3 May 2019 FT — Articles to Read

3 May 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, what is the largest nonessential expense for Americans?

 

Moore withdraws Fed candidacy after Republicans oppose move – Pg. 1

–          The decision marks the second time in less than two weeks that a Fed candidate backed by Mr Trump has had to step back because of personal controversy

–          …forced to define past writing dismissing female athletes’ bid for pay equality with men, as well as comments describing parts of the US mid-west as “armpits of America”

–          (Prof Note: ???  Amazing…)

 

UK economy – Pg. 7

–          …Britain’s unemployment rate of 3.9% is low…

–          In hotels, that often takes the form of being paid per room cleaned (Prof Note: The goal then becomes speed at the expense of quality, i.e. how quickly the worker can do the minimum for the paycheck!)

 

Class war and revolution anxieties tax US elites – Pg. 14

–          Despite widespread optimism about the outlook for the US economy and financial markets, some of the biggest names on Wall Street and in corporate America revealed their anxiety about the health of the economic model that made them millionaires and billionaires

–          …played a video of Thatcher from two years before she became UK prime minister.  “Capitalism has a moral basis,” she declared, and “to be free, you have to be a capitalist”…

–          The younger generation that support socialism are “people who do not know history”…

–          (Prof Note: In my opinion, there needs to be a more clear path to success.  What I consider my “break out” role, i.e. job, does not even exist today due to regulation (it has been split into two roles).  The high cost of education couples with the exorbitant price of houses is making the “American Dream” unrealistic.)

 

Green Reit sale provides acid test for Irish commercial real estate – Pg. 15

–          Shares in the Reit are trading at a 20% discount to the value of its extensive property assets

–          The central bank of Ireland noted last month that the growth in commercial property prices “is now at its lowest” since the latae-2013 turn in the market led to intense deal making

–          The annual increase was 5% at the end of 2018,…

–          Growth will now be 3.9% this year, down from an earlier projection of 4.2%.  Next year’s forecast was trimmed to 3.3% from 3.6%

 

Accounting body to help lenders move from scandal-hit Libor benchmarks – Pg. 19

–          The IASB will today publish proposals offering relief on the treatment of old Libor-type benchmarks and newer ones, such as Sofr, the US benchmark

–          If adopted, such a move by the IASB, which sets the accounting rules followed by 144 countries, would help banks and others avoid penalties as they take on the tricky task of transitioning away from scandal-tainted benchmarks

–          Global regulators want the market to scrap Libor and instead price thousands of loans, mortgages and derivatives contracts using overnight lending rates, which are based on transactions, by the end of 2021

–          The Libor rate, which measures the cost of unsecured borrowing between banks for a specific period, is made up largely of banks’ estimates

–          More than $370tn of deals are tied to it [Libor]

–          …transactions referring to new rates accounted for less than 3% of the notional derivatives market in the first quarter of this year….

–          The IASB said its existing standards require companies to use forward-looking information to apply hedge accounting

–          This is a conundrum given there is little agreement about when the current benchmarks will be replaced, or even which interest rate would be used

–          Reform of Libor has been further complicated because Libor and the newer overnight rates do not always move in concert

–          The spread, or the difference between the two rates, can sometimes rise to as much as half a percentage point during volatile periods

 

Answer: Restaurant Meals