Salient to Investors: Moody’s Investors Service said the US Aaa credit rating outlook remains stable, short-term outlooks for most indicators are positive, but spending on social programs will put pressure on budget deficits and the rating toward the end of the decade. Steven Hess at Moody’s sees accelerating economic growth as
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dr Afzal Ashraf at RUSI writes: The threat of IS appears greater and the situation more pessimistic than it is. IS is militarily weaker than it appears, and its ideology has received a potentially fatal wound. The US has decapitated almost all of al-Qaeda’s leadership and most
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: US millennial women are holding off on motherhood, which bodes well for their economic and social mobility and that of their future children. Isabel Sawhill at Brookings said lower US birth rates are permanent, even if some of the recession-induced decline reverses. Preventing unexpected births increases a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The shares outstanding in iShares TIPS Bond ETF exceeded those of the FlexShares iBoxx 3-Year Target Duration TIPS Index ETF by the lowest on record, indicating investors are betting the Fed will achieve its price-stability goals. Overall inflows to ETFs tracking US inflation in 2014 are at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Barclays said 47% of China’s wealthy are planning to move abroad within 5 years, versus 23% in Singapore, 16% in Hong Kong, 20% in Britain, 6% in America and 5% in India. 78% named bettering children’s education and their future job prospects as their main reasons, 73% said a better
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: The purpose of ISIS’ execution videos was to provoke the US and it worked. Al Qaeda tries to appeal to all Muslims while ISIS is distinctly sectarian and anti-Shiite and hostile to Kurds, Christians and many others in the Middle East – if they all fight in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: More than half of US adults are single versus 37% in 1976. Singles need bigger emergency funds more insurance protection. Couples who wait to have kids in their 30s end up with three big financial burdens all at once: retirement planning, saving for a house and saving for college.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: BLS said 50.2% of those 16 years or older in the US were single in August, versus 37.4% in 1976. Edward Yardeni at Yardeni Research said: The rise in singles exaggerates income inequality in the US and has implications for our economy, society and politics. Singles, particularly younger
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Most oil drillers are spending money faster than they make it; an average of $1.17 for every dollar earned in the 12 months ended on June 30, 2014. Only 7 US-listed firms in the Bloomberg Intelligence’s E&P index made more money than it cost them to keep
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: Islamic terror is not the isolated behavior of a handful of nihilists but a broader culture that has been complicit in it or at least unwilling to combat it. Zawahiri’s effort to recruit Indian Muslims will fail. The Arab world produces fanaticism and jihad
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