Salient to Investors: The US economy will officially become 3 per cent bigger in July as government statistics take into account 21st century components such as film royalties and spending on R&D. Brent Moulton at the Bureau of Economic Analysis said the update was the biggest since computer software was added in 1999. The changes will
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The IMF said: Budget deficits in advanced economies will narrow at a faster pace in 2013 than in 2012 even as countries including the US and Japan lack clear plans to reduce their debt. Fiscal shortfalls will shrink to 4.7 percent of GDP in advanced nations in 2013, the narrowest
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William D. Cohan writes: Paul Krugman is wrong in denigrating David Stockman’s cogent argument that the Fed is fomenting economic trouble. David Stockman is exactly right when he says the Fed has basically become a bubble machine, and almost all of the new money created, $1.7 trillion,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Edward Glaeser at Harvard says: Exuberant buyers may be more rational than many assume and booms are often consistent with reasonable beliefs about the future — the recent housing boom fits comfortably within America’s speculative past. In 1817, Alabama farmland was $35 per acre (in 2012 dollars) and rose to $134
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Rolf Dobelli writes: News is bad for your health, leads to fear and aggression, and hinders creativity and ability to think deeply. News is to the mind what sugar is to the body. Small bites of trivial matter don’t require thinking which is why we experience almost
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Two-thirds of student loans are held by people under the age of 40, and of those the number who own homes fell by 4.6 percent in Q4 2012, the biggest drop in records back to 1982. Almost a third of borrowers in repayment are 90 days or more
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Paul Krugman writes: One thing about Cassandra is that she was always right. Austerity has been a monstrous exercise in unethical human experimentation. In any kind of communications profession, above all have something to say, don’t try to be clever and counterintuitive as if in the entertainment
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Nathan Sheets at Citigroup said last week’s employment report has put ending QE discussions on hold. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart believes it’s too early for the Fed to consider reducing the pace of QE. Joe Hinrichs at Ford Motor said gains in housing starts are highly correlated
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Obama’s proposal to change the basis for Social Security raises to chained CPI is all about saving money by slowing the growth rate of benefits because chained CPI gives a lower measure of inflation. From December 1999 through February 2013, the price rise in goods and services used
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The vast majority of older Americans face steep and rising health-care costs that threaten to bankrupt them and are doing little to protect themselves. Only 1 in 5 companies with at least 10 employees offers long-term care insurance. Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care. Millions face spending themselves into
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