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George Soros-funded economist Jeffrey Sachs this week briefed members of Congress on the so-called Robin Hood tax, which calls for a small fee on Wall Street trades. The Robin Hood tax was proposed by U.S. politicians closely tied to the country’s largest socialist organization, WND has learned. The Congressional Budget Office has warned the Robin Hood tax on certain financial transactions could “diminish the importance of the United States as a major financial market” and that “imposing the transaction tax would probably reduce output and employment.”
Nouriel Roubini : Bubbles In The Broth (JewishBusinessNews)
As below-trend GDP growth and high unemployment continue to afflict most advanced economies, their central banks have resorted to increasingly unconventional monetary policy. An alphabet soup of measures has been served up: ZIRP (zero-interest-rate policy); QE (quantitative easing, or purchases of government bonds to reduce long-term rates when short-term policy rates are zero); CE (credit easing, or purchases of private assets aimed at lowering the private sector’s cost of capital); and FG (forward guidance, or the commitment to maintain QE or ZIRP until, say, the unemployment rate reaches a certain target). Some have gone as far as proposing NIPR (negative-interest-rate policy).
Hedge fund managers discuss their top stock picks (Reuters)
Hedge fund managers presented their stock-picking ideas at a conference this week organized by the Sohn Conference Foundation. The Foundation raises money to support initiatives to cure and treat pediatric cancer. Following are some of the ideas presented: Masroor Siddiqui, co-founder of London-based Naya Capital, focused on one short and one long position in his presentation. For the short position, Naya is betting the price of shares in Essilor, the world’s largest maker of ophthalmic lenses, will fall to 60 euros from around 80 currently. Siddiqui said Essilor’s business model faces rising pressure from digital technology that enables buyers to use a computer to create specific prescriptions.
Why Nordea is One Hedge Fund Manager’s Teddy Bear (WSJ)
It’s not every day you expect a hedge fund manager to talk about his stocks in terms of childhood toys, but Egerton Capital’s John Armitage said today his company’s position on Nordic bank Nordea is a “a teddy bear stock: you can sleep comfortably and undemandingly with it at night. It’s a low risk stock and a lucrative investment.” “Governance is a key reason why we like it,” he said, adding that Nordea is the number one or two bank in every country in Scandinavia in every activity. Mr. Armitage added that SampoSAMAS.HE +0.37%, the Finnish financial company that controls Nordea, is “a real value creator”, adding, “one of the nice things about Sampo is that in their view boring is good.”
SAC’s Cohen to Auction Artworks Valued at $85 Million (Bloomberg)
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Steven A. Cohen is selling artworks from his collection during the big, semi-annual auctions in New York this month. Most of the sales will be at Sothebys (NYSE:BID) contemporary-art evening sale on Nov. 13, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cohen’s works by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Brice Marden, Cy Twombly and Joan Mitchell have been estimated at as much as $85 million, or 20 percent of the $424.6 million auction. Christie’s has “minor” works from Cohen’s collection, estimated at less than $5 million, according to Brett Gorvy, chairman and international head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s.
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