Business

In the run-up to the recent agreement on phase I of Brexit, there was mixed news on the extent to which jobs in the City of London would be relocated to other European hubs, primarily Frankfurt. On one hand, we discussed the meeting between US Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, and executives of JPM, Goldman, HSBC and other banks at Wilton’s restaurant during his trip to London in early November. The banks warned that they were close to a “point of no return” on moving jobs.

There is a huge disparity in employment rates among over 65s across different countries...

You will find more statistics at Statista

As Statista's Niall McCarthy notes, a recent OECD report found that the highest rates of people working beyond 65 are in Asia with Indonesia particularly notable as having a 50.6 percent employment among those in the 65-69 age group. That figure is high elsewhere in Asia, standing at 45 percent in South Korea and 42.8 percent in Japan.

And they said bitcoin would never work as a currency.

While that might be true for small transactions - for now - real-estate markets across the US are increasingly demonstrating that bitcoin is a viable medium of exchange. Case in point: the seller of a luxury Miami condo will only accept payment in bitcoin. The asking price - according to real-estate listings site Redfin - 33 bitcoins, or about $550,000 at bitcoin’s present valuation.

China, somewhat unexpectedly, hikes rates this evening, minutes before dumping economic data that showed no major surprises other than a modest disappointment in retail sales growth.

Of course, we had a suspicion that they might hike rates...

So what time is China hiking by 25 Bps

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 14, 2017

As we noted a few months ago, ever since the ECB launched its sovereign debt QE, initially known as PSPP, in March 2015 and later expanded to include corporate debt, or CSPP, in June 2016, the world's biggest hedge fund central bank has created enough money out of thin air to purchase bonds with no consideration for price to grow its balance sheet, i.e. investment portfolio, by nearly €2 trillion.