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[...]PS. Métricas perversas. EL PIB crece con la criminalidad https://www.casadellibro.com/libro-economia-en-una-leccion/9788472097308/6572281¿Qué gobierno daría prioridad a reducir el crimen?
Cash Is a ‘Compelling Alternative’ to Stocks, Bank of America SaysS&P 500 has little near-term upside to firm’s year-end targetBofA sees 7% annual return for index over next decadeSticking with the mantra “cash is king” may be a winning strategy for investors this year as turbulence in the financial sector obscures the Federal Reserve’s path and worsens the economic outlook.In the near term, cash is a “compelling alternative to the S&P 500 index,” strategists at Bank of America Corp. led by Savita Subramanian said Wednesday in a note to clients. The firm sees limited near-term upside for the US equity benchmark against its year-end target of 4,000 — roughly where the gauge is currently trading at — while cash offers returns of around 5%.Markets have weathered a volatile month plagued by fears of a potential crisis in the financial system following the recent failure of some US regional lenders and the near-collapse of banking giant Credit Suisse Group AG before its government-brokered takeover by rival UBS Group AG. The prospect of contagion risks raised bets that recent rate increases by the Fed and other central banks could be the last of the current hiking cycle before a pause.Trader expectations for US monetary policy currently assign one-in-two odds of another quarter-point rate increase at the May policy gathering, while pricing in about 75 basis points of rate cuts by the end of the year.As concerns over the economic outlook mount, global cash funds had their biggest weekly inflow since March 2020, the bank said last week, citing EPFR Global data.While cash looks more attractive for near-term positioning, BofA projects a 7% total annual return for the S&P 500 over the next decade based on the firm’s valuation modeling.“Valuations may not explain much in the near term, but they may be all that matters over the long-term for the S&P 500, based on our work,” Subramanian’s team said.Investors’ attention has shifted to the short term meaningfully in recent years, Bofa noted, with zero-day-to-expiration options now comprising nearly half of total options volume in the S&P 500 compared to less than 5% a decade ago.
Monetary policy is not solely to blame for this banking crisis, MARTIN WOLFIt’s a fallacy to suppose there is a simple solution to the failings of our financial systems and economiesSo, who, or what, is to blame? Why, 15 years after the start of the last financial crisis, might we be seeing that of another? For many, it is the fault of a long period of ultra-low interest rates imposed by central banks. For others, the cult of the bailout is at fault. We do not need to look far to find the intellectual origins of such views. They lie in Austrian economics. As Brad DeLong puts it in his excellent book, Slouching Towards Utopia, the view is that “the market giveth, the market taketh away; blessed be the name of the market”. The Austrians are not altogether wrong. They are not altogether right either.The essence of the argument is that the transatlantic financial crisis of 2007-15 was the product of over-loose monetary policy. Thereupon, over-loose monetary policy, plus bailouts, thwarted the creative destruction that would have returned the economy to vigorous health. Finally, after Covid, another burst of over-loose monetary policy, combined with aggressive fiscal policy, caused high inflation and still more financial fragility. Now, all the chickens are coming home to roost.The story is simple. But it is wrong.Start with the run-up to the financial crisis. The UK has been issuing index-linked gilts since the early-1980s. The most remarkable feature of the series is the huge fall in real yields from a peak of 5 per cent in 1992 to 1.2 per cent in 2006, then minus 1.4 per cent in 2013 and minus 3.4 per cent in 2021. Central banks alone, however demented they may have been, could not deliver a decline of more than eight percentage points in real interest rates over three decades. If this huge fall in real interest rates were incompatible with the needs of the economy, one would surely have seen surging inflation.So, what was going on? The big background changes were financial liberalisation, globalisation and the entry of China into the world economy. The latter two not only lowered inflation. They also introduced a country with colossal surplus savings into the world economy. In addition, rising inequality within high-income countries, combined with ageing populations, created huge surplus savings in some of them, too, notably Germany. It then needed exceptional credit-fuelled investment, notably in housing, to balance global demand and supply. Happily or not, the financial liberalisation facilitated this credit boom.All this blew up in the financial crisis. The decision then made was not to have another great depression. I do not regret my support for that self-evidently wise decision. But, given the realities of the world economy and the impact of the crisis, there then needed to be either ongoing fiscal support or ultra-loose monetary policy. The former was ruled out. So, it had to be the latter.Data on the money supply show why both ultra-low interest rates and quantitative easing were vital. After the financial crisis, there were extended periods when the private contribution to the growth of the money supply was negative, because credit was contracting. If interest rates had been higher and central banks had not expanded base money, as they did, the money supply would have collapsed. I am not a believer in our ability to stabilise demand by stabilising the money supply. But letting it implode is another matter. Milton Friedman would have considered the actions of central banks in stabilising the growth of broad money after the financial crisis essential. Certainly I do.Then came Covid. At this point, the monetary and fiscal authorities made what turned out to be big mistakes. Monetary growth exploded. According to the IMF, the structural fiscal deficit of the group of seven leading economies also jumped by 4.6 percentage points between 2019 and 2020 and barely shrunk in 2021. This combination fuelled a surge in demand greater than supply could meet, given China’s repeated lockdowns and the Ukraine war. The result was, we hope, a temporary surge in inflation and rising interest rates, which has caused another shock to our fragile banking system.In sum, the central banks were not the evil puppet masters of some imaginings, but puppets under the control of more powerful forces. Yes, they made mistakes. Maybe monetary policy should have “leaned against the wind” rather more prior to the financial crisis, QE ended a bit sooner after that crisis, and monetary support been withdrawn faster in 2021. But, given our liberalised financial system and the huge shocks to the world economy, I am sceptical whether any of this would have made a huge difference. Crises were inevitable.Certainly, the legion of critics need to spell out precisely what they would have recommended instead and what effects they would expect their alternatives to have had. We need the counterfactuals specified and quantified. How high should interest rates have been? How big a financial collapse, economic slump, and rise in unemployment would they have then expected after the financial crisis? Why do they imagine businesses would have invested more if interest rates had been higher? Even if productivity would have been raised by slaying “zombie” firms, why would this have been a good thing if the costs included lower output for a prolonged period?Like all human institutions, central banks are imperfect and sometimes incompetent. But they are not crazy. The view that what has gone wrong with our economies in the past few decades is mainly loose monetary policy is a cop out. It rests on the delusion that there is a simple solution to the failings of our financial systems and real economies. Things would not be wonderful if central banks had stood idly by. We cannot abolish democratic politics. Economic policy must be adapted to our world, not to the 19th century.
JPMorgan, Goldman Plan to Start Trading Private Credit Loans*Banks seek inroads into $1.4 trillion private debt market*Trading of direct loans could reshape buy-and-hold industryWall Street banks are looking to start trading private credit loans as they seek to make inroads into the lucrative world of direct lending, a potential first step that could ultimately reshape the largely buy-and-hold market.JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Barclays Plc are among the firms talking to private debt funds about facilitating secondary-market transactions, according to people with knowledge of the matter — with some banks reaching out directly to gauge manager interest. JPMorgan is using its own balance sheet to make markets amid an increase in client inquiries, said separate people familiar, who asked not to be identified because the details are confidential.The foray is the latest effort by Wall Street to capture a slice of the $1.4 trillion private credit industry, where shops from Apollo Global Management Inc. to Blackstone Inc. often team up to make loans directly to companies. Proponents say secondary trading would help direct lenders better manage their portfolio mix, as well as free up capital to make new deals. But others warn that regular price discovery could force shops to mark down the value of their debt during periods of financial stress, increasing volatility.The efforts are in the early stages, the people said, and it’s still unclear whether there’s sufficient interest among direct lenders for a robust secondary market to develop.Representatives for JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Barclays declined to comment.
UK banks still ‘resilient’ but BoE warns of ‘urgent need’ to address less regulated areas of finance sectorUK banks are “resilient” despite global banking turmoil, the Bank of England said today, but warned there was an “urgent need” for further rules in the less tightly regulated market-based finance sector. Amidst volatility in the financial sector following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and the emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, the Bank reaffirmed its belief in the strength of the UK financial system. “The regulations in place for UK banks mean that they have significant financial resources to absorb shocks…We judge that UK banks are resilient and are strong enough to continue supporting households and businesses,” the Bank said. (...)While the traditional sector looked resilient, the Bank said there was an “urgent need to increase resilience” in market-based finance. Market based finance, which includes the so-called shadow banking sector, is the system of markets, non-bank financial institutions and infrastructure which provides financial services to support the wider economy. It includes hedge funds, pension funds and payment provider
Elon Musk and other tech leaders call for pause in ‘out of control’ AI raceSome of the biggest names in tech are calling for artificial intelligence labs to stop the training of the most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”Elon Musk was among the dozens of tech leaders, professors and researchers who signed the letter, which was published by the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit backed by Musk.The letter comes just two weeks after OpenAI announced GPT-4, an even more powerful version of the technology that underpins the viral AI chatbot tool, ChatGPT. In early tests and a company demo, the technology was shown drafting lawsuits, passing standardized exams and building a working website from a hand-drawn sketch.The letter said the pause should apply to AI systems “more powerful than GPT-4.” It also said independent experts should use the proposed pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared protocols for AI tools that are safe “beyond a reasonable doubt.”“Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources,” the letter said. “Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.”If a pause is not put in place soon, the letter said governments should step in and create a moratorium.The wave of attention around ChatGPT late last year helped renew an arms race among tech companies to develop and deploy similar AI tools in their products. OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are at the forefront of this trend, but IBM, Amazon, Baidu and Tencent are working on similar technologies. A long list of startups are also developing AI writing assistants and image generators.Artificial intelligence experts have become increasingly concerned about AI tools’ potential for biased responses, the ability to spread misinformation and the impact on consumer privacy. These tools have also sparked questions around how AI can upend professions, enable students to cheat, and shift our relationship with technology.The letter hints at the broader discomfort inside and outside the industry with the rapid pace of advancement in AI. Some governing agencies in China, the EU and Singapore have previously introduced early versions of AI governance frameworks.
Saturno nos recuerda hoy que, carente de Industria porque tras las decisiones energéticas tomadas por Bruselas los últimos treinta años, lo que se puede hacer es salir corriendo hacia USA, se aprestan en Bruselas a exigirnos hacer obras en las casas en otro acto dictatorial.
En el tiempo que llevamos por aquí ya nos hemos dado cuenta de que los bienes inmuebles cumplen varias funciones que el sistema de poder no ofrece a la gente de otras formas.La primera es servir de depósito de valor --imperfecto-- pero siempre mejor que la mayor parte de los disponibles para el común de los mortales. Esto explica los altísimos porcentajes de la población occidental que opta por la propiedad de una o más viviendas. Desde luego bien superiores al 70%. Creo que la excepción fue Alemania que todavía recuerda que, en menos de 30 años, vio su parque de viviendas totalmente aplanado a bombazos durante el siglo XX y ahora lo vuelve a recordar.
Otra función[/b][/i] es ser motor de alguna actividad económica y de grandes ingresos fiscales que no se producirían en otras actividades. Esta actividad económica es la derivada de los procesos de urbanización, control del suelo, construcción, compraventa, uso y alquiler.Es evidente..
que esto es rechazado por la extrema izquierda que ve a estos segmentos sociales como adictos al pequeño capitalismo y por tanto menos sensibles a sus ideas. Es hasta cierto punto lógico que una parte de la actividad de esta ideología se dedique a zaherir al segmento de la población que alquila su propiedad privada.
Pero no debería olvidar que los Estados, a pesar de prometerlo, no proporcionan suficiente vivienda pública temporal o permanente a las capas de población con menos capacidad económica y sin trabajo. Tampoco sabe o puede el Estado mantener los precios de compra asequibles porque ha perdido la soberanía necesaria para desarrollar la propia industria y por tanto sus trabajos son, mayoritariamente, de baja calidad. Son los conocidos como trabajos de "rendimientos decrecientes". Una parte de la Economía que habíamos olvidado.Hoy, como sabemos, el sistema político promete vivienda pero no la proporciona a una parte pequeña pero significativa de la población. Un servidor comenzará a creer en esta izquierda cuando ataque al Estado por ello. Porque tampoco lo hacen cuando gobiernan lo cual muestra bien a las claras de qué va todo el ruido.
(1) En este proceso ya es evidente que trabajan contra nosotros, cada vez más déspotas e incapaces.
(2) Nada excepcional. Este es un proceso que sucede a la muerte de todas las civilizaciones. Sus élites son incapaces de resolver los problemas que vienen y los que ellas mismas van creando y la única solución para preservarse a si mismas es destruir su propia base cultural y sustituir a sus gentes por otras que creen van a ser más sumisas. Gran Bretaña lo ha visto venir y ya tiene al frente a un Hindú y Escocia a un Paquistaní. El Islam les vale.