Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
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Last |
Change |
Percent |
|
|
S&P Futures |
1567.7 |
4.5 |
0.29% |
|
Eurostoxx Index |
2630.1 |
35.0 |
1.35% |
|
Oil (WTI) |
93.64 |
-0.6 |
-0.59% |
|
LIBOR |
0.277 |
-0.001 |
-0.36% |
|
US Dollar Index (DXY) |
82.38 |
0.070 |
0.09% |
|
10 Year Govt Bond Yield |
1.77% |
0.02% |
|
|
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA |
107.1 |
1.2 |
|
|
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA |
103.6 |
-0.1 |
|
|
RPX Composite Real Estate Index |
190.1 |
0.0 |
|
|
BankRate 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage |
3.57 |
Stock markets are higher this morning in anticipation of the Fed minutes which will be released this morning at 9:00 am (a change from their usual 2:00 pm time). Market participants will focus on hints regarding the end of quantitative easing. Mortgage Applications rose 4.5% last week on the back of the BOJ-led rally in the bond market and MBS. Treasury will also be conducting a 10-year auction around 1:00 pm. It will be interesting to see if the bid / cover ratio is affected by events in Japan. Bonds and MBS are down small.
Earnings season kicked of on Tuesday with Alcoa reporting better than expected earnings, but weaker sales. Retailers Fastenal and Family Dollar are down this morning after missing. We will get JP Morgan and Wells Friday morning before the open.
The President plans to release a $3.77 trillion budget today. He is proposing $1.8 trillion in new spending (although to be fair, that is to replace the sequester). He is also instituting a AMT II on incomes over $1 million of 30%. He also proposes to cap IRAs at $3 million, end carried interest, and to raise taxes on tobacco. He will also propose changes to the way cost-of-living adjustments are calculated – aka Chained CPI – to Social Security. Given that taxes and spending both increase pretty dramatically, the plan is DOA in the house.
It turned out the Fed mistakenly released the minutes early. Still don’t have the actual link, but here are some of the particulars: Economy re-accelerating after Q4 slowdown. Private nonfarm payroll increased at a modest rate in January, but expanded more briskly in Feb. (We now know that March was a disaster). The Fed asked primary dealers about their expectations for when the Fed will start tightening (are they running the Fed according to polls now?) and the view seems to be Q114 for the end of QE and Q315 for the first increase in the Fed Funds Rate. They noted that there did not seem to be much of a pullback in the economy in response to the tax hikes that kicked in Jan 1. Opinions about QE were all over the place, with some wanting to end it now and others wanting to increase the pace of purchases.
Filed under: Morning Report |
All Things in Moderation 
OT: Glassed free 3D TV is coming:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/26750/trio-develops-glasses-free-3d-standard
I knew it was going to happen. Given that they claim to have gotten over the fixed-angle limitation (such as in the Nintendo 3DS, where changing your viewpoint results in ghosting and loss of 3d effect) . . . I hope to see the next version of the Nintendo 3DS take advantage of the technology.
A successful hands-free 3D television will mean 3D TVs end up dominating the marketplace. Eventually, an enterprising major network will start broadcasting in 3D, either across existing channels, if possible, or on special 3D channels of same content, only in 3D. I hope this works as promised.
I hope they can get TVs into production in the next few years. I want to see 3D TV in my lifetime. Don’t know why. Just do.
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I do know why. As much as the Internet and cell phones and tablet computers, it will be the sort of thing that makes me feel like I’m really living in the future I thought I’d be living in when I was 7 (in 1978) and had just seen Star Wars and loved Star Trek and Space 1999. The only thing that would be better would be holographic televisions, and space tourism (and a luxury resort on the moon). Not likely to see that in my lifetime, but if I get 3D TV (sans glasses) . . . that’ll be a close second.
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Is AMT II replacing the old AMT or just supplementing it? And will it be adjusted for inflation or continue to serve as a backdoor flat tax?
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I’ve never seen anything in 3D that wouldn’t have been just as good in 2D. The headaches and fourth wall breaking forced perspective just don’t add anything.
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I’m will yello … pass on the 3D. i’d rather have a better sound system.
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I don’t think they are replacing the old AMT – this is just double secret AMT
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Ah, it’s the Buffett Rule aimed at all those 0.001%-sized Buffetts out there.
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I enjoy 3D. I don’t get headaches, but I don’t care for the classes. In particular, most theaters aren’t set up for it, not really, and polarized glasses and the split images end up dimming what you’re seeing by half. Dark scenes can just disappear. What’s more, the 3D TVs I’ve seen with active LCD glasses are awkward, and the 3D isn’t particularly good. But a 3D screen that doesn’t require glasses? I’d love it. I’d love it for computer screens. I think it would actually do pretty well, if you can eliminate the glasses, and get an image as good as any Hi-def screen, only in 3D. Video games would be awesome-er. However, I’m with @novahockey on a better sound system. I have an off-brand flatscreen in the living room, and the picture is fine, but the sound is godawful. I can route it through the stereo, which I’m fine with, and I think it sounds a lot better but other folks in the family don’t like the bass and the wide dynamic range (too used to listening to the flat range of most TVs) and always think it’s “too loud”. But, yeah, better sound is important. But I’m guessing high priced 3D televisions will have excellent sound systems.
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“He is also instituting a AMT II on incomes over $1 million of 30%.”
Ugh. Why not just propose a progressive marginal tax of an extra percentage at $1 million, then again at $2 million . . . meh. Are athletes and movie stars excluded? 😉
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lmsinca, this is for you:
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obama should just allocate all that money to GE
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“$54 million in grants for Affordable Care Act navigators — people or organizations that will help explain the health law’s new programs.”
actually, firms all over town are fighting to be consultants to the states and get that money.
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“Love Obamacare? Has the White House got a job for you!
Hahaha, I don’t “love” Obamacare………………I wanted single payer. I’ll take it though. The last thing I would want to do is try to explain it to others, I could barely understand the terminology myself. I figure I’ll be more of a test case for y’all.
I worked on our insurance since last Oct. and only finally got it straightened out on March 28 for an effective date of April 1……………………that sounds like almost total failure to me. Of course they don’t make it easy and I doubt Obamacare will be any easier.
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Andrew Sullivan collects reader responses to the outrage over the MSNBC Melissa Harris-Perry ad. One of the best:
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yello:
One of the best:
Must have been pretty slim pickins’ if that simple-minded caricature was among “the best”.
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firms all over town are fighting to be consultants to the states and get that money.
And this is how ACA will never get repealed. There will be too many at the trough already.
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yello:
And this is how ACA will never get repealed. There will be too many at the trough already.
Too true. Confirming yet again how impossible it is to stop big government spending once it starts, and why it is so important not to allow it to happen in the first place.
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That’s how ACA got passed. There were already too many at the trough, so they had to enlarge the trough.
I saw one movie at the theatre 3D (no, not that one) and one at my brother’s place (How to Train Your Dragon). I can see some benefits if done subtly, but can be a bit obvious.
What surprised me was that the move from 1080i to 1080p made such a difference in perspective. It took a bit of adjustment, but gives me a sufficient amount of depth.
ßß
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“I recognized how a knowledgable, educated, well-rounded citizenry benefits everyone in the society. Lacking any real semblance of empathy or even the ability to see beyond their noses is the hallmark of today’s Republicans and libertarians.”
What percentage of Republicans and Libertarians would you say fit this description?
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From the same link: “She is not saying that anyone has a LEGAL interest in your kids”
No, I think that’s exactly what she’s after.
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nova:
No, I think that’s exactly what she’s after.
So do I. The only reason politics would be relevant in any way at all would be if it was a question of legal interest.
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But i think the quote yello pulled is a good one. It’s classic false choice. either fund X or you’re a opposed to Y.
Perhaps I do lack empathy. but you can only hear “Somebody Please Think Of The Children” so many times before you realize it’s about the speaker and not the kids.
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nova:
Perhaps I do lack empathy. but…
Unlikely.
It’s regrettable that so many people don’t understand the meaning of words like “empathy” or “compassion” and think that they are somehow related to advocacy of government policies.
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Yes, to show you care, it means that you must support every government program that attempts to do good, no matter how bloated, inefficient or ineffective it may be.
Otherwise, you are Mr. Burns
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Erik Wemple has been mocking Fox News for giving repeated play to this ad as a free promotion for MSNBC. I wonder how far his tongue is in his cheek when he says:
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He probably does watch Fox more than the right leaning people on WaPo do.
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I don’t watch Fox or MSNBC. But I don’t watch pro-wrestling either.
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The only news I watch is Bloomberg TV and that is because I am forced to..
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It’s fascinating to see how many people view their political opponents as cartoon characters. Is it their ego that forces them to believe differences in political opinion are equal to less intelligence, legitimacy, empathy, what have you? How could that possibly serve someone well, that type of ego?
Weird.
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It’s fascinating to see how many people view their political opponents as cartoon characters.
Agreed.
On your earlier questions: as to what % of Rs and conservatives I think lack empathy: small. Only among the psychotic few, and that description, psychotic, probably knows no political territory.
As to what % cannot see beyond their noses, figuratively, anyway: probably large, and this is true for people of all persuasions, too. Of course, what conservatives wear blinders about is different than what liberals wear blinders about.
A good example here is that some of us think morality is absolute and some of us think it is relative, and some of us think some moral principles are absolute but that others are relative, and thus, even when we agree on what is moral, we are not able to broaden the discussion.
Doesn’t mean, in my case, that I think that moral absolutism is always a bad thing, because I am not an absolutist. See? 🙂
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It’s fascinating to see how many people view their political opponents as cartoon characters. Is it their ego that forces them to believe differences in political opinion are equal to less intelligence, legitimacy, empathy, what have you? How could that possibly serve someone well, that type of ego?
Weird.
Everyone knows that Republicans and libertarians are either mendacious, cigar smoking, ultra-rich evildoers who hate everyone who doesn’t look like them or they are toothless hillbillies in a double-wide who can’t count to 10…
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Brent:
Everyone knows that Republicans and libertarians are either mendacious, cigar smoking, ultra-rich evildoers who hate everyone who doesn’t look like them or they are toothless hillbillies in a double-wide who can’t count to 10…
Don’t forget science- and women-hating bible thumpers.
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And gun toting conspiracy theorists! Just ask Dr. Sullivan, MD, OB/GYN!
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