Financial Markets and Economy
The five most important charts from the Panama Papers leaks (Quartz)
It’s being described as the “biggest leak in history.” Over 11 million confidential documents were released from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which has been described as the world’s fourth-largest provider of offshore services.
The documents were obtained by an anonymous source who contacted German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which worked with other papers and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to go through the data. The leak shows how the Panama-based law firm helped its clients launder money and evade tax.
Pace of ETF Debuts Falls, as ‘All the Easy Ideas Are Gone’ (Wall Street Journal)
Output of one of Wall Street’s most popular products is sputtering.
The exchange-traded fund industry is debuting new products at about half the rate it did in the summer, a sign of a slowdown in the $2 trillion industry.
No One On Wall Street Is Making This Call (Joe Fahmy)
For the past month, I’ve been telling people that the market is going much higher and they all look at me like I have 3 heads and I’m speaking a foreign language. I am one of the only people on Wall St calling for a 10-20%.
What are the chances of a recession? Not what you’d think. (Washington Post)
For at least five years, we have been hearing that the United States is on the verge of slipping into a recession.
Of course, it hasn’t — and probably won’t anytime soon. I’d like to talk about why that is and in the process look at how economic expansions end.
Shake Shack Should Heed Chipotle's Missteps (Bloomberg Gadfly)
As Chipotle tries to recover from a food-safety crisis, its competitors are no doubt paying attention. But one in particular should take heed: Shake Shack.
A Warning for Gold Bugs: This Rally Won’t Last (Wall Street Journal)
Gold investors should enjoy the party while they can. The good times are probably coming to an end.
What Stock-Market Return Should Your Financial Plan Assume? (Wall Street Journal)
Stock predictions abound. An army of analysts, economists, financial advisers, portfolio managers, hedge-fund managers, etc. spend way too much time guessing whether stock prices will rise or fall next. Some of these forecasters eventually will be proved correct, but most will be proved wrong. While you may roll your eyes at the idea that someone may be able to predict where stocks are heading, a financial plan uses—and in many ways is itself—a prediction of the future. So we have to have the right mind-set about forecasting.
PJT Partners' Very Bad Week (Bloomberg Gadfly)
Boutique investment bank PJT Partners was having a rough enough week. Then it got worse.
Productivity gains in U.S. shale oil (Econbrowser)
Horizontal fracturing of tight hydrocarbon-bearing formations was responsible for a phenomenal resurgence in U.S. oil production, which rose more than 4 million barrels per day from 2010 levels before peaking in April of last year.
The US just said it will do more to kill tax-dodging deals, and this drugmaker is plunging (Business Insider)
Allergan's shares have dropped as much as 20% in after-hours trading on Monday after the US government said that it will do more to stop tax inversions, or mergers aimed at helping a company move its domicile offshore in order to avoid paying taxes.
Why the Fed has a wary eye on China's economy (CBS News)
Uncertainty about the global economy is making the Federal Reserve more cautious about raising U.S. interest rates. That was Fed Chair Janet Yellen's message in a speech to the Economic Club of New York last week. This uncertainty is reflected in the Fed's dialed-back forecast for rate increases this year. In December, the central bank signaled that rates would go up by 1 percent over the course of the year, but that projection dropped to a half-percent at the Fed's most recent meeting.
Gold Lovers Bet Party Isn't Over After 17% First-Quarter Surge (Bloomberg)
Even after a lackluster March, money managers are betting the best-performing commodity last quarter still has further to run.
Giant Leak of Offshore Financial Records Exposes Global Array of Crime and Corruption (The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists)
A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.
Make the Most of Coal's Decline (Bloomberg View)
The accelerating decline in U.S. coal-fired power is good news for public health and the climate. Surprisingly, it isn't such good news for the federal government's approach to cutting reliance on an especially dirty fuel.
Can Calpers Live With Responsible Returns? (Bloomberg Gadfly)
The California Public Employees' Retirement System recently opened a new chapter in socially responsible investing (also known as environment, social and governance, or ESG, investing) when its investment committee decided to start requiring that the boards of the companies it invests in include climate change experts.
The preorders for Tesla's new car outstrip the total sales of all other Teslas to date (Business Insider)
Tesla's plan from the beginning has been straightforward: Release an expensive sportscar (the Roadster) and use the money from its sales to build a couple of mid-range vehicles, the Model S sedan and Model X SUV. Then use the money from those vehicles to build a low-cost electric car for the masses.
How Institutional Investors Use ETFs (A Wealth of Common Sense)
As I stated last week, ETFs are a wonderful product innovation for the individual investor. However, most people don’t realize that ETFs were actually created for institutional investors.
Tesla Delivers 14,820 Vehicles in First Quarter, Misses Forecast (Bloomberg)
Tesla Motors Inc. shipped 14,820 vehicles in the first quarter, less than the 16,000 it had forecast in February, on the heels of surprisingly strong orders for the companys new, less-expensive model.
Politics
Republicans Can't Stop Hurting Themselves (Bloomberg View)
For Republicans to break the Democrats’ hold on the White House, hard-line conservatives may have to loosen their grip on red states. That’s a corollary to an argument put forth by political scientist Thomas Schaller in his 2015 book, “The Stronghold.”
Technology
German Robot Settles Catan (Popular Science)
Catan is a fantasy island, uninhabited except for a few scattered settlements of humans. And now — robots. German robot maker Kuka recently partnered with the Regensburg University of Applied Sciences to make an A.I.-controlled robotic arm to play Settlers of Catan, a widely popular modern board game.
How to Hack a Mouse (Scientific American)
Marc Newlin and Balint Seeber are checking how far apart they can be while still able to hack into each other's computers.
It turns out it's pretty far – 180 meters – the length of this alley in downtown San Francisco.
Health and Life Sciences
New Clues Show Out-of-Control Synapse Pruning May Underlie Alzheimer's (Scientific American)
To many of us, Alzheimer’s disease is a familiar and terrifying malady. Afflicting an estimated 5.3 million people in the U.S. alone, the disorder slowly and relentlessly robs patients of memory, judgment and perception—eventually corroding even their ability to perform everyday tasks. The mechanisms that underlie these symptoms are not yet fully understood. The disease is largely attributed to an abnormal buildup of proteins, which can form amyloid beta plaques and tangles in the brain that trigger inflammation and result in the loss of brain connections called synapses, the effect most strongly associated with cognitive decline.
More People Should Consider Cholesterol Pills, Study Says (Forbes)
A new, 12,000-person study backs wider use of powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins in relatively healthy people, but does not provide similar evidence for blood pressure pills.
The results cement the widely held position that statins are the front-line medicine when it comes to reducing cardiovascular risk. But the study also showed the pills can have side effects including muscle pain and, possibly, a slight increase in the risk of cataracts.
Tests show injection leads to weight loss without surgery (Futurity)
A new procedure shows promise at helping severely obese people safely take weight off and keep it off without major surgery.
The minimally invasive treatment is safe, initiates weight loss, and reduces hunger dramatically by cutting levels of ghrelin, a hormone involved in controlling hunger, preliminary tests show.
Life on the Home Planet
Species rule change considered (BBC)
A government consultation on whether to change the rules governing how contractors deal with protected species when developing sites ends this week.
The focus is on the great crested newt, a species classified as endangered under European law.
