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FTMdaily.com — Daily news updates on the U.S. Economy, Finance, and Global Events.
By Jerry Robinson | FTMDaily.com Editor-in-Chief It has been a rough ride in the global economy as of late. If you are an investor, you know that great financial perils exist right now… but so do great opportunities. It is this ability to recognize those opportunities that separate those who are financially successful from those who are not. Most of the financially successful people I know are doing extremely well right now. Many of them have confided in me that the last two or three years have been some of their best years ever.Bruce Krasting
The issue is a scheduled increase in interest on new student loans from 3.4% to 6.4% set for July 1. Clearly this is a dumb plan. I don’t see any political opposition to the idea that the summer of 2012 is a horrible time to double the cost of student loans. It will shock no one that the ‘solutions’ being put forward by the politicos are the same ones they propose for every other problem. The House Republicans have put forward a Bill to extend the 3.4% rate for a year. The cost (increased deficit) of the twelve month extension is $6B.
Until now, the country’s power grid has been divided into three unconnected chunks, making transnational transmission impossible, leading to huge regional mispricing. While California and New York suffered from brown outs and sky high prices, electricity was given away virtually for free in Texas. A group of power companies is now proposing to build the [...]
Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Editor The following 6 headlines, with links, have been personally filtered from over 1,200 articles canvassing economic and resource news to save you time while staying informed on the…
MunKnee.com
International Political Economy Zone
[NOTE: Perhaps it's not obvious for me to begin writing about a territorial dispute by talking about lawyers, but why I'm doing so will be obvious soon enough .] While I suppose a certain number of lawyers are necessary for modern societal functioning--drawing up contracts, settling contractual disputes, finalizing Larry King's divorces and so on--too many lawyers is a dubious situation. Not only do their functions primarily concern wealth redistribution rather than wealth generation, but having too many folks train for these occupations of often dubious worth may result in unemployment of their sort. While the United States remains the world's archetypal lawyer-infested economic laggard, there are others. A case in point is the Philippines.Negativity is everywhere. For the first time that I can remember there is significant talk of Stocks being abandoned as an investment. To a certain point I think this is correct. People have been burned, not once but (at least) twice. The internet bubble was the first then 10 years later the Housing collapse in 2008.
financialhaze
Jim Lacey - professor of strategic studies at the US Marine Corps War College - was recently walking through the Occupy Wall Street camp in New York. He noticed an interesting development in monetary theory. As luck would have it, though, many of them will not have to worry about money for much longer, as several OWS occupiers had the answer to everyone’s financial problems. This innovative group, all sporting $4-bill badges, claimed to have reimagined money. Intrigued, I asked how such a reimagination worked. In short, it seems that people are to create money as they need it for their own happiness and the happiness of others.
Clouded Outlook
My blog post suggesting that small-cap stocks were mostly to be avoided roused the animosity of many readers. The problem was that many of my readers see themselves as value investors. A surprising number run small funds and my post was an attack on their world view. Their logic is that it is impossible for a small fund manager to add value by analysing Hewlett Packard*, Vodafone *, Google* or Total * but by being small and diligent and nimble they can add value by picking small caps. They tell themselves (and possibly their clients) this story every day - it brings meaning to their life.
Bronte Capital
Macro Man
Haven't we had one of these before? FOMC doesn't hint at QE3 so we trash everything as there will be no more free money? But no more free money because free money is not needed is not a reason to sell everything. Bonds - Ok that makes sense, but equities? We are pretty sure that QE3 WOULD be back if needed but if you are beating up the QE trade then you buy usds, sell bonds and sell gold.
It's not clear why this would be the case. After all, productivity is growing at a rate of 2.0-2.5 percent annually. This should mean that we are getting richer, not poorer, through time. But Thomas Friedmanland bears little resemblance to the world of gravity and arithmetic that the rest of us inhabit. It's also not clear how he thinks the future will be different from the past in this respect.
Beat the Press
Yves here. I hope you’ll take the time to read this important post. There has been a great deal of discussion of the many deficiencies of the mortgage settlement, but its biggest has gone pretty much unnoticed.
naked capitalism
Falkenblog
One interesting interpretation of Freud is that he modeled his approach based on his readings of Sherlock Holmes (see Sebastiano Timpanora ). In those books, Holmes would trace the faintest clues and infallibly solve a puzzle that would daunt your average person. Freud then though if he could supply a dynamic explanation for virturally every reported dream or error, the soundness of his method would be demonstrated, so Freud's case studies read a lot like a fun mystery novel. It turned out detective stories are a bad template for creating a new science because it is all post hoc rationalization, and unfalsifiable, basically the signature field Karl Popper used to explain what is not a science. Our narrative brain theorizes and is often wrong, but of course it does the best it can. Interestingly, the left side, the language side, is the theorizer.As it’s the Chinese New Year holiday, I figured a change of pace might be in order. All holidays are a time to reflect and remember, so I thought I’d share some of my memories of my travels in Pakistan in the spring of 1992. Although much time has passed, the places and the people I encountered have become all the more relevant since, due to 9/11 and the war against Al-Qaeda. Many of the places I visited — such as the Swat Valley, and the tribal areas around Peshawar — would now be completely off-limits to an American traveling alone. For those who are awaiting my next installment of data points on the Chinese economy, never fear — I’m still on the case. In the meantime . . .
Patrick Chovanec
Econbrowser
In Tuesday’s WSJ , Edward Lazear argued that we are now experiencing the “Worst Economic Recovery in History” . Before dissecting this remarkable document, it would behoove the reader to recall that while he was Chair of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, he stated unequivocally in May 2008 (also in the pages of the WSJ ): Congratulations to the University of Kentucky for winning the 2012 U.S. college men's basketball championship.Giancarlo Corsetti , 2 April 2012 Is austerity self-defeating? Is it keeping Europeans underemployed for years and destroying the very growth needed to pay off the debt? Or is it steering nations clear of Greek-like tragedies? So starts a new debate on Vox on austerity, introduced in this column.