The Turkish lira hit a new record low against the dollar this week as the country's central bank held rates steady. The Wall Street Journal's Caitlin Ostroff and David Gauthier-Villars report: The lira fell 2.1% on Thursday, with $1 buying 7.9792 lira, after the central bank left its key, one-week repo rate at 10.25%, surprising the majority of investors and analysts who anticipated an increase. For several months, the central bank’s main policy rate has been negative when adjusted for inflation, making holding the Turkish lira an unattractive proposition for foreign investors and … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2020
Can You Believe Any of the Numbers Out of China?
Official statistics from China have been suspect for some time, but in the wake of COVID-19, more analysts are looking at them with skepticism. The Economist reports: The national statistics bureau will report third-quarter gdp on October 19th. Analysts expect growth of about 5% compared with a year earlier, a strong recovery from the depths of the coronavirus slowdown, and all the more stunning when much of the world is mired in recession. Yet some believe the official growth data have been too rosy this year, not least because China’s pandemic lockdown in the first quarter was among the … [Read more...]
CVS Hiring an Army of Pharmacists to Test for COVID-19
Melissa Repko reports for CNBC that CVS will be hiring as many as 15,000 employees, most of them pharmacists, to expand its testing and dispensing of drugs for COVID-19. She writes: CVS Health said Monday that it wants to immediately hire 15,000 employees to prepare for an expected rise in Covid-19 and flu cases this fall and winter. More than 10,000 of those will be full-time and part-time licensed pharmacy technicians who can help dispense medications and administer Covid-19 tests. Public health officials have warned that Covid-19 cases will likely rise in the months ahead, as more … [Read more...]
New Update! Why Vanguard is Too Big: Part IX: It’s NOT Different this Time
Your Survival Guy’s boiler room is stacked with buckets of 30-day survival food sprinkled with Spam and other canned delicacies. My son tells me he can’t wait to try some of it. Other members of my family tell me they’d rather starve. Your Survival Guy also has a weakness in the canned goods aisle. Cans of BOGO tuna and sardines magically jump into my cart like fish out of water. “We’re good on the canned fish,” I’m told. Who knew the term “value” could be so subjective. Last month investors believed Apple was worth eight percent of the market. (They’ve since re-thought that). As I’ve … [Read more...]
Trucks more like Drones Could Be the Future of Autonomous Transportation
The goal of most autonomous vehicle development is aimed at cutting humans out of the vehicle's operation as much as possible. One Swedish company, Einride, is working on a concept that treats autonomous trucks more like drones. They allow a remotely located "driver" to take over operation of their "Pod" trucks when needed. The Economist reports: The Pod was made by Einride, a Swedish firm founded in 2016 by Robert Falck, an engineer who used to work for Volvo. Mr Falck thinks that the technology of vehicle autonomy, long experimental, has now evolved sufficiently for driverless goods … [Read more...]
New Jersey Chases Away Business with Biden-Like Policies
In the past, former Vice President Joe Biden has expressed his support for a financial transactions tax. Now, New Jersey is trying to implement one of its own to bolster its broken budget. The move's effect could be the opposite of that intended. The NYSE, the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization, said it plans to leave New Jersey if the state implements the tax. Bloomberg's Elize Young reports: The New York Stock Exchange told New Jersey lawmakers that it’s prepared to move operations out of state should they impose a new tax on electronic trades via data servers. In … [Read more...]
Biden’s Triple Threat to American Wealth and Prosperity
You might think that after a massive regulatory rollback and tax reform drove unemployment to the lowest level in a generation and helped low and moderate-income Americans most, it would sink in on the left that incentives really do matter for economic prosperity. Well, you probably didn’t think that, but you might have hoped common sense would prevail. It hasn’t. Biden’s economic plan looks like a disaster for America’s economy. Biden wants to hike, corporate, personal, and investment taxes. A President Biden would hike the corporate tax rate to 28% from today’s 21%. He would … [Read more...]
Joe Died Suddenly, What If It Were You?
What if you die suddenly? It’s a question that’s been on my mind because it happened to a long-time client of mine. We’ll call him Joe. He was the friend who would send you political emails at all hours of the night. We all know someone like him. He kept you in mind as he fumed about the direction of the country, and he was on your mind because he was clogging up your inbox. This was Joe’s way of taking his mind off of other things. Yes, he was fed up with what was going on in politics. It made him angry, but it also helped mask his sadness. You see, Joe’s only child, his son whom he loved … [Read more...]
Where Money Goes to Die
As you’ve seen in this table, the amount of money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index family is enormous. It’s where money goes to die, and is perhaps one of the greatest bubbles no one sees. You have advisors recommending this index approach until they’re blue in the face. They give presentations to the investment committee of pensions, foundations, LLCs, hedge funds, you name it, and say, “Well Bob, with this fund, you have a slice of the stock market.” A good follow-up question is how much of the total is dependent on just ten stocks? Action Line: Lots of careers are … [Read more...]
New! November Rage Gauge™ LAST CALL Before the Election
Your November Rage Gauge™ is in, and it’s at a record high, but you don’t need me to tell you that—just look around you. This week you learned Social Security’s cost of living adjustment will average about twenty bucks a month next year. You remember a time when a crisp twenty-dollar bill meant something to you. It meant I had to cut my neighbor’s lawn twice or scoop ice cream for five hours. Today you’re looked at as old-fashioned when presenting one for payment—as if cash is an inconvenience. “Just Venmo me.” What could possibly go wrong with the digitalization of the … [Read more...]