Archive - Mar 28, 2015

Among the many things that mystify economists these days, the biggest might be the lingering perception, despite six years of ostensible recovery, that the average person is getting poorer rather than richer. Lots of culprits come in for blame; but one that doesn’t get much mention is the changing nature of the bills we’re paying...

"An electric car does not make you green... You’re better off filling up at the pump," if you live in Canada. According to a new study by professor Chris Kennedy, even if every driver in Canada made the switch - from gas to electric - the total emissions might not actually go down... since in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, electric cars generate more carbon pollution over their lifetimes than gas-powered cars. Paging Al Gore...

A carnivorous Koot...

If Tsipras and Varoufakis should elect to give in to Brussels and Berlin, that decision would still need to be put before the people to vote on, because it would mean a prolongation of austerity. And that is not the mandate. By the same token, if the leadership decides an exit is the only option, and that further negotiations are hopeless because Europe won’t accept anything else than strapping the proud Greek people in a straitjacket, that too will have to be put before a vote. They know there will come a moment when a referendum can no longer be postponed no matter what the polls say. In that, Greece is living up to its glorious past as the cradle of democracy. Still, make no mistake: of course they’re preparing to leave.

A non-bombastic look at the week ahead in the capital markets.

This situation will result in a Crash far larger than 2008. The markets involved are larger as is the risk and the leverage.

"Do as I say, not as I do," appears to be the message from a controversial lobbyist who claimed that the chemical in Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer was safe for humans refused to drink his own words when a French television journalist offered him a glass... "I'm not stupid," he proclaims... you be the judge...

As JPM notes, soaring equity prices have had the effect of altering investors’ asset allocations, effectively tipping the balance towards equities even as money flows into bond funds. "The more equity prices increase, driven by either hedge funds or investors with low equity allocations, such as Japanese pension funds the higher the incentive by other investors who are already very overweight equities to buy bonds to prevent their bond allocation from falling too low."