Salient to Investors: The Italian higher-education system lets undergraduates linger on campus for years and retake final exams 6 times, and schools are disconnected from the economy and only recently opened campus career offices. No Italian schools, public or private, are in the top 200 in the Times Higher Education’s
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said China is not the world’s other superpower and we should not treat it as such. Zakaria said China has always played a weak hand brilliantly, and will one day become the largest economy, but by most political, military, strategic and cultural measures it is not a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Eric Viloria at Gain Capital said expectations of QE tapering is positive for the US dollar because it means a slowing in the expansion of the Fed balance sheet. Alan Ruskin at Deutsche Bank said the tapering story is very much in play, and the employment data suggests
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: The Fed will not taper with unemployment rising to 7.6 percent and very dire metrics for the average work week and wages, but a more normal economy requires the Fed to raise interest rates to more normal levels because QE and low interest rates are distorting capital
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hitoshi Asaoka at Mizuho Trust & Banking expects the yen to weaken, saying should the Fed reduce stimulus, US Treasury yields will rise and the currencies of countries easing monetary policy will be sold and those of nations tightening will be bought. Steve Brice at Standard Chartered thinks
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The term “he cha” in Chinese, literally meaning to drink tea, is a euphemism for the informal interrogation of citizens deemed to have stepped out of line. Accounts of such conversations have proliferated online, describing how police use the talks to try to suppress activities that are considered
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Richard Fisher at FRB of Dallas sees the end of a 30-year rally in bonds so the Fed should taper QE with housing in good shape, construction has resumed, and housing prices are appreciating significantly. Fisher said the market has begun to discount that this will not go on forever. Esther
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Max Gottschalk at Gottex Fund Mgmt said: His largest Asia fund’s bets on small Japanese companies have been cut and the fund now allocates 2/3 of its Japan investments with managers that focus on large companies. A big part of the rally in Japanese equities has been in small
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Stockman says: We are in serial bubbles. Greenspan and Bernanke have inflated bubbles for years by keeping interest rates low. A system of bubble finance is geared towards massive borrowing and speculation on leverage, everyone will do it – a gambler’s dream. Financial markets are full
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Megan Greene at Maverick Intelligence writes: Austerity has become a bad word in the euro area and blamed for an ever-worsening recession. Germany’s tough-love approach to repairing the euro area’s finances has fallen out of favor but has merit in the case of Slovenia, which has been masterful
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