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Most of Us Really Are Not Fabulously Rich The notion that government statistics vastly understate personal wealth is absurd. Bloomberg, June 4, 2018       The first time you see a dubious economic claim, you may not take much note of it. The second time, your neck hairs should stand on end. The third… Read More The post No, Your iPhone Does Not Make You Wealthy appeared first on The Big Picture.

@TBPInvictus here: The following GOP tweet and accompanying video demonstrate quite clearly the lengths to which the GOP will simply lie to muddy the waters in defense of Trump’s unacceptable behavior. As has been well-reported, Donald Trump teased the monthly jobs report some 70 minutes before its release (7:21AM on nonfarms Friday, before the 8:30am… Read More The post POTUS Comments about Employment Situation Report appeared first on The Big Picture.

Source: The Upshot   From Upshot: the underlying conflict between public school employees and policymakers has roots in decisions made during the last recession, when states and local districts short of cash curtailed education spending for the first time in decades. This had a pronounced effect on school staffing, with layoffs hitting many states. Districts… Read More The post Why Teachers Are in Revolt appeared first on The Big Picture.

After a quarter century of steady growth on education spending, a shock to the system.

Some readers and experts have responded to a recent article by pointing out that the 1980s increase in U.S. health costs coincided with a broad push toward deregulation.

The post On Brexit, TTIP and the City of London appeared first on The Big Picture.

My week starting morning train reads: • The Psychology of Money (Collaborative Fund) • What 20 Years of Jeff Bezos’s Shareholder Letters Can Teach You About Becoming a Top Performer (Inc) • Maria Bartiromo’s Strange Trip From ‘Money Honey’ to One of Trump’s Top Boosters (Daily Beast) • Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage? The New Tax Law Changes the Math (Wall Street… Read More The post 10 Monday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

     The transcript from this week’s MIB: Libby Cantrill of PIMCO is below. You can stream/download the full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Bloomberg, Overcast, and Stitcher. Our earlier podcasts can all be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, and Bloomberg. ~~~   VOICE-OVER: Masters in Business is sponsored by Harvard Business School Executive Education, offering four comprehensive leadership programs that transfer… Read More The post Transcript: PIMCO’s Libby Cantrill appeared first on The Big Picture.

Crude & hilarious: THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS is a filthy comedy set in the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles where puppets and humans coexist. Two clashing detectives with a shared secret, one human (Melissa McCarthy) and one puppet, are forced to work together again to solve the brutal murders of the former cast of a beloved… Read More The post The Happytime Murders appeared first on The Big Picture.

My easy like Sunday morning reads: • A New Genetic Clue to How Humans Got Such Big Brains (The Atlantic) • Why Your Health Insurer Doesn’t Care About Your Big Bills (NPR) • The Man Behind the President’s Tweets (New York Times) • Experience is Overrated (A Wealth of Common Sense) • The Fighting Has Begun Over Who Owns Land Drowned by… Read More The post 10 Sunday Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Seattle’s Best Coffee coffee, grab a seat by the pool, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads: • Looking for Life on a Flat Earth: What a burgeoning movement says about science, solace, and how a theory (New Yorker) • How to Succeed in Advertising and Transform the Internet… Read More The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Libby Cantrill is the head of Public Policy at PIMCO. In addition to coordinating the firm’s response to policy issues and analyzing political events for the firm’s investment committee, she is a member of the firm’s Americas portfolio committee. She is also a founding member of PIMCO Parents, an initiative focused on supporting parents and… Read More The post MIB: Libby Cantrill of PIMCO appeared first on The Big Picture.

The post Does the Relative Income of Peers Cause Financial Distress? Evidence from Lottery Winners and Neighboring Bankruptcies appeared first on The Big Picture.

Very handsome! Here is the Drive: Aston Martin will initially launch the DBX with the customer’s choice of the firm’s 5.2-liter twin-turbo V-12 or a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 courtesy of Mercedes-AMG—the same engine choices available in the DB11, according to the report. In case you need a refresher, the V-8 produces 503-horsepower and 513 pound-feet… Read More The post Aston Martin DBX Crossover appeared first on The Big Picture.

Hedge Funds Bear the Blame for Looking Bad They compared themselves to the S&P 500, then complained when they underperformed. Bloomberg, June 1 2018     A couple of weeks ago, Barron’s interviewed mutual fund legend Jack Bogle, the inventor of the index fund and founder of Vanguard Group. One intriguing exchange caught my eye:… Read More The post Love the Player, Hate the Game appeared first on The Big Picture.

Just a quick note about today’s NFP data. (I will leave any discussion about the inappropriate  telegraph by the low Impulse-Control President to others). Before anyone can take too much credit for today’s print, a quick reminder of how we got here:   U3 Unemployment  click for ginormous chart charts courtesy of Invictus   U6 Unemployment chart… Read More The post Unemployment U3, U6 (2008-2018) appeared first on The Big Picture.

The economy is in a sweet spot, with steady growth and broad improvement in the labor market.

We asked which public health intervention was most needed in this era.

As the European Union faces a potential trade war with the United States, its resolve is likely to be tested by differing interests within the bloc.

Succinct Summations for the week ending June 1st, 2018 Positives: 1. Average weekly earnings rose 3% y/o/y (the best in 7 years); weekly earnings up 0.3% m/o/m; 2. Nonfarm payrolls rose 223k in May (expected 190k); 3. GDP = 2.2% annualized growth rate; 4. Unemployment rate fell to 3.8%,  (from 3.9%); Jobless claims fell 13k w/o/w from… Read More The post Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 6.1.18 appeared first on The Big Picture.

Hey, new month! Start it with our end of week, morning train reads: • Former Jeb Bush spokesman Tim Miller: The Media’s Undeniable Pro-Trump Bias (Crooked Media) • The seven deadly trade lies of Brexiteers (Standard) • Jeff Bezos: Amazon deserves to be scrutinized as a giant company, aims to ‘pass with flying colors’ (Geek Wire) • What Can… Read More The post 10 Friday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

The near-term costs of steel and aluminum tariffs are manageable; the longer-term costs of potential trade wars with the entire world are greater

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