Institutional Investor (September 18)
“Ebullient growth isn’t likely any time soon, but with no recession in sight, equity bears are likely to remain in hibernation.” The 6.5 year bull market in the U.S. still has further to run.
Financial Times (September 18)
“The EU’s 28 member states have long been famed for squabbling among themselves whenever the bloc comes face to face with an acute issue. Confronted by the current refugee crisis—the biggest of its kind in the continent’s recent history—Europe’s governments are responding true to form.”
Tags: Crisis, EU, Governments, Refugee, Squabbling
Washington Post (September 17)
“At this point, one could be forgiven for wondering if the Fed will ever muster enough confidence in the economy’s capacity for self-sustaining growth.” Still, there are benefits “to keeping rates at zero a while longer, as long as inflation remains negligible. Among those benefits are more affordable mortgages and car loans, which should bolster still-weak domestic demand.”
Bloomberg (September 16)
Standard & Poors became the latest credit-rating company to downgrade Japan, following earlier moves by Moody’s and Fitch. “Could the Japan downgrade presage a stampede for the exits by international investors? Unlikely.” Most JGB investors are domestic “and probably won’t be concerned about the verdict of U.S. financial services companies, especially ones with the questionable reputations of the credit raters.” Japanese investors will continue to “view Japanese bonds as the ultimate safe zone.”
Tags: Credit rating, Downgrade, Fitch, Investors, Japan, JGBs, Moody's, Reputations Bonds, Safe, Standard & Poors, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 15)
“Put yourself in Kim Jong Un’s Gucci loafers. Your economy is in worse shape than usual, you’re unsure of your grip on power, and you’ve recently executed your fourth defense minister in three years. What’s a young dictator to do?” With the restart of his nuclear reactor, Kim Jong Un may be “angling for his own version of Iran’s nuclear deal,” especially since he knows that once an agreement is reached, “he can then violate it at will without paying too steep a price.”
Tags: Agreement, Dictator, Economy, Iran, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear reactor, Violate
Institutional Investor (September Issue)
“The combination of collapsing crude oil prices, wild currency swings and heightened governance scrutiny has created a challenging environment for many of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds”.
New York Times (September 13)
In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland. The arrangement now looks to be in peril. “Ending the power-sharing provincial government in Northern Ireland will serve no good purpose, either for Protestant unionists or Catholic nationalists. The only ones who gain are the dark forces on both sides who remain consumed by sectarian hatred and violence.”
Tags: Catholic nationalists, Dark forces, Good Friday Agreement, Government, Hatred, Northern Ireland, Peace, Power sharing, Protestant unionists, Violence
The Economist (September 12)
“The last time the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate, there was no one to tweet about it.” That was in June 2006 before Twitter’s IPO. “Nine years on, as the Fed readies itself to raise rates again, the public debate between hawks and doves is much noisier.” Even though markets are counting on least one rate rise this year, “it does not pay to go early: a rise now would needlessly risk America’s recovery.”
USA Today (September 11)
“Fourteen years ago, the United States suffered a shockingly successful surprise attack by a little known Islamic extremist group based 7,000 miles away in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.” Today, Al-Qaeda’s “influence lives on…through offshoot extremist groups,” especially the Islamic State (ISIL) whose “lightning spread” throughout “Syria and Iraq has been marked by medieval barbarity, adapted to the Internet age.” The U.S. must pursue ISIL as aggressively as it once pursued al-Quaeda. “ISIL represents the embodiment of evil in the modern world, and it mustn’t be allowed to establish a foothold from which to plot attacks against the United States or to inspire so-called lone wolf sympathizers to do so.”
Tags: Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Barbarity, Extremists, Iraq, ISIL, Syria, Taliban, U.S. Islam
Bloomberg (September 10)
“Golf is a microcosm for the problems that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing in reviving Japan’s economy — low prices, unwilling consumers, a lack of female participation and an aging populace. The sport generated 1.37 trillion yen ($11.5 billion) in sales for Japan’s courses, driving ranges and equipment retailers in 2013, less than half the revenue of the peak years.”
Tags: Abe, Aging populace, Consumers, Economy, Female participation, Golf, Japan, Microcosm, Prices, Revenue
