Economic Calculation and a Southern California Beach Girl

Commodity Supercycle: The Enemy Of The Bull Thesis Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The commodity supercycle thesis is everywhere right now. Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett, one of the most widely read strategists on Wall Street, recently declared “commodities the biggest trade of the next five years,” anchoring the call on deglobalization, chronic capital underinvestment, and a world drifting away from dollar dominance. As is often the case, the narrative is extremely compelling. However, it’s also internally contradictory in ways that most investors aren’t stopping to examine. After three decades of managing money,...

Have We Really Learnt The Lessons Of The GFC? Authored by Richard Ryan via BondVigilantes.com, It is 20 years ago this month that I sat in a pitch and listened to an investment bank describe their latest stroke of genius. In 2006, the Constant Proportion Debt Obligation (CPDO) was hailed as a financial innovation that appeared to offer something for nothing: a AAA-rated security paying a meaningful premium over cash. It was a structure that increased leverage as credit markets weakened. Investors embraced it because the future seemed visible. Credit spreads had been...

As Hantavirus Cases Rise, US Officials Say Risk To Public "Very, Very Low" A total of 11 hantavirus cases have been confirmed as of Tuesday morning, with global health officials warning that the number could rise. The risk to the public from an illness called the hantavirus is low, a U.S. official said on May 11. “Let me be crystal clear: the risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low,” Dr. Brian Christine, assistant secretary for health and head of the U.S. Public Health Service, told reporters during a briefing in...