Today United States GDP is going to be reported, so I did nothing big yesterday. Lately, wild swings have been in fashion so I decided that, this one is likely to follow the pattern. I am going to take the lower risk investment and just follow the market. You can see on the pricing of stock options that they are expensive, that they are expected to have really big swings. For example Facebook as of last night, with 2 nights to go before the week expires still carries a high premium. It is also unclear if this report if it turns out to be “good” will also be well-received. Investors are wary of “too strong” growth pushing up interest rates, but weak growth is also going to be bad news given the growth concerns elsewhere. IMF still expects the world to grow — although I read the article, front, back, middle and didn’t see which area is supposed to grow. MAYBE,,,, well, it’s tricky, the growth could just come from everyone, although in low-numbers,,,, 2% here, 3% there…. they said China will do 6% … Enough to chug along, keep interest rates low.
G20 met up today in Shanghai and I read briefly Germany and IMF wants growth on the rise, but through structural reforms (making people consume more and do more work for each other in local services) and kinda avoiding the full-on-fiscal stimulus strategy. Article here. Sounds good — grow your own legs, but don’t topple the balance (like what could happen with currency wars and capital outflows that happens in China). Governments have a responsibility to make their economies grow and though there have been missteps (need to remember the juicy details?!) Let’s hope these new policies all works out.
At our last workshop we discussed the short to medium-term market recovery, don’t miss out on the gains with my next workshop happening March 5. Here are the topics in this link!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-26/imf-s-lagarde-still-sees-growth-even-amid-growing-global-risks
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Pay women more if you want to reduce povertyFont size: A | A | A
1:18 AM ET 2/25/16 | MarketWatch
By Jillian Berman
Dramatically reducing poverty could be as simple as paying women the same amount of money as men. There’s one problem: Taking that step isn’t all that simple.
If working women were paid the same amount as their male counterparts living in the same place, working the same hours, with the same education, their poverty rate would drop by more than half in 28 states, according to an analysis (http://www.statusofwomendata.org) released Thursday by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a think tank focused on women’s economic issues. To reach their conclusion, researchers analyzed government data to determine how much women would make if they got the same return on their resources — education, age, location etc. — as men. Then they calculated whether that added income would lift those women out of poverty.
Eliminating the gap in pay between working men and women would not only benefit the women making less, but it would help the families they support and the economy overall as well, said Heidi Hartmann, the president of IWPR. Closing the gender pay gap in every state would boost the U.S. economy by $482 billion, IWPR found.
“The low pay of women due to discrimination is a drag on the entire economy,” Hartmann said.
But unfortunately achieving equal pay for women is no easy task. Women make less money than men (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gender-wage-gap-narrows-by-just-1-cent-2015-09-16) on average for a variety of reasons, Hartmann notes. They’re less likely to work in high-paying fields even and, when they do work in those sectors, they’re less likely to work at higher-paying firms or move up the corporate ladder. And then of course there are cases of outright discrimination where women are making less than men doing the same job.
“Change is required on so many levels, but each of those levels can be addressed,” Hartmann said. She noted that advocates have made some progress since the gender wage gap first began receiving national attention in the 1960s and there is hope the pace of change could speed up, thanks to new initiatives. For example, President Barack Obama issued an executive order earlier this year (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/us/politics/obama-moves-to-expand-rules-aimed-at-closing-gender-pay-gap.html) requiring that companies with more than 100 workers to report to the government what they pay workers by race and sex.
-Jillian Berman; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
> Dow Jones Newswires
February 25, 2016 01:18 ET (06:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/biggest-wave-yet-of-u-s-oil-defaults-looms-as-bust-intensifies
