Financial Markets and Economy
A few strange and terrible things are happening to the Chinese economy all at once.
Dubai Crude Falls to Low Against Oman as Traders Wary of OPEC (Bloomberg)
Dubai crude, a marker for Middle Eastern oil traded from the Suez Canal to Japan, dropped Monday to its lowest level against Oman this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and figures from S&P Global Platts. Dubai traded at $2.125 a barrel less than Oman on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, according to the data.
Saudis Temper Call for Cuts and Russia Digs In (Bloomberg)
OPEC surprised the market in September with a preliminary agreement to reduce supply to 32.5 million to 33 million barrels a day, breaking a two-year policy to pump at full throttle.
Eyeing the Trump Voter, ‘Fight for $15’ Widens Its Focus (NY Times)
Leaders of the labor-financed “Fight for $15” campaign say they have improved the lives of millions of workers at the bottom of the nation’s pay scale, helping to raise the minimum wage in California, New York State and a host of cities.
This is the 'damage' imports have done to America's industries (Business Insider)
There has been a lot of talk of deglobalization and potential trade wars in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election as US president.
Fed’s Powell Says Case for Rate Hike Has ‘Clearly Strengthened’ (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell signaled his readiness to raise interest rates, as unemployment and inflation approach the central bank’s goals.
In Texas, Business Owners Hope Donald Trump’s Nafta Rhetoric Is Just Talk (The Wall Street Journal)
When Rick Chevalier wants to ship raw materials from Mexico to his company’s coffee plant in Canada, all it takes is a quick email.
Debt party's over. Here comes the hangover (CNN Money)
Societe Generale warned investors this week that the decade-long party in the debt markets "is over." Borrowing costs are poised to rise rapidly, hurting the economy and fueling a stampede out of debt funds more powerful than what markets expect.
The 'dysfunctional family' known as OPEC could make oil prices crater (CNBC)
The word from Vienna is that things are not going well for OPEC. In fact, they are going surprisingly poorly.
Retailers’ Holiday Strategy Doesn’t Have to Be “Discount Everything” (Harvard Business Review)
The final numbers are in for the 2016 Black Friday weekend, and the results appear strong. But there’s a surprising insight in the data released by the National Retail Federation: 36% of shoppers reported that all of their purchases were on sale; 11% made that claim in 2015.
The Money That Disappears in a Stock Crash Never Existed in Any Real Sense in the First Place (Value Walk)
There’s something that happens in the wake of every price crash that floors me. People are of course upset that a large portion of their life savings has disappeared into thin air and they spend time commiserating about their shock and dismay.
Corporate Beige Book: Better Tone, Little Election Talk (Value Walk)
Corporate sentiment improved during the third quarter based on our analysis of earnings conference call transcripts for third quarter 2016 earnings season. We saw greater use of strong and positive words, whereas talk of recession was again virtually non-existent and the election surprisingly garnered relatively little attention.
Millions Of People Are Having An Easier Time Paying Medical Bills (NPR)
The number of people who have trouble paying their medical bills has plummeted in the last five years as more people have gained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and gotten jobs as the economy has improved.
OPEC Is Fighting Over 200,000 Barrels Per Day! (Video) (EconMatters)
So let me get this straight a $1 difference in the oil price means an additional 1 Billion extra to Iran and Iraq`s annual oil revenue and they are fighting over a measly 200,000 barrels per day oil production delta.
Peak Silver Cometh – Supply Deficits Continue Meaning Higher Prices (Max Keiser)
“While forecasted global silver production for 2016 is down only slightly versus last year, GFMS also stated this in their report:
We estimate that mine supply peaked in 2015 and will trend lower in the foreseeable future.
China’s Great Wall of Debt (The News Lens)
For over three decades, China has experienced a staggering public investment boom. In 2014, China spent US$4.6 trillion on fixed assets, accounting for 24.8 percent of total worldwide investments and more than double the entire GDP of India. But China’s investment boom has coincided with a rapid build-up of debt.
SocGen: Get Ready For The Bond Market Crash (Value Walk)
SocGen has published a rather shocking report this week on the state of the world’s debt and how, with inflation rising and political uncertainty growing, the unwinding of the global debt mountain will cause an unprecedented hangover for global markets.
The Difference Between Risk and Uncertainty (Farnam Street)
Nate Silver elaborates on the difference between risk and uncertainty in The Signal and the Noise:
Risk, as first articulated by the economist Frank H. Knight in 1921, is something that you can put a price on.
Stockman: Careful, Donald. They Rigged A Debt Bomb for March 15th. (Daily Reckoning)
Following the surprising shock of a Trump election victory, economist and best selling author David Stockman joined Fox Business to discuss what is to come in the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
Tesla Made "Methodology Changes" After SEC Busted Musk For "Tailored Accounting" (Zero Hedge)
Did the SEC just grow some teeth? For those who follow our quarterly reporting on the farce that is Tesla's earnings, the non-GAAP malarkey will be no surprise whatsoever – especially given the last quarter's "methodology changes."
Chinese Bond Yields Jump Most In 10 Months On "Liquidity Fears" (Zero Hedge)
It is probably a coincidence that one day after we commented on what is emerging as "the market's next headache", namely China's (not so) stealth tightening, which in the last few weeks has led to a creep higher across the curve, the yield on China's sovereign 10Y bond jumped 6.5bps to 2.94% on what Bloomberg dubbed were "liquidity fears."
Proposed cut in Macquarie Harbour salmon stocks dismissed as 'window dressing' (ABC News)
Tasmania's second largest salmon producer Huon Aquaculture has condemned a proposed stock reduction for Macquarie Harbour, labelling it "window dressing" and "spin".
Giddy Investors Already ‘shipping Comcast, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile Mergers Under Trump Administration (Consumerist)
This is shocking, we know, but: big businesses really like to make money. And when you’re already as huge as, say Comcast, one of the best ways to make oodles more money is to snap up another company and start raking in its revenues, too.
China Liquidity Crisis Deepens, Spreads Across Asia (Zero Hedge)
Having exposed the deepening liquidity crisis in China previously, tonight's action across AsiaPac money-markets suggests – despite US equity record highs – all is very much not well below the surface of the global financial system.
What is the price of poverty?
A new report funded by United Way and Open Policy Ontario looks at exactly that—how much poverty is costing Torontonians.
Aussie Housing Market Collapses: Building Approvals Crash 25% (Zero Hedge)
Following September's 9.3% MoM plunge in Aussie home approvals, hopes were high that October would see a bounce (expectations were for a 2% gain) as central bankers jawboned confidence higher. However, it didn't… Building approvals collapsed 12.6% MoM and a shocking 24.9% year-over-year decline is equal to the worst drop since Lehman.
Millions of Japanese Over 35 Still Live With Mom and Dad (Bloomberg)
The aging of Japanese and South Korean societies, and the significant slowdown in their economic growth rates, are contributing to a large increase in households with elderly parents supporting adult children who haven’t been able to leave home. In some cases, it’s even forcing parents to delay retirement.
Companies
Tivo Corp: Netflix Is The Spark Sending Tivo Stock Soaring (Investors Buz)
Buz Investors TIVO Stock Soaring (NASDAQ:TIVO) announced after close of trading on November 28, 2016, that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Netflix, Inc.(NASDAQ:NFLX). The agreement will act to further integrate Netflix within TiVo set-top boxes.
TaskRabbit Quietly Doubled The Cut It Takes From Many Of Its Workers (Fast Company)
An email with the subject line "Tipping is coming to TaskRabbit!" sounded like positive news to Toby, who works as a handyman in New York City on the popular odd-jobs platform.
Disney Cuts Off Chinese Toy Factory Over Alleged Labor Violations (Bloomberg)
Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, said in a memo posted on its website that it would no longer allow the Dongguan Qing Xi Juantiway Plastic Factory to make products featuring the company’s characters. The violations had been flagged by China Labor Watch, a New York-based non-profit that monitors manufacturing abroad.
Technology
We probably should have seen this one coming. Consumer Reports initially loved the Tesla Model S — so much that it broke the magazine's rating scale in 2015, leading the P85D version to be declared the best-performing vehicle ever tested.
Google's training AI to catch diabetic blindness before it's too late (Engadget)
Diabetes is no joke, regardless of what Wilford Brimley memes you've seen. The disease's associated foot ulcers can lead to amputation of the limb while diabetic retinopathy (DR) can rob people of their sight.
NASA is developing better gears to make toug`her robots (Engadget)
Any robot NASA sends to harsh, distant worlds has to be tougher than garden-variety machines. Since every component has to be able to withstand extreme conditions, a team of researchers over at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are looking at the possibility of using bulk metallic glass for their gears.
Massive Apple Leaks Reveal Radical New iPhone (Forbes)
Is Apple AAPL -0.11% set to Wow the world with a radical new iPhone? A rash of leaks from a variety of credible sources strongly suggest so, and they promise a level of reinvention we haven’t seen from Apple in several years.
Politics
How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’ (NY Times)
Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr. Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will stay that way.
U.S.-Cuba Relations (Council On Foreign Relations)
On April 11, 2015, Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro shook hands at the Summit of the Americas in Panama, marking the first meeting between a U.S. and Cuban head of state since the two countries severed their ties in 1961.
Conversations on Trump’s America: Robert Reich Previews a New Era of Savage Inequality (Capital & Man)
Last fall, Robert Reich published Saving Capitalism, in which he called for a sweeping realignment of political power to counter the excesses of contemporary capitalism. A realignment has followed, but not the kind Reich had in mind.
Tracking the explosion of hate in Trump’s America (Think Progress)
On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected president. Within hours, the United States was awash in an unprecedented wave of hateful incidents, many of them perpetrated by people claiming to be Trump supporters.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy wants to repeal Obamacare, then come up with something to replace itAs Congressional Republicans rally the troops for an Obamacare rollback in President-elect Donald Trump’s first 100 days, the question remains: What’s going to replace it?
How Many People Just Voted Themselves Out of Health Care? (Updated) (Updated again) (And again) (NY Times)
As Greg Sargent points out, the choice of Tom Price for HHS probably means the death of Obamacare. Never mind the supposed replacement; it will be a bust. So here’s the question: how many people just shot themselves in the face?
The Entire Internet Will Be Archived In Canada to Protect It From Trump (Motherboard)
As Donald Trump careens towards the Oval Office, promising jail time for flag-burners along the way, an organization that archives the internet for anyone to peruse aims to create a full backup in Canada in order to protect the digital library from censorship.
Donald Trump is hiring Tom DeLay’s lawyer as White House counsel: There are no words (Salon)
The news media finally seems to have caught up to the notion that Donald Trump’s international business dealings just might create a bit of a conflict of interest when he’s serving as president of the United States.
CIA chief warns Trump: Scrapping Iran deal 'height of folly' (BBC News)
The director of the CIA has warned US President-elect Donald Trump that ending the Iran nuclear deal would be "disastrous" and "the height of folly".
Trump Trains, Trump Air, Trump Roads . . . (The Wall Street Journal)
Among Donald Trump’s few unambiguous campaign themes was to make public works great again, and Washington is gearing up for a big financing bill for highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, pipelines and more next year.
The average out-of-pocket costs for cancer patients can be catastrophic — regardless of health care coverage (The Fiscal Times)
Many patients freely admit that that the only thing more frightening than learning that they have cancer is seeing how much it will cost to undergo treatment.
For $5,000, Wealthy Supporters Can Have Breakfast With President-Elect Trump (The Wall Street Journal)
Donald Trump’s transition team is offering supporters a rare opportunity: breakfast in New York with the next president for $5,000 — pocket change for many of the team’s wealthy fundraisers.
Health and Biotech
Marijuana Appears to Benefit Mental Health: Study (TIME)
Legal access to marijuana, medicinal or otherwise, is growing. In 2016, four states approved recreational use of the drug and four states passed laws related to medical-cannabis access, bringing the total number of states that allow some form of legal marijuana use to 28.
First Case Of Locally Transmitted Zika Found In Texas (Forbes)
To no one’s surprise, Texas announced its first locally acquired case of Zika today. The Brownsville woman is not pregnant and had neither risk factors nor recent travel to areas known to be infected with Zika.
Life on the Home Planet
Great Barrier Reef Hit by Worst Coral Die-Off on Record, Scientists Say (NY Times)
SYDNEY, Australia — Scientists surveying the Great Barrier Reef said Tuesday that it had suffered the worst coral die-off ever recorded after being bathed this year in warm waters that bleached and then weakened the coral.
‘Unintentional’ Human Error Led to Airstrikes on Syrian Troops, Pentagon Says (NY Times)
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday blamed “unintentional” human mistakes for the American-led airstrikes in September that killed dozens of Syrian government troops. The attacks were conducted under the “good-faith belief” that the targets were Islamic State militants, according to the official inquiry.
These Three Simple Questions Can Detect If You Have A Mastermind IQ (Esquire)
If you've been harbouring suspicions that you're secretly a genius then this simple three question IQ test might give you the answer you've been looking for.
Giant Arch, a Feat of Engineering, Now Covers Chernobyl Site in Ukraine (NY Times)
Resembling an aircraft hangar, a giant arched shelter was slid into place over the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site in Ukraine on Tuesday. The shelter, the world’s largest land-based moving structure, is a feat of engineering decades in conception and years in the making.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee Has Burned And Weather Played A Role (Forbes)
I awoke to the news that wildfires had burned much of the mountainous forests around Gatlinburg, Tennessee and the Pigeon Forge area. However, I didn’t appreciate the full scope of this disaster until I started seeing tweets and posts that much of the historic town of Gatlinburg itself had also burned.
Small Nudges Can Improve How Students Apply to College (Harvard Business Review)
If you spend any time near a U.S. student who is a senior in high school, you know it’s “that” time of year. Students are beginning to imagine a life after high school, and many are looking ahead to think about college, wondering whether to apply and, if so, where.
25 bootleg recordings that shaped music history (HolyKaw)
Now that everyone can instantly record performances and share them with an audience of millions, the idea of bootleg material is truly a throwback to a bygone era, though there are still collectors seduced by the quaintness of the forbidden.
