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CBO-Monthly Budget Review for July 2020
August 10, 2020--August 10, 2020--The federal budget deficit in July 2020 was $61 billion, CBO estimates, compared with a deficit of $120 billion in the same month last year. That decrease, following three months of substantially larger deficits, occurred because payment deadlines for individual and corporate income taxes were delayed from April and June to July, so tax receipts were unusually large this July.
All told, for the period from April through July, revenues were down 10 percent from last year's amounts.
A shift in the timing of certain payments had the opposite effect-increasing the deficit in July. Federal payments totaling $57 billion were made in July rather than August because August 1 fell on a weekend; no such shift occurred in July 2019.
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Source: CBO (congressional Budget Office)
IMF Staff County Reports-United States: Financial System Stability Assessment
August 10, 2020--Summary:
Much of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) work was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown of the economy has led to a massive growth shock. Following the precipitous fall, risk asset prices have rebounded, and financial conditions eased.
The vulnerability analysis has been updated and largely captures this shock. Recommendations on strengthening policy and institutional frameworks remain pertinent. The approach to financial regulation and supervision was risk-focused given the high degree of compliance against international standards assessed during the 2015 FSAP.
view the IMF Staff County Reports-United States: Financial System Stability Assessment
Source: IMF
Interested in Social-Impact Investing? Here's How to Start
August 9, 2020--Investments that support racial justice and help community development are becoming more accessible
The pandemic and other recent events that point to racial injustice have made many investors think about how they can make a difference with their pocketbooks.
Certainly, large corporations and wealthy individuals have long been able to influence change through foundations and charitable gifts. For the average person, investment options to directly support social goals are more limited. But this could change as demand for such opportunities grows.
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Source: wsj.com
Top 10 institutional investors fuel market volatility, study finds
August 8, 2020--Researchers say concentration of ownership adds to mispricings embedded in shares
BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity and Capital Group are driving up equity market volatility and fuelling mispricing in company stocks, according to an analysis that raises fresh questions over the regulatory oversight of the largest asset managers.
Global regulators have wrestled for more than a decade over whether large asset managers should be classified alongside big banks as systemically important financial institutions. Tighter rules would drive up running costs and cut the profits of these businesses.
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Source: FT.com
SEC committee which backed ESG disclosures in row over nominations
August 7, 2020--New nominations procedure will limit committee expertise in sustainability-related areas, says Commissioner
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is revamping the nominations process for an independent advisory committee which previously broke ranks with the regulator by supporting standardised ESG corporate disclosures and proxy advisors.
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Source: responsible-investor.com
U.S. Treasury to continue shift to longer-dated debt
August 6, 2020-- The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday it plans to continue a shift to longer-term notes and bonds as it issues debt in coming quarters to fund measures to offset the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.
The Treasury expects its borrowing needs to moderate but remain elevated according to a statement by Brian Smith, its deputy assistant secretary for federal finance, depending partly on what additional legislation is put in place.
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Source: reuters.com
Amazon and Tesla Take Off as Small Investors Embrace Fractional-Share Trading
August 6, 2020--Proponents say it has helped democratize access to the stock market, while others warn many investors could lose money
Trading slivers of individual shares has become a fervent pursuit for thousands of individual investors, amplifying the 2020 rise of pricey yet popular stocks like Amazon.com Inc. and Tesla Inc.
Fidelity Investments, which rolled out fractional trading to customers in January and February, says more than 340,000 of its accounts have placed a fractional trade, in which the customer buys or sells less than an entire share. Interactive Brokers Group Inc., another online brokerage, says around 117,000 users have enabled fractional...
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Source: wsj.com
The Robinhood Craze Is Now Moving Stocks Everywhere
August 6, 2020--Low savings rate and social distancing drive people to trade
'Trading has become the talk of the town':Interactive Brokers
Dirt cheap, automated on apps and championed by newbie traders who brandish their broker balances on Twitter, the stuck-at-home trading phenomenon, born in the USA, has become a global craze.
Retail's tentacles are everywhere. In the U.K, tax-free savings account openings at Interactive Investor jumped 238% for investors between 25 and 34 years of age in April and May. In India, newly minted day traders are crowing after falling in love with stocks that trade below 7 U.S. cents apiece and riding most of them straight up. Small-time investors in Moscow bought almost twice as many Russian shares in June than in April.
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Source: bloomberg.com
T. Rowe Price Debuts Four Active Equity ETFs
August 5, 2020-- It has been many years in the making, but T. Rowe Price today officially became a member of the exchange-traded fund community with the launch of four actively managed equity products. The funds will utilize the same investment strategies and portfolio managers as their corresponding mutual funds, but they possess the usual ETF attributes that include intra-day trading and lower expense ratios.
These products are part of the small but growing niche of actively managed ETFs from big-name asset managers that offer so-called semi-transparent portfolios that don’t have to disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
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Source: www.fa-mag.com
How to drive fossil fuels out of the US economy, quickly
August 4, 2020--The US has everything it needs to decarbonize by 2035.
In the runup to World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt enlisted the entire US economy in an effort to scale up production of war material. All of the country's resources were bent to the task. In 1939, the US had 1,700 aircraft; in 1945, it had 300,000 military aircraft and 18,500 B-24 bombers.
By the time the war was won, the economy was up and humming with a massively expanded workforce (drawing in women and African Americans) and turbocharged productive capacity. Investments made during the war mobilization yielded a robust middle class and decades of sustained, broadly shared prosperity.
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Source: vox.com
