Showing posts with label slow growth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label slow growth. Show all posts

2016-12-19

MacroView: OECD & Trump: Fiscal Initiatives to Escape Low-growth Trap

MacroView |  ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly review of  macro economic and investing news: 1. OECD & Trump; 2. Confidence higher since Trump election; 3. FOMC rate increase; 4. Dollar strengthens, gold falls; 5. Trump talked, Fed listened; 6. Caveat from Jeff Gundlach; 7. Trump Summit with Tech Leaders; 8. Did Russia Hack the DNC and Clinton campaign? Who cares? 9. Student loans, which lie did they believe? 10. Good investing is boring.
 
MacroView Feature •  OECD and Trump Agree: Use Fiscal Initiatives to Escape Low-growth Trap

Jamie Dimon: Blame Bad Public Policy for Slow Growth

Video above published Dec. 15, 2016: JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon discussed Detroit’s economic recovery and whether the techniques they are using could be replicated elsewhere with Bloomberg’s Megan Murphy.

Make better use of fiscal initiatives to escape low-growth trap, OECD says in latest Global Economic Outlook (OECD.org Nov 28, 2016):
"Among the major advanced economies, activity is expected to accelerate in the United States, due to an assumed easing of fiscal policy, with the economy projected to grow by 2.3% in 2017 and 3% in 2018. The euro area will grow at a 1.6% rate in 2017 and by 1.7% in 2018. In Japan, growth is projected at 1% in 2017 and 0.8% in 2018. The 35-country OECD area is projected to grow by 2% in 2017 and 2.3% in 2018, according to the Outlook.
"With rebalancing continuing in China, growth is expected to continue drifting lower, to 6.4% in 2017 and 6.1% in 2018. India’s growth rates are expected to hover above 7.5% over the 2017-18 period, but many emerging market economies will continue to grow at a more sluggish pace. The deep recession in Brazil is expected to end in 2017, after which the economy will grow at a 1.2% rate in 2018.
"The Outlook draws attention to conditions that create a “window of opportunity” for new fiscal initiatives, as extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy has led to very low interest rates and created fiscal space. A targeted annual increase in public spending of ½ percent of GDP could be financed for several years in most countries without increasing the debt-to-GDP ratio in the medium term. Combining this initiative with structural reforms, and acting collectively across countries, would boost the impact, according to the Outlook.
"“This is not a blank cheque for governments,” Mr GurrĂ­a said. “The OECD is calling for fiscal policy to be used more wisely, with spending targeted at areas that boost growth, like high-quality infrastructure investment, innovation, education and skills, which also make growth more inclusive.” Read the full speech.
The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, France, is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD's goal is "to build a stronger, cleaner and fairer world." Members and partners of the OECDFor more see:

2.  Consumer, business, CEO confidence higher since Trump election"Americans from all corners of the economy seem to be enjoying the conditions a lot more since the election of Donald Trump. Nearly every measure of consumer, business, or executive confidence has gained in the month since the election, according to Michelle Meyer, chief US economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch."--BusinessInsider.com (P.S. Someone ought to tell Michelle Obama.)

3.  U.S. Federal Reserve FOMC Press Conference LIVE Video Replay 12/14/16The end of a flatline monetary policy?
source: Statista
4.  Dollar Climbs to Strongest Since 2003 on Fed Path; Bonds Drop | Bloomberg.com Dec 15, 2016: "The dollar climbed to the highest level since 2003 against the euro and gold plunged as the prospect of a steeper path for U.S. interest rates filtered through markets."

5. Trump Talked, the Fed Listened: Let’s Shrink the Balance Sheet, Bullard Says | WolfStreet.com

6. Caveat from Jeff Gundlach, December 13, 2016, webcast"... stocks typically rise in the days after an election, just as they have. But they drop after the president is sworn in, as investors realize that he does not have a magic wand to implement everything they are hopeful for ..."

7. Trump Summit with Tech LeadersTechReview: Silicon Valley's Pilgrimage to Trump Tower to Meet Trump.

8. Did Russia Hack the DNC and Clinton campaign? Who cares? If so, was it a good thing Wikileaks.org exposed Clinton & DNC corruption and collusion, including collusion with so-called mainstream media (MSM), the "rigged" Democratic primary against Bernie Sanders, all the conflicts of interest and "pay-to-play" schemes, and foreign government funding of the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State, $200-800,000 per speech fees, and all the other things the Clintons, the Clinton campaign, the Washington establishment, and mainstream media did not want us to know? I think you know the answer.
"Here are two of political history’s great constants: first, countries meddling in the internal affairs of others (both enemies and “friends”); and, second, bogus charges from a faction in one country that foreigners are meddling in its internal affairs to help another faction. Both are poison for any country that wishes to rule itself."--Jeremy Scahill, Jon Schwarz, TheIntercept.com
The WaPo-NYTimes-MSM narrative of Russian election hacking has become so incessant and emphatic that it’s easy to forget that no one has proven the claim. TheIntercept.com's Sam Biddle "sifted the public evidence, most of which comes from private security firms with a vested interest in the outcome, and found questionable assumptions, guesswork, and speculation." See Here’s the Public Evidence Russia Hacked the DNC — It’s Not Enough | TheIntercept.com December 14, 2016:
"It’s very hard to buy the argument that the Democrats were hacked by one of the most sophisticated, diabolical foreign intelligence services in history, and that we know this because they screwed up over and over again."
On the other hand, if you truly want to understand how and why Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, read How Clinton lost Michigan — and blew the election | POLITICO.com.

"People believe the news they want to ... The establishment is up for grabs."
--Lefsetz.com

9.  Which lie did they believe?--"Free government money, just sign here" or "With all the money you'll be making after college, the student loans won't be a problem"--Home ownership for those under 30 shrinks while student debt keeps growing:
Millennial (under age of 30) Home Ownership Shrinks as Student Loan Debt Grows

•  One More Thing: Good investing is boring
"If investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring."--George Soros
“Good investing is usually quite boring.”--Adam Nash, CEO of Wealthfront

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2016-05-06

US Recession Risk: Slow Growth Economy, Small Business Optimism Low

Evercore CEO: We're 'Close to the End of the Line' for Monetary Stimulus:

Evercore CEO: We've Got A Slow Growth Economy That Is Vulnerable Ralph Schlosstein, chief executive officer at Evercore Partners, evercore.com, discusses the restrictions of monetary policy and the need for a move to fiscal policy. He speaks on "Bloomberg ‹GO›", published by Bloomberg.com May 4, 2016.

Video below: Survey Reports Small Business Optimism Hits 3-Year Low

Despite a strengthening employment picture nationwide, a new Bank of America survey indicates less than a quarter of small business owners plan to hire new employees in 2016 amid pessimism about economic growth. Bank of America's Sue Lonergan and small business owner Sal Rizzo join Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero to discuss. Published by WSJ.com on May 4, 2016

Video below: World markets continue to behave as though there is a risk of a US recession

America's profits recession | Authers' Note: John Authers looks at profits and revenues data to try to explain why. Published by FT.com on May 4, 2016.




DISCLAIMER

2014-06-25

Clueless ICANN, Little Demand for New Domain Names, Rivers of Red Ink

Clueless ICANN: Only morons think increasing supply increases demand. GoDaddy, the most dominant (37.17% Market Share) domain name registrar with 57+ million domains registered, has not generated a profit since 2009 and in the last two years has reported combined losses of $480 million according to  CNN.com*. [Sounds like a good time to do an IPO in the stock market!] 

So what does ICANN do? Massively increase supply and flood the market with more than 1000 new domain name extensions, up from just 22 domain extensions (.com, .net, .org et al). Add the fact that over 75% of all registered domain names are not used for "active websites" -- they either do not resolve at all or are "parked" or similar -- and what you have is massive oversupply and rivers of red ink.

And here's another depressing FACT for ICANN and all the new gTLD believers: increasing numbers of internet users do NOT equate to, or correlate with, an increase in domain name registrations. Domain name registrations equate to (or correlate with) high gross national income per capita, absence of government censorship, fast and cheap internet, and high numbers of web content creators. Unfortunately, these same factors therefore exclude most people in the world as potential domain name registrants--including those whose only access to the internet is via a cheap phone or phablet (i.e., most of Asia, Africa, and Latin America). This is why almost 4 out of every 5 domain name registrations in the world (gTLDs + ccTLDs) are in Europe or North America. And unfortunately, Europe and North America are now mature, slow growth markets for domain name registrations. In the US alone, there was (long before the first new gTLD launched) already one domain name registered for every 3 internet users!  And while mobile internet use is growing, it looks increasingly like a mobile app world -- not a mobile website world!

And now, as if the money-losing domain name industry didn't have enough to worry about, the technology giant Google decides to enter the domain name industry as registrar and registry, competing with GoDaddy et al. No wonder the domain registrar stocks are dropping! Pretty soon Google will be giving away domain names (I know, they are late to that game -- .berlin or .xyz anyone?) to get businesses to buy (or "subscribe" to) Google services, Google advertising, etc. Adding insult to injury, Google probably doesn't even expect to make a profit off their registry/registrar businesses--they just want to make it convenient and easy for content creators and businesses to use Google platforms and services--so Google can likewise increase Google advertising revenues. At this point, Google is a one-stop shop--advertising network, search engine, cloud engine, content delivery network, platforms (YouTube, Blogger, Google Sites, Google Cloud, Google Play, etc.) and endless other Google services (e.g., Google maps, Google voice, etc.). My guess is Amazon and Microsoft (and maybe Apple, Yahoo, or Facebook) are not far behind. Here's part of an email I received from Amazon Web Services today:
"AWS [Amazon Web Services] is focused on continually lowering your overall IT costs.  We recently announced our 42nd price drop, making the AWS Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) even better when compared to on-premises or colocation hosting environments.  You can save a significant amount by running both your fixed and variable workloads on AWS."
Say you have a dotCom domain name -- the one domain name extension that is recognized and used everywhere in the world. Unlike new gTLDs, every browser will resolve a dot Com domain name to your website -- try that on an Apple device with some of the new gTLDs! And which domain name extension is more cost competitive in annual registration fees -- your recognized and trusted dot Com domain name or a new, unrecognized, unreachable new gTLD? In almost every case, new gTLDs cost more in renewal registration fees, sometimes much more.

All of this is why the new gTLDs will mostly fail. I personally know a manager for a US company with hundreds of domain name registrations (most under WHOIS privacy) -- only one new gTLD -- a 5 letter .xyz that matches a .com, .net, and .org in the portfolio (yes, $-0- acquisition cost via Network Solutions). That is not unusual -- look at the data, all of the new gTLD domain names (after you subtract the freebie give aways, the cybersquatters, and domain name speculators) have either stalled or failed out of the gate. 

You don't hear them talking about any of this at ICANN 50. Clueless.

It's pretty easy to see where all of this is going. Most global companies (and most companies with global aspirations) are going to lock onto their "dot Com" and forget about acquiring any other domain names. Part of the money saved will be spent on trademark registrations and defense, including selective UDRP and URS actions.

Look, I'm all for innovation, but saying something is "innovation" doesn't make it so. You remember what Steve Jobs said about innovation don't you? "Innovation is saying 'no' to 1,000 things." Too bad ICANN and all the dumb money chasing new gTLD domain names never learned that.

John Poole
Domain Mondo
June 24, 2014

*Update: erroneous data from CNN deleted/corrected 6/26/2014




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