Trucking, Railroads Hit by Slowdown in Manufacturing & Construction. But Americans Are Buying Stuff, and that Helps

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Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter The hangover after the tariff-front-run boom last year. Freight shipments by all modes of transportation – truck, rail, air, and barge – within the US fell 3.4% in September 2019, compared to September last year, according to the Cass Freight Index for Shipments. For the index – which tracks shipment volume of … Read more

Longtime Berkshire Hathaway shareholder sells stake, accusing Warren Buffett of ‘thumb-sucking’

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/14/berkshire-shareholder-sells-stake-accusing-buffett-of-thumb-sucking.html David Rolfe noted his frustration with Berkshire Hathaway’s massive cash hoard, lackluster investments and what he thinks are missed investment opportunities by the Oracle of Omaha and his team during the current bull market. Berkshire Hathaway shares have lagged the S&P 500 over the current bull run, which started March 2009. “Thumb-sucking has not … Read more

“The WTO on Monday formally authorized the U.S. to impose #tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European exports annually in retaliation for illegal government aid to Airbus SE” – BBG

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"The WTO on Monday formally authorized the U.S. to impose #tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European exports annually in retaliation for illegal government aid to Airbus SE" – BBG Breakdown of those tariffs pic.twitter.com/Mwj3NRJoyT — Tracy Shuchart (𝒞𝒽𝒾 ) (@chigrl) October 14, 2019  

Bernie Sanders unveils plan to raise corporate tax rate to 35% and ban stock buybacks

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Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders introduced a plan on Monday that would reverse President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for businesses and return the corporate tax rate to 35% from its current 21%. The Corporate Accountability and Democracy Plan would also eliminate many of the tax breaks and loopholes in the tax code and do away … Read more

The Fed and ECB monetary policies tend to converge near the peak of the cycle.

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US vs. German yield spread is unceasingly narrowing. It's an important market signal. Similar breakdowns from major support lines also occurred right in 2000 & 2007. This time happened in May. The Fed and ECB monetary policies tend to converge near the peak of the cycle. pic.twitter.com/TwmvIZ8wUe — Otavio (Tavi) Costa (@TaviCosta) October 14, 2019

The business story of the month is WeWork’s meltdown. The bigger story will be SoftBank’s Vision Funds impairment.

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Value is a function of growth and margins. Many/most of today’s unicorns have deployed massive capital to achieve the former while not demonstrating the patience or skill to achieve the latter.#nomercynomalice #Compass #OYO #Opendoorhttps://t.co/2idIyz9swn — Scott Galloway (@profgalloway) October 13, 2019 There were some errors in the SoftBank investor presentation, so I went ahead and … Read more

When EBITDA Is Just BS

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via institutionalinvestor: One of the trends that you’d have been hard pressed to miss over the past decade has been rising valuations across virtually all markets. Developed and emerging, equity and credit, public and private —prices for everything have marched inexorably upward. In private markets, the most commonly cited measure of average valuation is called the … Read more

BOE Deputy Governor: Low Rates May Risk More Severe Downturns… Larry Summers: US Economy Is Just One Bad Recession Away from Zero Rates or Worse

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Speaking in London on Monday, Cunliffe said the drop in long-term market rates in developed economies partly reflected an over-pessimism about long-term prospects, and was also part of a structural trend. One “challenge of low for longer for financial stability” is “the risk that in such an environment, economic downturns will on average be more … Read more

Fed Confirms That Federal Borrowing a Cause of Liquidity Crisis

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via independent: Robert Kaplan, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, has confirmed that the surge in U.S. government borrowing in September 2019 was a primary cause of the liquidity crisis affecting the nation’s money markets. Reuters reports that revelation from Kaplan’s speech on Friday, October 11, to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco: Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President … Read more

If this does not just speak volumes about this supposed trade (lets call it) “concession”

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If this does not just speak volumes about this supposed trade (lets call it) "concession" https://t.co/9cxb6vJg67 — Tracy Shuchart (𝒞𝒽𝒾 ) (@chigrl) October 14, 2019 Guess they did not believe the deal was done either>>Over 2,500 Companies File for Tariff Exclusions on Chinese Imports Companies seek exemptions on about 31,000 products ahead of jump in … Read more

When Central Banks tighten this much something often goes wrong! Bring on QE4 …err and QE5 And fast!

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When #CentralBanks tighten this much something often goes wrong! Bring on QE4 …err and QE5 And fast!! pic.twitter.com/qtzA8BvmlQ — CrossBorder Capital/ GLIndexes (@crossbordercap) October 14, 2019 The traditional #yieldcurve has a flakey track record. Here’s a better measure, but it’s not looking great… Beyond The Yield Curve …. D* or The Maturity Where Term Structure … Read more

20 Ways The West Censors Information For China

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acvf5PGkcpc In this video I go through a number of examples of how corporations censor information in regards to China. https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/c… I tweet this only because that’s genuinely how the party wants the world to be. Thus I don’t think this image is derogatory at all pic.twitter.com/BvQ51vPv3i — Victor Shih (@vshih2) October 14, 2019   … Read more

China Cancels Trade Deal & Negotiations Thinking It Has More Leverage To Ask For More From Trump?

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China Wants More Talks Before Signing “Phase One” Trade Deal. Is anyone surprised? Because they shouldn’t be! Futures Tumble, Stocks Slide As China Wants More Talks Before Signing “Phase One” Trade Deal https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fut… Over the last 6 months, any time that China thinks that it has a lot more negotiating leverage (the upper hand) over … Read more