Author: Roger Staiger

24 August 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, how much is a starter home in North Carolina?

 

Greenlanders reject sale to US but urge investment – Pg. 3

• US president Donald Trump’s sudden interest in buying Greenland and his angry cancellation of a state visit to Denmark over its refusal to sell it to him has put the spotlight on this self-governing country of just 56,000
• Greenland’s positon at the heart of an Arctic region that is being reshaped by climate change has put it in the crosshairs of large powers such as the US, China and Russia
• Already home to a US air base in the north of the island that lies relatively close to some of Russia’s new military installations in the Arctic, Greenland is waking up to its own strategic importance and considering how to use it to its advantage

 

India unveils measures to combat slowdown – Pg. 4

• India is rolling back a tax increase on foreign investors, speeding up tax refunds to small businesses and embarking on a car-buying spree in an attempt to revive economic growth
• India has suffered four consecutive quarters of economic deceleration, with GDP growth falling to 5.8% in January to March quarter, down from 6.6% in the final quarter of 2018
• Businesses are bitter about how long it has taken to receive refunds owed to them under the goods and services tax introduced two years ago. The delays have increased working capital requirements and created other hardships

 

Women traders rue rigid hours and wide disparities in pay – Pg. 11

• Many women working in front-office roles still leave before reaching the most senior ranks, either because of pay or due to a lack of flexibility around working hours (Prof Note: I am 100.0% in support of equal pay for equal work. However, having been a trader, I do not see how these hours, in this particular job, can be flexible.  Put simply, in my opinion, you need to be there!)
• In the UK, new rules on pay disclosure last year revealed gaps between men and women of “40% to over 60%” in top insurance, accountancy, banking and asset management firms,…
• Hiding pregnancies or returning soon after childbirth is a regular occurrence on trading floors, ….

 

Fall in share buybacks by corporate America poses threat to Wall St highs – Pg. 11

• Big companies across America spent less on their own shares for a second quarter in a row, threatening a key pillar of support for the stock market that has helped to push indices to record highs
• US-listed groups spent $166bn on stock buybacks in the second quarter, down from $205bn in the first quarter and $190bn for the same period a year earlier, …
• The tapering of buybacks comes as management teams grow more anxious about the outlook for growth and as investors show new wariness towards risky assets such as stocks
• The renewed one-upmanship between the US and China over tariffs, along with weaker economic data around the world, have nudged investors into safer assets such as government bonds
• Stock buybacks are neutral, in theory, for a company’s value – every dollar handed back to shareholders is a dollar less in equity – but a reduction in the number of a company’s shares outstanding increases earnings per share and boosts pay for managers with EPS-linked plans

 

Answer: $90,300

23 August 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, how much is a starter home in New York?

 

EU plans crackdown on use of facial recognition in public areas – Pg. 1

• The aim would be to limit “the indiscriminate use of facial-recognition technology” by companies and public authorities….under the plan, European citizens would be given the powers to “know when data is used”…
• In May, San Francisco became the first US city to ban the official use of facial-recognition technology

 

Frustrated ECB discussed change to inflation target – Pg. 2

• The ECB is widely expected to cut interest rates further into negative territory and launch fresh asset purchases next month as it tries to counter fears that it will consistently undershoot its inflation target of just under 2%
• …say the current target could be interpreted as asymmetrical, inferring that the ECB does not want to exceed 2%
• The US Federal Reserve is already undertaking a full review of its monetary policy strategy

 

Warnings sounded over watered-down Volcker – Pg. 14

• The loosening of the Volcker rule announced this week opens the door to a rebound in risky behavior on Wall Street, proponents of the initial legislation have warned, even as investors and analysts insist there will be little impact on bank profits
• More stringent capital rules have the effect of making many trading activities less profitable

 

Answer: $120,800

22 August 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, how much is a starter home in Virginia?

 

Falling debt costs raise pressure for spending on public projects – Pg. 1

• The cost of servicing the debt of developed countries has sunk to its lowest level for more than four decades, piling pressure on governments to borrow and spend more in order to jump-start the flagging global economy
• Advanced economies will spend just 1.77% of their combined GDP on debt interest this year…the lowest since 1975 and down from a peak of 3.9% in the mid-1990s
• The debt-to-GDP ratio across advanced economies has risen from 45% in 2001 to 76% this year
• More than $16tn of bonds around the world trade with negative yields, meaning some governments are in effect being paid to borrow

 

Us budget office warns on rising deficit – Pg. 2

• The US budget deficit was set to rise to $960bn this year, or 4.5% of GDP, on the back of lower-than-expected tax revenues….
• …wanted over the next decade US deficits would be $809bn larger than forecast…

 

Answer: $133,900

21 August 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, how much is a starter home in Maryland?

 

Banks welcome easing of Volcker rule – Pg. 2

• Large banks will still be banned from conducting proprietary trading, but the changes are a victory for the financial services industry, which has long complained that complying with the rule took up too much of their time and money
• Under the current rule, regulators presume that positions held for less than 60 days count as prop trading unless proved otherwise. Instead, there will be specific tests to determine whether large banks’ positions count as such
• Regulators also granted more exemptions to what counts as prop trading, including broadening the range of activities banks are allowed to conduct to make sure they hold enough liquidity

 

Danish bank slaps sub-zero rates on deposits – Pg. 12

• Denmark’s third-largest lender said yesterday that customers with balances of more than $1.1m would be charged 0.6% a year
• Danish banks have responded by offering negative rates on mortgages since 2015, while Jyske last week became the first to offer a sub-zero 10-year home loan, in effect paying customers 0.5% to borrow

 

Answer: $155,300