Smartphones continue to be one of the biggest distractions that teachers of all levels have to deal with in the classroom. 

Now, according to the WSJ, teachers are dealing with a consequence that nobody ever could have imagined when taking kids phones in order to provide a distraction-free learning environment: separation anxiety. 

Teachers across the US are comparing notes on what the best ways to manage this anxiety are. Some of them allow students to physically hold their phones in pouches that they can't open during class. Others let students charge their phones at stations in class instead of having to leave them alone in their lockers. 

Some teachers even offer extra credit to students for being able to part with their phones during class. 

South Bronx Early College Academy Charter School had to find a way to stop students from sneaking out of class to their locker to check their phones. They took the route of buying foamlike pouches that won't unlock without a special magnet. 

The school lets students decorate their pouches and personalize them to “make them as cool as humanly possible for something that’s restricting them from their device,” according to the school's principal, Brian Blough. 

Blough says students were "fiending" the first few weeks waiting to have their pouches unlocked after the school day. 

Other students tried to pry open and cut their pouches open. Eighth-grader Olamide Oladitan simply said: “It didn’t work.”

He eventually gave up on trying to figure out a way to open his pouch. “I didn’t like it because I really wanted to get to my phone, but at the same time I didn’t hate it because it helped me get better grades,” he admitted, likely begrudgingly. 

YouTube eve shows some "hacks" to try and get the pouches open, including one video that shows people lighting the pouches on fire. 

Other schools, like High Point Academy Fort Worth in Texas, use apps that track how much students touch their phone during school hours. Students can earn points and rewards for not touching their phones during school hours, including Starbucks drinks and credits that allow them to drop their worst

Funded with a $2.3 million allocation from the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development and the Office of Transgender Initiatives, the 'Trans Home' on Washington Street will provide a 'safe shelter and supportive services for 13 new residents, who will share a three-story building with 13 bedrooms, three kitchens and a common living space,' according to the report.

The apartments, which have mirror floor plans, feature wood floors throughout and original moldings and other decorative details. In the second-floor flat, the right side front room has a covered over tile fireplace and mantel, while the back room features a built-in wall cabinet with glass-paneled doors.

Each bedroom will have a locked door for the privacy of the residents. They will be asked to abide by a set of rules appropriated from the ones Larkin Street uses with its youth tenants. After three violations, the residents will be asked to leave, said Newman. -Bay Area Reporter

Residents will be allowed to live in the house rent-free for a year while receiving assistance with finding a longer-term place to live, according to the report.

"I think it is great. I love the location," said Trans Home's first resident, 60-year-old Jane Cordova, adding "I like to cook … I am the mother of the house."

Come February Jane Cordova will move out of a shelter for LGBT adults in San Francisco's Mission district for her own room in a Chinatown apartment. The scalloped windows in her bedroom will look out onto the city's famed cable car line, which stops mere feet away.

Cordova, 60, a transgender woman, is the first resident selected for

Last Sunday I read an article and viewed the accompanying video of a Baltimore police Sergeant being kicked by “bystanders” as he attempted to arrest a person who, allegedly, spit in his face.

As a native Baltimorean, this incident was much more saddening to me, than shocking.

Before I continue, permit me to “cherry-pick” some personal history with the City:

Upon obtaining my Masters Degree in City & Regional Planning in 1973, I was offered and accepted a position with the City’s Planning Department. A directive from then Mayor William Donald Schaefer to develop off-street parking in the City’s “Corned Beef Row” area proved to be the pilot project of what would become a multi-agency program of Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization … that I had the good fortune of directing. Working partnerships including local businesses, neighborhood representatives and City agencies were established in a dozen neighborhoods; revitalization plans, where the City would match private investments by making coordinated public improvements, were prepared; and their implementation were visible signs of a city continuing to “heal” after the 1968 riots.

In 1980, with the Baltimore Economic Development (BEDCO), I worked on numerous projects, most notable among them was spearheading Baltimore’s efforts to attract the NAACP national headquarters. I had the pleasure of working with then NAACP President, Dr. Ben Hooks, and his staff, as I facilitated the donation of an historic building to the group, and secured a $1.1 million State grant for renovations … and the association still occupies that building in the Seton Business Park.

I eventually became BEDCO’s Executive Vice President and was witness to then City Council President Clarence “Du” Burns becoming Baltimore’s first black Mayor in 1987, after William Donald Schaefer resigned to become Maryland’s Governor. As a footnote, I had the honor of drafting “Du’s” first public speech outlining his economic and workforce development strategies for the City (just prior to my leaving for the private-sector in late 1987).

I recall convening and attending countless evening meetings in neighborhoods throughout Baltimore and rarely felt “unsafe” in my travels. Why? It was my sense that

And it is this unprecedented euphoria, last seen during the first tech bubble which culminated with the bursting of the dot com bubble, that prompted today BofA's Chief Investment Strategist, Michael Hartnett, to ask what he called "the 1999 question", namely what level of irrational exuberance on Wall Street causes Fed to tighten?

Assuming that next week the Fed makes no changes to its policy and signals "carry on liquidity", greenlighting a continuation of the "irrational bullish phase" into Q1 (which is the most likely outcome, alongside a modest 5bps hike to the IOER rate in a reversal of the cuts made to this rate over the past year) Hartnett notes that two decades ago, the first "1999 tech bubble" hike in the Fed funds rate occurred in June'99, just as Nasdaq soared 30% above its 200dma. That would equate to roughly 10,600 today!

Assuming a simple straight-line correlation, this would equate to roughly 3,600 in the S&P500.

Whether Powell, who back in 2012 admitted that the Fed is "actually at a point of encouraging risk-taking", and that "we are blowing a fixed-income duration bubble right across the credit spectrum that will result in big losses when rates come up down the road. You can almost say that that is our strategy", will wait that long before he bursts the third consecutive Fed-inflated asset bubble remains to be seen. However, what remains a bizarre consequence of the Fed's market manipulation, is that for the 10th consecutive year, equity leadership remains deflationary and laggards are inflationary…

… to wit, US growth stocks are

New reports suggest virus masks and hand sanitizers are in short supply in some regions of Asia, reported the South China Morning Post.

Pharmacies across Hong Kong on Friday afternoon sold out of masks that prevent the wearer from contracting the deadly virus.

The most popular respirator is the 3M N95 Medical Mask that has sold out in many pharmacies across Hong Kong. Any remaining N95 masks have been sold for as much as HK$60 (about $7.75) per unit, a massive +700% mark, considering the masks usually sell for less than HK$7.77 ($1).

Taiwan this week banned the export of masks for the next month while the government stockpiles reserves.

Taiwan's premier Su Tseng-chang @eballgogogo (**Eballgogogo????) said the island would halt export of surgical masks and N95 masks for a month from today.
Su said Taiwan produces 1.88 million to 2.44 million masks a day, and the normal domestic demand is 1.3 million. pic.twitter.com/ONGhdDmwuU

— Xinqi Su ??? (@XinqiSu) January 24, 2020

Across Macao, residents have been hit with mask rations; only ten per customer is allowed who can present pharmacies with a valid government ID card.

WATCH: (1/2) Wuhan in an *unprecedented* lockdown to slow the spread of the deadly #coronavirus. @CBSNews flew out just in time! Filmed this at the airport Wednesday night. Everyone had a mask on. Felt I was living through SARS 2003 all over again. @CBSThisMorning @CBSEveningNews pic.twitter.com/mVbtQqcnnZ

— Ramy Inocencio ??? (@RamyInocencio) January 22, 2020

So far, more than 900 cases have been confirmed with 26 dead. China has restricted travel for +40 million people. The spread of the virus

Luxury homes in South Florida have been selling like hot cakes – mostly because mansion taxes and the capping of SALT deductions have pushed many from Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to the tax-friendly environment of Florida.

"I've been selling real estate for 34 years," said real estate broker Rob Thomson, a Mar-a-Lago club member and the owner of Waterfront Properties & Club Communities, who spoke with Bloomberg. "This is the longest bull run of my career."

He said mansions, small homes, and empty lots have been in high demand, thanks to the state's income tax rate of 0%, along with the region’s vast amount of wealth.

Thomson said while the Miami Metropolitan Area, from Miami to West Palm Beach/Palm Beach, is booming – there's a section of residential real estate — within a ½ mile of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club that has gone cold.

Ten homes remain unsold within a four-block radius of Mar-a-Lago have been sitting on the market for an extended period.

One of the properties is located at 1090 South Ocean Blvd. has been listed since 2016; with a listing price of $6.95 million, according to Zillow, down 26.5% from an initial $9.5 million. Four other listings have been sitting on the market since 2018; seven have already seen significant reductions in price.

There's certainly a cloud of negativity over properties close to Mar-a-Lago – it's a massive contrast to the eight luxury Palm Beach homes that sold in 4Q19, with an average listing time of 191 days, said Douglas Elliman Realty LLC.

"The fact that they're all being marketed at the same time, nearby, is not natural," said Jonathan Miller, the CEO of Miller Samuel. "A cluster of listings, especially at the high end, is not likely to reflect a positive condition" in the market.

Brokers in Palm Beach had different explanations for the unsold homes around the resort, and all said it did not correlate with the president.

Paulette Koch, a broker with Corcoran Group, said the listed homes around the resort are "all coincidental," adding that, "you

It is easy to suggest the economy is booming when your net worth is in the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars, or when your business, and your net worth, directly benefit from surging asset prices. This was the consensus from the annual gaggle of the ultra-rich, politicians, and media stars in Davos, Switzerland this past week.

As J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC on Wednesday the stock market is in a “Goldilocks place.” 

Of course, it is when your bank receives an annual dividend from the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet expansion. This isn’t the first time I have picked on Dimon’s delusional view of the world. E.g.:

“This is the most prosperous economy the world has ever seen and it’s going to be a very prosperous economy for the next 100 years. The consumer, which is 70% of the U.S. economy, is quite strong. Confidence is very high. Their balance sheets are in great shape. And you see that the strength of the American consumer is driving the American economy and the global economy. And while business slowed down, my current view is that, no, it just was a slowdown, not a petering out.”  

Jamie Dimon during a “60-Minutes” interview.

If you’re in the top 1-2% of income earners, like Jamie, I am sure it feels that way.

For everyone else, not so much. Here are some stats via the WSJ:

“The median net worth of households in the middle 20% of income rose 4% in inflation-adjusted terms to $81,900 between 1989 and 2016, the latest available data. For households in the top 20%, median net worth more than doubled to $811,860. And for the top 1%, the increase was 178% to $11,206,000.”

Put differently, the value of assets for all U.S. households increased from 1989 through 2016 by an inflation-adjusted $58 trillion. A full 33% of that gain—$19 trillion—went to the wealthiest 1%, according to a Journal analysis of Fed data.

The problem that is missed is that the “stock market” is NOT the “economy.”

This

Ten oil tankers capable of carrying some 8 million barrels of oil are idling near some of Libya’s oil export terminals, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg showed on Thursday, as the Libyan port blockade entered an ugly sixth day.

Groups loyal to eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar blocked virtually all exports from the African oil producer, and when storage reaches maximum capacity, it will result in a complete loss of all of Libya’s 1.2 million barrels per day of oil production and exports.

“Shutdown of all affected oil fields will result in a loss of crude oil production of 1.2 million b/d and daily financial losses of approximately $77 million,” Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Monday, confirming that nearly all of the OPEC member’s production will be lost due to the blockade.

This is the largest outage on the oil market since the September attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, yet it has failed to move oil prices higher.

Market participants are largely ignoring the Libyan outage and are focused on the prospects of global oil demand growth this year and the pace of supply increase from non-OPEC producers, primarily the United States, Brazil, Guyana, and Norway.

In addition, the new fear on the market, the outbreak of a coronavirus in China, could cut oil demand and push oil prices down by nearly $3 a barrel, Goldman Sachs said earlier this week.

“However while markets are obsessing over virus developments, they seem to be ignoring a number of oil supply risks in the market, which in aggregate would far outweigh the demand impact from the Wuhan virus,” ING strategists said on Thursday.  

According to ING’s estimates, the current outages around the world sum up to around 1.4 million bpd, “which would be more than enough to shift the global market into deficit over 1H20,” said Warren Patterson, ING’s Head of Commodities Strategy and Senior Commodities Strategist Wenyu Yao.  

“While the market may shrug at supply losses from Libya, it would be more difficult for the market to ignore large Iraqi supply losses if they became a reality, as Iraq is OPEC’s second-largest producer,” they noted.  

"Of all the fundamental catalysts like sliding economic growth, inflation, earnings, cash flow… the bears had to wait for a virus from humans eating bat soup to get a 1% sell-off "

A black bat or black cat spoiled the party…

pic.twitter.com/tQudqtK1qh

— Yawn Connor (@SPF2Million) January 22, 2020

Doesn't look so bad…

pic.twitter.com/gSwbghaMfr

— ?? (@a524952) January 24, 2020

"probably nothing…"

For a sense of the damage (or perhaps more of the calm we have encountered in the last few months)…

• Shanghai Comp's worst week in 8 months

• S&P 500's worst week in 5 months

• "Most Shorted" stocks had their biggest weekly drop in 4 months

• France's CAC 40 worst week in almost 4 months

• VIX's biggest weekly spike in almost 6 months

• HY Bond Prices worst week in almost 5 months

• Treasury yields biggest weekly drop in 4 months

• Yield curve's biggest weekly flattening in 2 months

• USD's best week in 2 months

• Yuan's worst week in 4 months

• Copper's worst week in over 5 years

• Oil's biggest weekly drop in 8 months

• Gold's 6th weekly rise in last 7 weeks

China ended notably weaker this week (China closed on Friday for lunar new year celebration)…

Source: Bloomberg

Mixed picture in Europe this week with Germany clinging to gains while France and Spain tumbled…

Source: Bloomberg

US Equity majors were all down on the week, unable to hold the hope-filled gains…Nasdaq ended its 6-weekly gain in a row (and AAPL broke its 9 week streak)

No problem, right? We survived SARS, so we'll survive this new outbreak, right?

Not quite. One of the virologists who discovered SARS – which also originated from a coronavirus in China – paints a far more grim tale of the latest outbreak compared to what took place in 2003, according to Yahoo News. 

After the virologist, Guan Yi of the University of Hong Kong's State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, visited Wuhan, he says that he didn't see "nearly enough" being done to fight off the new epidemic. He said that due to the new year, people were out at markets without masks and without any "sense of the epidemic". 

He also pointed out that airports were not being disinfected and that the local governments weren't even "handing out quarantine guides to people who were leaving the city."

The city did ultimately disinfect the market where the virus was traced back to, but Guan said that this could actually hurt researchers' chances of finding out where the virus originated, warning that what we have seen so far is just the beginning…

“A bigger outbreak is certain,” said Guan Yi, a virologist who helped identify severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003.

He estimated – “conservatively,” he said – that this outbreak could be 10 times bigger than the SARS epidemic because that virus was transmitted by only a few “super spreaders” in a more defined part of the country.

“We have passed through the ‘golden period’ for prevention and control,” he told Caixin magazine from self-imposed quarantine after visiting Wuhan. “What’s more, we’ve got the holiday traffic rush and a dereliction of duty from certain officials.”

And if that wasn’t enough to send a chill down your spine, just check out what else he had to say…

“I’ve seen it all: bird flu, SARS, influenza A, swine fever and the rest. But