Initial coin offerings risk damaging your financial health
May 25, 2017--As the total value of bitcoins soars to $91bn, the hype surrounding ICOs is going into overdrive.
Source: FT.com
DECPG Global Monthly-May 2017
May 25, 2017--Monthly Highlights
Global growth was temporarily held back in Q1 by a slowdown in U.S. consumption, which is expected to recover in Q2.
Growth continues to firm in other major advanced economies and is gradually recovering in commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs).
Capital inflows to EMDEs remained strong in May, supported by continued investor risk appetite.
Oil prices have risen since mid-May on the prospect of an extension of the OPEC/non-OPEC production cuts, which was confirmed at an OPEC meeting on May 25.
Source: World Bank
A Quant Program Is the Reason You Just Bought That ETF
May 25, 2017--At the exact moment a mom-and-pop investor considers buying bank stocks, an advertisement pops up on their desktop promoting a financials-focused fund.
The scenario isn't science fiction, it is BlackRock Inc.'s latest business plan.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Infographic-Experts are Hilariously Bad at Forecasting Solar Installations
May 24, 2017--For the latest data on the world's energy markets, organizations such as the IEA (International Energy Agency) and the EIA (Energy Information Administration) are crucial sources.
Every year' investors and entire industries rely on their reporting on energy supply and demand' as well as their forecasts going forward.
However, these organizations tend to be better at some things than others. For example, in terms of summing up past and current data on what is going on in the world, they generally do a pretty good job. We referenced their numbers when we looked at the changing anatomy of U.S. oil imports, or when showing the decline in coal use over recent years.
Source: visualcapitalist.com
Fidelity allows workers to use bitcoin in company canteen
May 23, 2017--Asset manager's move on crypto currency is part of broader digital push
Source: FT.com
Blockchain consortium raises record $100m
May 23, 2017--Seven-month effort marked by tensions among banks assessing which projects to back
Source: FT.com
Taking action on climate change will boost economic growth
May 23, 2017--- Integrating measures to tackle climate change into regular economic policy will have a positive impact on economic growth over the medium and long term, according to a new OECD report prepared in the context of the German Presidency of the G20.
Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth shows that bringing together the growth and climate agendas, rather than treating climate as a separate issue, could add 1% to average economic output in G20 countries by 2021 and lift 2050 output by up to 2.8%. If the economic benefits of avoiding climate change impacts such as coastal flooding or storm damage are factored in, the net increase to 2050 GDP would be nearly 5%.
Source: OECD
IMF Working paper-Trading with China: Productivity Gains, Job Losses
May 23, 2017--Summary:
We analyze the impact on productivity in advanced economies of fast-growing trade with China between the mid-1990s and late-2000s, separately identifying the export and import channels. We use country-sector-level data for 18 advanced economies and, similar to Autor, Dorn, and Hanson (2013), exploit exogenous variation in trade with China in a given country-sector by instrumenting imports from (exports to) China in a given country-sector with the average imports from (exports to) China in the same sector in other advanced economies.
Our estimates point to large productivity gains from trading with China—the (exogenous) rise of China in global trade may have increased the level of total factor productivity by about 1.9 percent, or 12.3 percent of the overall increase over the sample period, in the median country-sector. By contrast, using a similar empirical strategy, we find adverse employment effects of Chinese imports in exposed country-industries, consistent with previous studies. Taken together, these findings point to large gains from free trade, while underscoring the scope for a more active policy role in redistributing them, particularly by easing workers' transition between jobs and industries.
view the IMF Working paper-IMF-Trading with China: Productivity Gains, Job Losses
Source: IMF
Number of Carbon Pricing Initiatives Nearly Doubled over Past Five Years, says New Report
More Countries Expand Carbon Pricing Efforts
May 23, 20176--The number of carbon pricing initiatives implemented or scheduled has almost doubled over the past five years, according to Carbon Pricing Watch 2017, a new publication released at the Innovate4Climate Summit today.
Since 2016, eight new carbon pricing initiatives have been put in place-three at a national level and five at a subnational level.
view the Carbon Pricing Watch 2017
Source: World Bank
STOXX changes composition of benchmark indices
May 23, 2017--STOXX Ltd., the operator of Deutsche Böerse Group's index business, and a global provider of innovative and tradable index concepts, today announced the new composition of STOXX Benchmarks and their sub and sector indices, among them the STOXX Europe 600 Index, STOXX North America 600 Index and STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Index
Source: Deutsche Börse Group