From Bourbon Street To Country Clubs, Foot Traffic Remains Low As Recovery Stalls 

Bloomberg pulled data from Orbital Insight, a Californian-based geospatial analytics company that utilizes satellites, drones, balloons, and mobile-phone geolocation data to track ground activity, has determined the economic recovery “is not of a V-shape.”  By counting phone signals in popular nightlife hotspots, country clubs, mega malls, and high-end shopping districts in the US, for the last three months, the […]

Hotel Bailouts At Taxpayer Expense Coming Right Up

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk, Commercial Real Estate delinquencies have soared led by lodging. Trepp research shows CMBS Delinquency Rate Surges for the Third Month; Nears  All-Time High. That was for June.  July Delinquency Rates by Property Type For July, Trepp reported CMBS Delinquency Rate Sees Biggest Drop in More Than Four Years but even with the decline, […]

Blistering Demand For Record Big 10Y Auction

The record refunding week’s most watched auction was of course today’s sale of a record amount of 10Y paper, and at some $38BN for sale, we do mean record:  consider that in 1981 the 10Y auction was under $2BN, it is now… well, see for yourselves. So how did the auction go? Well, following the […]

Masks Could Protect the Economy, Fed Governor Says: Live Updates

Here’s what you need to know: Copied to clipboard. From left, Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell in 2019.Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters A Federal Reserve regional bank president warned that the country’s inability to control the spread of coronavirus is undermining its economic rebound and risks delaying the […]

Sumner Redstone: Empire Builder for the MTV Generation

Sumner M. Redstone belonged to the Age of the Media Mogul, a time before Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google, when street-smart executives like Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller and John Malone brawled in a bid to dominate the world’s screen time. That era is all but done. The swashbucklers have essentially ceded the Hollywood stage to […]

Delayed ‘Diana’ Musical to Be Streamed on Netflix

With Broadway still shuttered, Netflix is doing for the theater community what it and other streaming services have done for the movie business: airing content that can’t be seen where it was initially intended. On Wednesday, the Los Gatos-based company announced that it will stream a specially filmed version of “Diana: A Musical,” a new […]

Ron Paul: COVID-19 Is The New “Terrorism”

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed the next multi-trillion dollar “coronavirus relief” spending bill that will support testing, tracing, treatment, isolation, and mask policies that have been part of a “national strategic plan” she has been advocating. The Trump administration is not […]

John McAfee Arrested For Wearing A Woman's Thong As A Facemask In Germany

John McAfee, former founder of McAfee Antivirus Software, was reportedly arrested in Germany for making an unwelcome fashion statement with his face cover when he wore a woman’s thong – instead of a face mask – over his head.  McAfee tweeted out on Monday that he had been detained because he wouldn’t put on a […]

Air Force Helicopter Shot At From Ground Over Virginia, Injuring Crew

In an almost unheard of and unprecedented scenario, an Air Force helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in Manassas, Virginia after someone shot at the helicopter from the ground. The incident happened Monday, and military sources are now revealing the dangerous incident, which actually injured a member of the crew.  McClatchy details that […]

Charleston Tourism Is Built on Southern Charm. Locals Say It’s Time to Change.

The week that George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers, the Charleston, S.C., Convention & Visitors Bureau introduced a campaign to assure tourists that despite the coronavirus pandemic, Charleston — a city that has topped must-go travel lists for years — was ready to welcome them back. The program asked hotels and restaurants to […]

Why Real Estate Will Always Be More Desirable Than Stocks

For most people, real estate will always be more desirable than stocks. In this article, I will share why real estate will likely build you more wealth over time. Real estate will also most likely provide more happiness. Owning an asset that provides more wealth and happiness is tough to beat! I’m all for owning […]

El Erian: Reading The Dollar Doldrums

Authored by Mohamed El-Erian via Project Syndicate, A sharp decline in the relative value of the dollar this year has been met with cheers from those hoping for a short-term boost to the US economy, and with hand-wringing by those worried about the currency’s global standing. But while both views reflect underlying truths, neither tells […]

Personal finance links: a test of character

Wednesdays are all about personal finance here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at the math of owning a second home. Quote of the Day “Investing isn’t an IQ test; it’s a test of character.” (Jason Zweig) Chart of the Day The number of Americans requesting EINs, i.e. […]

Talent

The other day, we had a situation where a client was issuing orders that didn’t sound right to the admin whom he was speaking with. We don’t allow money to move without a verbal confirmation from clients for their own protection, which is how we picked up on the fact that something might be wrong. […]

Kamala Harris Has Wall Street and Silicon Valley’s Support

Want this delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up here. A V.P. pick that big business can back Joe Biden has selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his vice-presidential running mate. On Monday, we wrote about how Mr. Biden was gaining traction among crucial donors in Big Finance and Big Tech. His pick […]

QAnon Followers Are Hijacking the #SaveTheChildren Movement

Recently, an acquaintance posted a photo on her Instagram story showing a map of the United States, filled with bright red dots. “This is not a map of Covid,” the caption read. “It is a map of human trafficking.” Under the photo was a hashtag: #SaveTheChildren. A few days later, I saw the same hashtag […]

Luxury Homes Tie Chinese Communist Elite to Hong Kong’s Fate

HONG KONG — Li Qianxin, the elder daughter of the Chinese Communist Party’s No. 3 leader, has quietly crafted a life in Hong Kong that traverses the city’s financial elite and the secretive world of Chinese politics. For years, she has mingled with senior executives of state companies through Hong Kong and mainland professional clubs […]

Bike Shorts, It’s Your Time to Shine

Bike shorts were making their comeback as a fashion item well before “social distancing” entered our everyday vocabulary. In recent years, skintight, stretchy shorts have appeared in collections by designer brands including Off-White, Yeezy, Maryam Nassir Zadeh and Jacquemus. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber have also helped propel the trend into […]

Fiscal Response to the Pandemic

Hutchins Center Fiscal Impact MeasureSource: Brookings The chart above is a fascinating look at the 3 sources economic stimulus: Congress, the Federal Reserve, and State/Local spending. The Federal Reserve is projected to continue to stimulate with bond purchases, ultra low rates (ZIRP) and frequent liquidity injections. States and Localities are a drag: They are busted […]

Zoom in on Net Zero – with BT's Gabrielle Ginér

BT’s head of environmental sustainability joins BusinessGreen editor-in-chief James Murray to reflect on a decade of transformational change in the world of business sustainability Gabrielle Ginér has long been a leading light in the world of green business, having spearheaded BT’s environmental sustainability drive for the past decade, which has seen the telecoms giant hit […]

Shade of the Week

Michael Cembalest (JPMorgan) on Goldman’s vaccine call… Last week, Goldman issued a report that was bullish on the prospect of vaccine approval in 2020: “We expect that the FDA will approve at least one vaccine this year and that large shares of the US and European populations will be vaccinated by the end of 2021Q2 […]

Links 8/12/2020

Please Throw Away Your Onions New York magazine Japan’s unknown indigenous cuisine BBC A taste of honey: how bees mend fences between farmers and elephants Guardian New UK company brings sustainable farming to shoppers The Pig Site< ‘One thing I’ve learned about modern farming – we shouldn’t do it like this’ Guardian Pandemic a wake-up […]

Kamala Harris: Biden bolsters climate credentials with VP pick

Kamala Harris has been chosen as Joe Biden’s Presidential running-mate | Credit: Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 California Senator has previously slammed President Trump’s scientific illiteracy and backed plans for a $10tr net zero investment drive Joe Biden yesterday announced California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, in a move that received plaudits […]

West Midlands unveils £260m vision for 500-mile cycle network

Seven metropolitan authorities with the support of Transport for West Midlands have linked their local cycling plans into the Starley Network Nearly 500 miles of existing, pop-up, and prospective cycle routes have been pulled together to form an enormous cycle network in the West Midlands, in a pioneering collaboration by seven local authorities geared at […]

We Tested Instagram Reels, the TikTok Clone. What a Dud.

Millions of people have used the social media app TikTok to make and share short, fun, entertaining videos. I, Brian Chen, am not one of them. Count me as one of those never-TikTokers. As an older millennial, I have exclusively used Facebook’s Instagram to post photos of my dog. I have never made a 15-second […]

Help! I’m Abroad and My Visa Is About to Run Out

Dear Tripped Up, I am an American citizen who arrived in Mexico in January on a Forma Migratoria Múltiple, the country’s standard 180-day visitor’s permit. My daughter lives there as a temporary resident, so I’d like to stay — and, besides, I really don’t want to fly back to the States during a global pandemic. […]

Feel Like You’re Going Out of Your Mind? Consider Your Mind-Set

This article is part of a series on resilience in troubled times — what we can learn about it from history and personal experiences. About 13 years ago I made a mistake in a column written for this newspaper. In the hierarchy of errors, it wasn’t a major one, but it was embarrassing. I said […]

The Nation Wanted to Eat Out Again. Everyone Has Paid the Price.

Across the United States this summer, restaurants and bars, reeling from mandatory lockdowns and steep financial declines, opened their doors to customers, thousands of whom had been craving deep bowls of farro, frothy margaritas and juicy burgers smothered in glistening onions. But the short-term gains have led to broader losses. Data from states and cities […]

“Savings Glut” Fables and International Trade Theory: An Autopsy

Yves here. If anything, Lance Taylor understates the significance of Ben Bernanke’s flogging of the bogus “savings glut” theory. We felt compelled to address it in ECONNED since it became Benanke’s excuse for the 2007-2008 financial crisis, after central bankers and orthodox economists had been preening for their supposed success in engineering the “Great Moderation”. […]

Covering the Housing Market at a Tipping Point

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. The federal government’s $600-a-week supplement to unemployment benefits ended on July 31. Talks between the White House and Democrats on new pandemic relief have stalled, and President Trump’s move to continue part of those benefits […]

Why herd immunity is worth less than you might think

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column.  The evidence in favor of at least partial herd immunity continues to pile up, but still don’t get too cheery.  One worry is that herd immunity might prove only temporary: First, many herd immunity hypotheses invoke the idea of “superspreaders” — that a relatively small number […]