10 Wednesday AM Reads

Our hand-curated, artisanal morning train reads will help you through hump day:

• The Almighty Dollar: Options for capitalizing on the dollar’s rise. (Morningstar)
• Diversification Means Always Having To Say You’re Sorry (Brian Portnoysee also This is an Investor’s Worst Nightmare (Irrelevant Investor)
• A world of pain: The giants of global finance are in trouble (The Economist)
• The below-zero lower bound: the negative yields observed on some government and corporate bonds are shaking our understanding of the ZLB constraint (Bruegelsee also European Yields Fall as Bond Purchases Begin (WSJ)
• Your Guide to Understand (And Compete With) Robo-Advisors (iheartwallstreet)

Continues here

 

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Discussions found on the web:
  1. Concerned Neighbour commented on Mar 11

    “ECB ‘Chasing Own Tail’ as Bond Rates Turn Negative: SocGen” – BBG

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-11/ecb-chasing-own-tail-as-bond-rates-turn-negative-socgen-says

    So what happens when central banks run out of bonds to buy? You know, that fast-approaching time when you have to pay such economic powerhouses as Italy and Portugal for the privilege of lending to them (how about that price discovery).

    Do they start buying equities directly? At least, the ones that aren’t already doing so, either directly or indirectly. And if so, how much bigger does the bubble grow? Media P/Es of 30? 40?

  2. VennData commented on Mar 11

    Saudi’s flog liberal, 1,000 lashes, Ten Years in Prison.

    “…Saudi Arabia have since hit back, saying it “expresses its intense surprise and dismay” over international criticism. Blogger Badawi has already received 50 lashes in a public square in January but further rounds have been delayed after pressure from the international community…”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-surprised-at-criticism-of-blogger-badawi-flogging-10094429.html

    Boenher needs to invite this Middle Eastern to talk to Congress too. Saudi’s poll numbers would rise with Americans when we see a fiery speech full of anger and venom.

    Get John McCain to lead a task force into to protect Saudi Arabia.

    The richest man in US Congress would only rank 166 in China’s congresses

    http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-politicians-are-rich-2015-3

    ​Their “Free market” ​culture is working great for everyone. Not just the one percent who are all in in the legislature.They better get their workers focused on hatred of the Japanese. Get the 99%ers to hate, that’s the secret. HATE!

    Utah to bring back firing Squads

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/11/utah-lawmakers-vote-to-become-only-state-to-allow-firing-squad/

    So the dictatorships, Neanyahu, and the Republicans are all on the same page.

    I demand an executive order that we flog tax cheats, frat boys, and anyone who blasphemes the President.

    • rd commented on Mar 11

      Utah will organize their firing squads along current GOP organizational structures, so they will be circular.

  3. rd commented on Mar 11

    The on-ramp to the Presidency is located in Iowa. That on-ramp is paved with corn and ethanol subsidies. No politician even dreaming about becoming president will support eliminating ethanol and corn subsidies.

  4. VennData commented on Mar 11

    Almighty Dollar Risky for US

    http://blog.yardeni.com/2015/03/almighty-dollar-risky-for-us-except.html

    Simply end the Reagan loophole that lets companies hide foreign earnings by paying one-two percent tax in offshore tax havens and MAKE them bring home the money, fully-taxed as it should be

    Government revenues spike, more money here to invest. And it’s all dollars. Pay it all out in dividends to American shareholders if you want. Where it will be taxed again and 15% and spent at Tiffany’s.

    This is such a non-brainer every time we undo a Reagan policy the country is better off.

    • intlacct commented on Mar 11

      Overseas taxpayers have to pay tax on their income, whether repatriated or not. Shouldn’t corporations be held to at least the standard we impose on individual taxpayers?

  5. rd commented on Mar 11

    I went to see Macfarland USA at the theater. Anybody who eats fruits and vegetables should see it to get a better feel for how they get to our table.

    After seeing it, I did a bit more research into the backstory of the movie and its community. As usual, they made up much of the backstory for the coach but it appears they underplayed how poor and transitory the community actually is. What the coach was able to do to help a few students out of poverty is truly impressive.

    • willid3 commented on Mar 11

      might also want to do the same with meat and other foods

  6. Jojo commented on Mar 11

    Excellent news!
    —————
    Major survey shows gun ownership and hunting at record lows
    Published March 10, 2015
    Associated Press

    WASHINGTON – The number of Americans who live in a household with at least one gun is lower than it’s ever been, according to a major American trend survey that finds the decline in gun ownership is paralleled by a reduction in the number of Americans who hunt.

    According to the latest General Social Survey, 32 percent of Americans either own a firearm themselves or live with someone who does, which ties a record low set in 2010. That’s a significant decline since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when about half of Americans told researchers there was a gun in their household.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/03/10/major-survey-shows-gun-ownership-and-hunting-at-record-lows/

  7. Jojo commented on Mar 11

    The main weak link in the chain? MAIL.COM email…
    ———————-
    Anatomy of a Hack
    A step-by-step account of an overnight digital heist

    by Russell Brandom

    In the early morning hours of October 21st, 2014, Partap Davis lost $3,000. He had gone to sleep just after 2AM in his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home after a late night playing World of Tanks. While he slept, an attacker undid every online security protection he set up. By the time he woke up, most of his online life had been compromised: two email accounts, his phone, his Twitter, his two-factor authenticator, and most importantly, his bitcoin wallets.

    Davis was careful when it came to digital security. He chose strong passwords and didn’t click on bogus links. He used two-factor authentication with Gmail, so when he logged in from a new computer, he had to type in six digits that were texted to his phone, just to make sure it was him. He had made some money with the rise of bitcoin and held onto the bitcoin in three protected wallets, managed by Coinbase, Bitstamp, and BTC-E. He also used two-factor with the Coinbase and BTC-E accounts. Any time he wanted to access them, he had to verify the login with Authy, a two-factor authenticator app on his phone.

    Other than the bitcoin, Davis wasn’t that different from the average web user. He makes his living coding, splitting time between building video education software and a patchwork of other jobs. On the weekends, he snowboards, exploring the slopes around Los Alamos. This is his 10th year in Albuquerque; last year, he turned 40.

    ….

    http://www.theverge.com/a/anatomy-of-a-hack

    • willid3 commented on Mar 11

      which has become the norm. there really is very little that we every day users can do any more as most hackers are after the companies with the data. cause they can compromise a lot ids that way.

  8. VennData commented on Mar 11

    EMAILGATE! WHITEWATER CONTINUES!!

    That past — and journalists’ failures to reckon with it — are still affecting coverage today. When this email story broke, how many journalists said it was important because it “plays into a narrative” of Hillary Clinton as scandal-tainted? I must have heard it a dozen times just in the past week.

    Here’s a tip for my fellow scribes and opinionators: If you find yourself justifying blanket coverage of an issue because it “plays into a narrative,” stop right there. That’s a way of saying that you can’t come up with an actual, substantive reason this is important or newsworthy, just that it bears some superficial but probably meaningless similarity to something that happened at some point in the past. It’s the updated version of “out there” — during the Clinton years, reporters would say they had no choice but to devote attention to some scurrilous charge, whether there was evidence for it or not, because someone had made the charge and therefore it was “out there.”

    http://theweek.com/articles/543620/media-already-bungledhillarys-emailgate

    This, while the GOP undermines nuclear negotiations with Iran.

  9. intlacct commented on Mar 11

    I aspire to unhedged international exposure. ;)

    Besides the debt, demographics and deficits arguments (ie emerging markets are better credits than mature, high dependency ratio, falling or flat productivity environs), at least 50% of my portfolio, and my salary, is denominated in US thalers. Way too much home country bias, IMO.

  10. Robert M commented on Mar 12

    On ZLB
    The fact is zlb is a result of the fact there is too much capital not being put to productive use. This is occuring because the owners of capital have bought(convinced) politicians that they shold retain it all; the Austerian anti taxers. If governments were allowed to tax capital at higher rates to provide income for governments to educate their polity, fix their infrastructure and improve the health of the polity interest rates would rise as capital would be deployed to do “real” things. This means that governments are allocating resources not to pick winners and losers but to provide the underlying structure for capital to do so

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