IMF: Short-Term Growth Policies Risk New Financial Crisis

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via theguardian: entral banks are running the risk of a severe financial crisis through policies aimed at boosting short-term economic growth, the International Monetary Fund has warned. In its half-yearly global financial stability report, the IMF said the removal of the threat of higher interest rates had prompted a rapid recovery in financial markets after last … Read more

Check Out Citi’s Surprise Indices

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by confoundedinterest The Citi Economic Surprise Indices measure data surprises relative to market expectations. A positive reading means that data releases have been stronger than expected and a negative reading means that data releases have been worse than expected. Unfortunately for the USA, it has a negative economic surprise measure, followed closely by the Eurozone (also negative). … Read more

How Central Banks Are Propping Up Stock Prices

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via mises.org: Financial markets seem to have a great deal of confidence in the effectiveness of central bank monetary policy — in the sense that by keeping interest rates low, or bring interest rates down, the economies will keep expanding and asset prices, in particular, will keep rising. There is, however, good reason for savers and … Read more

Ominous Storm Clouds Warn of Worldwide Recession

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via MarketWatch: Growth momentum is slowing in almost all major economies ITHACA, N.Y. (Project Syndicate) — The drumbeat of warnings about a looming worldwide recession is growing ever louder. According to the latest Brookings-Financial Times TIGER indexes, which track the global economic recovery, growth momentum is declining in virtually all of the world’s major economies. And what this … Read more

World Bank’s Goal of Ending Extreme Poverty by 2030 Is in Jeopardy

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via MarketWatch: The World Bank’s primary goal of ending “extreme” poverty by 2030 is in jeopardy, said new World Bank president David Malpass on Thursday. At his first news conference since taking office this week, Malpass said poverty is getting worse in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa where per-capita-income is now projected to stay below 1% … Read more

IPO’s: Rewarding Reckless Risk Pricing, Again

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via trueeconomics: Markets are supposed to be efficient. At least, on the timeline that allows to price in probabilistically plausible valuations of the firms. Markets failed to be efficient at the time of the dot.com bubble. And, it appears, they are back at the same game: As the chart above shows, share of IPOs issued at … Read more

Global Supply of Negative Yield Bonds Hits $10 Trillion

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by confoundedinterest17 To listen to some talking heads, everything is beautiful. But according to the bond market, everything is not beautiful. In fact, there is concern about global economic growth and financial fragility. There is now $10 trillion in negative yielding bonds in the global economy. And in Europe, there are 16 nations with negatiive 2-year sovereign … Read more

Shadow Banking Is Now a $52 Trillion Industry

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via CNBC:   Nonbank lenders, often called “shadow banks,” now have $52 trillion in assets, a 75% increase since the financial crisis ended. The industry was at the center of the financial crisis when the subprime mortgage market collapsed. Industry officials say shadow banks still face considerable regulation and can help provide buffers in times … Read more

America Has a Monopoly Problem

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By John Mauldin Without realizing it, we’ve become a nation of monopolies. A large and growing part of our economy is “owned” by a handful of companies that face little competition. They have no incentive to deliver better products or to get more efficient. They simply rake in cash from people who have no choice … Read more

THOSE AREN’T COVERED NOW

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Bernie Sanders unveils Medicare for All proposal, suggests role of health care insurers would be reduced to ‘nose jobs.’ The move reopens the debate over his call to eliminate private health insurance and highlights Democratic presidential candidates’ disparate visions for the long-term future of health care. President Trump and Republicans have slammed the “Medicare for … Read more

Walmart Says Employees are “Happy” That Robots Are Taking Their Jobs

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By Dagny Taggart Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving closer to making humans redundant. Self-checkouts have been replacing human employees for quite some time, and now robots are taking other jobs. Walmart is replacing some employees with robots. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart is deploying robots to carry out mundane tasks like mopping its floors and … Read more

Carmageddon at Tesla-Panasonic Gigafactory in Nevada and Shanghai

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Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter Expansion and investment plans frozen, after deliveries of Teslas plunged in Q1. The core of every Tesla is the battery, and the core of the battery is the battery cell technology, and that technology doesn’t belong to Tesla. It belongs to Panasonic, which makes the battery cells that Tesla packages into … Read more