Thursday, February 25, 2016

Rats, Attempting To Make Amends For That Whole Black Death Misunderstanding, Are Saving Lives In Cambodia

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From Asia Times: Rats save people from landmines in Cambodia!  Intelligent and adorable with sensitive noses, these rodents scurry an...

This Is Nuts: "Almond demand 'reviving' as prices retreat from record high"

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Following up on January's " Almonds: This Is Nuts, Here's The Crash ". (apologies to Mr. Keohane & Co. @FT Alphaville...

"Uber's Chinese Rival is Raising Another $1 Billion"

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From Fortune: Ride-hailing service Didi Kuaidi, Uber Technologies’s chief rival in China, plans to raise at least $1 billion in its late...

Izabella Is Back and Being Disruptive, Basically Asking The Powers-That-Be: 'Just Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?'

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I was getting ready to write another "Where in the world is Izabella Kaminska?" post after not seeing her byline at FT Alphaville ...

In The Future You Are The Robot

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From Long+Short: The banking industry puts an appealing spin on a future of contactless payments, branchless banking and cashless society...
Wednesday, February 24, 2016

"The Mystery of the Maltese Falcon, One of the Most Valuable Movie Props in History"

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From Vanity Fair, Feb. 19, 2016:  A BIRD IN HAND  Left, one of Hank Risan’s two plaster statuettes.; right, a still from The Maltese...

The Velocity of M1 Money Stock May Have Stopped Declining

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If you close one eye and squint with the other. And step back from the monitor. From the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, some old data:...

USDA: "Agricultural Projections to 2025"

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From FarmPolicy, Feb. 19, 2016: Yesterday, USDA released its Agricultural Projections to 2025 . In part, the report explained that, “ P...

"Reinsurance cycle won’t turn until there’s “blood in the streets”: Bernstein"

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A combination of lousy pricing and the risk of a touch of La Niña this hurricane season makes the re/insurance biz ripe for shorting. From...

"Analytics Reality: Do You Excel?"

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Lifted in toto from Beyond Search : I read “ What Is the Most used Feature in Any business Intelligence Solution? It’s the Export to Excel...

In the Case of Airbnb, Uber et al: Time To Break Out The Algorithmic Regulation

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Following up on Sunday's " Will Real Estate Investors Take Over Airbnb? ". From Pacific Standard: Who Benefits From AirBnB...

Apparently The World Has A Current Account Surplus

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We'll be coming back to the St. Louis Fed later today, for now, an oddity. From the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis : Global Curren...

Putin Spokesman Doesn't Want To Talk About the Red Pants, Ugg Boots

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From the Moscow Times: Putin’s Spokesman Confused by Hype Around His Red Pants   Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the pub...
Tuesday, February 23, 2016

American Petroleum Institute: There Is A LOT Of Oil Sloshing Around

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Okay, they didn't say sloshing, they never say sloshing. WTI just resumed trading on Globex, $31.38 last. From ZeroHedge: Oil Crash...

Signposts: "Japan's Negative Interest Rates Are Driving Up Sales of Safes"

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From Fortune: That’s not great news for the Bank of Japan. The Japanese are spending—but not in a way that is likely to strengthen the ...

Wheat Futures Hit Six-year Low

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We don't have a lot cooking in the grains, so to speak, at the moment although I've touched on our expectations * a couple times, m...

Frontrunning The Tate Britain's Hockney Show

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That's the headline at Art Market Monitor: Tate Britain Announces Huge Hockney Retrospective, Let the Anticipatory Buying Begin! ...

Commodities: "Icahn Might Need to Inject Capital to Save Firm" (IEP; CHK; LNG; FCX)

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On a generally down day the stock is up 59 cents at $50.52. Don't let that fool you though, this is one sick puppy: FinViz From ...

"Saudi Arabia Won't Cut Crude Output, Oil Minister Al-Naimi Says"

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The FT's pull-quote is:  “All I am saying is, we are not banking on cuts,” Mr Naimi said at the IHS CERAWeek conference. While Marke...

Oil Drops After Iran Slams OPEC Production 'Freeze' Proposal As "Ridiculous"

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So...we'll put you down as a 'no'? April WTI $32.67, off a bit over 2% (.72) From ZeroHedge : Despite OPEC's El-Badri p...