Salient to Investors: Calpers is 26 percent short of meeting its long-term commitments. The state and cities contributed $7.8 billion in the last fiscal year, almost 4 times more than a decade earlier. California taxpayers may see their municipal pension contributions rise as much as 50 percent under a plan
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: A confluence of economic forces is likely to continue to produce good times for the biggest American companies — and the stock market — even if growth, as expected, slows in the coming months. Investors are focusing on prospects for healthier growth late in 2013 and into
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: The median economist expects GDP to rise at a 3 percent annualized rate in Q1, fall to a 1.5 percent pace in Q2, and accelerate to a 2.4 percent rate in half2 2013, and 970,000 housing starts in 2013 , the most since 2007. Vincent Reinhart at Morgan
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Economists are projecting consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in 2 years in Q1 and to slow to a 1.8 percent pace in Q2. Ellen Zentner at Nomura Securities Intl said households are making the difficult spending choices – there is no steam going into Q2. Ian Shepherdson at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Piper Jaffray says new research shows: Teens are growing tired of Facebook and YouTube – which could have wide-ranging effects on retail, fashion, gaming, and other youth-oriented industries. The new hot teen channels in social media are Reddit, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine, and 4chan. Abercrombie & Fitch and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The median economist expects 2 percent growth in 2013 down from 2.2 percent in 2012, and unemployment to average 7.7 percent in 2013. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-10/obama-more-optimistic-on-13-u-s-growth-than-private-economists.html Click here to receive free and immediate email alerts of the latest forecasts.
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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