My straight outta Japan morning train reads:
• Sound familiar? Investment Strategies Meant as Buffers to Volatility May Have Deepened It (NYT)
• 6 Reasons For David Swensen’s Success at Yale (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• and now, a brief rant about historic valuation (TRB)
• Bullion Direct vault of precious metals turns up mostly empty; investors hope to recover 2 percent (My Statesman) see also The South’s Gonna Do It Again, i.e. Lose. (Alicublog)
• How an Ohio reporter helped convict more than 100 rapists (Columbia Journalism Review)
People have had retirement plans for thousands of years – it was having kids. When you couldn’t work anymore, your kids took care of you. People still fall back on that today, even in the US.
yes that is true., but do you really want to live with you kids? and do they really want you too? and do you want to live where they do?
and isnt that a step backwards? and admission that the standard of living in the US has fallen back to pre 1940 levels?
The answers to those questions depend on your cultural assumptions, and the extent to which you accept those cultural assumptions.
I wonder if Peter Schiff stores any of his gold at Bullion Direct?
no its all on China and India
hm, seems the banksters just cant help themselves. or maybe its they want to help themselves to your money?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/09/nomura-wins-sad-sack-bank-of-the-week-after-overpaying-on-court-loss-to-fhfa-having-bond-traders-indicted.html
not sure if this is in all states, but its not just Texas where companies pay the state to prosecute ‘criminals’. the companies do all of the investigations, and then pay the cost of the prosecutor.
http://apps.texastribune.org/paid-to-prosecute/
its just another evidence of government capture.
wonder if these jobs will end up in a low cost country?
http://www.ibtimes.com/lockheed-martin-lay-500-information-systems-government-services-unit-source-2088184
course there is some push back if these jobs are related top DOD work, as most times they cant have foreign nationals (in a foreign country no less) work on military work. or at least they used to couldnt, but then our conservative congress probably changed the rules
It is so easy to pick apart the pseudo high mindedness of David Brooks’ facile declarations.
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2015/09/david-brooks-parties-precious-parties.html?m=1
Why does The Paper of Record keep him around?
“Why does The Paper of Record keep him around?”
A: Sheltered Workshop for the Dim & Clueless.
you know if voters dont really check those they vote for, they end up with this guy
http://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/stinging-indictment/
why is wall street trying to convince the FED its time to raise rates?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-has-never-been-as-many-record-job-openings-as-in-july-2015-09-09?dist=lcountdown
they used to be so infatuated with every down turn in the labor market. and its not like they care about their being any jobs at all.
so whats changed? why do they want rates to rise?
so just how have ‘savers’ been punished by the low Fed rates?
http://www.pragcap.com/have-savers-been-punished-in-the-low-interest-rate-environment/
Characterizing the thinking of savers as an ideological belief that the government should give them a risk-free return mis-characterizes their thinking. First, data shows that most Americans do not even have enough savings to diversify what little they have. Second, as Cullen has pointed out, investors who are not gamblers are actually savers, but “savers” do not see themselves as investors. Third, savers have learned since they were little tykes that banks lend out their savings as interest, so they are not looking for risk-free returns from the government. They are looking for returns from the bank’s borrowers, and it has only been since the FDIC was created, that from the saver’s point of view that this return has been risk-free on a principal of no more than $100,000 (or more recently, $250,000).
Cullen’s explanation of how depositor’s money works is different that what they think, but their beliefs are not ideological, and if they feel the FED is punishing them, it is because whenever they ask the bank manager why their interest rate is so low, the answer is because they base their rates off the FED rates.
Nevertheless,why should the interest rate policies should never favor the millions of little savers and homebuyers who only see the rates favoring the already very wealthy?
for those in the top %.5 in income here is you new ride
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/8/9272095/rolls-royce-dawn-convertible
A clinical example of the US pharmaceutical costs or why private sector competition can reduce the cost of a vial of snake anti-venom to only $14,000 at a US hospital while the same vial would be an exorbitant $200 in non-competitive Mexico.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/09/the-crazy-reason-it-costs-14000-to-treat-a-snakebite-with-14-medicine/
BTW – I think it would a valid economic assumption that a rational consumer, once bitten by a snake, would immediately get on the phone and negotiate with several hospitals regarding what price he/she could be treated at. After all, this would be a completely voluntary transaction by an informed consumer with time for research into the various potential treatments and cost-benefits thereof. Also, the doctor and medical team would be focused on an efficient economic outcome for the consumer at the time of treatment as they would understand the type and amount of insurance and deductible that the patient would have.
What Are a Hospital’s Costs? Utah System Is Trying to Learn
By GINA KOLATA
SEPT. 7, 2015
SALT LAKE CITY — Only in the world of medicine would Dr. Vivian Lee’s question have seemed radical. She wanted to know: What do the goods and services provided by the hospital system where she is chief executive actually cost?
Most businesses know the cost of everything that goes into producing what they sell — essential information for setting prices. Medicine is different. Hospitals know what they are paid by insurers, but it bears little relationship to their costs.
No one on Dr. Lee’s staff at the University of Utah Health Care could say what a minute in an M.R.I. machine or an hour in the operating room actually costs. They chuckled when she asked.
But now, thanks to a project Dr. Lee set in motion after that initial query several years ago, the hospital is getting answers, information that is not only saving money but also improving care.
….
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/health/what-are-a-hospitals-costs-utah-system-is-trying-to-learn.html
Jeb weighs in on taxes.
“Low growth, crony capitalism and easy debt — that’s President Obama’s economic agenda in a nutshell, and the tax code has helped make it possible,” Mr. Bush wrote ahead of an economic policy speech in North Carolina. “It’s past time for a change.”
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/09/09/jeb-bushs-tax-plan-looks-to-cut-loopholes-for-wealthy/
So if Dodd-Frank, the destruction of whole industries, and socialist nightmare of business-destroying moves is what Obama does, how he is also a crony capitalist?
I guess it depends on which gift to their rich friends the GOP want to convince YOU is in YOUR best interests.
“…The plan would add $1.2 trillion to the deficit, even when using a system favored by Republicans that takes into account any potential growth the tax changes could encourage, according to Republican economists who reviewed the plan on Bush’s behalf. The plan would lose closer to $3.4 trillion using traditional methods…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/09/jeb-bush-finally-unveils-tax-overhaul-plan-calling-for-fair-environment/
That means the deficit will shrink as it always does under these GOP tax cuts! All hail Supply Side economics. It NEVER fails er… a… works. REPUBLICAN SUPPLY SIDE It NEVER WORKS.
Europeans need to think twice before ending sanctions on Putin’s dictatorship.
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-russia-and-troops-in-syria-2015-9
JEB! new tax plan
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/09/jeb-bushs-new-tax-plan-a-revenue-eating-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing.html