Los Angeles Times (March 16)
With his proposed budget, President Trump “would slash education, research, foreign aid and many domestic programs to make room for one of the biggest military buildups in history.” The proposal is unlikely to gain traction. “It’s such a Draconian approach and would inflict so much pain on lawmakers’ constituents — especially in Red State America — that Congress is expected to ignore most of Trump’s proposal.”
Tags: Budget, Buildup, Congress, Draconian, Education, Foreign aid, Military, Pain, Research, Trump, U.S.
Institutional Investor (November 30)
“Today’s asset managers are using sell-side research much differently than they did in the past…. A whopping 66 percent of respondents value sell-side research to a small extent or not at all, and 61 percent already are aggregating market sentiment—as a means of understanding prevailing views or counteropinions—rather than using individual research recommendations.”
Tags: Asset managers, Counteropinions, Individual recommendations, Market sentiment, Prevailing views, Research, Sell-side
Institutional Investor (November 8)
Are we approaching “the end of research as we know it?” The portion of fees that goes to research (equity or bonds) is a mystery, but the veil will soon be lifted. On January 3, 2018, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II will require “that asset managers break out the costs of research from their own management fees and pay for them separately.” The result will probably be “that less research is spewed.” This could bring “potentially wrenching consequences for the research industry and its core users among active asset managers.”
Institutional Investor (October 2)
The Securities Exchange Commission is conducting a pilot program to determine whether a wider tick range will help drive liquidity and research, while reducing volatility. “Proponents believe a wider spread–$0.05, instead of the current $0.01 on exchanges—will lead to more displayed liquidity and thus an easier trading regime.” Over the next two years, 400 stocks will trade at the widened tick, while 1,200 stocks will serve as a control and two other groups of 400 stocks will test the effects of other variations.
Financial Times (April 3)
“The tide in the debate over the UK’s continued membership of the EU is turning against those campaigning to remain. This is not surprising, but the weakness of their arguments is puzzling.” Relying on scare tactics and narrow appeals to economic arguments misses the mark. “The main economic factors in favour of EU are not trade, but research, science and innovation policy.”
Tags: Debate, EU, Innovation, Membership, Remain, Research, Scare tactics. Economic factors, Science, Trade, UK
The Economist (March 19)
“Companies are abandoning functional silos and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. But the transition to “a network of teams” in place of conventional hierarchy has hardly been smooth. Managing teams is “hard” and research routinely uncovers lapses. And even when teamwork is well managed, things can be taken too far. “Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.”
Tags: Cross-disciplinary teams, Customers, Employees, Functional silos, Hierarchy, Individual, Network, Open-plan offices, Problems, Products, Research, Social networks, Teamwork
Washington Post (March 5)
There has been a “great shift in what U.S. corporations have done with their money.” Companies once invested 40% of “every dollar that a corporation either borrowed or realized in net earnings.” This “went into investment in its facilities, research or new hires. Since the ’80s, however, just 10 cents of those dollars have gone to investment…. The money that once went to expansion and new ventures has gone instead into shareholders’ pockets.”
Tags: Corporations, Earnings, Expansion, Facilities, Investment, Research, Shareholders, Shift, U.S.
New York Times (November 30)
Japan canceled its 2014 whale hunt in the wake of a critical ruling from the International Court of Justice, but now stands poised to resume whaling in 2015. The new plan will reduce catches and raise the profile of scientists, but remains “a variation on the same evasion of treaty obligations, just as Japan’s insistence on ‘science’ as its prime motive rings hollow in a field where experts say nonlethal research already suffices.” The decision to resume the hunt is “a diplomatic embarrassment for Japan.”
Tags: Diplomatic, Embarrassment, Evasion, Experts, Hunt, Japan, Motive, Research, Scientists, Treaty obligations, Whales
Washington Post (November 10)
“The Federal Reserve has ended its roughly $3.7 trillion program of bond buying, leaving in its wake a host of hard questions. Did it strengthen the economic recovery? If so, by how much? What are the long-run effects? Should it be used again? We don’t have good answers.” Without more rigorous research, we won’t know whether or in what circumstances quantitative easing should be deployed in the future.
Tags: Bond-buying, Effects, Fed, Future, Quantitative easing, Recovery, Research
Institutional Investor (May Issue)
“When it comes to providing the direction that money managers find most helpful, they say, Mizuho and Nomura outpace the competition. These firms share top honors on the 2014 All-Japan Research Team, Institutional Investor’s 21st annual ranking of the country’s best sell-side analysts, by capturing 24 team positions each.”
Tags: Analysts, Competition, Direction, Honors, Japan, Mizuho, Money managers, Nomura, Ranking, Research, Sell-side
