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☆ India population will surpass China, UN says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Manveena Suri | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New Delhi, India CNN —India is set to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation, with almost 3 million more people by the middle of this year, data released by the United Nations on Wednesday showed. Based on the projections, India’s population by mid-year will reach 1.4286 billion, compared to China’s 1.4257 billion – 2.9 million fewer – according to the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) “State of World Population Report” for 2023. But the UN has been unable to determine a date this shift will take place, due to “uncertainty” about the data coming from China and India. By mid-year, the global population is estimated to hit 8.045 billion, the UN report said. And by 2050, eight countries will account for half the projected growth in global population: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.

☆ A flawed but useful economic model for a bleak age
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Modern Monetary Theory, which endorses unlimited government spending, was all the rage during the years of ultra-low interest rates. John Cochrane’s fiscal theory fits the bill. Cochrane, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, recently published “The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level”. Not only are high interest rates incapable of arresting inflation, fiscal theory suggests they actually make the problem worse. Nor do bondholders operate with rational expectations, as fiscal theory suggests.

☆ Only the big will crack the $1 trln LBO code
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Lenders will only tiptoe back, meaning deals need the big checks and extra elbow grease in credit markets that favor the largest private equity firms. Private equity firms depend on borrowed money to reduce how much of their own they use in any single deal and to magnify returns as a percentage of their initial investment. Imagine a private equity firm acquires a company for $1 billion, then flips it five years later for $1.5 billion. Though the private equity industry is awash in so-called dry powder, fundraising is increasingly tilting to the largest fund managers. Buyout firms are apt to keep their plans more conservative to garner higher ratings – meaning, again, less leverage and more upfront cash.

☆ Rich countries and India should cut a climate pact
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Emissions from the world’s most populous country are only 7% of greenhouse gases but are growing fast while those produced by rich countries have largely peaked. To do so, it will need policies that incentivise green investment, including accelerating its plans for carbon pricing. Rich countries can also help, even at a time when their budgets are stretched. India could then be much more ambitious in its transition plan and the G7 and other rich countries could mobilise funds, focussing on key bottlenecks. But if the central government comes up with a solution, rich countries could help fund it.

☆ Shadow banks: The other financial firms worrying investors and regulators
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —The International Monetary Fund warned this week of “vulnerabilities” among so-called non-bank financial institutions, saying global financial stability could hinge on their resilience. The term encompasses financial firms, other than banks, that provide all manner of financial services, including lending to households and businesses. The sector has grown strongly since the global financial crisis in 2008, with its asset base expanding by 7% a year on average, according to FSB data. Non-banks that provide credit are known as “shadow banks,” although the term is often used imprecisely to mean all non-banks. Shadow banks now make up about 14% of the world’s financial assets and, like many non-banks, operate without the same level of regulatory oversight and transparency as banks.

Public Investment Fund LIV Golf Trump World Performance54 LIV Golfers PLUS 45 OTHERS CONSULTANTS LAWYERS McKinsey & Company PwC Public Investment Fund Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan White & Case M. Klein & Company Teneo Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Majed al-Sorour Newcastle United Aramco Golf Saudi Benjamin Quayle Yasir al-Rumayyan Ari Fleischer Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LIV Golf Performance54 Trump World Greg Norman Donald J. Trump Gary Davidson Jed Moore Eric Trump Jared Kushner LIV Golfers Cameron Smith Phil Mickelson Dustin Johnson PLUS 45 OTHERSLIV Golf has cleaved men’s professional golf like no other force since the 1960s. Some of the world’s top players, including Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, have become the faces of LIV Golf. The Public Investment FundDiagram of the major figures in LIV Golf that are connected to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Public Investment Fund Jared Kushner’s firm accepted a $2 billion investment from the Public Investment Fund. LIV Golf Trump World Eric Trump Jared Kushner Donald J. Trump Public Investment Fund Jared Kushner’s firm accepted a $2 billion investment from the Public Investment Fund.

☆ What Is a Money Market Fund?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +11 min

“Money market funds have become a much more interesting place,” says Jay McLaughlin, institutional sales manager for iMoneyNet, a research firm that follows the money market fund industry. How money market funds workThe first thing for investors to understand is that money market funds are mutual funds, not bank accounts. Municipal money market fundsMunicipal money market funds appeal to many high-income investors because of their tax-exempt nature. One popular muni money market fund is the $17 billion Vanguard Municipal money market Fund (VMSXX) and its current 7-day yield of 2.65%—a yield which on its face is lower than other fund types, but after taxes are considered, can actually be higher for some investors. How to get the best money market fund ratesTypically your stock trading platform may have a default money market fund for its clients, established at your initial sign-up, as a kind of placeholder to keep your cash.

☆ Watch CNBC’s full interview with The Satori Fund’s Dan Niles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWatch CNBC’s full interview with The Satori Fund’s Dan NilesDan Niles, The Satori Fund founder and portfolio manager, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss how investors should position their portfolio, why it's time to buy some names like Meta and Nvidia, and more.

☆ Facebook is a good example of how fast things can change, says The Satori Fund’s Dan Niles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailFacebook is a good example of how fast things can change, says The Satori Fund’s Dan NilesDan Niles, The Satori Fund founder and portfolio manager, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss how investors should position their portfolio, why it's time to buy some names like Meta and Nvidia, and more.

☆ Explainer: How a massive options trade by a JP Morgan fund can move markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

read moreWHAT IS THE JP MORGAN HEDGED EQUITY FUND? The JPMorgan Hedged Equity Fund holds a basket of S&P 500 (.SPX) stocks along with options on the benchmark index and resets hedges once a quarter. For the year, the fund was down 10.66% through September 28, compared with a 21% decline for the S&P 500 Total return Index (.SPXTR). On June 30, the refresh of the fund's options positions involved about 140,000 S&P 500 options contracts in all, including S&P 500 puts at strikes 3580 and 3020 and calls at 4005, all for the September 30 expiry. Options dealers - typically big financial institutions that facilitate trading but seek to remain market-neutral - take the other side of the fund's options trades.

☆ TikTok and its CEO are fighting to save the app in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

In his talk, Chew, the CEO of TikTok, said the social network would not provide US user data to the Chinese government and has never been asked to do so. Chew stressed the steps TikTok has taken to protect US user data. The Harvard event is just one of several media appearances Chew has made in recent weeks amid mounting scrutiny of TikTok and of himself. “It’s life or death for TikTok, from their perspective,” said Justin Sherman, the CEO of Global Cyber Strategies, D.C.-based research and advisory firm, who was among the researchers TikTok invited to be briefed on “Project Texas,” the company’s $1.5 billion initiative to address lawmakers’ security concerns. But for some lawmakers with security concerns, the latest push “may be too little too late.”In his TikTok video on Tuesday, Chew appealed directly to users of the app.

☆ Credit Suisse: Why it’s struggling and why that’s a big deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Credit Suisse is one of the biggest financial institutions in the world. “Credit Suisse is much more globally interconnected … not just a Swiss problem but a global one.”Why is Credit Suisse struggling now? That engulfed other banks facing big problems, including Credit Suisse, which has been a slow-moving car wreck for decades. In 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to federal charges that it illegally allowed some U.S. clients to evade their taxes. Credit Suisse acted as an underwriter when the company went public on the Nasdaq in 2019.

☆ LIV Golf Fight Stirs Up Questions About Saudi Ownership of Newcastle United
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Joshua Robinson | Louise Radnofsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON—When Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund took a majority interest in English soccer team Newcastle United in 2021, the Premier League set out a clear condition before approving the sale. Newcastle, the league said, couldn’t in any way be controlled by the government of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Public Investment Fund assured the league that the team’s operations would be free of state influence, despite the fund’s chairman being Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

☆ Galois Capital flagship fund to close after FTX losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Nell Mackenzie | Elizabeth Howcroft | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FILE PHOTO: The logo of FTX is seen at the entrance of the FTX Arena in Miami, Florida, U.S., November 12, 2022. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File PhotoLONDON (Reuters) -Galois Capital hedge fund founder Kevin Zhou said on Monday his flagship fund would close after “losing almost half” of the fund’s money when cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed. Zhou’s statement, released on Twitter, confirmed a report in the Financial Times that the hedge fund had decided to close its main fund and return its money to investors. In his tweet, Zhou also said Galois Capital had lost almost half of its assets “to the FTX disaster”. The newspaper report cited an investor letter which said the hedge fund was no longer viable, had stopped trading and exited its positions.

☆ IMF’s outlook on Russia is too rosy to be true
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Pierre Briancon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The international body recently estimated that Russia will avoid a recession in 2023 and expand by 0.3% after shrinking by 2.2% in 2022. The measures will not “significantly” affect Russia’s oil exports, the Fund says. That is a matter of intense debate among economists since oil prices remain below the cap set by the G7. Much will depend on the evolution of oil prices this year. But only a serious oil price rally, improbable in the context of the global economy’s “subpar growth” - to quote the IMF - could justify looking at Russia through rosy glasses.

☆ IMF Tempers Its Medium-Term Economic Growth Forecast for China
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Lingling Wei | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The International Monetary Fund has slashed its medium-term growth forecast for China even though it bumped up its 2023 projection for the world’s No. 2 economy, underscoring the persistent economic challenges Beijing faces despite its recent change toward a more pro-growth tone. The IMF now expects that in five years, China will grow at an annual rate of 3.8%, according to its latest assessment of the Chinese economy in its Article IV review released Friday, down from the fund’s October projection of 4.6%.

☆ Black Swan Manager Preps for Financial ‘Mega-Tinderbox-Timebomb’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Spencer Jakab | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

No risk, no reward. While Mark Spitznagel wouldn’t disagree, a letter from the star hedge-fund manager seen by The Wall Street Journal has some striking insights on both fronts. A protégé of “Black Swan” author Nassim Nicholas Taleb noted on the occasion of his fund’s 15-year anniversary that using it to hedge a standard stock portfolio would have enhanced long-run returns through its bets on extremely bearish events.

☆ Central banks are fighting a war on inflation. They're not done yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

London CNN —One of the main jobs of central banks is to keep prices under control, allowing households and businesses to plan for the future with some certainty on what things will cost. Tolga Akmen/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockPolicymakers face difficult questions about exactly when to pause interest rate hikes. The European Central Bank’s main rate is 2%, while the Bank of England’s is 3.5%. Still, investors are becoming increasingly confident that major central banks will change course soon. “Central banks are relatively close to the end,” Sels said.

☆ Euro zone can afford to keep fiscal taps running
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Francesco Guerrera | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

If they don’t overdo it, governments can also ease the blow of the European Central Bank’s efforts to tame inflation. But euro zone leaders like Germany’s Olaf Scholz, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni face pressure from economic policymakers to curb the handouts. The Commission estimates that the euro zone aggregate deficit will be 3.7% of GDP in 2023. As the ECB keeps a lid on growth to slay inflation, European governments can keep the fiscal taps open. Follow @guerreraf72 on TwitterloadingCONTEXT NEWSThe European Central Bank is putting pressure on euro zone governments to rein in fiscal spending.

☆ High inflation isn’t going away
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The report, released on Tuesday, indicates that global inflation has peaked but policymakers will still have to fight harder to vanquish it. Worldwide growth in consumer prices will fall from an annual average of 8.8% in 2022 to 6.6% in 2023 and 4.3% next year, the IMF reckons. A drop in energy costs and weaker demand – hammered by rising interest rates - will drive much of that decline. Even in advanced economies, where inflation is set to fall from 7.3% in 2022 to 4.6% this year, the IMF reckons prices will still rise by 2.6% in 2024. That suggests interest rates will stay high even after the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank stop hiking.

☆ Adani’s buy now, pay later fundraise could sting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

HONG KONG, Jan 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Gautam Adani is on a mission to win public acceptance for his eponymous group. The first stage of a $2.4 billion stock sale by his flagship Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) entity has won over anchor investors, including the well-regarded Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. They are picking up roughly $734 million of stock in India’s largest follow-on issue of new shares by a private sector company. But those of other Adani group companies including Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS) and some U.S. dollar bonds at Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) and Adani Ports (APSE.NS) sold off sharply. For Adani investors, buy now, pay later could take on an awkward new meaning.

☆ Premarket stocks: How investors are preparing for a debt ceiling standoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Now, aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve and large spending packages have helped bring that ceiling into play once again. But Washington is at an impasse over whether or not to raise the debt limit: The White House expects Congress to pass a debt ceiling increase without conditions while Republicans say that any increase should be accompanied by spending cuts. Esther George says goodbye to the FedMost Americans dream of retiring by 65, but at the Federal Reserve it’s required. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City president Esther George turned 65 this weekend, triggering her mandated retirement. “Today, the U.S. is again experiencing high inflation and the Federal Reserve is aggressively tightening monetary policy.

☆ Which Mutual Funds Are Good for Your Taxes?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Derek Horstmeyer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

How tax-efficient is your mutual fund? That is a question many investors wonder about, and they often assume that the easiest way to answer it is to look at the fund’s turnover. Investors often figure that high turnover means less tax efficiency, because more trading means more taxable capital gains. A study of returns for dollar-denominated funds that I conducted with my research assistants found that turnover isn’t a reliable predictor of tax inefficiency for all funds. Indeed, we found that in the fixed-income sector, high-turnover funds are the most tax-efficient.

☆ Blackstone’s Leaky Property Fund Pays for a Thumbs-Up
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Carol Ryan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Blackstone’s flagship property fund got a boost that bosses hope will deter investors from asking for their money back. There is a catch, though: It had to agree to sweeter terms than normal. The New York private-equity firm said on Tuesday that the University of California will buy shares worth $4 billion in BREIT. The nontraded real-estate fund has been receiving more applications from clients asking to take their cash out than it can contractually pay. In December, investors put in redemption requests equivalent to 5.44% of the fund’s total net asset value, above both BREIT’s 2% monthly and 5% quarterly limits.

☆ Blackstone’s Leaky Property Fund Pays for a Thumbs Up
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Carol Ryan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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