Authored by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog,
I hope this article brings forward important questions about the Federal Reserves role in the US and I openly admit this is by no means a comprehensive article...it simply attempts to begin a broader dialogue about the financial and economic impacts of allowing the Federal Reserve to direct America's economy.
Is the largest public pension fund in the United States getting ready to dump about $50 billion worth of stocks? According to a new note from Bloomberg, CalPERS' board is meeting for a workshop today in Sacramento to discuss asset allocations for the upcoming year which could include a doubling of the fund's bond allocation from 19% to 44% which would be funded with a massive $50 billion sell down of equities.
One wouldn't know it by looking at the moves in equity indexes, but this earnings season has been unusually volatile for stocks, which however has yet to translate into bigger moves at the macro level. That is the bizarre observation made by Goldman's derivatives strategist John Marshall (whose team grew by one when ex-Deutsche Banker Rocky Fishman joined recently).
Until last quarter, the world's biggest hedge fund had, curiously, never held a position (according to our records) in any of the most liquid gold ETFs, whether the SPDR Gold Trust, the GLD, or the iShares Gold Trust, the IAU. That changed in the second quarter of 2017, when Bridgewater made its first tentative purchases in the gold ETF space, buying up 577,264 GLD shares, for $68.1 million, as well as 3.1 million IAU shares worth $36.8 million.
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
The point is to end the current system in which billionaires get all the privileges and financial benefits of owning assets in the U.S. but don't pay taxes that are proportional to the benefits they extract.