needs | The Economist

2016-09-21

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Why be just a dairy farmer when you can be an energy farmer too? Thanks to an ambitious adoption of renewable energy techniques, residents of Wildpoldsried in Bavaria no longer need fossil fuels. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: http://econ.trib.al/rWl91R7 The Disrupters is an original series exploring how major industries – from …

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Charles Hugh Smith: Optimizing Bad Policy Guaranteed to Fail

2016-09-20

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Sep 21 – Well-known author and economic commentator, Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com, explains the “optimization problem” facing policymakers and why this inevitably leads to some form of economic self-destruction… http://www.financialsense.com/subscribe

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