Salient to Investors: William Pesek writes: Asia sits on almost $7 trillion in currency reserves, much of it in dollars as its central banks engaged in a kind of financial arms race after a 1997 crisis. Asia now has more weapons against market unrest than it knows what to do with
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The maxim “Don’t take a mortgage into retirement with you”’ is no longer true given mortgage rates close to historic lows and lower than on any other loan now or in the future. Better to invest surplus money dollars in a retirement investment account which should return more
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Private-equity managers from Fortress Investment to Blackstone say now is the time to exit investments as stocks rally and interest rates start to rise. Wesley Edens at Fortress said he is preparing holdings for public offerings while struggling to find attractive new deals. Pete Briger at Fortress said the environment extends
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Lawrence Summers’ current and previous work as a paid consultant to financial firms helped make him a wealthy man between the time he left government service in 2001 and when he returned in 2009. When Clinton nominated him to be Treasury Secretary, he listed assets of $900,000 and debts of $500,000, but
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors are cooling on the fledgling US homes-for-rent industry. IPO American Homes 4 Rent was little changed in its first day of trading after raising almost 44 percent less than estimated in its initial prospectus in June and at the low-end of the offering range. The two other REITs that have
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Alan Patricof at Greycroft said: Real unemployment is worse than the data because it does not include the large number of part-time workers. Manufacturing usually employs far more than tech companies, but the tech business is so robust with thousands of start-ups. We are in a transformational economy
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Caroline Baum writes: Obama’s proposal to cut the corporate tax rate in exchange for new spending on education, training and infrastructure is a non-starter. 50 percent of economists say the Fed will taper in September but if economic conditions change, the Fed’s actions will change with them.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Clive Crook writes: The crash will recede, confidence will come back and stronger growth will resume. The zeal of Americans to work hard and prosper will prevail over the weary incompetence of the political class. Inequality is rising, but the theory that the US system is fundamentally
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William Pesek writes: Najib kept his Malaysian coalition in power with a giant spending spree that included smartphone rebates for youths, household electricity subsidies and higher wages for civil servants. Fitch said Malaysia’s public finances are its key rating weakness. It will be difficult to achieve the 3
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Automotive News reports that 3.27 million unsold cars sit on lots across the US, the most in almost 5 years and versus 2.7 million a year ago and 1 million more than in the summer of 2011. Interest rates are still relatively low, car loans are easy
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