Business

After a period of several weeks in which Bloomberg's macro/FX commentator Richard Breslow took a tentative gamble on the skeptical, if not outright bearish, side in this morning's note the former FX trader has shifted his outlook to a modestly more bullish one, cautioning that in light of recent events, "too many commentators have fallen into the “everything is binary” trap and decided that if you assume each event will end badly, there’s material to turn out a good rant.

Let’s get PrOGRessive SPIRIT! (Finally a positive acronym.)  We are either destined for destruction
preferring to wallow in negativity or instead can soar with optimism.  The only difference between the two is
perspective.  Time to focus on the
positives in the world. I choose optimism.

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Submitted by Nick Colas of Convergex

ETFs And The Pricing Of Disruptive Innovation

For those of you out there clinging to your commercial REIT stocks for their 'defensive' dividend yields while praying that the whole 'retail implosion' thing will simply go away, you may want to avert your eyes now.  According to the Mortgage Bankers Association 4Q 2016 commercial real estate loan originations survey, mortgage originations related to discretionary segments of the economy are in complete free fall with retail and hotel volumes down 19% and 39%, respectively.