Financial Markets and Economy
What’s Happening With Wage Growth? (Bloomberg)
Wall Street economists insisted for months that the labor market couldn’t possibly get tighter without triggering wage inflation. “We are at full employment,” Deutsche Bank Securities headlined a note to clients in October.
Carney Warns Finance Workers It Isn't a ‘Game’ (Bloomberg)
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said finance must take into account its place in society to be sustainable and regain the trust lost in the global financial crisis and rigging scandals.
Goldman Sachs warns investors to brace for a looming trade war with China (Market Watch)
Whether a full blown war or isolated skirmishes, a confrontation between the U.S. and China on trade may be inevitable, even if the only outcome is a Pyrrhic victory.
Misery Index: The World's Saddest (And Happiest) Countries (Forbes)
The human condition inhabits a vast continuum between "miserable" and "happy." In the sphere of economics, misery tends to flow from high inflation, steep borrowing costs and unemployment.
America's Fastest-Growing Cities 2017 (Forbes)
Founded just 60 years ago as a master planned community on Florida's west coast, Cape Coral has spent most of its history in the shadow of its bigger neighbors Miami, Tampa and Orlando.
Tension Between Italy, Germany, And The EU Is Growing (Value Walk)
In December 2016, two Italian members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the populist Europe of Nations and Freedom groups asked the European Central Bank (ECB) in a letter to explain the “widening balance divergences between individual countries [in the eurozone] since the 2008 crisis.”
Americans are now twice as likely to work in solar as in coal (Think Progress)
In his first hour as president, Donald Trump promised to resurrect middle-class manufacturing jobs in the United States. It will be all but impossible for him to reverse the tides of globalization and automation, but the future may nonetheless be bright for the American worker, thanks to a trend that predates and will outlast the 45th president.
China Widens Wind Power Lead Over U.S., World With Another 23 GW (Bloomberg)
China installed almost three times more wind power than the U.S. last year, continuing its clean-energy investment blitz to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase air quality.
Trump’s Anachronistic Trade Strategy (Project Syndicate)
Donald Trump’s ignominious executive order barring entry into the United States for refugees and others from seven predominantly Muslim countries has dominated headlines in recent weeks. But the damage done to America’s image, and to the global economy, will only be further compounded by Trump’s early decisions on trade.
The 6 Financial Habits Of Mentally Strong People That You Can (And Should) Adopt Now (Forbes)
With the calendar moving to February comes the opportunity to reflect on progression toward our goals for 2017. But how many people looked back in December and actually kept their 2016 New Year’s resolutions? Very few.
Low QQQ Volume a Sign of a Top (McClellan Financial Publications)
When investors get complacent, they do certain things. They show up as bullish in the various surveys. They bid tiny premiums on options, driving down the VIX. They put all of their cash to work, letting money market fund levels get down really low. And they trade tiny volumes on QQQ.
Kunstler Slams American Schooling's "Epic Failure" Under Federal "Policy Experts" (Kunstler)
By her public utterances, Betsy DeVos seemed spectacularly unqualified to lead the bureaucratic enterprise called the US Department of Education. But you really have to wonder: could she do any worse than the exalted mandarins of educational bureaucracy who preceded her?
Cash No Longer King: Europe Accelerates Move To Begin Elimination Of Paper Money (TheAntiMedia)
In the shadow of Donald Trump’s spree of controversial actions, the European commission has quietly launched the next offensive in the war on cash. These unelected bureaucrats have boldly asserted their intention to crack down on paper transactions across the E.U. and solidify a trend that has been gaining momentum for years.
Fitch Warns Trump Administration Could Lead To Global Economic Disaster (Zero Hedge)
Just days after ECB president Mario Draghi (and other Europeans) suggested that Trump's proposed deregulation has "sown the seeds of the next financial crisis", when he told the European Parliament that "the last thing we need at this point in time is the relaxation of regulation.
Consumer Confidence Tumbles As Democrats' "Hope" Plunges Near Record Lows (Zero Hedge)
After a couple of months of animal-spirit-inducing exuberance in soft-survey-hope-data, UMich consumer sentiment printed a disappointing 95.7 in Feb (versus 98.0 exp and down from 98.5 in Jan). The biggest driver was a notable drop in 'hope' as Democrats Expectations plunged near record lows.
Janet Yellen Are We In A Bubble? (EconMatters)
We look at exorbitant P/E Ratios across the stock market where I literally can pull any stock up and find an insane p/e ratio right now, and secondly the economic data doesn`t justify a 65 basis points effective fed funds rate.
Companies
Payless Is in Talks to Close 1,000 Stores (Bloomberg)
Payless Inc. is in talks with its lenders over a restructuring plan that includes closing about 1,000 stores as it wrestles with an unsustainable debt load, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
What's In a Name? For Sears, Not Much (The Street)
A simple accounting exercise says a great deal about the future, or lack thereof, for Sears Holding Corp. (SHLD) .
Buried in a Friday press release detailing a restructuring plan from the dying retailer, is a note pointing to a new $350 million to $400 million non-cash impairment charge related to the Sears trade name.
Technology
'iPhone X' Likely To Be Most Expensive Mainstream Phone Ever, But It'll Be Worth It (Forbes)
As far back as five months before the iPhone 7 was officially unveiled, rumors (which turned out be completely accurate) swirled that Apple was sort of holding its punches and playing it safe with the 7, instead focusing on making the 2017 iPhone — the tenth anniversary iPhone — the phone with real jaw-dropping features.
French man blames Uber for breaking up marriage after glitch let wife follow his every move (The Telegraph)
Suspicious spouses would once jump in a taxi to follow their partners’ movements or hire a private investigator to do the dirty work.
How Robots Helped Create 100,000 Jobs at Amazon (Singularity Hub)
Accelerating technology has been creating a lot of worry over job loss to automation, especially as machines become capable of doing things they never could in the past.
Behold, the ACLU Amazon Dash button (Ars Technica)
Ars asked Pryor if his code could easily be altered to donate to other organizations. His response: "It depends on one's threshold of 'easy.' It's coded specifically for the ACLU donation form.
Politics
U.S., China Coordinated Policy Reversal (The Wall Street Journal)
President Donald Trump’s decision to back down on his threat to overturn a cornerstone of U.S.-China relations was made before his call this week to counterpart Xi Jinping, part of a move toward continuity in Washington’s approach to Asia.
The wonkless White House (The Economist)
BEFORE Donald Trump took office, many commentators hoped that he would immerse himself in high-quality policy advice, rather than govern from his gut.
According to Dan Primack and Mike Allen at digital news startup Axios, this is how a member of Presdient Donald Trump’s inner circle reacted to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s decision last week to step down from an elite group of business leaders who are advising the president on government policies.
Children’s climate lawsuit to Donald Trump: See you in court (Think Progress)
President Donald Trump can add one more lawsuit to his growing list as president: Juliana v. United States, a federal lawsuit brought against the U.S. government by a group of kids and young adults concerned about climate change.
Energy experts give Trump the hard truth: You can’t bring coal back (Think Progress)
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has a message for the new president: You are not going to bring coal back.
Health and Biotech
Scientists Just Found One of the Most Promising Malaria Vaccine Targets to Date (Science Alert)
In spite of a decade of intense research, we still don't have a commercially available vaccine for malaria.
While a candidate vaccine is being piloted next year, scientists have found a potentially more promising target in the bridge malaria makes with our red blood cells, which could lead to a more effective, cheaply made vaccine.
Life on the Home Planet
Earthquake in southern Philippines kills four, damages infrastructure (Reuters)
Four people died and more than 100 were injured after a powerful earthquake struck the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines late Friday, damaging some structures and cutting power in many areas, local officials said.
Food security, forests at risk under Trump’s USDA (Climate Central)
U.S. food security, forest health, and the ability of farmers to respond to climate change are all at risk if President’s Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture brings climate change skepticism to the agency, agricultural researchers and environmental law experts say.
Defiant Assad tells Yahoo News torture report is 'fake news' (Yahoo News)
Confronted with new evidence of torture and mass hangings in one of his military prisons, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an exclusive interview with Yahoo News that the allegations were the product of a “fake news era” and charged that a human rights group, Amnesty International, had fabricated evidence to discredit his embattled government.
Iraqi policeman killed in clashes with pro-Sadr protesters (Reuters)
An Iraqi policeman was killed and seven others wounded in clashes with protesters loyal to prominent Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who had gathered in Baghdad on Saturday to demand political reforms, the interior ministry said.
