Salient to Investors: Masaru Hamasaki at Toyota Asset Mgmt said: Investors expect further BOJ stimulus but are also losing hope that big enough steps will be taken. Japanese shares are outperforming versus overseas markets because the yen’s strengthening trend has eased. The 2 percent growth of US GDP was certainly good as the headline,
READ MORE... →David Wessel of the Wall Street Journal reported: Last year 63% of the federal budget was spent without a vote of Congress – auto pilot spending for promises made in the past. The federal government spent 9.5% of the federal budget on heathcare in 1960, 25% in 2012, and the CBO predicts 33% in a decade.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Overall debt of the 17 euro countries reached 90% of output, the highest since the euro’s creation in 1999, and 9 are in recession. Ford is closing a major plant in Belgium and two facilities in Britain Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist said: Europe has a very big,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mercenary Trader writes: The routine intervention of the Central Banks, the Greenspan Put transitioning to the Bernanke Put, have underscored the “bad news is good news” phenomenon. Good news is good news because things are getting better. Mediocre news is good news because it means CBs keep rates near
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: Structural headwinds in terms of economic growth, the budget deficit, and the fiscal cliff will dominate the economic debate no matter who wins the election – meaning lower growth due to the excessive debt and leverage built up over 10 or 20 years. Future annual
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: New York City’s economic inequality rivals that of a third-world country – in 2011, the median annual income for the bottom 20% was less than $9,000, the top one percent was $2.2 million. Income inequality is the highest since the Great Depression – the top 1% took 93 percent of the income earned
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Charles Comiskey at Bank of Nova Scotia said the market is finding its bottom and becoming a range trade again – there’s no change in the big picture. Brian Barry at Investec said the economic backdrop is weak and sees no sustainable improvement in economic indicators. Gary Shilling at A. Gary Shilling & Co said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The New York Fed says investors are beginning to price in a higher risk of default on senior bonds issued by large institutions. Since the mid-1990s, banks have grown too big due primarily to non-deposit liabilities, not retail deposits. The five biggest US banks control more than half of all US banking
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The ZEW Center for European Economic Research index of investor and analyst expectations rose to minus 11.5 from minus 18.2 in September. Neil Jones at Mizuho Corporate Bank said the better the chances of a bailout for Spain, the more risk-on that is – the market is not prepared for the upside or
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gary Cohn at Goldman Sachs says: There is a small probability that the euro area will stick together, and it’s more likely that some countries will exit to pursue growth. The ECB program hasn’t addressed the lack of growth – Europe still needs a “Lehman moment”. Southern Europe has no
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