10 Wednesday AM Reads

December 16, 2015 7:30am by

The interminable soap opera is almost over; Its Fed day, start it right with a healthy breakfast, and our morning train reads:

• Fed’s Historic Liftoff and Everything After: Decision Day Guide (Bloomberg) see also Uncharted Territory in the Fed Funds Rate Cycle (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Shining new light on fees (Pensions & Investments)
• Most Billionaires Can’t Stay That Rich After 20 Years, UBS Says (Bloomberg) but see Battered, Apologetic and Still Pitching Their Hedge Funds (NYT)
• Swedroe: Key Market Value Metric Outdated (ETF.com)
• Is Howard Stern going soft or just getting sharper? (Washington Post)

Continues here

 

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Discussions found on the web:
  1. VennData commented on Dec 16

    Congress Targets U.S. Diet Panel That Drafted Guidelines on Meat and Sugar

    “…​Congress wants the U.S. government to rein in the nutrition panel that called for cutting meat and sugar in American diets…”​

    ​”…Republican members of Congress including Kansas Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of that chamber’s agricultural appropriations subcommittee, and companies including Coca-Cola Co. said they were concerned over the direction the guidelines were taking…”​

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-16/congress-targets-u-s-diet-panel-that-drafted-guidelines-on-meat

    Republicans are anti-scientific, anti-health, and pro big rich assholes.

    Voting has consequences

  2. VennData commented on Dec 16

    Congress Reaches Fiscal Agreement Ending U.S. Oil Export Ban

    “…​The plan “will provide permanent relief to families and job creators” and includes “many provisions that Republicans have long fought for,” Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement. Republican Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri said the proposal to lift the crude oil export ban “is huge” and would have a “much bigger” effect…”​

    http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-16/congress-reaches-fiscal-deal-that-ends-u-s-crude-oil-export-ban

    ​Democrats get their tax breaks for alt. energy so that Republicans can end Nixon’s oil export band that kept gas prices 5-30% lower for Americans​.

    “Job Creators and Families!” ROFL!

    Hey Republican voter. Ryan is doing deals with Obama. Making Obama’s legacy stronger.

    • ilsm commented on Dec 16

      More war, lower receipts.

      US imports about 10 million barrels a day and can now send about.6 million back out.

  3. RW commented on Dec 16

    Somewhat hyperbolic — 25 bps w/ no other tightening very possibly not followed by successive hikes doesn’t amount to much — but it does make a point and there is this expectations channel thingie.

    This week, the US government will take action to slow the economy and prevent wage growth
    Imagine President Barack Obama announced a plan for a new tax that he said would raise the price of borrowing money in America. Every new mortgage would become more expensive. So would every auto loan and small-business loan. Towns and school districts would find the cost of new bonds elevated, as would large corporations. All across the land, credit availability would diminish. …

    It’s unimaginable, of course. Congress, the press, and the public would all throw a fit. Yet at this point it is considered all but certain that the Federal Reserve is going to do exactly this by raising interest rates at its meeting next week …

    • rd commented on Dec 16

      Its interesting. In our household, we have made sure we have taken every opportunity to make sure our debt is positioned to take advantage of these historically low rates (unlike the US government). It didn’t drive us to take on much new debt, but did allow us to lower our carrying cost now and in the future significantly. I haven’t seen much advice out there on how households can do it (you just have to figure it out yourself) but there is plenty of advice on how to “reposition your portfolio” even though the likely market outcomes over the next year or so are likely to be a random number generator.

      I will just be please if this “Waiting for Godot” moment can be done and over so that people can focus on real things. If a 0.25% Fed funds rate is going to derail the US economy and end Western Civilization as we know it, then there should be a lot more people than just Janet Yellen working on improving the situation (Hello….Congress….are you there?).

  4. VennData commented on Dec 16

    This is just like 1994, and investors lost $600 billion that year

    http://www.businessinsider.com/massive-bond-bubble-fears-2015-12

    Yep if you “believe” the Fed will fail, Obama’s socialism will fail, America is going down the drain then you hang into those bonds, Baby.

    And brag about it now. Imagine the thrill at being able to tell people how “you told them so.”

  5. VennData commented on Dec 16

    How Cruz and Rubio exposed the GOP’s rift on foreign policy

    ​Cruz wants the US to support dictators.

    Why anyone thinks this guy is “smart” or a “great debator”​ is beyond me. After WWII we forced democracy on Japan and Germany. yet we kept the dictators going elsewhere and it always turned into trouble from Korea to Russia to the Middle East and even South America.

    Dictatorships ALWAYS come back to haunt us.

    Poppy Bush put the damn Emir back on the throne after “liberating” Kuwait! What message does that send to the suffering citizens in those police states?

    http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/republican-debate-foreign-policy-assad-216824

    ​Cruz is wrong.

    But Rubi​o’s anti Cuban stridency is just a stupid. That has gotten us nowhere in two generations.

    Republicans are the problem.

    • ilsm commented on Dec 16

      Trump was most presidential and sane last night.

      The 1950’s Bush CIA problems are not Obama’s or Clinton’s: 31 citations.

      US’ body count strategy driving expensive bombing is not working encouraging more collateral damage will not correct the lack of focus.

      The main difference between Assad and al Sisi (Egypt’s military Tsar) is al Sisi is promising not to use US’ $3B a year bribe to attack Israel.

      While Christie is pout to shoot Russians aircraft down to protect al Qaeda!

      US only ousts dictators who keep the radical Sunnis under wraps.

      What happens after Assad is dumped and the Sunni nutcases take over?

    • VennData commented on Dec 16

      islm,

      You’re clueless. Trump Presidential?! ROFL!

      Yeah those Mulsims will all tell the truth at JFK Customs when asked if their Muslims and should be allowed to enter Donald Trump’s America.

  6. VennData commented on Dec 16

    Kristaps Porzingis Is Learning How to Be the Hottest Athlete in New York

    “…Carmelo Anthony was reportedly “furious,” and when the pick was announced…”

    “…By early December, ESPN was promoting Knicks games not with highlights of Carmelo but with a 30-second ad consisting almost exclusively of Porzingis highlights, set to a Latvian rap song…”

    “…Phil Jackson, the team’s president and resident mystic, credited the rookie’s sudden rise to a “magical element…”

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/12/knicks-kristaps-porzingis-starting-forward.html

    Don’t listen to the predictions of the biased, ARROGANT and privileged with a partisan axe to grind.

  9. RW commented on Dec 16

    Private Profit with Public Guarantee: The Real Issue with Fannie and Freddie
    The NYT had a column by Jim Parrot and Mark Zandi on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac [that] argues that the problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was that they were considered too big to fail. It therefore puts forward the case for ending their monopoly on issuing government guaranteed mortgage-backed securities (MBS).

    This argument seriously misrepresents the issues with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The real problem was that they issued trillions of dollars in MBS that were implicitly backed up by the government. …

    …if we allow private banks to issue mortgage backed securities with the guarantee of the government. This would mean that Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and the rest would be able to issue the same sort of subprime MBS they did in the bubble years …

    NB: This cannot be said enough mainly because powerful interests really want us to forget it: businesses that cannot fail ain’t capitalism and privatizing profit for a few while socializing losses for the many ain’t democracy. Full stop.

  11. VennData commented on Dec 16

    QE was over a long time ago to those who said it would never end. Now the Fed is raising rates to those same people.

    Rick Santelli, Jim Bianco, Jeff Gundlach guaranteed you the Fed would not raise rates.

    http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000385170

    They were wrong. Why do you listen to them? Why do you read the WSJ that guaranteed you QE would go to infinity? That Obama would drive oil prices up, increase the deficit, and ruin the American economy? Why?

    And why do you spread these predictions?

  12. Jojo commented on Dec 16

    Re: yesterday’s “FAA announces drone owners must register by Feb. 19th”
    ————–
    Were it only so easy to get gun owners to register ALL their weapons!

    Are we sure there isn’t an amendment or right to own drones in the Constitution?

    • intlacct commented on Dec 17

      So less than 2% of our population produces almost as many deaths as the remaining 98%? Is this an argument for getting rid of the 2%?

  15. MikeR44 commented on Dec 16

    Barry, Thanks for including the 1963 Sinatra interview from Playboy in Monday’s reads. It was great to read it again. Not only did Frank clearly enunciate his beautiful songs, he was a clear and thoughtful thinker.

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