04-23-2016, 11:22 PM
Front-running central bank government debt purchases has become a fledgling tradition in a world awash with unconventional monetary policy, with Jefferies LLC's Chief Market Strategist David Zervos describing the practice as traders taking "a rich asset and [making] it stupid rich." Hans Lorenzen, European credit strategist at Citigroup Inc., brings up the possibility that the European Central Bank's corporate bond purchases might cause this perverse dynamic to run in the opposite direction, with investors in effect rushing to get out of a debt issue in anticipation of central bank selling.
This Might Be the Biggest Problem With the ECB's Plan to Buy Corporate Debt - Bloomberg
The gross domestic product of the Eurozone is still lower than it was in 2008, in marked contrast to the US and the UK. Unemployment in its Southern member states, including France, is very high, with youth unemployment of more than 50% in Greece and Spain, leading to a lost generation in terms of economic and social participation.
Long-term causes of the Eurozone crisis | OUPblog
Greece could crash out of the eurozone as early as this summer if Britons vote to leave the European Union in the upcoming referendum, economists have predicted.
Greece 'could leave eurozone' on Brexit vote
Despite returns of over 65 percent in a year where the S&P 500 is up 4 percent, gold miner ETFs have seen half a billion in outflows. That is practically unheard of as inflows and performance are usually highly correlated when it comes to ETFs. Gold miner ETFs it seems, are the rare exception... There is one gold miner ETF that is seeing some significant inflows, however. The only problem? It's the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares (DUST), which is down 88 percent. Meanwhile, the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares (JNUG) has put in a jaw-dropping return of 294 percent (along with outrageous volatility that is 10x that of the S&P 500). JNUG is returning four times the returns of its underlying index due to the compounding effect of re-setting leverage daily into a upward-moving market. No ETF has ever returned more than 300 percent in a year. Yet still, JNUG has still seen $83 million in outflows.
Gold Miner ETFs Are Having the Rally of a Lifetime and Burned Investors Are Missing It
No sooner had he noted these observations than he began to feel the “balloon sickness” himself. His arm had been resting on the table, but it failed to respond when he tried to lift it. Alarmed, he tried to call out to his aeronaut, Henry Coxwell, but the words froze in his mouth and his head lolled helplessly to one side.
BBC - Future - The Victorians who flew as high as jumbo jets