Remarkable stories from the web in a new, easier format.
“Abenomics is very clearly working, having arrested the deflation in assets, consumer and producer profits,” he said in his daily note to clients Monday of the program named after Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “Wages are lagging thus far, but a 4% unemployment rate should ultimately cure that. Corporate earnings are on the rise. Bank stocks are firming and the lenders there are raising guidance too.”
Abenomics ‘clearly working’ says Rosenberg | Financial Post
The Swabian Housewife. “One should simply have asked the Swabian housewife,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. “She would have told us that you cannot live beyond your means.”
Four Fallacies of the Second Great Depression by Robert Skidelsky – Project Syndicate
With a shrinking labor force, the standard estimate for Japan in 2012 – that is, before Abenomics – had output per employed worker growing by 3.08% year on year. That is considerably more robust than in the United States, where output per worker grew by just 0.37% last year, and much stronger than in Germany, where it shrank by 0.25%.
Joseph E. Stiglitz on The Promise of Abenomics – Project Syndicate
Historically seen as a profitable month for investors, December might just catch many by surprise with some analysts growing increasingly wary of an overvalued market.
Santa Claus might not come to Wall Street this year
How do you know that monetary policy is too loose? The textbook answer is that excessively expansionary monetary policy shows up in rising inflation; stable inflation means money is neither too loose nor too tight. This answer has, however, come under challenge from both sides.
Bubblephobia and Monetary Policy – NYTimes.com
The wealthy are increasingly using freeports as a place where they can rub shoulders and trade fine objects with each other.
Software digests thousands of research papers to accurately identify proteins that could prove valuable cancer drug targets.
Software Mines Science Papers to Make New Discoveries | MIT Technology Review
A startup called Iotera wants to let you track your pets, your kids, or your belongings without relying on commercial wireless networks.
A Startup Envisions a Low-Power, Long-Range Internet of Things | MIT Technology Review
It was a cloudy Seattle day in late 1980, and Bill Gates, the young chairman of a tiny company called Microsoft, had an appointment with IBM that would shape the destiny of the industry for decades to come. Over the course of the day, a contract was worked out whereby IBM would purchase, for a one-time fee of about $80,000, perpetual rights to Gates’ MS-DOS operating system for its upcoming PC. IBM also licensed Microsoft’s BASIC programming language, all that company’s other languages, and several of its fledging applications. The smart move would have been for Gates to insist on a royalty so that his company would make a small amount of money for every PC that IBM sold.
But Gates wasn’t smart. He was smarter.
Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2 | Ars Technica
In that, he sees a bigger concern. Our reliance on computer algorithms, he observes, may be narrowing our choices. They’re taking serendipity — the random, happy accidents of life — out of the mix. “We’re losing something vital to the production of knowledge,” he says.
Internet gains are serendipity’s loss – CNN.com
Coffee is actually very healthy. It is loaded with antioxidants and beneficial nutrients that can improve your health.
13 Scientific Reasons To Drink Coffee – Business Insider
But if nominal interest rates are allowed to go below zero, then the Fed has ample room to respond to recessions even if rates start out low. This is another major benefit from eliminating the zero lower bound.
Electronic Currency – Business Insider
Consider how much Wal-Mart has grown, for instance. In 1972, it posted sales of $78 million, among 51 stores; in 2012, sales hit $443 billion, at 10,000-plus stores.
10 things department stores won’t tell you – 10 things – MarketWatch
After going steady for the last few months, the dollar and the yen are about to break up again, according to strategists — with one even predicting that the yen is on its way to $125.
The dollar-yen trade is back…and could be better than ever
In a China equity strategy note published over the weekend, the Jefferies analysts describe how the raft of reforms unveiled following the Third Plenum meeting of the Communist Party earlier this month will boost confidence in policy makers’ ability to drive reform and a trigger a historic bull run for equities.
Year of the Horse: China to gallop into historic gains?
The hedge-fund analysts vacationed together in the Hamptons, gambled in Las Vegas and adopted a creed that parodied the rules in the Brad Pitt film “Fight Club.” Instead of trading punches, they traded illegal tips that allowed their portfolio managers to reap tens of millions of dollars in profit.
Hedge-Fund Fight Club Traded Illegal Tips Not Punches – Bloomberg
Going into the final round, Taylor was miles ahead on two of the judges’ scorecards but Chavez ground him down and Steele called the fight off with two seconds left. No matter that Taylor was later found to have facial fractures and was urinating pure blood for days, Steele was never allowed to forget it.
BBC Sport – Carl Froch v George Groves: The thrilling, barbaric nature of boxing
The fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis continues to plague U.S. banks, according to Standard and Poor’s, with the ratings agency estimating billions of dollars in extra litigation fees may hit major lenders.
US banks could face legal charges of over $100 billion: S&P
The European Central Bank is considering a new long-term liquidity operation available only to banks that agree to use the funding to lend to businesses
An ECB funding for lending trial balloon | FT Alphaville
The message is sinking in – economies of the rich world face super-easy money far into the future and central banks are now convinced it’s the least of all policy evils.
Analysis: Surfing central banks in a benign ‘QE trap’ – Yahoo Finance
The holiday shopping season officially kicks off in just hours, and already retailers have done much to dampen the Christmas cheer. Consumers, they warn, will be very protective of their cash, demanding discounts that stores will fight each other to offer. Profit margins could shrink with every Thanksgiving Day employee paid and every 70%-off item sold. Traffic could be lower with fewer shopping days this year.
Watch Out: Rising Stocks, Retail Gloom
