4 September 2019 FT — Articles to Read

4 September 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, what are seven (7) things one should not put on a resume?

 

US factory sector dragged down by trade war as growth fears rise – Pg. 1

  • The US manufacturing sector has contracted for the first time in three years as the US-China trade war weighed on the industrial economy and added to fears over slowing domestic growth
  • Manufacturing, which in the 1950s employed one in three Americans, has drawn only about 8% of the workforce since the end of the great recession and provided 11% of GDP
  • Stocks fell after the release of the data, with the S&P 500 down 0.75%, while Treasuries extended their rally. The yield on the US 10-year was 4.9bps lower at 1.457%.  Yields move inversely to price

 

Fall in Turkish inflation raises expectations for cut in rates – Pg. 4

  • Consumer prices last month were 15.01% higher than a year ago- leaving inflation at its lowest level since May 2018
  • Falling inflation, combined with a more stable currency, enabled Turkey’s central bank to cut rates for the first time in almost a year in July

 

The Fed is the most reluctant combatant in global currency war – Pg. 18

  • Years of aggressive monetary easing by the ECB has hacked away at interest rates. Negative deposit rates, rather than supporting bank lending, have instead hindered it.  Monetary policy has reached the limits of its effectiveness.  Of course, the ECB knows all this.
  • The simple answer is that easier policy trends to cheapen a country’s currency and the foreign exchange channel has become one of the few ways that the ECB can juice up the Eurozone economy
  • A weaker euro acts as a shock absorber to cushion the blow of weak internal Eurozone economics by improving external dynamics
  • The US-China trade conflict has created more complications. China’s decision to permit renminbi depreciation as an automatic stabilizer creates friction for other Asian central banks, pressuring them to engage in competitive depreciation – a kind of beggar-thy-neighbour policy.  Over the past few months, a succession of central banks has eased policy.
  • …the Fed is understandably reluctant to indulge in aggressive monetary stimulus. The US consumer has stayed resilient amid slowing economic activity, suggesting that the problem is not that interest rates are too high
  • If the Fed allows interest rates to deviate too far from the ECB’s, the US dollar will strengthen
  • The dark side of falling interest rates is the prospect of riskier investor behavior
  • Fiscal stimulus is an obvious circuit breaker in this race to the bottom in currencies and yields. The market is making it easy for countries to borrow more, yet governments remain strangely reluctant
  • Companies are also failing to take advantage of negative yields. To date, only a handful have locked them in the primary market

 

Answer: (1) Criticism of past employers (Prof Note: Comey drove this point home to me.  I found myself not caring if he was right/wrong.  I just wanted him to go away.  Now he is the one under investigation!); (2) Excuses for past problems (Prof Note: Own your issues, also, do not advertise them!); (3) Irrelevant skills; (4) Old Achievements (Prof Note: That said, I think “Eagle Scout” and other similar accomplishments make a very positive statement about a person.  I do struggle, however, if this should be on a professional resume); (5) Poor grammar and spelling (Prof Note: This is ridiculous!  Hire a high school English teacher to proofread); (6) Too much information; (7) Anything that is not true (Prof Note: I still remember looking forward to interviewing someone that has designed and implemented a covered strategy for commodities using options.  When I asked him about it he literally said, “I was really part of a team and did not understand what was happening.  However, I thought it sounded good for the resume.”  I was deflated and he was DONE!)