Salient to Investors: Philip Vermeulen at ECB and Gabriel Zucman at London School of Economics said the wealth of the super-affluent is undercounted because of tax shelters and non-responses to questionnaires. Zucman said the top 0.1% of Americans with at least $20 million in net wealth owned 23.5% of all US
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: A two-decade surge in growth in Africa has raised the prospect of the “African lions” emulating the “Asian tiger” economies in the 21st century. Africa’s has vast untapped resources, a young population and an expanding middle-class. It also has rampant poverty and inequality, a rise in Islamist
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Few businesses are large enough to merit Warren Buffett’s attention. Berkshire Hathaway spent a third of the total from a year earlier on equities in half1 2014, while sales of stock more than doubled. Buffett dislikes paying a dividend and rarely buys back shares. David Rolfe at Wedgewood Partners said Buffett’s list
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies said millennials – born from 1979 to 1996 – began saving for retirement at a median age of 22, versus 27 for Generation X and 35 for baby boomers. 71% of millennials offered 401(k) or similar plans contributed a median 8%
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Nicholas Colas at ConvergEx said participation in SNAP is a distress indicator so its recent decline suggests the recovery is benefiting more Americans. Russell Price at Ameriprise Financial said many low-income households are seeing modest tailwinds as several states have increased minimum wage and the federal level
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Pundits calling for a huge decline in equities are either the absolutely certain types, who have stuck to their prediction for years, and the less media-savvy academics and heads of research at big investment firms who see a decline but after the market goes higher. The last
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Michael Bryan at FRB of Atlanta said restaurant menu prices do not change as often as many other goods and services so increases signal restaurant owners see inflation rising as sticky prices give a much better idea of future inflation. The sticky CPI, which only includes items
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: George Schneider writes: The trend away from diversification of portfolios into just a few stocks plus Americans’ growing insufficiency in math skills are leading Americans towards dependency on government benefits rather than self-reliance in retirement. Two-thirds of 4th and 8th graders failed the thermometer math proficiency test
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: IMF data show: Central banks lowered world gold reserves for a second month by May. Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Serbia, Greece and Ecuador boosted gold reserves in June. Turkey increased its gold holdings in May. Germany lowered its holdings in June. Hedge funds almost doubled their net-long positions
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics said: The 1.3 million private-sector jobs created in half1 2014 paid an average of $867 a week versus $843 per week for the existing 117 million private-sector jobs. Mining, construction and business-services companies – which traditionally pay more than the average – are increasingly
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