Global Debt Exceeds $100 Trillion as Governments Binge, BIS Says
Bloomberg
The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
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Staking $1 Billion That Herbalife Will Fail, Then Lobbying to Bring It Down
New York Times
The activist hedge fund manager William A. Ackman bet a billion dollars on the collapse of the nutritional supplement company Herbalife, then launched an extraordinary campaign to hasten that development.
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Forward guidance threatens to ‘encourage excessive risk’
Financial Times
Efforts by central banks to spur economic recovery by providing guidance on what will happen to interest rates could endanger the global financial system, economists at the Bank for International Settlements have warned.
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Lawsky to step up assault on Wall Street’s corporate wrongdoing
Financial Times
Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s aggressive banking regulator who is campaigning to clean up Wall Street, is turning his sights on the individuals as well as the institutions who squeeze struggling homeowners or help banks violate US sanctions.
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George Soros blasts ’parasite’ banks
The Telegraph
George Soros, the billionaire investor, has warned that little has changed since the 2008 crisis in the ’parasite’ banking sector.
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Banks shedding asset management businesses
Sober Look
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Eight Different Faces of the Labor Market
New York Fed
The labor market is far more complex than a few indicators, like the unemployment rate or payroll growth, can capture. Understanding the workings of the labor market requires closely following the evolution of different aspects of the labor market. In this page, we have presented various important labor market indicators, in eight main categories, to provide a complete snapshot of the labor market.
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The Fed’s next focus is on wages
Financial Times
In the longer term, it is likely that wages will emerge as the indicator that matters most for the FOMC.
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Let’s have some real-time economics
Financial Times
What would it take to make economics more useful in a crisis? Not more rigorous or more realistic – although that would be nice – but simply better equipped to deal ad hoc with the financial equivalent of a burning building?
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Top German body calls for QE blitz to avert deflation trap in Europe
The Telegraph
Head of German Institute for Economic Research demands €60bn of bond purchases each month to halt contraction of credit and avert Japanese-style trap.
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The New York Times is totally wrong in its attack on London
cityam.com
An op-ed in the New York Times slamming the UK’s response to the Ukrainian crisis is making waves.
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A Top-Heavy Focus on Income Inequality
New York Times
Outrage at the very wealthy may be impeding a national discussion of how to raise the living standards of the bottom 20 percent, an economist writes.
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Seth Klarman On "Born Bulls", Bitcoin, & "The Truman Show" Market
ZeroHedge
With 40% of the portfolio in cash and having returned $4 billion to clients at year-end, Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group has “drawn the line in the sand” as they reflect on the diminished opportunities in the so-called “Truman Show” market we see today.
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The Value Fund Manager With the $57 Million Paycheck
Bloomberg
Mario Gabelli, the ubiquitous founder of money-management firm Gamco Investors Inc., likes to compare himself to billionaire Warren Buffett.
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