Financial Markets and Economy
Since the Recession, We’re Spending Again—But With Less Income (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. household spending has fully recovered since the latest recession, but income hasn’t, squeezing budgets and pushing many lower-income families into the red, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report out Wednesday.
Bond Bears Miss Out on $2 Trillion Windfall in Record Debt Rally (Bloomberg)
So much for the end of the bull market in bonds.
China Rating Outlook Cut to Negative From Stable by S&P (Bloomberg)
Standard & Poors has cut the outlook for Chinas credit rating to negative from stable, saying the nations economic rebalancing is likely to proceed more slowly than the ratings firm had expected.
China is not to blame for the destruction of Britain's steel industry (Business Insider)
Britain's steel industry is on the brink of collapse and a lot of people are blaming China for a glut of cheap production which has pushed down prices and made it impossible for UK companies to compete.
Global Stocks Slip as Choppy First Quarter Comes to a Close (Wall Street Journal)
Global stocks edged lower Thursday, capping a rocky first quarter for risky assets around the world.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 1.1% halfway through the session, as banking shares fell and lower oil and metals prices weighed on the energy and mining sectors.
Even Bulls Get Stampeded by Gold's Best Quarter in Three Decades (Bloomberg)
Gold’s been on such a tear, even the bulls got left behind.
Earnings will decide the stock market’s fate (Market Watch)
Only two things matter in the stock market: earnings and interest rates.
The Economics of Radical Uncertainty (Bloomberg View)
Mervyn King's new book on the financial crisis and its aftermath is not what you might have expected from the former head of the Bank of England — from an official, that is, who played a crucial role before, during and after the crash. "The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy" isn't a memoir. There's no blow-by-blow narrative and no attempt by the author to justify what he did or failed to do. It's more ambitious and more daring than that.
Investors Aren’t Countercyclical—But They Should Be (Chief Investment Officer)
Investing’s golden rule might be to buy low and sell high—but it’s one to which even the most sophisticated investors have trouble adhering.
Beware bad multi-factor products (New Found Research)
It was only a matter of time before multi-factor products found their way to market.
China Seen Surpassing U.S. as Top Oil Importer This Year: Chart (Bloomberg)
China may surpass the U.S. to become the worlds largest crude importer this year, according to Fuliang Zhong,vice president at Chinese trader Unipec.
Finance blogger wisdom: peak index fund (Abnormal Returns)
There might be a theoretical limit to how much money can be passively invested, but of course definitions of “passive” differ. Even so, we aren’t anywhere near being close to such a limit. The relentless math of active management means that 50% of strategies have to underperform the average, regardless of how much money is indexed.
The emotional and psychological risks of investing (Market Watch)
If you have money invested anywhere — even if it’s just sitting in a bank — you're exposing yourself to at least some financial risk. And as an investor, you have no task that's more important than knowing and managing that risk.
This article, adapted from a chapter in my book Financial Fitness Forever, is the third in a series that addresses the four most important choices every investor faces. The others involve where you put your trust, whether you're going to try to beat the market, and how you diversify.
Europe can't stop deflation (Business Insider)
Eurozone inflation recovered a little in March, but is still struggling below zero, with prices shrinking 0.1% year-on-year, meeting the forecasts of economists, and up from a fall of 0.2% in February's figures, according to the latest flash data released by Eurostat.
Ruble Extends Best Advance in 11 Months as Fed Trumps Oil's Drop (Bloomberg)
The ruble strengthened on Thursday, extending its best month in almost a year, as a wider rally in emerging-market currencies overwhelmed the drag from falling oil prices, raising the possibility Russia may find it harder to fund its budget.
Get ready for this market to take flight thanks to tech stocks (Market Watch)
It’s the end of the first quarter, and investors are marveling at how dramatically the mood has shifted.
One of China's biggest investment banks has denied reports that it will default on a dim-sum bond (Business Insider)
An arm of one of China's largest investment banks, Guosen Securities, has denied that it will default on a bond traded in Hong Kong, following an earlier report that said it will miss coupon payments on a so-called dim sum bond in April.
This chart shows where most millionaires are moving to around the globe — and it's not London (Business Insider)
London may still have the most billionaires in the world, but millionaires are becoming less keen on the UK's capital city, according to data out this week.
The Investor Who's Betting on Brazil's Corruption Scandal (Bloomberg)
The corruption scandal rocking Brazil has led observers to come up with any number of historical comparisons that, they argue, offer insight into what lies ahead.
Impatient with Yahoo, some investors cheer Starboard effort (Business Insider)
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP's campaign to replace Yahoo Inc's board of directors is being welcomed by some investors who have grown impatient with the faded Internet pioneer's drawn-out process of selling its Web business.
Starboard, which owns about 1.7 percent of Yahoo, said last week it was seeking to remove the entire board of the company after pushing for changes since 2014.
Volkswagen's Looming Dividend Cut Shows Investor-Owner Divide (Bloomberg)
As Volkswagen AGs first dividend cut in six years looms in the wake of the diesel-emissions scandal, the carmaker must balance the interests of labor, government and family power brokers against those of investors who have felt short-changed for years.
Politics
Testing Territorial Limits (The Atlantic)
Why does America have territories, and why aren’t they governed the same way as states? Despite boasting a total population of around 4 million people, the legal fate of the five inhabited territories of the United States and the constitutional status of their residents have always occupied surprisingly little of the American legal imagination.
Xi's Washington Visit Crashed by Unwelcome Guest (Bloomberg View)
Just ahead of Thursday's meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing is protesting a U.S. decision to allow one of his state's highest-profile victims into the country.
At issue is an award ceremony. On Wednesday, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington presented an honor to Dolkun Isa, the head of the World Uighur Congress, for his work advocating the rights of the millions of Muslim Uighurs living in western China.
The Republican Stance on Immigration Is Evolving (The Atlantic)
Republican voters’ views on immigration are changing.
A new survey released on Tuesday by the Public Religion Research Institute found younger Republicans are more likely to see immigrants as a boon to the United States than Republicans older than 30. In fact, among those 65 and older, only 22 percent share the belief that “immigrants strengthen American society” compared with 51 percent of Republicans ages 18 to 29. The generational divide is not only evident in attitudes about how immigrants fit into American society, but also on immigration reform itself—all of which might provide a glimpse into the future of the Republican Party.
Technology
Project Apollo 17 might be the most impressive interactive experience on the Internet (BGR)
44 years. That’s how long it’s been since Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the Moon, returned to Earth. With all of the technological advancements that have come about in the past four decades, you might think that a trip to the Moon would be a walk in the park, but NASA’s priorities lie elsewhere.
Welcome To New Drone City (Popular Science)
No one remembers life before the Hive. The swarm buzzes, and there is shadow; the swarm rests, and then there is light.
Other cities have days and nights but New York is divided into drone commutes. It used to be just Manhattan. I remember that, at least. But then we got Hive East in Brooklyn, Hive North in the Bronx, the Hive Prime in Queens (which everyone just called “the Queens Bee”), and about a decade ago, Staten Island got Hive West.
Health and Life Sciences
These 3 Supplements Can Stop or Even Reverse Your Aging (Forbes)
Let me first explain why people age.
One of the main causes of aging is the weakening communication networks in cells between the genome and the mitochondrion, an organelle that works as the powerhouse of our bodies.
Is eating vegetarian in the genes (Futurity)
A genetic variation has evolved in populations that have eaten a plant-based diet over hundreds of generations, such as in India, Africa, and parts of East Asia.
A different version of the allele adapted to a marine diet was discovered among the Inuit people in Greenland, who mainly consume seafood.
Life on the Home Planet
Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Another Scary Record (Slate)
The North Pole’s ice is disappearing as we watch: This year, the Arctic sea ice had the lowest winter maximum extent on record.
Every year the ice melts in the summer and grows in the winter. Although the specific date varies, it generally reaches its maximum amount in March. In 2016, that maximum was likely reached on March 24, with an extent measured at 14.52 million square kilometers.
Ghosts of 9/11 Haunt Europe's Efforts to Stop Next Terror Attack (Bloomberg)
From terror squads who slip past border controls to the valiant but all-too-improvised emergency response, the backstory of last week’s attacks in Brussels is eerily similar to what happened in the U.S. in the leadup to Sept. 11, 2001.
