Financial Markets and Economy
Why the Global Oil Glut Might Not Fill Swimming Pools After All (Bloomberg)
One of the warning lights that theres too much oil around is no longer flashing, adding to signs that global crude markets are finally on the mend.
Everyone is worried about the thing markets need most, but they’re not asking the right questions (Business Insider)
People are worried about bond-market liquidity.
Seesawing U.S. economy tilts toward growth, but worries linger (Market Watch)
Here’s a new definition of March madness: Stocks going up when prospects for the U.S. economy are going down.
That’s precisely what’s happened. After a bad start to 2016, stock markets have risen for five straight weeks and are almost back to where they began the year.
Economists of the World, Unite! (Democracy Journal)
When some 13,000 members of the American Economic Association (AEA) gathered for their annual convention in San Francisco during the first week of January, few of them may have been aware that their organization turned 131 this year. Fewer still would probably have ever read the organization’s 1885 “platform.” The original draft of that founding document stated the group’s objectives as the encouragement of economic research and of “perfect freedom in all economic discussion.”
Weighing the Week Ahead: What’s Up with Housing? (Dash of Insight)
In my last WTWA (two weeks ago) I predicted a focus on the US Presidential election and the possible implications for financial markets. That was a good guess, with these stories remaining at the forefront of news through two weeks, not just one.
Silver Getting Accidental Boost From Base Metal Industry's Gloom (Bloomberg)
Silver is what happens to miners when they’re planning other things. About two-thirds of the world’s output is a byproduct scraped up when companies dig for base metals.
The Most Profitable Correlation in the Stock Market (Stock Charts)
Whether it’s life or investing, if you ignore the reality of correlations – be they positive or negative – you are literally engaged in paradigm shifting. This is the equivalent of trying to put the milk back into the cow.
When will I make another "Big" economic call (Calculated Risk)
Over the years, I've made several significant economic calls. For example, I predicted a recession in 2007, a recovery in 2009 (link is first in a series of posts), the top for housing prices in early 2006 and the bottom for housing prices in early 2012.
How Life Insurance Loans Really Work And Why It’s Problematic To “Bank On Yourself” (Kitces)
A popular feature of permanent life insurance is that it accumulates cash value that can grow over time – ensuring that if the policy is surrendered, the policyowner will still have something to show for it that cannot be forfeited. However, this “non-forfeiture value” of a life insurance policy has an important secondary benefit as well – it gives an insurance company the means to provide policyowners a personal loan at favorable interest rates, because the cash value provides collateral for the loan.
Politics
Has the Benghazi Committee Reached a Turning Point? Cont'd (The Atlantic)
Remember Bradley Podliska? Probably not. He’s the Air Force Reserve member, lifelong Republican, and former intelligence analyst who filed a lawsuit in October alleging that he'd been fired from the House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks after objecting to what he characterized as a political turn in the work. Podliska claimed that the committee had become a witch hunt against Clinton. The charge came shortly after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested in a TV interview that the point of the committee was to harm Clinton politically.
Trump Praises The ‘Spirit’ Of Campaign Manager Who Became Physical At A Rally (Think Progress)
Donald Trump praised his campaign manager’s “spirit” for grabbing a protester at his rally in Tucson on Saturday.
“I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted to take down those horrible, profanity-laced signs,” Trump told ABC News.
Technology
Apple's 9.7-inch 'iPad Pro' to bring flagship glory back to full-size form factor (Apple Insider)
When Steve Jobs took the wraps of iPad in 2010, he called the 9.7-inch, iOS-powered tablet "magical and revolutionary," a testament to Apple's industry-leading design and engineering prowess. It was Cupertino's first foray into slate-style computing and at $499 came at a price point nestled in that Goldilocks zone between iPhone and Mac.
10 Years Over the Red Planet (Slate)
On March 10, 2006,* the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at the fourth planet from the Sun and took up orbit there.
Forty-five thousand orbits and 10 years later, it has provided us humans back on Earth with a revolution in the way we think about Mars.
When Machines Think and Feel (Wall Street Journal)
Artificial intelligence is breathing down our necks: Software built by Google startled the field last week by easily defeating the world’s best player of the Asian board game Go in a five-game match. Go resembles chess in the deep, complex problems it poses but is even harder to play and has resisted AI researchers longer. It requires mastery of strategy and tactics while you conceal your own plans and try to read your opponent’s.
Health and Life Sciences
Why Antibiotic Use Scares Me (Science-Based Medicine)
Antibiotic sensitive (left) and resistant (right) bacterial colonies. They probably shouldn’t be that close together.
I read a study recently that alarmed me: acute bronchitis is a condition that rarely requires antibiotics, but three quarters of patients presenting with this condition receive a prescription for antibiotics. Even more worrisome, this statistic has not changed in 20 years. To those of us on the cusp of a career in medicine – I am a fourth year medical student – this is terrifying because we are going to have to deal with the consequences.
Fighting Macular Degeneration (NY Times)
Current treatments for the so-calledwet form of macular degeneration, involving injections inside the eye, are already “very effective” compared with laser treatments, which were used before intravitreal injections, said Dr. Ronald C. Gentile, the surgeon director at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.
Life on the Home Planet
When U.S. air force discovered the flaw of averages (The Star)
In the late 1940s, the United States air force had a serious problem: its pilots could not keep control of their planes. Although this was the dawn of jet-powered aviation and the planes were faster and more complicated to fly, the problems were so frequent and involved so many different aircraft that the air force had an alarming, life-or-death mystery on its hands. “It was a difficult time to be flying,” one retired airman told me. “You never knew if you were going to end up in the dirt.” At its worst point, 17 pilots crashed in a single day.
The First U.S. Climate Refugees (Bloomberg View)
Early one morning at the beginning of March, two black Chevy Suburbans filled with federal and state development officials left New Orleans for Louisiana's coast. Almost two hours later, they turned onto Island Road, a low spit of asphalt nearly three miles long with water on either side. At the other end was Isle de Jean Charles, a community of 25 or so families that is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. The officials had a plan to save the town: by moving it someplace else.
