Jonathan Tepper appeared on 60 Minutes Australia, predicting Australian property values to fall by 30 to 50 percent (LINK)
Matt Ridley on EconTalk discussing The Evolution of Everything (LINK)
Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Bet That Facebook Can Make VR Social (LINK)
Meb Faber's Portfolio Allocation for 2016 (LINK)
Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Speculative Half-Cycles Tend To Be Completed Badly (LINK)
In any event, there are currently a number of problems with the cries of an addicted Wall Street for negative interest rates from the Fed. The first, as Janet Yellen acknowledged to Congress in recent weeks, is that the Fed has “not fully investigated” the question of whether it actually has the legal authority to charge interest on reserves held by the banking system. Second, the monetary base can take two forms: currency and bank reserves, and as long as individuals can deposit and withdraw cash from banks, those two forms are freely convertible. As a result, we now observe increasing calls from monetary interventionists to eliminate currency (or at least high-denomination bills that represent the bulk of currency outstanding). This is presumably on the argument that currency is used for “crime,” but the main goal is so negative interest rates can be imposed without cash withdrawals by depositors hoping to avoid them.
Also, while depressed food and energy prices have held year-over-year CPI inflation to 1.34%, year-over-year core inflation increased to 2.22% in January. That, combined with evidence of rising wages and a relatively low unemployment rate, is likely to be enough to dissuade any shift to ZIRP in the near future.
Edge #459: The Genomic Ancient DNA Revolution - A Conversation With David Reich (LINK)
What is CRISPR? (video) (LINK)
What is CRISPR? (video) (LINK)
Book of the day: The Power of Story