Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice

Value Walk – Paul Singer Warns Of A World At Risk – Mark Melin 5/27

• “When the average investor looks at the world, all they see is a placid market where asset prices rise in value regardless of the harrowing market event. North Korea increasingly provokes its Asian neighbors and defies US President Donald Trump, the markets move higher. After moving higher on hopes of a Trump legislative agenda, when such hopes are dashed, stocks dash higher. When in Europe for G20 and G7 meetings, Trump hints he may not support Article 7 of the NATO Treaty that calls for defense of allied nations during attack, the market breaks into new highs. What’s next? The Iranians launching a nuclear attack on their neighbors lifting the S&P 500 past the 3000 level?”

FT – Is China’s economy turning Japanese? – Leo Lewis, Tom Mitchell and Yuan Yang 5/28

Markets / Economy

Business Insider – Iconic hedge fund manager Seth Klarman says investors are missing huge risks – Rachael Levy 5/26

• “When share prices are low, as they were in the fall of 2008 into early 2009, actual risk is usually quite muted while perception of risk is very high. By contrast, when securities prices are high, as they are today, the perception of risk is muted, but the risks to investors are quite elevated.”

Energy 

FT – Saudi Arabia and Russia stuck in unlikely oil alliance – Anjli Raval and David Sheppard 5/26

• “Saudi Arabia and Russia are essentially now co-pilots of this operation and they’ve made it clear there will be no going back to chasing market share.” – Helima Croft, RBC Capital Markets

Finance

Investment News – Report predicts $400 trillion retirement savings gap by 2050 – Bloomberg News 5/26

• “Longer life spans and disappointing investment returns will help create a $400 trillion retirement-savings shortfall in about three decades, a figure more than five times the size of the global economy, according to a World Economic Forum report.”

Canada

WSJ – Canada’s Banks Can’t Dodge Housing Risks Forever – Aaron Back 5/25

China

FT – China arrests 44 over $140m online scam – Alice Woodhouse 5/26

• “Chinese police said they have dismantled a nationwide scam that tricked 93,000 people into investing capital to unfreeze assets taken overseas by the Nationalist government in 1949.”

FT – Regulator urges China banks to save ailing companies – Gabriel Wildau 5/25

• “The bank regulator in a rust-belt Chinese province has urged regional lenders to roll over maturing loans to struggling coal and steel companies, a policy that cuts against the Communist party’s pledge to shut down ‘zombie’ enterprises.”