06-17-2016, 10:59 PM
As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton seek to consolidate their base and prepare for the general election in November, other conversations are going on behind closed doors — with lobbyists and donors trying to exercise their influence. Money plays a huge role in the American political process, particularly since the Citizens United ruling in 2009 that effectively ruled campaign contributions are a form of speech — and those with deep pockets shouldn’t be denied the right to spend it as lavishly as they want based on their political views.
While the rest of the world wonders whether the U.K. will vote to leave the European Union, one group is confident it will not. Europe-based hedge funders overwhelmingly indicated in a recent survey that they believe a Brexit won't happen. Fully 79 percent say Britons will vote to stay in the June 23 referendum, according to a poll released Thursday by industry tracker Preqin.
European hedge funds say Brexit is not happening, Preqin poll says
Over the next several decades, the biggest and wealthiest generation in U.S. history will transfer roughly $30 trillion in assets to their Gen X and millennial children, and if studies are accurate, most of those children will promptly fire their parents' advisors.
The great wealth transfer has started
More Chinese consumers are demanding foreign-made products, and the nation's cross-border shopping is going to explode as a result. eMarketer estimates that more than 15% of the Chinese population will buy products from a foreign country in 2016, which would amount to more than $85 billion in sales. Forecasts expect this number to swell to $157 billion by 2020.
Chinese imports of US goods are about to soar - Business Insider
Said another way, companies are paying employees more, and they can't hike prices to keep up with the rising cost. Thus, profits fall. This increase, according to Mortimer-Lee, is strikingly like the lead-in to the 2001 recession, which was preceded by a drop in corporate profits. "We believe that in an economy with a significant profit-oriented private sector, the rate of profit and its dynamic is a key determinant of the business cycle," Mortimer-Lee wrote.