Salient to Investors: Japan’s QE move will further devalue the yen in the long-term, and invite competitive devaluations. Experts are disappointed that Japan’s QE will not begin until 2014. Gustavo Reis at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the BoJ’s plan sounds more aggressive than it actually will be because many
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William Cohan writes: Robert Rubin’s fingerprints on Jacob Lew is a grave concern. Rubin was one of the leading purveyors of irresponsible behavior that led to the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. Robert Strauss taught Rubin two important principles about politics – money is the mother’s milk and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gold looks poor technically but its fundamentals of robust investment and central bank demand remain intact. Gold will be supported by the US political standoff about the debt ceiling and expectations of continual quantitative easing. A lack of trust regarding central bank gold reserves could lead to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Economics Fanatic writes: The top 100 banks in the U.S. had an 88% market share in Q3 2012 versus 84% in 2010 – if this trend continues, the next banking crisis will be bigger than the 2008-09 crisis. Excessive risk taking is predominant in these institutions. Regulators
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Enthusiasm for speculative-grade bonds is at unprecedented levels – a Credit Suisse index is at a record-low 5.9 percent. Kansas City Fed President Esther George said prices of assets such as bonds, agricultural land, and high-yield and leveraged loans are at historically high levels. Drew Matus at UBS Securities said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: North American energy companies are investing more in railroad terminals than the railroads themselves because swelling output has overwhelmed pipelines. Domestic crude at least 20 percent cheaper than imports. Rail is more expensive than pipelines but reaches into metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and Philadelphia, where new pipes are
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Citigroup said small companies will be a missing element of the current US expansion as their role in driving growth continues to wane. After peaking at 55 percent in 1987, firms with under 500 employees accounted for less than 50 percent of the total workforce for the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Australian study finds China’s one-child policy has produced adults that with personality traits unsuited for starting businesses or managing companies. Those born after the 1979 one-child policy were more pessimistic, nervous, less conscientious, less competitive, more risk averse, and 23 percent less prone to choose an occupation with
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dr. Aaron Carroll at Indiana University School of Medicine writes: The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council study shows Americans have shorter lives and poorer health, despite spending more on health care than any of the 16 other rich countries in the study. Americans eat too
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Geithner’s replacement by Lew will end a period of unusually strong ties between the Treasury and the Fed. Mark Calabria at the Cato Institute said Lew won’t be as defensive of the Fed as Geithner would be. Brandon Barford at ACG Analytics said with Geithner’s departure, Tarullo is
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