Business

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Since 2010, the highest year-over-year wage increase in any month for production and nonsupervisory employees is near 2.6%.

For a two-year stretch between summer of 2011 and summer of 2013 wage increases less than 2% were the norm.

Yet, firms complain about labor costs while simultaneously complaining about the lack of workers. 

Bloomberg reports Firms Under Pressure as Labor Drought Grows, U.S. Survey Shows.

It was bound to happen: after hundreds of millions of capital was raised through "Initial Coin Offerings", with the recently concluded Tezos coin offering raising a record $232 million in 2 weeks, it was inevitable that (at least) one would get hacked. On Monday morning, that's precisely what happened to CoinDash, a blockchain startup focusing on "cryptocurrency social trading and portfolio management platforms", which sent out an urgent warning to investors advising of a severe cyber security breach of its crowdfunding page.

With the 24/7 pump from mainstream media that everything is awesome (look at record high stocks) - despite President Trump - it's all too easy to ignore collapsing 'hard' data, geopolitical turmoil, and the looming reality that the world's central bankers are taking a distinctly hawkish turn. However, as former fund manager Richard Breslow notes, overnight we just got a big reminder that butterflies' wings are flapping around the world, and no one knows when the chaotic hurricane will follow...

Via Bloomberg,

The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in June posted their largest monthly drop since 2010, with the Greater Toronto market leading the decline.

This is the third monthly decline in a row...

Under the covers, it's Toronto that is suffering the most...

Toronto existing home sales drop 37.7% y/y

• Average Toronto existing home price fell 5.8% m/m
• Average Toronto existing home price up 6.3% y/y

Vancouver existing home sales drop 12.2% y/y

Iconic Private Equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts i.e., KKR, has appointed two executives to succeed co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts, in what the FT dubs is a "rare move for an industry where succession plans have not been set out publicly."