Who are all these new faces on my TV? No Williams, no Colbert, and soon no Letterman and no Stewart. No worries, we have you covered with our morning train reads:
• Baltic Dry at Lowest Level Since August 1986 (Bloomberg) see also The Shipping News: Brutal. As per usual (Financial Post)
• Treasure Hunt: In this turbulent market, leading wealth managers like a triple-play of alternatives: hedge funds, private equity, and private debt. (Barron’s)
• US investors primed for midyear rate rise (FT)
• Jon Stewart Will Leave ‘The Daily Show’ on a Career High Note (NYT) see also The Infuriating Thing About Jon Stewart Is Also Why He’ll Be Missed: He was too funny to not be truthful … and too truthful not to be funny. (BPolitics)
• What About the 1970s? (Wealth of Common Sense)
Jeb Bush Staffer Resigns After Controversial Comments Come To Light
“… and i’ve resigned my role at right to rise. best of luck to everyone there, and i apologize in advance to whoever fills my position…”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/10/jeb-bush-ethan-czahor-resigns_n_6657460.html
Right to Rise, what a great name for an influence-buying, black bag operation for old white guys. Why not just call it Vote-agra?
It gets even better than that. Jeb Bush has now released all of his e-mail communications with his Florida residents, complete with private personal information.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jeb-bush-posts-floridians-personal-information-online-2015-02-10
The first rule of communicating with politicians is to assume they are inconsiderate, incompetent psychopaths who will do pretty much anything in order to get elected. You are then free to share with them any information you would not mind seeing on the front page of USA Today.
I think the significance of the BDI is overstated, particularly given the glut of new ships in the world fleet. Demand may be part of the problem, but oversupply is a big issue in the industry.
There are plenty of other reasons to worry for investors though:
– energy sector P/E’s approaching 30
– broader “market” P/E’s at 20 despite record high profit margins, slow profit/revenue growth, mediocre economic growth
– median P/B, P/E, P/R at historic highs
Of course, none of that matters anymore with central banks now monetizing 100% or more of debt issuance in many large developed countries. I continue to see median P/E’s of 25-30 by the end of the year.
David Axelrod: 2009 Inauguration Attack Was So Feared, Obama Had Remarks Prepared To Calm People Down
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/10/axelrod-obama-inauguration_n_6653600.html
“Folks, don’t worry about the cracker with the machine guns. They will ignore my call to buy stocks and still be in cash, fuming, in 2015. No really. Seriously, these Republican Fox News adherents will sit out the greatest stock market rally of a generation because of their frail political egos.”
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
No robotization without representation!
…why does a laughably anachronistic fable about an alleged Luddite error have such enduring appeal …in the twenty-first century?
“Though the character of the attacks differed from region to region, most historians see enough similarities in the tactics and aims of these groups to categorize them under the same rubric. Most importantly, all scholars agree that the Luddites were not anti-technology. This is, of course, counter to the current popular perception of their actions; the term Luddite is used nowadays to denote someone who stubbornly refuses to use new methods and ideas, such as computers. The Luddites were not against machines per se, but against the threat to their livelihoods that some machines posed.”
A myth. Like the Reagan Myth that he was a tax cutter. Reagan was a tax hiker.
http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/2154/reagans-forgotten-tax-record
Or that he won the Cold War. People living under Putin, Lukashenko, Nazarbayev, Rahmon, Karimov, Sargsyan, Aliyev, Atambeyev, Timofti, Kim, Berdimuhamedow, and one point four billion Chinese might disagree.
“The Luddites were not against machines per se, but against the threat to their livelihoods that some machines posed.”
In other words, Luddites were not philosophically against technology, just actual technology that made everybody else’s lives better, but cost the Luddites their jobs.
I am not sure the Luddite fable exists. A Luddite always opposes technology that hurts them, The technology exists because it benefits someone (else). Today, so-called Luddites may be wrong in perceiving the harm of technology, but the rationale is the same.
NBA player claims a dolphin tried to drown him while he was on vacation
http://www.businessinsider.com/nick-young-iggy-azalea-dolphin-2015-2
Everybody wishes the Dolphin had been successful.
Your fifteen minutes are almost up.
Boehner Calls on Senate Dems to ‘Get Off Their Ass’
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/boehner-calls-senate-dems-get-their-ass-n304396
Boehner gets off his ass to finally pass a Homeland Security bill six months after it was needed, attaches a rider to stop funding immigration reform that he has languished for a half decade and tells other people to get off their ass.
Can anyone who has fallen for this typical GOP spin please explain how you’ve fallen for it, again?
Maybe he was drunk for six years?
Staples doesn’t works the system to avoid getting health care to their workers.
“unfortunate that the president is attacking a company that provides more than 85,000 jobs and is a major tax payer.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomgara/staples-obama-reaction?utm_term=.xs2VdJvLd#.qfqZ6AxWyR
Hey Staples. Everyone pays taxes. All my spending supports jobs. Stop free riding on America and do your part.
Legal marijuana sales: So much pot in Washington, growers ‘giving it away’
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102416865
I told you Obama would RUIN the American Family Farm!
Regarding the Baltic Dry Index I disagree somewhat. One also has to look at the price of oil as well.
In the 2nd half of the Baltic Dry Index and the price of of oil went down in perfect unison. Then the drop in oil allowed the index to go down as well. Remember, oil is a major cost for shipping stuff over the oceans.
I should have written “In the second half of 2008 …………. “.
We expect these people to manage their retirement wisely:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/three-questions-major-implications-financial-well/
Beyond freedom and dignity, folks.
A Wealth of Common Sense reads like something touting real estate and dissing equities in 1981. Perhaps it should be called ‘A wealth of end point bias’.
The Luddites had a valid grievance. England got poorer as it industrialized. It wasn’t until the just as violent Chartists came in that people started getting some of the benefits of the new means of production. The whig theory is that it all turned out for the best, but it seems that only violence, at home or abroad, can improve living standards.