EconVue Weekly Spotlight

posted by Lyric Hughes Hale on May 22, 2016 - 9:03pm

Stories in our Spotlight This Week  

1. Japan to Struggle to Overcome G7 Rift on Yen, Fiscal Policy
Leika Kihara, Tesushi Kajimoto 5/16/16 Reuters

EconVue will be covering Treasury Secretary Lew's press conference this afternoon in Sendai. Japan has not ruled out yen intervention and has been placed on the US currency watch list.

2.  Impact of Chinese Slowdown on U.S. No Longer Negligible
Alexander Chudik, Arthur Hinojosa May 2016 Dallas Fed

Markets know that China matters. Now the Dallas Fed says so too.

3. The Story So Far
David Warsh 5/8/16 Economic Principals

Useful perspective on Trump by David Warsh, who compares him to Ross Perot in 1992.

4. Russia's Gloomy Prospects
Anders Aslund, Simon Commander 5/9/16 Project Syndicate

Last year, Russia's plunging energy prices and international sanctions contributed to a 3.7% fall in GDP. Real wages in the country plummeted by around 10%. The negative trend is expected to continue. Opening up the economy to competition and expanding the private sector would likely undermine Russia's system of wealth and power, which is why it’s economic troubles are likely to continue.

5. Remember That Study Saying America Is An Oligarchy? 3 Rebuttals Say It's Wrong. 
Dylan Matthews 5/9/16 Vox.com

Contrary to the division on all levels that is portrayed by the media, America is not an oligarchy "middle-income Americans and rich Americans actually agree on an overwhelming majority of topics. Of the 1,779 bills in the Gilens/Page data set, majorities of the rich and middle class agree on 1,594; there are 616 bills both groups oppose and 978 bills both groups favor. That means the groups agree on 89.6 percent of bills."

6. Cotización del Dolar paralelo en Venezuela
DolarToday.com  5/18/16 

Dollar Today publishes informal (real) exchange rates for Venezuela. The Central Bank sued them and lost.

EconVue Research and Insights

Data Round-Up: Existing Home Sales Continue to Firm, Inventories Stay Lean, Michael Lewis

Today’s home sales result shows that existing home sales rose another +1.7%  to 5.45 mm units in April. Today’s results were a bit better than expected and particularly impressive given ongoing inventory shortages and steady price increases. 

Rethinking Cyber-Security: A New Paradigm for Democratizing Data Exchange, David W. Johnson

The upward trajectory of human accomplishment arises from ever-more sophisticated data exchange supporting ever-more complex win-win partnerships. Even more important than securing data, confident healthcare providers will share information without fear to advance medical diagnostics, treatment and research.

Data Round-Up: Fed Bank Surveys Stagnate, But Claims Trend Remains Healthy, Michael Lewis

After a promising start in early spring, key Fed bank regional surveys have failed to thrive, FMI’s review of today’s May Philadelphia Fed regional manufacturing survey and the latest Weekly UI Claims & Rail Traffic results.