Forbes: Venezuela's Latest Economic Idiocy -- Money With Fewer Zeros

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Socialism seems to require a special kind of stupidity.

Take, for instance, Venezuela's latest move to tackle the country's ruinous hyperinflation. Read more here.

Photo by Jeremith.DP, 

CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, 

via Wikimedia Commons

Mid East Eye: Middle East oil producers benefit from Venezuela's economic woes

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Venezuela’s economic woes just got even worse, but that's likely a blessing for the oil-rich nations of the Middle East.

Last week the Latin American country, which is also rich in oil resources, got slapped with US sanctions. It’s just the latest problem for the socialist government and will make it even harder for the country to pump oil.

Venezuela's oil problems are set to give a helping hand to the Middle East, especially those countries that are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), because a drop off from Venezuela’s output allows energy-rich Middle East countries to increase their production rates. Read more here.

Forbes: Facebook Scandal -- How Many Cockroaches Are There?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Facebook is in a pickle over the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal.

That much is clear.

The big question now is simple: What other scandals, if any, will emerge from the social media giant? Or more simply, how many cockroaches are there? Read more here.

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Forbes: No, We Really Don't Need Government Regulation Of The Tech Industry

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Calls for government regulation of the tech business would be laughable if they weren't so sad.

The truth is that the government proved beyond reasonable doubt its inability to effectively regulate during the financial crisis. In that light, calls for the government to now impose and administer new rules on an equally complex industry seem preposterous. Read more here.

Joe Piscopo Show: Talking Economics

By SIMON CONSTABLE

I'm on around 20 mins past the hour

Forbes: What Worries Wall Street About Facebook?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Facebook has had a bad week with the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

In the wake of revelations that data on perhaps more than 50 million Facebook users was shared, the stock has come under pressure, shedding around 10% in the week from last Friday through Thursday. Read more here.

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Middle East Eye: Cash Fleeing Saudi Arabia

By SIMON CONSTABLE

A torrent of money has fled Saudi Arabia as a result of its struggling economy.
It’s bad news for a country that is desperately trying to shed its dependence on the energy business and refashion its economy for a post-oil world.

New research shows the kingdom saw tens of billions of dollars of capital leave the kingdom each year from 2012 up to and including last year. Next year there will be more of the same, states the March-dated report from the DC-based think tank, the Institute of International Finance (IIF). Read more here.

Jedda, Saudi Arabia

Photo by mohammed alorabi on Unsplash

Middle East Eye: Rising US interest rates may damage Gulf economies

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Some oil-rich Gulf States have barely recovered from the oil market slump, yet now they face a new potential threat to their economies. Rising US interest rates may crimp growth or worse, send some countries back into recessions from which they just emerged.

It is all happening because the countries in question have an unusual arrangement for their currencies: the value of their money is fixed against the US dollar. The situation has some significant benefits but also some downsides, such as right now when the cost of borrowing money is rising. Read more here.

P.J. Media: Job-Creation Gap Widens Economic Red State-Blue State Divide

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The U.S. isn’t just politically divided -- it’s also economically divided.

New research says the two go hand-in-glove together.

There are the haves and the have-nots. Increasingly, the red states, which tend to vote Republican, are trailing far behind the blue states, which tend to vote Democrat, according to a recently published study. Worse still, the divide is getting wider. Read more here.

Forbes: How The Sun's Activity Could Auger An Economic Change

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Once upon a time, people would worship the sun as a deity. It was with good reason that they did so for the sun provided much of what sustains life on our small planet, warmth and bountiful harvests. How would we survive if the sun stopped beating down on us? It was a real fear.

Then came science and industrialization. As the new era took over, we mostly forgot the sun and its importance to our existence. (Of course, most people occasionally complain that it is either too sunny or not sunny enough.)

But just because we stopped paying close attention doesn't mean that it lost any of its importance to our world. And neither does the fact that the life of the sun is far more complex than many people realize. Indeed, if we are to believe the experts, the sun's behavior is about to change in a way that could have dramatic consequences for the food we eat and the broader economy. Read more here.

P.J. Media: How Tillerson Could Push Gasoline Prices Higher

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Brace yourself! You could soon be paying more for gasoline.

The price you pay at the pump gets determined by a few different things, but unfortunately for consumers the risks mostly seem pointed in the wrong direction.

The key factors to watch are the supply of oil, demand for oil, and the availability of the refineries to convert crude oil into gasoline. Read more here.

Middle East Eye: Change to Saudi bankruptcy law should give economy a boost

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Saudi Arabia is changing its bankruptcy laws in a move that should help the country diversify its economy away from oil.

The change, which came from King Salman in February, will undoubtedly help boost much-needed foreign investment in the kingdom. That’s because, up until now, there has not been a satisfactory way to deal with an insolvent corporation. That’s a significant disincentive to foreign and domestic business people to set up shop in the country.

“The lack of bankruptcy legislation has acted as a key deterrent to entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia as well as to the willingness of local banks to provide financing to business start-ups,” states a recent report from Capital Economics. Read more here.

Joe Pispoco Show: Talking Steel Tariffs

By SIMON CONSTABLE



Listen here.

WSJ: What Are FROGs?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

There’s a new acronym out there that may have implications for investors. It’s FROGs, or frivolously related output gaps.

An output gap is the difference between an economy’s actual and potential gross domestic product. FROGs refer to output-gap estimates for certain eurozone countries that appear to be unusually small, according to a recently published analysis from the Institute of International Finance, based in Washington, D.C. Read more here.

Photo by USGS on Unsplash

WSJ: A VIX-Related Fund Did Go ‘Poof’

By SIMON CONSTABLE

They were warned. 

February’s burst of market volatility was the death knell for VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term exchange-traded note (XIV), designed to make a high-wire bet that markets would stay calm. Read more here.

Photo by Stephen Hocking on Unsplash

Briefings: The Dark Side of Pay Raises

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The word is out and it is surely much-needed news for workers at all levels: After a decade of barely keeping pace with inflation, experts say, wages are poised to rise significantly in the United States. That matches what countries in emerging markets have already seen, and is expected to help nudge paychecks in Europe up as well. But for companies, of course, there’s a bottom line and talent-jarring impact from any increase. The big question is how disruptive the Year of the Pay Raise will turn out to be. Read more here.

Photo by Emilio Takas on Unsplash