Financial Markets and Economy
In Shocking Move, Goldman Slashes America's Long-Run "Potential GDP" From 2.25% To 1.75% (Zero Hedge)
While Ben Bernanke will never agree that global economic growth has ground to a halt as a result of his monetary policies, a phenomenon which in the past year has been dubbed "secular stagnation" by the very serious weathermen (and will certainly never admit the reason for such stagnation), with every passing month one thing becomes clear: there can be no growth and certainly no prosperity for the broader population with a $200 trillion (and rising at over $10 trillion per year) overhang in global debt. And now, even Goldman gets it.
Freddie Mac: Mortgage Serious Delinquency rate declined in April (Calculated Risk)
Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate declined in April to 1.66%, down from 1.73% in March. Freddie's rate is down from 2.15% in April 2014, and the rate in March was the lowest level since November 2008.
Freddie's serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 4.20%.
Lehman’s Fuld, 7 Years Later, Says ‘Perfect Storm’ Caused Crisis (Wall Street Journal)
Richard Fuld Jr., the man at the helm of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. when it collapsed in 2008, said a “perfect storm” of events caused the financial crisis.
Among the contributing factors Mr. Fuld listed Thursday were government officials who pushed for lower home-lending standards and homeowners who used their equity on their homes “as ATM accounts.”
The Tiniest U.S. Firms Are On The Rise, But They're Slow In Growing Revenue (Forbes)
The smallest U.S. firms – the so-called non-employer firms that have at least $1,000 in annual receipts but no employees – are on the increase, and so are their revenues, albeit minimally, according to new Census Bureau data on these types of businesses.
US Oil Production Sets New Modern Record Last Week (EconMatters)
I looked over the weekly Petroleum Inventory Report put out by the EIA today, and the biggest takeaway by far was that US Oil Production set a new modern era high at 9.566 Million Barrels per day. The last high in US Production occurred in March, and it appeared that the US Production numbers were getting slightly weaker, and maybe the top in US Production was in. But this past week Production really ramped back up with a blowout number, and if it wasn`t for a week in which imports were unusually low for the week, there would have been another huge build in Oil Inventories for the week.
Abenomics Heads Toward Debt Meltdown, Reflation Enemies Warn (Bloomberg)
Two years after unleashing record monetary stimulus, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his allies are confronting increasingly vocal opposition from the opponents of reflation who once dominated the policy debate.
Hundreds of economists filed in to a Saturday symposium on BOJ policy at a Japan Society of Monetary Economics semiannual gathering in Tokyo May 16. Backers of Kuroda’s 2 percent inflation target squared off against advocates of monetary restraint, who say the BOJ’s bond purchases are delaying a crucial overhaul of public finances to deal with record debt.
Stocks and Trading
Welcome To The Ebay Stock Market (Zero Hedge)
When we first brought the world's attention to the 330ET daily ramp in US equity markets, we were shrugged off as conspiracy wonks once again, but 2 years later – as trading activity has become increasingly focused in smaller and smaller windows during the trading day, so the mainstream media has finally been forced to admit that the US equity market has become nothing but Ebay – where everyone waits til the last second.
Politics
N.C. Governor Vetoes Bill on Religious Objection to Gay Marriage (Time)
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has vetoed a religious exemption bill that would allow some court officials to avoid gay marriage duties.
The Republican governor announced his decision Thursday — hours after lawmakers gave their final approval to the measure. His office says he vetoed it shortly after the announcement. The legislature must decide whether to override that veto.
Obama Explains Why He Approved Arctic Drilling In The Face Of Climate Concerns (Think Progress)
On Thursday afternoon, President Obama took to his newly-minted personal Twitter account to answer questions about climate change. After fielding a question about climate denial, the president took on the controversial question of drilling in the Arctic — something that has been seen as contradictory to his interest in fighting climate change.
Technology
Bitfinder’s Awair Air Monitor Is Now Available For Pre-Order (Tech Crunch)
Bitfinder, launched out of the R/GA accelerator in February, has opened up pre-order availability for the Awair air-monitoring system.
The Awair sits in the home, office or other indoor space to monitor the quality of the air in that environment, with sensors to detect temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2), fine dust particles (PM2.5) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). The information is then securely transferred to an app that gives you a readout of the air quality.
Google Mimics Apple With Android Pay (Wired)
WE’RE ANOTHER STEP closer to a world where everyone pays for a pastry at the corner coffee shop with the same device we use to pay for a video online.
On Thursday at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, Google unveiled a new digital wallet it calls Android Pay. Like Apple Pay—the service that arrived on the latest Apple iPhones this past fall—Google’s new smartphone tool provides a way to instantly pay for stuff not only in real world stores, but inside mobile apps on Android-based phones themselves.
Health and Life Sciences
Breast cancer 'alters bone to help it spread' (BBC)
Breast cancers can manipulate the structure of bone to make it easier to spread there, a study has found.
Researchers at the University of Sheffield said the tumours were effectively "fertilising" the bone to help themselves grow.
The study, in the journal Nature, said it may be possible to protect bone from a tumour's nefarious influence and consequently stop the cancer's spread.
Life on the Home Planet
Selling the Desert's Water-Conservation Lessons to the Rest of the World (Atlantic)
The Israeli farmers who pioneered the revolutionary technology known as drip irrigation weren’t trying to solve one of the world’s most urgent problems. They were just trying to survive. They lived in the desert, and they didn’t have enough water to grow their crops. One day, they met an engineer named Simcha Blass who told them about his amazing new invention.
In its simplest form, it was little more than a hose with holes in it. But behind each hole was a sophisticated little device called a dripper, a sort of button-like valve that emitted just the right amount of water. Snaked along a row of crops so that the holes were positioned directly above the roots, the hose could direct each precious drop of water directly to the plants, growing a bigger bounty while using a fraction of the water.
A Proposal to Modify Plants Gives G.M.O. Debate New Life (NY Times)
What’s in a name?
A lot, if the name is genetically modified organism, or G.M.O., which many people are dead set against. But what if scientists used the precise techniques of today’s molecular biology to give back to plants genes that had long ago been bred out of them? And what if that process were called “rewilding?”
