Financial Markets and Economy
German Bonds on Best Run in a Year as Traders Await CPI Data (Bloomberg)
With German government bonds on their longest winning streak in more than a year, investors are set to scour inflation data next week for clues as to whether the European Central Bank will provide more stimulus next month.
Xiao Gang, China’s Top Securities Regulator, Ousted Over Market Tumult (NY Times)
China’s top securities regulator, Xiao Gang, has been forced out, the official Xinhua News Agency announced on Saturday, after facing stinging criticism for amplifying the country’s stock market turbulence.
The move reflects the increasing pressure on the Chinese leadership to bolster confidence at home, as questions mount about Beijing’s ability to manage the economy, the currency and the markets.
Here are the similarities between 2016 and the 2008 financial crisis (Business Insider)
2016 has a been a jittery, volatile year so far for markets.
The trouble began with circuit-breaker halts in Chinese stock markets and continued with a bank rout in Europe.
Skid in Oil Prices Pulls the Recycling Industry Down With It (NY Times)
In a cavernous recycling facility crisscrossed with conveyor belts, enormous bales of crumpled plastic bottles are stacked one atop another, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder.
For Waste Management, the company that runs this operation, collecting, sorting and bundling recyclables was until recently a profitable endeavor. A year ago, Waste Management could have fetched $230 for each bale of thin translucent plastic.
America: Land of the Free, Home of Mediocre Public Fund Investing (Chief Investment Officer)
Why can’t the birthplace of Uber, Johns Hopkins, and the Yale model keep up with public institutions in Canada, among other backwaters? Ashby Monk (Stanford, Oxford, University of California) fights it out with fellow Canuck Leanna Orr of CIO. And both try to get each other fired along the way.
The company that found oil at Gatwick just pumped 'significant' amounts for the first time (Business Insider)
UK Oil and Gas Investments (UKOG), the small company which last year made one of the biggest onshore oil discoveries in British history, has finally struck oil, and its shares are going absolutely wild.
Should You Be 100% Long Stocks? (The Reformed Broker)
The New York Times is out with an investing column that posits the following: You should be 100% stocks in your portfolio because, given enough time, they should outperform everything else you can possibly own in an investment account.
Even The Fed Is Flashing A Recession Warning (Zero Hedge)
After The Cleveland Fed's warning of "significant stress" in the financial markets, we find none other than Dovish-hawk Jim Bullard's St.Louis Fed growing increasingly fearful of the "r" word.
China Lenders' Foreign-Exchange Holdings Omitted From PBOC Data (Bloomberg)
China's central bank omitted details of financial institutions foreign-exchange holdings from monthly data that sheds light on the scale of its intervention to support the yuan.
This Crash Will Be Bigger Than 2008 – Here's Why (Financial Sense)
Bert Dohmen, founder of Dohmen Capital Research, is uber-bearish and believes that it is time for investors to panic (before everyone else does) given a potential collapse of the stock market greater than what we saw in 2008.
S&P settles Australian lawsuit over Lehman Bros collapse (Business Insider)
A substantial settlement has been reached in a landmark A$200 million ($143 million) class action brought against ratings agency Standard & Poor's, according to the law firm for the local governments, churches and charities bringing the suit.
U.S. overtakes France to become Germany's top trading partner (Business Insider)
The United States became the top destination for German exports last year, overtaking France for the first time since 1961 thanks to an upturn in the U.S. economy and a weaker euro, data from Germany's Statistics Office showed on Saturday.
Exports to the United States rose by 19 percent to 114 billion euros ($127 billion) in 2015, compared with an increase in French purchases of 2.5 percent to 103 billion euros.
Bond-Market Pessimism `Excessive' Yet May Persist, Says Barclays (Bloomberg)
The bond market can stay “quite pessimistic” longer than bets on a strong U.S. economy can stay solvent, say analysts at Barclays Plc.
The US Economy Has Not Recovered And Will Not Recover (Paul Craig Roberts)
The US economy died when middle class jobs were offshored and when the financial system was deregulated.
Jobs offshoring benefitted Wall Street, corporate executives, and shareholders, because lower labor and compliance costs resulted in higher profits. These profits flowed through to shareholders in the form of capital gains and to executives in the form of “performance bonuses.” Wall Street benefitted from the bull market generated by higher profits.
Politics
Hillary Clinton wins Nevada caucuses, defeating Bernie Sanders (The Guardian)
Hillary Clinton defeated Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, in a much-needed victory that nonetheless revealed vulnerabilities in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
With 78.7% of precincts reporting, Clinton had 52.1% of the vote, to Sanders’ 47.8%. After a race that initially appeared to be neck-and-neck, the result was called by the Associated Press shortly after 2.20pm local time.
Scoring Candidates on Style Points (The Atlantic)
Hillary is a screamer. So says Bob Woodward, the journalistic legend and seasoned political pontificator. This is no small problem, asserts Woodward, who recently explained onMorning Joe that Secretary Clinton’s shrieking, shouting “unrelaxed” delivery is a troubling sign of her lack of “self-acceptance.”
Technology
The Work Terminator — How the rise of AI and robots could kill jobs and boost inequality (Business Insider)
The future is supposed to be a glorious place where robot butlers cater to our every need and the four-hour work day is a reality.
But the true picture could be much bleaker.
Your Smartphone Can Now Detect Earthquakes and Help You Survive (Bloomberg)
A new app developed by U.S. scientists can turn your smartphone into an earthquake sensor and potentially save lives.
Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and Deutsche Telekom AG have built an app that uses a smartphone’s motion sensor to feel earthquakes. The app, called MyShake, records the time and amplitude of a tremor and sends its data and the phone’s location to Berkeley’s seismological lab for analysis.
Health and Life Sciences
Why Your Brain Actually Works Better in Winter (NY Mag)
It was terrifyingly cold in New York this weekend, and this cold snap occurred right as we’re entering the postholiday doldrums. It’s around the time of the year when people start to talk about seasonal changes to their mood and energy level — most commonly, seasonal affective disorder, orSAD. While SAD is a relatively new condition — it stems from research in the ‘80s — it has become a huge part of how we in the colder climes discuss winter.
Seven Steps Toward a Healthier Heart (Medicine Net Daily)
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for U.S. adults, but a healthy lifestyle can reduce that risk, a heart expert says.
The American Heart Association calls its prevention tips "Life's Simple 7" because they're easy to understand and follow, said Dr. Ravi Dave. He is director of the cardiac catheterization lab at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, in Santa Monica.
A Controversial Treatment for Peanut Allergies (Wall Street Journal)
The children coming to the center are openly flouting rules drilled into their heads for most of their lives: Avoid peanuts and potentially contaminated products at all costs. Instead, the children here eat carefully measured doses of peanut protein, usually mixed into yogurt, pudding or apple sauce, in a treatment known as oral immunotherapy. The idea is to gradually increase the doses to desensitize their bodies to peanuts so they no longer suffer allergic reactions. Immunotherapy is a popular treatment for people with environmental allergies, such as hay fever. But it is less common, and is a controversial practice, for treating food allergies.
Life on the Home Planet
The Great Assad Chemical Weapons Heist (The Daily Beast)
Every once in a rare while, a cunning plan to stop an evil dictator works. At least for a time.
Such is the story of a geeky group of Pentagon scientists, State Department experts, and White House politicos who plotted together with top Russian officials to find and destroy Syria’s weapons of mass destruction—more than a year before they got the chance to actually do so.
Ferocious cyclone strikes Pacific island nation of Fiji (Phys)
Residents of Fiji hunkered down Saturday as a ferocious cyclone tore through the Pacific island chain, prompting authorities to impose a nationwide curfew and declare a monthlong state of disaster.
Wind speeds from Cyclone Winston were estimated at up to 285 kilometers (177 miles) per hour. The cyclone was tracking late Saturday along the northern coast of the main island, Viti Levu.
