Economy
Savings from Illinois pension buyback program fall far short of projections (Saxplayer00o1)
The state’s unfunded pension liabilities total nearly $134 billion, the worst in the nation.
Global growth forecast cut by IMF amid trade tensions (Saxplayer00o1)
The report describes inflation as muted. That, together with the subdued growth means that the low interest rate policies pursued in many countries are appropriate.
Japan and the eurozone both have one of their central bank interest rates below zero. In the financial markets, the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve are thought to be likely to cut rates in the coming months – next week in the case of the US.
Trump, Congress dodges historic debt default (Saxplayer00o1)
President Trump and congressional leaders reached a budget deal avoiding the threat of a historic debt default. The agreement does not address America’s rising debt, but increases spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. Weijia Jiang reports.
A Decade of Low Interest Rates Is Changing Everything (Saxplayer00o1)
The problem is the same for institutions that manage savings on behalf of others. Pension funds, overseeing trillions in retirees’ future cash, have been ratcheting down return expectations. The 30-year Treasury bond, a favored debt security, yields about 2.5%—compared with an average 6.5% since the 1970s. Even a record rise in stock prices hasn’t solved the low-return problem for pension funds
Junk-Bond Fund Draws $622 Million as Negative Yields Go Global (Saxplayer00o1)
The $19 billion iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF, known by its ticker HYG, took in more than $622 million on Friday, the largest addition to the fund in a month, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The latest interest in riskier corporate debt follows a pick-up in demand last month, when almost $3 billion poured into the ETF, delivering its best month of inflows on record.
Quantitative Tightening to End as Central Banks Retreat (Saxplayer00o1)
Net bond purchases by the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan will swing back above zero from September, according to an analysis of their balance sheets by Bloomberg Economics. That’s just eleven months since they collectively hit reverse having spent a decade pumping stimulus into their economies via quantitative easing.
Has College Gotten Too Easy? (Adam)
When Jeff Denning, an economist at Brigham Young University, started looking closely at the data on college-completion rates, he was a bit perplexed by what, exactly, was driving this uptick. He and some of his BYU colleagues noticed that a range of indicators from those two decades pointed in the direction of lower, not higher, graduation rates: More historically underrepresented groups of students (who tend to have lower graduation rates) were enrolling, students appeared to be studying less and spending more time working outside of school, and student-to-faculty ratios weren’t decreasing. “We started thinking, What could possibly explain this increase?” Denning told me. “Because we were stuck with not being able to explain anything.”
Equifax exposed 150 million Americans’ personal data. Now it will pay up to $700 million (Thomas R.)
The FTC alleges Equifax violated the agency’s prohibition against unfair and deceptive practices. The FTC said Equifax failed to properly safeguard peoples’ personal information despite claiming in its privacy policy that it implemented “reasonable physical, technical and procedural safeguards” to protect their data.
“Companies that profit from personal information have an extra responsibility to protect and secure that data,” said FTC Chairman Joe Simons in a statement. “Equifax failed to take basic steps that may have prevented the breach.”
Facebook deceived users about the way it used phone numbers, facial recognition, FTC to allege in complaint (Thomas R.)
Facebook will have to pay a record-breaking fine for violating users’ privacy. But the FTC wanted more. The FTC also plans to allege that Facebook had provided insufficient information to users — roughly 30 million — about their ability to turn off a tool that would identify and offer tag suggestions for photos, the sources added. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity. The facial recognition issue appears to have first been publicized earlier this year by Consumer Reports. The FTC declined comment. Facebook also declined to comment.
3 Million Could Lose Food Stamp Benefits Under Trump Administration Proposal (TS)
“This rule would take food away from families, prevent children from getting school meals, and make it harder for states to administer food assistance,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, the ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Stabenow noted that Congress refused to include the proposal in last year’s farm bill.
Trump tells Pentagon to find better sources of rare earth magnet (Thomas R.)
The order came as part of a letter to Congressional committee leaders, as required under the Defense Production Act (DPA), a 1950s-era U.S. law that gives the president and Pentagon wide berth to procure equipment necessary for the national defense.
July is on track to become Earth’s hottest month on record, climate scientists say (Thomas R.)
“July is the warmest month of the year globally. If this July turns out to be the warmest July (it has a good shot at it), it will be the warmest month we have measured on Earth!” Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, tweeted July 15.
In an email Tuesday to NBC News MACH, Mann called the new record “likely,” saying there’s now a “greater than 50/50” chance that the month will set a new high temperature.
Powerful storms and heat wave cause power outages in Midwest, Northeast (Thomas R.)
More than 30,000 customers in New York City lost power Sunday as fires broke out on power lines and in manholes; in Michigan, severe storms led over 800,000 homes and businesses to lose power.
If a Rainstorm Causes Flooding in New York, What Would a Hurricane Bring? (jdargis)
“Every data point suggests that climate change is moving a lot quicker than city government,” Scott M. Stringer, the city’s comptroller, said in an interview. “We did not have a superstorm last night. We had rainfall, and people were literally swimming on Carroll Street,” he added, referring to flooding in Brooklyn. “If that is not a clarion call for focus, then I don’t know what is.”
Gold & Silver
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