Tag Archives: Clueless

Meet China’s Stock Savior, Who Never Saw the Crash Coming

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“After China’s stocks crashed in June, the government put more than $400 billion at the disposal of a little-known state agency, the China Securities Finance Corp., headed by an academic and bureaucrat named Nie Qingping. Four weeks into the new role, the picture emerging from Nie’s published books and commentaries, as well as interviews with fellow academics, is of a professor with 25 years of experience watching stock manias — who still got blindsided by China’s latest crisis.  Since China Securities Finance started buying on July 6, a measure of volatility in stocks has surged to nearly a 20-year high. On July 27, the Shanghai Composite Index plunged 8.5 percent, the most since February 2007.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-02/meet-china-s-stock-rescue-chief-he-never-saw-the-crisis-coming

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Taxis on Las Vegas Strip go idle in protest of Uber

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“Dozens of taxi drivers parked their cabs and instead took to the Las Vegas Strip sidewalk today to protest the arrival of Uber and the disastrous effect drivers said it would have on their livelihoods.  The protest was organized by drivers from the Industrial, Technical and Professional Employees Union Local 4873 and took place on a sidewalk in front of Caesars Palace for about two hours.  Although many drivers who participated were on the clock and supposed to be on the roads, they won’t be subject to discipline from Yellow Checker Star because the protest is protected as a union-related activity.”

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/may/29/taxis-strip-go-idle-protest-uber/

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Venezuela Moves to Nationalize Food, Ration Medicine, Kill Comedy

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“The crisis in Venezuela is escalating, and it’s not funny anymore.  Socialist President Nicolás Maduro, successor to the Hugo Chavez regime, has announced he will use his ‘decree powers’ to nationalize the country’s food distribution network.  Milk, flour, and toilet paper may be hard to find, but money can always be located for public employees: ‘Maduro also announced a 30-percent increase in public wages on Friday.’ The government blames ‘hoarding’ — whatever that means — for [medicine] shortages. But doctors and pharmacists blame government price controls, production regulations, and trade restrictions for cutting off the supply.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/venezuela-moves-to-natonalize-food-ration-medicine-kill-comedy

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Exploding Sunni-Shia Conflict: Impact on Oil, Stocks, and More

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“Even if there were such a thing as a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ side in this 14-century-old blood feud, the fact remains that, under President Obama’s leadership, the United States and its allies are fighting on both sides.  In Syria, the U.S. has inadvertently wound up on the Shia side, bombing Sunnis. And, although that was not the intent, the U.S. is giving every strategic advantage to Shia President Bashar al-Assad. In Iraq, the United States is also on the Shia side. But in this case it is deliberate.  On the all-important Arabian Peninsula (including Yemen), the United States is on the Sunni side. The U.S. has forever been a major supplier of arms to the Sunni-dominated armed forces on the peninsula.”

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/sunni-shia-conflict-impact-oil-stocks-70598

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Greek Party Syriza’s Rise Fueled by Professors-Turned-Politicians

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“Mr. Lapavitsas describes the party’s platform as ‘a Keynesian program with redistribution attached, with some Marxist view of the world.’ He adds: ‘We are not ashamed of that.’  In the tradition of John Maynard Keynes, Syriza advocates public spending to reignite economic growth. Greece can afford to spend more if some of its debt is forgiven by other countries.  Nikolaos Chountis, a Syriza candidate in Athens, ticks off the party’s spending priorities: food and electricity subsidies for impoverished households, a pension boost for the poorest retirees, a hike in the minimum wage and tax cuts for low earners.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/syrizas-rise-fueled-by-professors-turned-politicians-1422045127

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Germany’s top publisher bows to Google in news licensing row

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“Germany’s biggest news publisher Axel Springer has scrapped a move to block Google from running snippets of articles from its newspapers, saying that the experiment had caused traffic to its sites to plunge.  Springer said a two-week-old experiment to restrict access by Google to some of its publications had caused web traffic to plunge for these sites, leading it to row back and let Google once again showcase Springer news stories in its search results.  Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner said on Wednesday that his company would have ‘shot ourselves out of the market’ if it had continued with its demands for the U.S. firm to pay licensing fees.”

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-google-axel-sprngr-idUSKBN0IP1YT20141105

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There They Go Again: Fed Officials Give Rate Timetables

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“Federal Reserve officials insist that the outlook for interest rates depends on how economic data evolves and isn’t driven by the calendar. They are nevertheless offering various views on the probable timing of the first increase since 2006.  The Fed’s pledge that interest rates will stay low for a ‘considerable time’ could mean anything from two months to one year, Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said today.  New York Fed President William C. Dudley said this week that forecasts for an increase in mid-2015 are ‘reasonable.’ Today, San Francisco Fed President John Williams said that timeframe is a ‘reasonable guess to my mind.'”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-09/fischer-says-considerable-time-is-2-months-to-a-year.html

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Egypt battles energy crunch with ban on too-cold air conditioners

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“Egypt, grappling with an energy crunch, will enforce a ban on the production and import of air conditioners that can be set lower than 20oC, aiming to reassure citizens and industry hit with power cuts and fuel shortages.  The ban on air conditioners outside the government’s specification will contribute to ‘easing the burden on Egyptian families,’ the minister added.  Long lines at gas stations and power cuts fuelled popular anger against president Mohamed Morsi ahead of his ouster by the army last summer.  He said the government will make a bigger push to distribute smart cards for fuel to cut smuggling and black market selling of gasoline.”

http://jordantimes.com/egypt-battles-energy-crunch-with-ban-on-too-cold-air-conditioners

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Austria Offers ‘Contradictory’ Guidance on Bitcoin’s Financial Status

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“The federal minister for finance and vice chancellor, Michael Spindelegger, reiterated that bitcoin is not a financial instrument (that is, a tradable asset), echoing the position of the country’s markets regulator, the Financial Market Authority.  The federal minister for science, research and economy, Reinhold Mitterlehner, however made reference to a German policy recognising bitcoin as a ‘unit of account’ and requiring commercial bitcoin transactions to gain permission from the German financial markets regulator.  ‘The two ministries contradict each other, so there is no [clear] way to interpret [the guidance],’ said Peter Šurda, an Austrian economist who studies bitcoin.”

http://www.coindesk.com/austria-offers-contradictory-guidance-bitcoins-financial-status/

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In a Subprime Bubble for Used Cars, Borrowers Pay Sky-High Rates

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“Millions of Americans with shoddy credit are easily obtaining auto loans from used-car dealers, including some who fabricate or ignore borrowers’ abilities to repay. The loans often come with terms that take advantage of the most desperate, least financially sophisticated customers.  Auto loans to people with tarnished credit have risen more than 130 percent in the five years since the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, with roughly one in four new auto loans last year going to people with credit scores at or below 640.  Many subprime auto loans are bundled into complex bonds and sold as securities by banks to insurance companies, mutual funds and public pension funds.”

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/in-a-subprime-bubble-for-used-cars-unfit-borrowers-pay-sky-high-rates/?_r=0

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