-
Elon Musk moves to Mars
- The Fed buys the ECB
- Vanguard requires customers to use infinite leverage
- Kylie Jenner sells the other half of her company for $10 billion
- WeWork goes public
- Henry Blodget resumes reinvesting dividends
- Peter Luger introduces plant-based rib eye
- RobinHood buys Schwab
- David Stockman turns bullish
- Facebook hires Scott Galloway as Chief Marketing Officer
- James Altucher says you should max out your 401(k)
- The VIX goes negative
- Ramp Capital replaces Jerome Powell
- Apple buys back all outstanding shares, accidentally goes private
- Robert Shiller declares the CAPE ratio to be dead
- Jeff Bezos becomes the world’s first trillionaire
- Berkshire Hathaway starts charging performance fees
- Wall Street 4
- Billy McFarland launches a hedge fund
- Your parents start a podcast
20 Signs That The Stock Market Is About To Top
by ilene - November 22nd, 2019 6:00 pm
20 Signs That The Stock Market Is About To Top
Courtesy of Michael Batnick
 Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
 del.icio.us
|
|
E-scooters, bikes and urban mobility: lessons from the streets of Paris
by ilene - November 22nd, 2019 11:47 am
E-scooters, bikes and urban mobility: lessons from the streets of Paris
Rue des Tournelles, Paris, November 5, 2019. Four Voi scooters wait hopefully for potential clients, with a Lime and Dott sprawling nearby. Behind them, a Velib’ rider has made his choice. Leighton Kille/The Conversation France , CC BY
Courtesy of Tiago Ratinho, IÉSEG School of Management
Mobility is a crucial challenge for global cities in the 21st century. The growing impact and immense risks of climate change are becoming clearer every day, and cities are on the front line. Globally, transportation generates 14% of all greenhouse gases, much of it for personal transportation.
To reduce their carbon footprint and increase mobility options, many cities have been investing in bike-share systems. One of the largest is Paris’s Velib’, with more than 14,000 bicycles. Launched in 2007, the system is built around docks – it’s there that customers pick up and drop off bikes, and they also serve as recharging stations for electric models.
Since 2017, a host of start-ups has emerged offering fleets of dockless bikes and electric scooters in cities around the world. The concept was simple: users downloaded an app and paid, grabbed a bike or scooter, and off they went, leaving it wherever they wanted after. Floating on an ocean of venture capital, the firms took advantage of a legal void and distributed thousands of bicycles and scooters in cities large and small around the world.
Destination, the City of Light
For mobility start-ups, Paris offered an irresistible target. The region’s population is more than 12 million and it attracted approximately 40 million tourists in 2017, each one a potential customer. For better or worse, the city’s leadership initially took a hands-off approach to free-floating bikes and scooters and the result was predictable: chaos.
A snapped Lime lies abandoned in Paris. Attempting to speed their launch and minimise costs, e-mobility firms have often used off-the-shelf scooters that die quickly on city streets. Leighton Kille/The Conversation France, CC BY
At the height the boom in the…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
The Disturbing Advance Men for the Fed’s $3 Trillion (and Counting) Wall Street Bailout
by ilene - November 22nd, 2019 9:55 am
Courtesy of Pam Martens
Marketplace, an American Public Media Program, Interviews (left to right) Timothy Geithner, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke in March 2018
As you may have noticed by now, Wall Street On Parade is not buying the narrative that the $3 trillion that the New York Fed has pumped out to the trading houses on Wall Street since September 17 is part of routine open market operations that the Fed is legally allowed to do. We are also not buying the idea that if the same banks that backed away from lending during the financial crisis are doing so again today, this is not a matter that deserves an airing before the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees.
Thus far, not one hearing has been held to examine why the New York Fed, for the first time since the financial crisis, has once again become the lender of last resort to Wall Street. Keep in mind that the $3 trillion in super cheap loans has not gone to commercial banks to assist the overall economy; the hundreds of billions of dollars each week are going to the Fed’s “primary dealers” which are the trading houses on Wall Street.
Hopefully, Congress is going to rise from its stupor on this subject in early December. The House Financial Services Committee, under the able leadership of Maxine Waters and a very talented roster of Committee members, will hold two hearings in the first week of December that might drill down to what is really going on in the arena of shrinking liquidity for loans by Wall Street banks while the stock market sets new highs. The House Financial Services Committee will hold the following two hearings:
December 4 at 10:00 a.m. – “Oversight of Prudential Regulators: Ensuring the Safety, Soundness, Diversity, and Accountability of Depository Institutions?”
December 5 at 10:00 a.m. – “Promoting Financial Stability? Reviewing the Administration’s Deregulatory Approach to Financial Stability.”
…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
Your electronic health data: Understanding the different records, systems and how they connect
by ilene - November 22nd, 2019 2:16 am
Your electronic health data: Understanding the different records, systems and how they connect
A partnership between Google and the Ascension hospital network in the United States has raised health data privacy concerns for citizens globally. (Shutterstock)
Courtesy of Tracie Risling, University of Saskatchewan
Many Canadians are not connected to their electronic health information. But this is not because there is a shortage of these records. You likely have multiple digital health files, some you may not be aware of, and many you may not have access to.
There are increasing calls for Canada to create a single comprehensive national health record that would include data from all health-care appointments and interventions, no matter who provided it or where they were located.
A single sign-in to a complete and detailed record is an ideal digital health future. But there are a lot of different ideas about how best to get there and many challenges that remain. As we debate how best to move forward, improving patient data access should be a priority.
In our research with patient partners we explore the empowering effects of real-time access to electronic health data. We have found that patients are eager to know more and see what practitioners see. Electronic data access can help them feel heard — allowing them to be more engaged and active partners in their own health.
Patient access to health data can also support positive health outcomes, but opportunities for this vary across the country. As this technology becomes more common everyone should know about the different types of records that exist, and what access may be available in the province or territory they live in.
Electronic health record (EHR)
In Canada the term electronic health record (EHR) has most often been used to describe a national project, led by Canada Health Infoway, to establish a digital record that would be accessible to every patient in the country — no matter where they live or want to access it from.
…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
On TV, political ads are regulated – but online, anything goes
by ilene - November 22nd, 2019 2:04 am
On TV, political ads are regulated – but online, anything goes
There are different rules for ads on TV versus online. Goran Petric/Shutterstock.com
Courtesy of Ari Lightman, Carnegie Mellon University
With the 2020 election just a year away, Facebook is under fire from presidential candidates, lawmakers, civil rights groups and even its own employees to provide more transparency on political ads and potentially stop running them altogether.
Meanwhile, Twitter has announced that it will not allow any political ads on its platform.
Modern-day online ads use sophisticated tools to promote political agendas with a high degree of specificity.
I have closely studied how information propagates through social channels and its impact on political messaging and advertising.
Looking back at the history of mass media and political ads in the national narrative, I think it’s important to focus on how TV advertising, which is monitored by the FCC, differs fundamentally with the world of social media.
The birth of political ads
Eisenhower was one of the first politicians to use TV as a medium to spread his message to the American public.
In 1952, Eisenhower met with Rosser Reeves, an American ad executive, to discuss how to use this relatively new medium. They created 20- to 30-second slots to run during prime-time, called “Eisenhower Answers America.”
These ads helped usher in how political campaigns would use new broadcast media to campaign.
An ‘Eisenhower Answers America’ ad.
TV ads were also used in the campaigns of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon in the 1960s to shock viewers into going to the polls by catering to their fears of a world that might exist should their opponent win.
Over time, TV ads became more negative and critical of opponents’ ideology and positions. For example, in the late 1980s, George H.W. Bush attacked Michael Dukakis on his prison furlough program giving weekend passes to convicted criminals. They used convicted felon Willie Horton to provide added emphasis and provoke fear-mongering.
…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
More than 1,000 cryptocurrencies have already failed – here’s what will affect successes in future
by ilene - November 21st, 2019 3:29 pm
More than 1,000 cryptocurrencies have already failed – here's what will affect successes in future
Gaining currency? Wit Olszewski
Courtesy of Gavin Brown, Manchester Metropolitan University and Richard Whittle, Manchester Metropolitan University
Many cryptocurrencies have been launched in the past few years, often to great fanfare and celebration, only to fade and fail as the public and investors shun them. According to Coinopsy, which tracks such failures, there are some 1,085 dead coins at the time of writing. That’s a substantial number, even next to the approximately 3,000 still in existence, and senior industry figures expect many of those to fail, too.
Why do so many of these projects unravel? You expect many initiatives to come and go in a fledgling market, of course – the 1990s dotcom bubble is the perfect example. But at the same time, cryptocurrency developers have traditionally spent too little time designing the business-use case for their coins and tokens, then only realising after the launch that their idea is yesterday’s news.
Time and again, we see launches that copy a previously successful coin – “coin x is the new Bitcoin”, for example. Yet the market already has Bitcoin, and it continues to be in demand – as evidenced by the 18 millionth Bitcoin being mined only last month. We tend to overlook this problem with developers, even while we rightly criticise regulators for not being able to keep up with the fast evolution of the crypto market – despite efforts such as Howey Coin by US regulator the SEC, which was a fake new coin offering designed to teach investors about the risks of putting money into crypto.
No doubt these kinds of developer errors will continue. Here are several other themes that we think will have a bearing on future crypto failures:
1. Big Finance has arrived
Eleven years ago, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto quietly revolutionised money with the release of his or her now famous white paper that outlined Bitcoin. In the early years after this vision took off, many of those who launched altcoins and tokens were small teams of developers and leftfield entrepreneurs.…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
Gordon Sondland’s Explosive Impeachment Testimony Implicates Trump: A Closer Look
by ilene - November 21st, 2019 11:36 am
In case you missed yesterday's hearing, Seth Meyers sums it up.
Gordon Sondland’s Explosive Impeachment Testimony Implicates Trump: A Closer Look
Seth takes a closer look at a key witness to the Ukraine scheme providing evidence that there was a quid pro quo, and that it was ordered by the president himself.
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
This Chart Shows How the Fed Has Spooked the Commercial Paper Market
by ilene - November 21st, 2019 10:20 am
Courtesy of Pam Martens
Data Source: St. Louis Fed
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Yesterday the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its Federal Open Market Committee meeting of October 29-30. The minutes show that the FOMC members were fingering their worry beads over plans for their longer-term handling of the hundreds of billions of dollars weekly that the New York Fed is pumping into the overnight and term repo markets. The worries center on whether the Fed is creating moral hazard and/or that the banks will “take on an undesirably high amount of liquidity risk.”
We have news for the Fed: both of those horses have left the barn. The Fed enshrined moral hazard and liquidity risk among Wall Street banks when it funneled $29 trillion to the miscreant banks from 2007 to 2010 while intentionally hiding its footprints from the public until it lost its court battle and had to disclose the data.
According to the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report that was released in July, the leveraged loan market is now $3.2 trillion. U.S. mega banks and other global banks hold 38 percent of those high-risk loans or $1.21 trillion. The report also points out that “In the U.S., gross corporate debt as a share of GDP is now above pre-crisis levels.”
The Fed’s FOMC minutes also revealed that it is worried about “the likelihood that participation in the Federal Reserve’s repo operations could become stigmatized….” Well, obviously, if you can’t get one of your peer banks to give you a collateralized overnight loan and have to turn to the Fed, you’ve got a stigma problem.
…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
Democrats debate health care, farmers and minimum wage: 4 essential reads – and a chart
by ilene - November 21st, 2019 2:45 am
Democrats debate health care, farmers and minimum wage: 4 essential reads – and a chart
Ten Democratic presidential candidates took the stage in Atlanta on Nov. 20. AP Photo/John Bazemore
Courtesy of Bryan Keogh, The Conversation
The top candidates vying to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020 took the stage in Atlanta for their fifth televised debate on Nov. 20.
With 10 participants and only two hours to discuss dozens of complicated issues, viewers may have had a hard time keeping up as candidates waded into the weeds of their pet policy proposals.
Fortunately, our scholars – who have written dozens of articles on the key issues of the 2020 Democratic primary campaign – have you covered.
Here are four economic issues that came up in the Nov. 20 debate, along with four stories from our archive that provide some context to help you evaluate what the candidates said.
1. Medicare for … whom?
Voters, especially Democrats, say health care is the top issue heading into 2020. So it’s hardly a surprise that the topic has dominated the first four debates and was a hot topic in Atlanta.
Several candidates debated “Medicare for all” and how far to go. Mayor Pete Buttigieg pushed his “Medicare for all who want it” proposal, which would offer a government plan while letting people keep their private insurance. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders argued the best way forward is to make everyone sign up for a government-run single-payer system – the main difference between them being how soon to make it happen.
A sticking point has been the high price tag. Gerald Friedman, an economist at University of Massachusetts Amherst, has crunched the numbers on several different versions of a single-payer health care system and estimates a full-scale plan could cost as much as US$40 trillion over a decade.
But there’s an easier and cheaper way to get to Medicare for all, he writes: Simply expand the existing Medicare program to everyone.
Medicare’s “limited scope, skimpy benefits and cost-sharing keep costs low,” he writes, yet “it provides meaningful protection against…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button
by ilene - November 20th, 2019 9:04 pm
Courtesy of Pam Martens
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
The New York Fed has now pumped out upwards of $3 trillion in a period of 63 days to unnamed trading houses on Wall Street to ease a liquidity crisis that has yet to be credibly explained. In addition, it has launched a new asset purchase program, buying up $60 billion each month in U.S. Treasury bills. Based on the continuing escalation of its plans, it appears to be testing the limits of what the public will tolerate. We thought it was time to answer the question: who exactly owns the New York Fed and its magical money spigot that can pump trillions of dollars into Wall Street at the press of a button.
The largest shareowners of the New York Fed are the following five Wall Street banks: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of New York Mellon. Those five banks represent two-thirds of the eight Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs) in the United States. The other three G-SIBs are Bank of America, a shareowner in the Richmond Fed; Wells Fargo, a shareowner of the San Francisco Fed; and State Street, a shareowner in the Boston Fed.
G-SIBs have the ability to inflict systemic contagion on the entire global banking system (as happened in 2008) and thus must be monitored closely for financial stability. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are also four of the five largest holders of high-risk derivatives. (Bank of America is the fifth.)
The five mega banks that are the major shareowners of the New York Fed are also supervised by the New York Fed, despite participating in the election of two-thirds of its Board of Directors. James Gorman, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, currently sits on the New York Fed Board. Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, previously served two three-year terms on the Board.
…
|
Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
del.icio.us
|
|
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Chinese
Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site