I spent this Memorial Day weekend remembering those Americans who died while serving in the military. Most of the rest of the country went on vacation. That's nice. I'll remember them the next time an enemy force is shooting at me.
Stanley Fischer is dialing down expectations for the Fed's interest rate increases. The Fed let its messaging get far ahead of its planned actions. Now they have to walk markets back. They can change their long-range estimates anytime. They can't change much about their balance sheet without severely disrupting the fixed-income market. It's time to smack some bond fund managers who are too lazy to compare the Fed's PR to its financial statements.
China solicits private investment in its infrastructure. Doubling down on overbuilt urbanism takes some serious chutzpah. All of those phantom cities in the hinterland could not possibly need more water treatment facilities. Beijing is betting that the outside world is too stupid to care. Any day now, sovereign wealth funds will line up to throw good money into this black hole. If they cannot or will not do so, ordinary Chinese savers will be forced to convert their shadow banking WMP products into these new PPP investments. Same garbage, different landfill.
I don't have any links to hard data on the IQs of Wall Street people. I'm pretty sure that hedge fund managers and analysts would test high on IQ and low on EQ. They're blind to black swans that can instantly destroy their investment philosophies. I'm also sure that most investment bank managers would score high for sociopathy. I don't think any of them stopped to honor Memorial Day the right way.
Stanley Fischer is dialing down expectations for the Fed's interest rate increases. The Fed let its messaging get far ahead of its planned actions. Now they have to walk markets back. They can change their long-range estimates anytime. They can't change much about their balance sheet without severely disrupting the fixed-income market. It's time to smack some bond fund managers who are too lazy to compare the Fed's PR to its financial statements.
China solicits private investment in its infrastructure. Doubling down on overbuilt urbanism takes some serious chutzpah. All of those phantom cities in the hinterland could not possibly need more water treatment facilities. Beijing is betting that the outside world is too stupid to care. Any day now, sovereign wealth funds will line up to throw good money into this black hole. If they cannot or will not do so, ordinary Chinese savers will be forced to convert their shadow banking WMP products into these new PPP investments. Same garbage, different landfill.
I don't have any links to hard data on the IQs of Wall Street people. I'm pretty sure that hedge fund managers and analysts would test high on IQ and low on EQ. They're blind to black swans that can instantly destroy their investment philosophies. I'm also sure that most investment bank managers would score high for sociopathy. I don't think any of them stopped to honor Memorial Day the right way.
