Friday 22 January 2016

Saudi holdings of U.S. Treasuries

The following story from Bloomberg just confirms the deal the US had with Saudis in relation to oil and US Dollars.

U.S. Is Hiding Treasury Bond Data That's Suddenly Become Crucial

Simplistically, Saudi Arabia is selling oil for US $ and then sending the $ back to the US in exchange for promisory notes.


Wednesday 20 January 2016

Thursday 14 January 2016

50 Unfortunate truths about investing

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/11/14/50-unfortunate-truths-about-investing.aspx#.Vpat7dilsOI.twitter

Investment into renewables not collapsing with the low oil price

An interesting pointer to the future of renewable energy production is the fact that the investment has not fallen after oil prices collapsed. Quite the contrary, the investment has even increased.



Source: Bloomberg

Sunday 10 January 2016

Extreme Wealth Is Bad for Everyone—Especially the Wealthy

https://newrepublic.com/article/120092/billionaires-book-review-money-cant-buy-happiness

Book recommendations

Here are some book recommendations by Mohamed El-Erian:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-31/nine-books-to-get-you-through-the-age-of-uncertainty

Monday 4 January 2016

Australian pension fund system (in Serbian)

An article in Serbian that compares the pension system in Serbia (and probably other Balkans countries) to the one in Australia. (link)
Probably the biggest advantage of the Australian model is that politicians do not directly affect the pension amounts. These can not be raised nor reduced directly and depend only on the economy. Political manipulations can't reach society's retirement funds except indirectly - through economic policies.