Perspective

The Big Picture – Deutsche Bank: Household Net Worth is Down, except for Top 10% – Barry Ritholtz 3/28

Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice

CNBC – Investment chief of $250 billion firm (Guggenheim investments) says financial markets are on a ‘collision course for disaster’ – Tae Kim 3/27

NYT – Income Mobility Charts for Girls, Asian-Americans and Other Groups. Or Make Your Own. – Emily Badger, Claire Cain Miller, Adam Pearce and Kevin Quealy 3/27

• Visually stunning interactive income-mobility graphics.

Markets / Economy

WSJ – Wall Street Bankers Get Biggest Raise in Four Years – Telis Demos 3/26

Visual Capitalist – Wealth 101: Visualizing the Extraordinary Power of Compound Interest 3/28

Real Estate

WSJ – Retail Landlords Sell Assets to Raise Cash – Esther Fung 3/27

• “Shares of real-estate investment trusts have underperformed the broader equity market for the third year running, in part because of rising interest rates, which cause these dividend-paying stocks to lose some of their appeal.”
• “Because it would be difficult to issue new shares if REITs continue to trade at discounts, some are now compelled to sell assets to raise cash to help them reposition their remaining assets or fund share buybacks.” 
• “REITs could sell individual assets, sell stakes in assets to other institutional investors and enter joint ventures where they also could earn some management fees, or be acquired entirely and privatized by an investor.”
• “Industry insiders noted that while there are more for-sale signs popping up, these sales aren’t driven by the need to reduce debt because REITs have been more disciplined since the financial crisis, so property prices aren’t likely to fall drastically.”
• “Listed REITs have been net sellers of assets since 2015, according to data from Real Capital Analytics. From January to March 23 of 2018, there were $6.91 billion in disposals, compared with $5.38 billion in acquisitions.”
• “Disposals topped acquisitions in 2017 and 2016, $60.9 billion to $56.1 billion and $71.4 billion to $48.4 billion respectively, Real Capital said.”

Energy

FT – Subsidy-free renewable projects on ‘cusp of breakthrough’ – Sylvia Pfeifer 3/27

• “In a few months’ time, if all goes to plan, designs will be drawn up for a wind farm that will be built 22km off the Netherlands’ coast. Once up and running in 2022, Hollandse Kust Zuid will be able to call itself Europe’s first offshore wind farm built without government subsidies.”
• “The wind farm, expected to be fully operational in 2023, will boast around 90 turbines that will deliver up to 750MW of power — enough to produce renewable electricity for up to 2m homes.”

WSJ – China Tries to Lift Yuan’s Profile With Oil Futures – Mike Bird 3/26

Finance

Investment News – Real estate fraudsters to repay $30 million to investors – Jeff Benjamin 3/28

• “SEC settles with McKinley Mortgage, which promised secure investments and 6% returns.”

WSJ – Daily Shot: Bianco Research – 5-trading day ETF Flows by category 3/28

Cryptocurrency / ICOs

WSJ – Daily Shot: Bitcoin 3/28

WSJ – Daily Shot: Charlie Bilello – Cryptocurrency Returns 3/28

Australia

FT – China academics divided over Australia influence crackdown – Jamie Smyth 3/27

• “Canberra’s proposed crackdown on Chinese government influence in Australia has prompted a bitter split among academics, following claims the policy is driven by racism and is stigmatizing Chinese Australians.”
• “A group of 35 China scholars based in Australia signed an open letter on Wednesday defending the Australian government’s efforts to identify and wind back Chinese Communist party (CCP) influence in the country.”
• “Canberra is proposing to ban foreign political donations and target covert, deceptive and threatening actions by foreign groups and individuals in response to alleged interference by the CCP in the country’s internal affairs and in Chinese diaspora communities.”
• “The letter said accusations of racism were a tool used by the CCP to silence the debate over foreign influence and drive a wedge between Chinese communities and the rest of Australia.” 

China

FT – China lets its rich invest more offshore as cash outflow fears ease – Don Weinland and Gabriel Wildau 3/27

• “After a two-year wait, Chinese regulators have revived a program allowing global asset managers including JPMorgan Chase to raise funds from Chinese onshore clients for investment in offshore hedge funds.”
• “The easing of capital controls shows how Chinese regulators are increasingly relaxed about cross-border capital flows amid a stable Chinese economy and persistent dollar weakness.”
• “JPMorgan Asset Management has received a new quota for the program, and several other asset managers are expecting similar allotments, according to three people familiar with the situation. JPMorgan received a $50m quota in January, one of those people said.”