Weekly Selections from Monthly Barometer
5 insightful op-eds or articles to help make sense of today’s world Room for Debate: “How to Regulate Disruption” (The New York Times, May 6, 2014 – metered paywall) As a growing number of apps and online services give consumers more direct control over their choices,...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Poor international data inspired a downward start this past week. PMI data from China indicated contraction while escalating Ukrainian instability and more punitive sanctions coming from Europe against Russia spooked equities A number of high profile...
Weekly Selections from Monthly Barometer
5 insightful op-eds or articles to help make sense of today’s world Raghuram Rajan, “Containing Competitive Monetary Easing” (Project Syndicate, April 28, 2014) This is an article based on a speech that the governor of the Reserve Bank of India gave on the fringe of...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Talk of M&A activity early in the week elevated markets as GE’s attempt to acquire Alstom and Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca dominated headlines. Stronger than expected data on Pending Home Sales also worked to move markets up Major economic data...
A Review of the Most Important Global Events in April by Monthly Barometer
Despite inflation surging in countries like Brazil and Russia, the global economic environment remains deflationary. Leaving aside the big deflationary trends such as aging, weak aggregate demand, stagnating real wages, etc., China is a big concern as its growth...
Prudential Banking: Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
Early this morning I was listening to the announcement about Deutsche Bank’s (DB) profits, which came in “better than expected” and hence its stock price gained more than 2% for the day. It is always a pleasure to honor and recognize prudential banking professionals,...
Weekly Selections from Monthly Barometer
5 insightful op-eds or articles to help make sense of today’s world Martin Wolf, “A More Equal Society Will Not Hinder Growth” (Financial Times, April 24, 2014 – metered paywall) This is yet another review of Piketty’s much celebrated book (“Capital in the 21st...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Equity markets started the week strong as a supposed agreement to deescalate tensions between Russia and Ukraine cooled risk concerns and paired with strong earnings reports, particularly from the technology sector, extended last week's gains. However...
The Great Divorce: Dystopia Built by Delusions and Divergence Cries out for a Devolution
This commentary serves as an initial attempt to explain the financial crisis, the current market upswing, and the potential brewing crisis which in a few years time could change the economic landscape for generations to come. Here is the thesis of this commentary: So...
Weekly Selections from Monthly Barometer
5 insightful op-eds or articles to help make sense of today’s world Adair Turner, “The High-Tech, High-Touch Economy” (Project Syndicate, April 16, 2014) The financial pundit observes that we live in a hi-tech virtual world in which the value of the most physical...