Financial Markets and Economy
SEC May Regret the Day It Allowed Leveraged ETFs (Bloomberg)
That bit of truism is all you need to understand the rapid rise in leveraged exchange-traded funds, which were created in 2006 as a way for investors to double their exposure to stock indices.
Trump's Big Problems: Anemic Private Investment and Weak Productivity (Forbes)
Why was the Great Depression so deep, and why did it drag on for so long? According to impressive research by Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute, it was because President Roosevelt abandoned his campaign promises of 1932: to cut federal spending, to balance the budget, to maintain a sound currency, and to rein in Washington’s bureaucracy. Instead, Roosevelt switched gears.
Williams Says Three, Maybe More 2017 Fed Hikes Make Sense (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said that three or “maybe even more” interest-rate increases this year make sense, depending on how the central bank is doing on its employment and inflation objectives.
Trump and automakers have criticized Obama’s fuel standards as expensive job killers. A new study disagrees. (The Washington Post)
Federal fuel economy standards may be easier and less expensive to comply with than previously projected, according to a new study. The finding could undermine the argument by automakers and the Trump administration that the fuel standards increase costs and would lead to prohibitively expensive vehicles and job losses.
ECB's Free Money Has Helped Banks More Than It Aids the Economy (Bloomberg)
When the European Central Bank announced its targeted lending program back in 2014, policy makers including President Mario Draghi held out great hopes that it would finally get financial institutions extending credit to companies and households again.
Renters Now Rule Half of U.S. Cities (Bloomberg)
Just 49 percent of Motor City households were homeowners in 2015, down from 55 percent in 2009 and the lowest percentage in more than 50 years. Detroit isn’t alone, of course: The rate of U.S. home ownership fell steadily for a decade as the foreclosure crisis turned millions of owners into renters and tight housing markets made it hard for renters to buy homes.
Venezuela's Fuel Shortage Is Getting Worse (Bloomberg)
Venezuela’s state oil company was rushing to replenish gasoline supplies in various neighborhoods of Caracas on Thursday as drivers lined up at filling stations amid a worsening shortage of fuel.
Zombie Companies Are China's Real Problem, Peterson's Lardy Says (Bloomberg)
China needs to take on its state-owned “zombie companies,” which keep borrowing even though they aren’t earning enough to repay loans or interest, says Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
European Union to Celebrate Its 60th Birthday Under a Cloud (The Wall Street Journal)
For European Union leaders, Saturday’s gathering in Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty was to be an unvarnished celebration of a successful experiment to rebuild a continent scarred by two world wars.
Cutting Science Funding Today Costs Us More Overall (Forbes)
How much money should we spend on funding our grandest scientific endeavors as a society? Should we be trying to send humans to Mars? Trying to cure cancer? Investigate the mysteries of deep space? Working to develop new vaccines? Monitoring our climate and weather to better predict natural disasters?''
Employees Who Stay In Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid 50% Less (Forbes)
The worst kept secret is that employees are making less on average every year. There are millions of reasons for this, but we’re going to focus on one that we can control. Staying employed at the same company for over two years on average is going to make you earn less over your lifetime by about 50% or more.
Investor Optimism Keeps Improving, Highest Since 2000 (Gallup)
U.S. investor optimism about the nation's investing climate jumped markedly in the first quarter, following steady gains throughout 2016. The Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index stands at +126, up from +96 in the fourth quarter of 2016 and +40 a year ago.
Cutting aid and diplomacy will make America weaker (The Economist)
Akmost exactly a hundred years ago, America was poised to send troops to Europe to fight in a war which was not in the country’s narrow, short-term self-interest.
The new American economy is literally putting us in mortal danger (Salon)
President Donald Trump has campaigned on the sentiment of “bringing back jobs” to America. He mentioned factories specifically in his inauguration speech, stating, “the jobs left and the factories closed . . . that all changes starting right here, right now.”
Companies
DryShips: Panamax Rates Begin To Increase (Short Only, Seeking Alpha)
The Baltic Dry Index breaks its rally with its first down day in weeks. The weighted average of daily shipping rates drops 10 points to 1190 as of March 22, 2017. However, the good news for DryShips (NASDAQ:DRYS) is that the decline is driven by capesize rates while panamax rates are up by 18 points to 1119.
Exxon ‘lost’ emails from Rex Tillerson’s alias account (Think Progress)
Last week, it came out that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used an alias email account to discuss climate change — along with other corporate issues — with other high level executives and board members while he was CEO of ExxonMobil. Now, Exxon says it has “lost” a year’s worth of those emails.
Valeant CEO Joseph Papa Was Paid $62.7 Million in 2016 (The Wall Street Journal)
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. Chief Executive Joseph Papa received compensation last year valued at $62.7 million, after the drug-industry veteran was tapped to take over the struggling drug company suffering from accounting problems, high debt levels and an image issue.
Sears Enters Death Spiral: Vendors Halt Shipments, Insurers Bail (Zero Hedge)
When we commented yesterday morning on the unexpected "going concern" notice in Sears' just filed 10-K which sent the stock crashing, we pointed out the immediate spin provided by Eddie Lampert's distressed retailer which promised that its comeback plan may help alleviate the concerns, “satisfying our estimated liquidity needs 12 months from the issuance of the financial statements", to which however we added the footnote that "the question is what happens when vendors start demanding cash on delivery as concerns about SHLD.'s liquidity concerns continue to grow."
Technology
Apple Responds to Hacker’s Threat to Wipe Hundreds of Millions of iPhones (Fortune)
Apple is reassuring customers that its systems have not been breached while a hacker, or hackers, threaten to remotely wipe hundreds of millions iPhones of all their data, including photos, videos, and messages.
Now You Can Use Your Phone to Withdraw Cash at Wells Fargo ATMs (NBC News)
Starting on Monday, Wells Fargo customers can withdraw money using a smartphone at any branded ATM, the latest sign of U.S. lenders moving away from traditional brick-and-mortar banking.
China, like many nations around the world, is aging.
According to the National Australia Bank’s economics team, China’s working age population — those aged 15 to 64 — peaked four years ago and has been steadily declining ever since.
Jury Says a GIF Is a ‘Deadly Weapon’ in Twitter Epilepsy Case (Fortune)
The assault occurred on December 11 when Rivello, using the Twitter handle @jew_goldstein, allegedly sought to trigger a seizure in the journalist, Kurt Eichenwald, by sending a tweet that contained an epilepsy-inducing GIF.
Politics
Trump demands Friday vote on health care plan (Politico)
President Donald Trump is demanding a vote Friday in the House on the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told GOP lawmakers. If the bill fails, Trump is prepared to move on and leave Obamacare in place, Mulvaney warned.
Senate Republicans Vote To Gut Internet Privacy (BuzzFeed News)
Passed by the Federal Communications Commission under president Obama, the privacy rules require internet providers like Comcast and AT&T to first get your permission before they can sell your private information like browsing history and location data.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie Says Trump Could Be A ‘One-Term President’ If Health Care Bill Passes (The Huffington Post)
A Republican lawmaker says he is trying to save President Donald Trump by voting against the White House-backed health care bill.
Hawaii Republican Resigns From Party After Criticizing Trump (Cathy Bussewitz, AP, TIME)
A Hawaii lawmaker who says she was pressured to give up her leadership post at the statehouse after criticizing President Donald Trump resigned Wednesday from the Republican Party.
Only 17% of Americans support the Republican healthcare bill, according to a poll released Thursday from Quinnipiac University.
Document: Russia Uses Rigged Polls, Fake News to Sway Foreign Elections (The Wall Street Journal)
In the run-up to presidential elections in Bulgaria last year, the country’s opposition Socialist Party received a secret strategy document proposing a road map to victory at the ballot box, according to five current or former Bulgarian officials.
WATCH: Elizabeth Warren exposes Trump’s dodgy new labor pick in brutal confirmation hearing (Alternet)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) concedes that Alexander Acosta is more qualified to serve as labor secretary than Trump’s previous pick, former Hardee’s CEO Andrew Puzder. During a contentious Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, she reminded the public that her praise ends there.
‘There’s a Smell of Treason in the Air’ (NY Times)
The greatest political scandal in American history was not Aaron Burr’s shooting of Alexander Hamilton, and perhaps wasn’t even Watergate. Rather it may have been Richard Nixon’s secret efforts in 1968 to sabotage a U.S. diplomatic effort to end the Vietnam War.
Everything About This Republican Obamacare Repeal Vote Is Nuts (The Huffington Post)
An unpopular president and a House Republican leadership team with a seemingly weak grasp of its own members’ priorities is preparing to rush through legislation that would trade 24 million people’s health coverage for a huge tax cut on wealthy households and health care corporations.
Meet The Martin Shkreli Of Defense Contracting (The Huffington Post)
When President Donald Trump rolled out his first federal budget proposal last week, the administration defended its call for a $54 billion increase in defense spending by pointing to “an ambitious reform agenda” that would “reduce the costs of military programs wherever feasible.”
Republicans delay vote on 'Trumpcare' after struggling to reach an agreement on the bill (Business Insider)
Multiple sources told Business Insider that the Thursday vote on the House Republicans healthcare-reform bill would be postponed because party leaders failed to reach an agreement on the bill.
Shia LeBeouf’s anti-Trump livestreaming performance art is shut down from another location (Salon)
On Jan. 20, 2017, immediately after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, an art installation went up at the Museum of Moving Image in New York City. At the interactive exhibit, titled “HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US,” visitors were invited to say the words “he will not divide us” into a live stream camera mounted outside the museum.
Can Trump Carry Out His Foreign Policy Promises? (CFR Backgrounders)
President Donald J. Trump has promised sweeping changes to U.S. foreign policy. Trump vowed to reverse many of President Barack Obama’s signature achievements, including the Asia-Pacific Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, the landmark climate change accord signed by 197 nations in Paris, and an agreement with Iran to restrict its nuclear program.
These undocumented immigrants thought they could stay. Trump says deport them. (USA Today)
Angel Ortiz Paz was warming up his car just before 6 a.m. outside his Gaithersburg, Md., townhouse on a recent morning when federal agents pulled in behind him.
Does the public believe in government statistics? It depends (YouGov US)
Public opinion about the Republican health care reform bill (American Health Care Act) remains partisan, with little change in judgments after the Congressional Budget Office reported that up to 24 million could lose health insurance coverage in the next few years.
The White House may have skirted federal law to try and save its failing health care bill (Think Progress)
On Thursday morning, as the Trump administration frantically tried to save its deeply unpopular Affordable Care Act replacement bill, White House social media director Dan Scavino Jr. tweeted out a message to Trump’s dwindling pool of supporters urging them to call their congressperson in support of the American Health Care Act.
The White House may have skirted federal law to try and save its failing health care bill (Think Progress)
On Thursday morning, as the Trump administration frantically tried to save its deeply unpopular Affordable Care Act replacement bill, White House social media director Dan Scavino Jr. tweeted out a message to Trump’s dwindling pool of supporters urging them to call their congressperson in support of the American Health Care Act.
California Congressman Faces Federal Campaign-Finance Probe (The Wall Street Journal)
Federal investigators are probing suspected campaign-finance violations by Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, the House Ethics Committee disclosed Thursday in a statement saying it had been asked by the Justice Department to pause its own handling of the case.
Health and Biotech
Doctor Turns Up Possible Treatment For Deadly Sepsis (NPR)
It's hard not to get excited about news of a potentially effective treatment for sepsis, a condition that leads to multiple organ failure and kills more people in the hospital than any other disease.
Ageing is a disease. Gene therapy could be the 'cure' (Wired)
In September 2015, Elizabeth Parrish flew from Seattle to Colombia to receive an experimental treatment.
She had spent more than two years studying literature, talking to experts, and had decided to undergo gene therapy – a treatment for genetic disorders that adds genes into cells to replace those that are faulty or absent.
Life on the Home Planet
Europe poised for total ban on bee-harming pesticides (The Guardian)
The world’s most widely used insecticides would be banned from all fields across Europe under draft regulations from the European commission, seen by the Guardian.
Here's what would happen to Earth if all the ice melted (Business Insider)
National Geographic showed us in 2013 that sea levels would rise by 216 feet if all the land ice on the planet were to melt. This would dramatically reshape the continents and drown many of the world's major cities.
Terrorist atrocities in western Europe (The Economist)
The challenge for open, liberal societies is how to cope with such constant terrorist threats. While each attack, and the resulting casualties, is devastating, terrorism during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the actions of ETA, a Basque separatist group, were consistently deadlier in the 1970s and 1980s.
Coalition air strikes 'kill more than 200 people' in Mosul (The Telegraph)
More than 200 civilians are reported to have been killed in a single US-led coalition raid on Mosul, as the United Nations warned yesterday the worst was yet to come for those still trapped in the Iraqi city.
Brazil's Tainted-Meat Probe Leaves World Hungry for Chicken (Bloomberg)
Where’s the chicken? That’s the question a number of the world’s biggest poultry importers could find themselves asking after slapping bans on shipments from Brazil, the world’s No. 1 supplier.
