Coupons for your bonds

• The "coupon" payment received by a bondholder from the bond issuer comes from the day when little slips of paper--coupons--we attached to paper bonds and had to be physically redeemed to redeem interest payments.
• Bonds sold in the US by non-US issuer but denominated in dollars are called Yankee bonds; bonds sold in Japan by a non-Japanese issuer but denominated in yen are called Samurai bonds
• Debt securities are being formed by everything, including student loans, credit card loans, home equity loans, and car loans.

Volcker Schmolcker

• Banks with formerly big proprietary sales and trading positions are being forced to unload billions of dollars in relatively illiquid investments to comply with new regulations. According to the Volcker Rule attached to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act, after July 2015 banks will be severely limited in the things they can do to invest their "own" money.
• Emerging market debt is a big new area for institutional investors, with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs both moving to capture opportunities in the past week by hiring fund managers and opening new funds.
• A put option is a option but not an obligation to sell a security at a future point in time. They are popular with investors who think price of a stock or investment instrument will depreciate.

Mayonnaise

1. The US mayonnaise market is a $2 billion a year affair--and it's double the size of the ketchup market (Yahoo Finance).
2. It is possible for a group of people to purchase $9.3 billion worth of stuff in a single day (BBC News)--on Single's Day, November 11 (11-11), which Alibaba has single-handedly turned into the biggest shopping day on the planet.
3. This week's call from Warren Buffett, the Sage of Omaha, on how to invest: 1) Don't worry about volatility "A lumpy 15% return over time is better than a smooth 12%" 2) Keep good company "Companies obtain the shareholder constituency that they seek and deserve" 3) Keep your focus "Value can stagnate in the presence of hubris or of boredom that causes the attention of the manager to wander" 4) Keep costs low

Deflating news

- China's current inflation rate of 2% is a full two percentage points below the govt's target of 4%

- falling oil prices is a big part of falling prices overall, but it's not all bad; the IMF rule of thumb is the a $20 drop in oil prices generates a 0.4% increase in global growth

- Russia's current inflation stands at 8% with a target of between 6 and 4%

- the ECB is being blocked from buying Eurozone govt bonds as other more solvent govts argue its favoritism of Spain, Italy, and Greece

Midterms

• Republicans need to gain 6 seats to gain majority in the Senate. There is a good chance they'll achieve this given polls about voter dissatisfaction with the current direction that the country is heading.
• Between 55% and 65% of eligible voters take part in presidential elections (about 130 million US voters in 2012). A far fewer percentage--between 39% and 42%--take part in midterm elections (about 90 million in 2010).
• A GOP-run US legislature would give voters a chance to "try out" the party before presidential elections in 2016. My call for Republican nomination: Chris Christie shakes off Bridgegate scandal and makes a strong run, while Mike Bloomberg comes in as the dark horse. I'm predicting a strong likelihood of GOP election in 2016, as they take credit for a relatively-strong US economy.