The Big Picture

ADB: Asia and Global Production Networks
10 Monday PM Reads
Livability Index: Best Cities For Young People
Hedge Fund Feast or Famine?
10 Monday AM Reads
Hedge Fund Keeps Attracting Assets Despite Underperformance

ADB: Asia and Global Production Networks

Posted: 16 Dec 2014 02:00 AM PST

Source: ADB: "Asia and Global Production Networks"

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 02:00 PM PST

My afternoon train reads:

• How Cheap Oil Complicates Investing (WSJ)
• Shiller: Home Buyers Are Optimistic but Not Wild-Eyed (The Upshot)
• Commodities Go From Hoard to Floored (WSJ) see also Saudis risk playing with fire in shale-price showdown as crude crashes (Telegraph)
• BuzzFeed is killing it and its older rivals are rattled (Quartz)
• How to Save Money & Increase Your Happiness (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Chart: What the documentary 'Blackfish' has done to SeaWorld (WonkBlog)
• The ‘Graywashing’ of CIA Torture: The brutal interrogation program was far less defensible than its moderate critics seem to realize. (The Atlantic)
• China offers to help Iraq defeat Sunni extremists (FT)
• Cheney Calls for International Ban on Torture Reports (New Yorker)
• Humpback whales increasing in waters near NYC (AP News)

What are you reading?

Wage Winners and Losers Since 2004

Source: WSJ

Livability Index: Best Cities For Young People

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 10:30 AM PST

click for giant interactive

Source: Vocativ

Hedge Fund Feast or Famine?

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 07:15 AM PST

This has turned out to be a year of milestones for the hedge-fund industry. It is a tale we have chronicled all year. As markets barrel into the end of the fourth quarter, it’s worth reviewing the highlights from this year to see if we can deduce what might be in store for the 2&20 crowd in 2015.

The good news — at least for the fund managers — is that hedge funds continue to attract assets. The latest read is $2.82 trillion under management spread among almost 10,000 funds, according to HFR Hedge Fund Industry Reports.

The bad news? "Hedge funds are shutting at a rate not seen since the financial crisis," according to a report earlier this month from Bloomberg News. The prime culprit is underperformance. Data compiled by Bloomberg show that as of Dec. 1, across all hedge funds, returns have been a mere 2 percent. It is the worst performance for the industry since 2011.

Part of the problem is in the skewed distribution of returns. Rather than the normal Gaussian distribution typically observed in smooth bell curves, it is feast or famine. A handful of top–performers are capturing the lion's share of alpha, or market-beating returns, leaving the rest of the industry with scraps.

Continues here

10 Monday AM Reads

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:30 AM PST

This is the last full work week of the year before the holidays erupt. We got your over fresh reads, butter melting and ready to go:

• Outlook 2015: Stick With the Bull (Barron’s)
• How Crude Oil's Global Collapse Unfolded (WSJ) see also This Hedge Fund’s Machines Are Making the Right Calls on Oil (Bloomberg)
• Person of the Year: Tim Cook of Apple (FT)
• Michael Lewis: Eight Things I Wish for Wall Street (Bloomberg View)
• Markets & Oil: They're all making it up. (TRB)