Clusterstock

Satellite Pictures Show A Revolution Waiting To Happen In Bahrain

Gus Lubin and Michael Kelley — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:22:00 -0400

Bahrain's poor and overcrowded Shiite majority learned what a raw deal they were getting in 2006, when they saw satellite images of lavish palaces and empty land owned by the Sunni monarchy.

The images, which circulated in PDF form after the government blocked Google Earth, spurred growing unrest about the lack of affordable housing. In 2011 this unrest broke out into large nonviolent protests as part of the Arab Spring.

Following a brutal and largely ignored crackdown on protests, however, the housing crisis has only gotten worse.

Around 54,000 requests for government housing were still pending action as of March 2013, up from 46,000 in March 2011. That's a lot of angry people waiting to rise up again against the U.S.-friendly regime.

As for those satellite images, new surveillance confirms that things are as bad as ever. We have included new satellite images along with slides from the anonymous PDF that set off protests in the first place.

Bahrain is a tiny island in the Gulf — approximately one fifth the size of Rhode Island — with a population of 1.3 million. It gets crowded.

Satellite image from 2013.

What makes things really bad is that most of that population (primarily Shias) is packed into one corner of the island, while huge tracts of land owned by the (Sunni) monarchy are empty but for a few palaces.

Satellite image from 2013.

Social unrest started building in 2006, when satellite images along with comments from anonymous activists started getting passed around.

Slide from viral 2006 presentation on inequality in Bahrain.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

America's Top Colleges Have A Rich-Kid Problem

Jordan Weissmann — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:42:42 -0400

In case you ever wondered just how much wealthy students dominate America's top colleges, here's a nice illustration from a new report by the Century Foundation.

At the most selective schools in the country,* 70 percent of students come from the wealthiest quarter of U.S. families.

Just 14 percent come from the poorest half.

And while these statistics date back to 2006, I think it's safe to say they haven't changed greatly in the last few years.

If you think higher education should be a ladder for upward mobility, then you should regard these numbers as a disgrace. As we've written before at The Atlantic, elite colleges do a consistently poor job recruiting the intelligent but low-income high school students who could benefit most from a top-notch education. Part of their problem, as Josh Freedman explained for us recently, is that it's expensive. Low-income undergrads need financial aid, and many institutions either don't have the resources, or would simply prefer to deploy them elsewhere. Others have the money and are willing to use it, but aren't sufficiently aggressive about reaching out to a population of students who often don't realize they have the academic skills to attend a great school or that aid would cover most of their expenses.

But it's certainly not as if there aren't enough smart, poor students to fill up classrooms. As economists Caroline Hoxby and Christopher Avery have shown, about 39 percent of America's high-achieving students are from the country's poorest 50 percent of students. These are teenagers who manage an A- average in school and finish among the 10 percent of SAT or ACT takers. Most of them never even apply to a selective college, which would include schools ranging from the "very competitive" category to the "most competitive" category.

If the wealthiest schools in the country wanted more economic diversity, they could have it.

*There are roughly 80 schools in the "most competitive" category, which is based on Barron's rankings. Here's a list of the institutions via the New York Times.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

El-Erian's 6 Rules On Running Your Portfolio

Mamta Badkar — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:14:00 -0400

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors.

Mohamed El-Erian's Six Rules For Running Your Portfolio (The Reformed Broker)

PIMCO'S CEO Mohamed El-Erian spoke at the PIMCO 2013 NYC Investment Summit New York. El-Erian gave his rules on how investors should run their portfolio. Josh Brown sums it up.

1. "Protect yourself against the haircuts that come from not-strong balance sheets, weak income statements and bad management."

2. "Don't give up all of your liquidity just to be 'in.'"

3. Manage your risks. Just diversifying is not good enough.

4. " Be reasonable about your return expectations."

5. "Beware backward-looking labels." There was a time when peripheral European countries were considered to have interest rate risk, not credit risk because they were developed countries, while emerging countries like Brazil and China were seen to have credit risk. This no longer holds true.

6. "Be Resilient and Agile. The world is changing."

Why Brian Belski Is Sticking With S&P 500 1,575 (BMO Capital Markets)

The recent stock market rally has seen analysts hiking up their S&P 500 targets. Brian Belski at BMO Capital Markets however is sticking with 1,575. Here's why: "Over the past 12 months, we have gone from defending our bullish stance with price targets at one point well above both market levels and consensus expectations to reconciling near-term caution. To be frank, we believe forecasts should be defined by analysis and process. And yes, we enjoy rising stock prices. However, we believe too many investors are currently expecting higher stock prices tomorrow just because they were higher today. As such, our model is telling us that stocks are well ahead of both fundamentals and macros. Therefore, the inputs of our model need to markedly improve for us to change our conclusions."

Gold Has Never Stayed Below The 'Stairway To Hell' For Very Long (Citi)

Despite the blow to gold prices this year, Citi's Tom Fitzpatrick writes that on a "medium-to-long-term basis" he is very bullish on the precious metal. And this he says is because of fundamentals.

"As can be seen from the chart [below], Gold has never stayed below that “stairway to hell” for very long," he wrote referring to the statutory debt limit. "Given that the debt limit number is going to continue higher, a re-emergence of Gold strength looks inevitable. A lot of “considered opinion” suggests that by the end of the present electoral term (end of 2016 when new presidential elections take place), that the US debt limit will be at around $22 trillion USD."

How To Help Clients Ride Out Market Volatility (The Wall Street Journal)

During times of tremendous market volatility many investors panic and sell low. Dan Crimmins of Crimmins Wealth Management told the Wall Street Journal that he had a two-part plan to help clients learn to understand and accept risk. First, he went over their investment policy statements to help the clients "understand how their investments will help them meet their goals," according to the WSJ. Second, he took them through a "fire drill". To do this he showed them how long typical bear markets run, how much the market falls. "I wanted to make them understand that this is very normal," he told the WSJ.

AIG Owned Advisor Group Announces Lay-Offs (Investment News)

Broker-dealer Advisor Group announced lay offs this week that affected under 5% of its workforce. Advisor Group is operated by AIG and has four broker-dealers, namely, Arizona-based SagePoint Financial, New York-based Royal Alliance, Georgia-based FSC Securities Corporation, and Minnesota-based Woodbury Financial Services. Most of the layoffs are reported to have come from Woodbury Financial Services.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Here's Why Wall Street Loves The Return Of P&G's Old CEO (PG)

Max Nisen — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:04:00 -0400

Last night, P&G unexpectedly announced that current CEO Bob McDonald was retiring, and that his predecessor, A.G. Lafley, would replace him.

P&G shares rose 4% today on the news.

Though the company's CFO said the decision was just about Robert McDonald deciding to retire (at 59) and that there won't be any dramatic strategic shifts, there's a reason activist investor Bill Ackman pushed for a change.

Ackman argued at a presentation at the Ira Sohn Conference, that the company was "vastly under-earning" due to an inability to win in emerging markets, a poor organizational structure, marketing problems, and bloated overhead.

Lafley, an in-house legend who increased company value by $100 billion during his past tenure, has his work cut out for him.

We spoke to Lafley a few months ago after the release of his book, "Playing To Win," about why some executives and companies fail at strategy.

He argues that business fail when they don't make difficult choices about where and how they can win particular markets and put the full weight of the business behind them.

P&G's current restructuring and cost cutting program is not going quick enough for investors. During his time at P&G, Lafley cut more jobs than any previous CEO, sold off the company's hugely valuable food brands, and carried out a $57 billion acquisition of Gillette. With Lafley, strategy isn't about small choices.

Here are some of his key insights:

On when things go wrong

"When we made mistakes, when we had our failures, when we weren't delivering results that we were capable, almost there was almost always one of two problems. Either we had lost our connection with our consumer and what they wanted, needed, and valued, or our strategy needed to be changed because something had changed in the marketplace and we hadn't responded."

Companies go halfway and don't fully develop a strategy

"This is probably most common at Fortune 500 companies. They do part of the strategy job, but they don't do the whole thing. What do I mean by that? They have a vision or a mission, they might go out and do industry, company and competitor analysis, they might even put together an annual plan and budget. Those are parts of strategy, or they're the output of strategy but they're not strategy."

So what's the solution? According to Lafley, it's about making difficult and specific choices, and putting the entire weight of a business behind them.

"Strategy is five choices," Lafley said. "What is winning; where am I going to play to win; how am I going to win where I play; where are my core competencies that are going to enable me to win where I play; and what management systems and measures are going to help me execute my strategies?"

Making tough decisions is essential

"A lot of human beings, don't like to make choices. Choices are difficult, we want to keep our options open, choices involve taking risks, and not only risk to the business but personal risk. So I think there's this sort of human resistance to making choices, and choices are the core of strategy."

People don't like thinking strategy, and focus on execution

"The second thing that goes on is I think that some people, maybe too many people ust don't like thinking strategy. They think that they know what their product and service is, they think that it's all about execution. 'If I execute better than the next guy, I'm going to win.' But the problem is that execution without the direction of a strategy is all over the place. You might win occasionally but you're probably not going to win consistently, reliably or sustainably."

When you need to, cut even successful brands

"One of the toughest choices we had to make was to abandon and eventually divest all of our food and beverage businesses, Lafley said. "We divested 7 or 8 billion dollars worth of leading food and beverage brands, the Folgers coffee brand, number one in America and Canada, the Pringles chips brand number 2 to Frito-Lay, the Jif peanut butter brand, the Crisco brand, number one."

They did it because though they were profitable businesses, they weren't ones Lafley saw as winners in the long term, or where the business could continue to grow and win.

"We chose for good strategic reasons to abandon and get out of those businesses so we could invest our resources," Lafley said, "primarily our people but also our cash, in businesses like home care, personal care, beauty care and health care, all of which looked strategically more attractive."

All of the above questions played a role in the decision to divest; these were areas in which P&G could win, Lafley said. "They were demographically more attractive, they were structurally more attractive, lower capital, higher margin, and frankly they were better fit with our core competencies, deep understanding of consumers, the creation of known brands, and innovation."

Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

STOCKS CLOSE DOWN FOR 3RD STRAIGHT DAY: Here's What You Need To Know (DIA, SPY, QQQ)

Sam Ro — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:00 -0400

Stocks rallied well off of their lows. Still, they ended in the red for the third day in a row.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 15,303, +8.6 pts, +0.0%
S&P 500: 1,649, -0.9 pts, -0.0%
NASDAQ: 3,459, -0.2 pts, -0.0%

And now the top stories:

This morning started with a durable goods orders report that blew past expectations. In April, total orders jumped by 3.3%, beating expectations for a 1.5% gain. This was largely driven by a rebound in commercial aircraft orders. However, nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft — or core capex — climbed by 1.3%, crushing expectations for a modest 0.5% increase. Core capex is a key measure of business investment.
This was welcome news, especially in the wake of a lot of disappointing data earlier this month. "Stronger core durable goods orders suggest that the order pipeline that will drive future investment and inventory growth continues to improve, helping to fuel the transition out of the current soft patch," wrote TD Securities' Gennadiy Goldberg.
But the report wasn't all good news. "To calculate GDP, economists look at shipments for non-defense capital good and exclude aircraft," noted Brown Brothers Harriman's Marc Chandler. "This component fell 1.5% after a 0.5% gain in March."
Don't Miss: The Incredible Story Of America's Boom, Crash, And Comeback In 99 Maps >




	BI Intelligence, a new subscription research service from Business Insider, provides in-depth insight, data, and analysis of the mobile industry. Access all reports, research updates, presentations, data and chart libraries plus much more with your free trial.

	Click here to start your subscription>>

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Yep — I Am A Trust Fund Baby And I Did Nothing To Earn It

Caroline Faber — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:49:00 -0400

Just before my 16th birthday, my mom wrote a check from my account to buy me a BMW 328i, and that is where I learned to drive a stick shift.

That car had a lot of power under the hood, and I used and abused it. I almost crashed twice, once racing someone on the highway.

I didn’t realize how quickly I was coming up behind another car—it looked like it was standing still—until my friend riding shotgun started screaming. The car saw me and swerved out of the way just in time (thank God). The other time, I was racing another young brat in his BMW on a backcountry road. I spun out and narrowly avoided sliding into a copse of trees.

That’s what happens when you give something powerful and shiny to a 16-year-old. When I blew out the clutch on my toy, I traded it in for a luxury SUV and started driving a little more like a grown-up. So I survived high school.

Coming Into My Inheritance

I am a trust fund baby. Ever since I can remember, I knew that there was an investment account with my name on it with enough money to buy a home, in cash.

Every month, money drops into my checking account. It’s a solid middle class salary, untaxed, and it’s contingent on nothing. I don’t have to work for it, nor can anyone take it away from me if I behave badly. I did nothing to earn it, unless you count growing up without a dad—it stemmed from a wrongful death lawsuit. Every year the annuity increases by 3%, and it will continue to show up, every month, until I die.

As far as trust funds go, it’s no Hilton fortune. My mom claims she could have negotiated for a much larger settlement, but she chose an amount that meant my sister and I could do what we love but still be motivated to earn money. (For the record, that was a really smart move.)

However, that was the extent of her financial education. In our household, budgets were not discussed: Money showed up, and we spent it. My mom seemed to take pleasure in cultivating two young women with a taste for fine dining and expensive clothes.

Then, when I turned 21, I was handed a shit ton of money. Here’s something to consider if you ever want to do the same for your kids. (When you’re done laughing, I’ll continue.) The prefrontal cortex, which helps you make responsible decisions, isn’t fully developed until you’re 25. So I wasn’t really capable of making the best decisions concerning my money. I didn’t even get a financial adviser to go along with it, just my mom’s advice to “Always pay off your credit card bill every month.” Well. That was easy.

First, I took a summer in Europe and brought along a little guide to shopping. Whenever I was bored, I took off for a new boutique. I had enough sense to back out of the stores selling $4,000 gowns. But I racked up about $15,000 on my new card in three months. Then I paid it off by selling some stocks. No big deal. When I missed my flight home, I just bought a new ticket.

Being a trust fund baby felt like a core part of my identity. You couldn’t understand me without understanding that—but I didn’t want people to know.

Managing My Money

I researched heavily before taking over my investment account. I was petrified (and still am) of making a stupid mistake that could decimate it.

When the market tanked in 2008, a year after the documents had been signed giving me control, I took the lazy route and left my investments as is. An excellent decision, it turns out.

After college I moved to New York City, land of a thousand trust fund babies. As I searched for apartments, I pulled a rent number out of my butt, without ever looking at my supposed budget. “$1,400 seems reasonable, right, Mom?” She agreed. Finding a job took some time, but I was more bored than panicky.

In fact, I was the cliché everyone loves to hate. I spent my days eating organic eggs benedict at the local café, doing The New York Times crossword puzzle, then traipsing off to afternoon yoga. I fell into a group of friends who, like me, had outside financial resources (read: rich parents). We spent our money on shopping, ski trips, all-night parties with $50 entry and drugs. I could blow $350 in a weekend on coke, ecstasy and alcohol.

I felt like I was being reasonable. I enjoyed dressing well, but felt good about not buying the quilted Chanel bag I coveted. I would do weird things like walk 30 minutes downtown to avoid paying subway fare, then blow $250 on a purse when I got there. I donated lavishly to charity. One time I wired $6,000 to Thailand to help out a former tour guide who was in a financial scrape.

I did finally land a job I loved, and worked hard at it. I still partied, but I had the sense to keep my partying to the weekends, showing up on time and never coked up or drunk.

Leading a Double Life

Still, I felt guilty. There were clues, of course, that I had something unusual going on in my bank account. Editorial assistants are notoriously low-paid (which is probably why it attracts so many entitled white girls). At work one day, I kicked off my shoes and a coworker sang, “Caroline is wearing Prada sandals!” “They were on sale,” I retorted. (True, but they were still $350.) I felt like I was secretly being judged.

When friends embarked on apartment hunts, they’d email and ask how much mine cost, leaving me no choice but to break the news that, no, they couldn’t afford something in my neighborhood. The few vacation days I had I spent in Europe and the Caribbean. After dating a guy for a month, I would invariably blurt out, “I’m a trust fund baby!” I was sure he’d figured it out already.

Being a trust fund baby felt like a core part of my identity, like my sexual orientation or being a writer. You just couldn’t understand me fully without understanding that—but I still didn’t want people to know. When I told close friends, I did it in the hushed tones of an ex-convict. Every time she got jealous, my very best friend told me, she’d remind herself that my dad was dead and hers was alive.

My sister had blown through her account on one and a half graduate degrees and five career starts. But she gave me excellent advice: Don’t pay for other people’s stuff. It can ruin a friendship. So when a friend would say she couldn’t afford dinner and just wanted to drink some wine at the apartment, I bit my tongue and agreed.

A Double-Edged Sword

I was spending $1,000 more per month than I was taking in, but it didn’t register; my investments were appreciating as the stock market recovered. I wanted to live within my means, to “live like a normal 25-year-old,” but when I wanted to buy something, I couldn’t tell myself no.

There were never any consequences. I could pay off any credit card bill with a click of a button. I knew that I wanted to keep my trust fund intact, but for what? I didn’t want to buy a home yet. I could start a business, but doing what? The only thing I really wanted to do was enjoy my life while I was still young and cute.

But I was also besieged by self-doubt. Would I be a better person if I had to struggle? Would I actually go out and get freelance assignments (instead of partying on the weekends) if I needed them to pay the bills? Should I just donate it all to charity?

Every time I had a hard day at work, I would think, “I could just quit. It doesn’t matter.” What saved me was my inherent love of writing, and the recognition that quitting would make me an insufferable brat that even I wouldn’t want to live with.

Having that money sitting there gave me license to do anything. I would always be able to bail myself out of jail, pay off a hospital bill, hire a fancy lawyer. The only thing stopping me was a sense of propriety and concern for my reputation.

Hitting (Spiritual) Bottom

Still, I knew this couldn’t be the point of life. I started to study Buddhism, with its emphasis on non-attachment to worldly things. I read nonfiction books, which told me that strong relationship bonds, not money, were the best predictor of happiness. And I discovered that there is a peculiar emptiness that comes with leaving a snobby boutique loaded down with $1,500 worth of clothes and nowhere to wear them.

Then, one day, I woke up. Literally.

I was staring at the ceiling in my apartment, remembering the fight I’d had the night before with my friend (something about her offering coke to my straight-edge sister and me complaining about it to a mutual friend). She’d stomped out and left me at the club, alone, as the lights came on. My heart was still racing from too many uppers, and suddenly I was having a panic attack. I was sobbing, barely able to breathe. I felt hollow. Were these real friends? Was this real life? Money, I realized, had bought me a well-lined, suffocating nest.

It was my 25^th birthday when I realized the rules applied to me too. By that I meant the rules of personal finance, like budgets and savings accounts, but also the rules of life, like choosing good friends and treating your body well. Money, I had discovered, was not a magic bullet. Working hard, a little bit of self-denial and being nice just might be.

A Fresh Start

Slowly, I started to change. I moved into an apartment with ugly brown carpeting in a boring neighborhood with a nice roommate. I started an emergency savings account, so I would stop selling off stocks to fund my whims. I made new friends who were struggling to make ends meet on their meager salaries. And I enthusiastically embraced $5 tacos for my 25^th birthday dinner. I stopped doing coke.

Shopping … well, it’s still a little bit of a problem. I’m working on it.

Am I happier? I think so. I haven’t had another panic attack. I get satisfaction from watching my emergency savings rise. And I adore my friends, especially since they keep me grounded. Case in point: I’ve learned to love a summer stay-cation.

I’m also grateful for the huge safety net I have beneath me. Let me repeat that: I am so outrageously grateful for the fact that I will never end up homeless, that I can afford to have a job I love, that I don’t have student loans. Money buys me freedom from stress and worry.

But it’s true what they say: Money doesn’t buy happiness. It’s just a tool. If I use it wisely, I can inch closer to the life I want: an apartment of my own in the big city, a byline in a respected magazine and a tight-knit group of friends. As I found out—thankfully early on—it can also be a dangerous vehicle for self-destruction.

So there you go, that’s the whole, unvarnished truth. Have at me in the comments.

*The name of the contributor has been changed to protect her identity and her financial accounts.

Love reading other people’s financial tales? Check out more great LearnVest-exclusive personal stories.

Please follow Your Money on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Another Electric Car Company Is Going Bankrupt

Alex Davies — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:15:32 -0400

Electric car battery supplier Better Place plans to file for bankruptcy within the next few days, CNN Money reports.

Better Place was a proponent of battery swapping technology, which involves replacing an electric car's depleted battery, rather than charging it.

Saving that kind of time would be a huge boon for the electric vehicle industry, which is hamstrung by battery technology that keeps charge times long, range limited, and prices high.

Better Place, founded in 2007 by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, proved in 2010 it could swap out and replace a battery in under 60 seconds, far faster than even the best EV charging times.

According to the New York Times, Agassi, a former top executive at SAP, raised over $800 million in private capital from investors including HSBC, General Electric, and Morgan Stanley. It built a small network of stations in Denmark and Israel.

But between 2010 and February 2013, it posted $477 million in cumulative losses. That month, it announced it would close its operations in North America and Australia, and continue working in Israel and Denmark.

That move could not save it, however, and the electric vehicle market did not expand at the pace the company had expected, according to CNN Money.

"The company was not well-served by having things it thought would happen over a decade happen within a year," a source told CNN. "Ultimately the idea was always based around scale, and it just didn't build it fast enough or well enough."

This news comes as Tesla Motors — riding high after becoming profitable and paying off its loan from the Department of Energy — plans to announce news about its Supercharger network, where its customers can charge their car batteries halfway in 30 minutes, for free.

There is speculation that Tesla will announce a battery swapping scheme, which seems less likely now, given the expected failure of the company that had gone the furthest in making the technology a reality.

Please follow Getting There on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

KOTOK: This Low Inflation Environment Is Fantastic For Stocks

David Kotok — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:09:41 -0400

Inflation is not on the radar anymore. We do hear occasional comments from central bankers who warn about future inflation arising from QE. We also recall a few statements in the media along the lines of, "They're printing all this money, we're going to have huge inflation, and interest rates are going to shoot up."

We have been on the low-inflation side of that debate for years. We have supported the argument that there is a huge overhang of surplus capacity in the global labor force and that inflation is not a problem when labor income is flat, falling, or not rising robustly. This coincides with a wounded credit multiplier and a damaged financial credit system, conditions that have existed for the last five years. They are gradually improving, but only gradually. They are conditions that cause deflationary pressures.

Will we have deflation? We are not certain. The forces at work globally that could bring on deflation are being blunted by the huge quantitative easing (QE) being undertaken by most major central banks.

Let's take a quick look at the US. All important measures of inflation in the US are on downward trends. Many thanks to Credit Suisse's Neal Soss and Jay Feldman for a recap of the data in their research note of May 17. They report Core CPI, Cleveland Fed Median CPI, Cleveland Fed Trimmed Mean CPI, Core PCE, and Dallas Fed Trimmed Mean PCE. All are trending downward, as measured on a year-over-year basis, and those trends are accelerating. Commodities are also on downward price trends. So are the more esoteric inflation measures like market-based indices and chained indices.

In the case of the Core PCE, which is believed to be the Federal Reserve's preferred measure, the rate of inflation measured year-over-year is approaching one percent. Remember that the Fed's threshold for any change in monetary policy is two percent. And Fed communications have suggested that a rate of 2.5 percent would be the threshold for any action taken to alter QE for the purpose of improving the employment statistics. So we are a full point and half away from that threshold, and the trend is in the opposite direction.

The Fed's stated unemployment threshold is 6.5 percent on the traditional headline unemployment rate (U-3). The Fed has also talked about other elements in the employment statistics, suggesting that the U-3 unemployment rate is not the only target measure for restoring the US to a more robust recovery. The charts and graphs that we have posted on our website and released in speeches present the employment statistics in a variety of ways that may be useful.

Other measures, such as the U-6 broad-based unemployment rate, Beveridge Curve analysis, and the disaggregation of employment data, all point to a very large underutilized labor force in the US. The same seems to be true for most of the rest of the world.

Our conclusion is that inflation is not a problem now and is not likely to become a problem soon. In fact, if certain indicators of inflation continue to head downward, they could trigger a reaction by the Fed because the risk of deflation will be perceived to be rising.

Is deflation a threat today? The answer seems to be no. More likely, we are in a period in which the rate of inflation will be too low to be a problem and will gradually turn higher over several years as additional stimulative policies unfold worldwide.

Meanwhile, low inflation is a very healthy environment for the stock market. It means that inflation distortions in reports of earnings are nearly nonexistent. That implies that the quality of earnings reports is very high, since they do not contain the distortions that occur in accounting systems when inflation is high.

Higher-quality earnings justify higher price/earnings multiples and higher stock prices. There is a consistent linkage between very low inflation and very strong asset pricing. This is particularly so when interest rates are very low and likely to stay low for a very long time.

We remain bullish. Inflation statistics support that outlook. They also support a gradual change in the outlook for bonds. Eventually, bond yields will be higher, maybe much higher, but the process is a gradual one. That means some tactical hedging in bond portfolios is appropriate. Panic selling of bonds is not.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

ENDING SOON: Enter To Win A Kindle Fire From Business Insider

Business Insider — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:06:00 -0400

We're giving you a chance to win a Kindle Fire HD. Become a newsletter subscriber now to enter. If you're the lucky winner you will have a host of features at your fingertips.

Entry deadline is May 31.

As a newsletter subscriber, you'll get daily updates and alerts on topics that matter most to you. You must subscribe to at least one newsletter to be eligible, so if you haven't already, be sure to choose one or more before submitting your entry.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER >

On or after May 31, 2013, we'll announce the lucky winner.

You must be a legal resident of the U.S. and a newsletter subscriber to win.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

CITI: Gold Has Never Stayed Below The 'Stairway To Hell' For Very Long

Sam Ro — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:39:00 -0400

The drop in gold prices since the beginning of the year has broken the spirits of investors seeking it as a safe haven for their wealth.

Short positions are at all-time highs, and the chartists will tell you that there has been "considerable technical damage" done.

However, Citi's Tom Fitzpatrick sees some hope in his charts.

"On a medium-to-long-term basis we remain very bullish on Gold," writes Fitzpatrick via King World News.

He considers a recent price pattern, which would suggest prices could go much lower before goin higher.

"That low (in gold) was hit at $682 in October 2008, and within 3 years Gold had rallied to $1,921," he wrote. "A similar fall and rally would see Gold at $1260 near-term and then above $3,500 by 2016."

Fitzpatrick believes this bullish trend will be supported by fundamentals. Specifically, the debt and the debt ceiling.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Lunch Break Ragers Are Totally A Thing In New York City [PHOTOS]

Linette Lopez and Daniel Goodman — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:19:00 -0400

Media company Flavorpill, along with Absolut Vodka, have come up with a new party concept called Lunch Break.

Lunch Break is a one-hour, full-on dance party that brings the free spirit of nightlife culture to the middle of the day.

This one's for the salad warriors — for the people who normally spend their lunch hour munching on chickpeas, replying to clients' e-mails, or fiddling with their excel models.

Lunch Break offers an alternative. It encourages you to once in a while get out of your seat, bypass your usual chopped salad spot, and go to a rager for an hour. Have one drink. Dance. Then go back to work, sit in your seat, and get back to your normal routine.

How's that sound?

That's what Flavorpill has been trying to get workers around NYC to do since last summer. The media company has been planning some of the most innovative parties in the country for the last 12 years. They like mashing things up — having dancers in the Guggenheim, putting house DJs in the MoMA. Unique experiences are in their DNA.

Business Insider checked out the last edition, which was held Thursday afternoon in downtown New York City. Questlove, as you probably know, DJ'd.

Already know about Lunch Break? Click here to check out our experience >

Questlove is a serious DJ. Lunch Break's spinners have all been top quality. Flavorpill has picked serious New York City nightclubs as the venues. Lunch Break isn't an amateur attempt at a gimmick party, it's the real deal.

Founder Sascha Lewis explained that the combination of aesthetics is an important part of the experience of escape. At the party, he's everywhere — part host, part hype man, dancing hard and moving incognito among the crowd.

Flavorpill is trying to use culture to transport you to a different place where all that matters is the party, he explained in a phone interview.

The music wakes people's bodies up.

"That's part of the mission of Flavorpill," said Lewis, "to get people off the couch and away from their computers and out having amazing cultural experiences."

Lunch Breaks are an idea that may have come at just the right time as more and more workers have flexible schedules and can work remotely.

Nate, a 38-year-old ad salesmen we met at the party said plainly: "As long as I get my work done, my boss doesn't care."

Nate has been to Lunch Break parties before. As he flirted with us, he said the concept was good, the music was always top notch and the women were always good looking.

It's light-hearted fun in the middle of a work day. There were suits and creatives there. We met lawyers and even a banker, and no, he wouldn't tell us what he does. At the end of the party Flavorpill sends partiers home with a brown paper bag lunch.

Lewis is now working on expanding Lunch Break to Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

Think it'll catch on? We think it just might. See you at the next one!

The party was held at Avenue, a popular NYC nightclub, at 12:30 p.m. It was pouring, but the line kept growing.

Just so you know, this is the space before. Keep this picture in mind.

In true Flavorpill fashion there were party favors — sunglasses (pictured) and glow sticks.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

11 Reasons Why Getting An MBA Is Better Than Getting A CFA

Linette Lopez — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:38:00 -0400

Last month, Business Insider took a deep dive into how to decide whether you should get your CFA or MBA — now we're getting more personal.

We found that both accreditations have their purposes. For example, the CFA charter is better if you want to be an analyst, and the MBA is better if you want a more diverse skill set.

But this is a hotly debated topic, one that get people frothing at the mouth and rolling their eyes.

So there's a lot more to be broken down here.

We reached out to sources who hold either CFA charters or MBA degrees to find out what makes one better than the other. This time around we're featuring the MBA, but don't worry, the CFA will get its day.

Better networking during the process.

According to our sources, Business School is where you meet people — your classmates, faculty, speakers, recruiters. They all come to you.

A better-connected alumni base.

The CFA Institute is trying to get better, but it just doesn't have the close-knit alumni community that Business Schools around the country have been fostering for decades. If you think you'll need that, the MBA is a better option.

Better for working in a variety of sectors.

Yes, you'll likely concentrate in a certain skill set, but with the variety of business classes at your disposal, the MBA is better for working in different kinds of jobs from business journalism to the C-suite.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron Has Gotten Himself Into A Horrible Mess

Adam Taylor — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:50:00 -0400

In January of this year, David Cameron had a problem. Over the past few years his party had grown divided over the U.K.'s membership in the European Union.

What's more, they were slowly being squeezed by an upstart party, Nigel Farage's UKIP — an anti-immigration, anti-Europe party that had slowly but surely been gaining in opinion polls, while Cameron's Conservative Party slowly but surely made losses.

So Cameron had a plan. In a widely anticipated speech, the British prime minister announced that a referendum on Europe membership would take place between 2015 and the end of 2017.

At first it seemed like a brilliant tactic, placating the eurosceptics in UKIP and his own party by agreeing to put the vote in the public's hands. The timing was key too. By setting the date a few years in the future, after the UK's next general election, he could concentrate on what really mattered — actually winning the election (the Conservatives, part of a coalition government, have trailed the opposition party Labour in all recent opinion polls).

Now, four months later, one thing is clear. The plan was an potentially devastating failure.

Here's why.

No one was appeased

"All he's trying to do is to kick the can down the road and to try and get UKIP off his back," Nigel Farage said after the referendum was announced.

Farage's viewpoint seems popular. According to one recent YouGov poll, just 17% think he feels strongly about the issue, while 64% think it was a "tactical calculation." 55% believe Farage feels strongly about Europe, for contrast, with just 22% thinking its a calculation.

What's more, by accepting that Europe is an issue, Cameron seems to be accepting UKIP's grievance, perhaps further legitimizing the party. Earlier this month, UKIP had a huge night in local elections, gaining a large number of council seats while the Conservatives lost seats.

The rebels in the Conservative party don't appear to have been placated either. The Financial Times notes that the 40 or so "unbiddable" rebels in the party have been joined by the most rebellious backbench of any party since the second world war.

These rebels have continued to cause problems on Europe since January. Most recently, 114 Tory rebels backed a bill that slammed the lack of an in-out EU referendum Bill in the Queen’s Speech (which sets out a legislative agenda for each new parliament), forcing Cameron to put out a draft bill reassuring the rebels of his intentions.

The prime minister has also been forced to put a three-line whip (the most serious) on the government's referendum bill, which will take place next month.

The situation has soured to the point where an unnamed source, close to Cameron, was quoted as calling the Tory activists "swivel-eyed loons." Perhaps not coincidentally, UKIP scored its highest result ever in one controversial poll after the comments went out — coming just 2 points within the Conservatives.

The bigger issue

There's one strange facet of this whole situation. Despite the fact that the issue of Europe has engulfed the Conservative Party, the average voter doesn't necessarily care too much about it.

The most recent YouGov poll found that 72% of voters think that the economy is amongst the top three most important issues for the UK. 56% voted for immigration and 31% voted for health care.

While the polls do show that Europe has become a much larger issue for voters in the past few years, there is a serious danger that the Conservatives are obsessing over Europe at a time when most voters are more worried about other things — unemployment, living standards, etc.

Perhaps the rift within the Conservative Party perhaps isn't even about Europe. The UK Polling Report has written that "UKIP support is not particularly connected with Europe, it is an anti-immigration vote and protest vote against some aspects of modern Britain, a general reactionary vote in support of taking Britain back to a status quo ante."

This is probably why the "swivel-eyed loons" comment was so controversial and why the Europe rebellion has coincided with a backlash against Cameron's gay marriage plans. The Eton-educated Conservative elite that Cameron is both a part of and surrounds himself with may be comfortable with modern England, but the Conservative's middle class base — the stereotypical "little Englanders" who have little in common with Cameron's global mindset.

Can Cameron survive?

If 46 Conservative MPs request a leadership contest, one must be held, and Paddy Power gives odds of 9/2 that Cameron will face a challenge and lose.

The Financial Times lists a few possible rivals, but there's a problem with them all — can they actually win the 2015 election?

Cameron's personal popularity remains relatively high in polls when contrasted to Labour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat's Nick Clegg. Given that neither Labour or the Lib Dems will commit to a 2015 EU referendum, the Tory rebels may decide Cameron is their best bet.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

17 Major US Bridges That Should Be Fixed Immediately

Max Nisen — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:19:00 -0400

The collapse of a bridge carrying Interstate Highway 5 in Washington State on Thursday has reignited the debate about America's decaying infrastructure.

Although this collapse was apparently caused by a truck with an oversize load hitting a girder, the bridge was not in great condition to start.

The bridge was inspected last year and received a "sufficiency rating" of 47 out of 100, according to The Wall Street Journal. That's not great, but there are worse bridges out there.

It was not among the 11.5 percent of US bridges, crossed by an average of 282,672,680 vehicles daily, deemed "structurally deficient" by the Federal Highway Administration in 2011.

A rating of structurally deficient or functionally obsolete doesn't mean a bridge is necessarily near collapse. But all of them need work, and many hold up traffic on some of America's busiest roadways.

Using a report from Transportation for America, we have picked out 17 of the most heavily-trafficked, structurally deficient, and functionally obsolete bridges in America.

I-95 over Hendricks Ave. (Jacksonville, Fla.)

172,000 vehicles drive over it every day.

68.3/100 sufficiency rating

According to the FHWA, the bridge's deck is in poor condition.

A sufficiency rating is the FHWA's measure of a bridge's sufficiency to stay in service. Each of these bridges has a rating below 80, which is the threshold below which a bridge is considered deficient or functionally obsolete. Analysis provided by National Bridge Inventory and Transportation For America.

I-64 ramp at River Rd. (Louisville, Ky.)

144,000 vehicles drive over it every day.

66/100 sufficiency rating

The bridge is rated "functionally obsolete, meaning that it is "no longer by design functionally adequate for its task."

I-35E over Pennsylvania Ave. (St. Paul, Minn.)

154,000 vehicles drive over it every day.

64/100 sufficiency rating

According to the FHWA, the bridge's deck, superstructure, and substructure are in poor condition.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Getting There on Twitter and Facebook.

MICHELLE MEYER: The Labor Force Participation Rate's Freefall Is About To Stop

Rob Wile — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:18:31 -0400

We recently gave you UBS economist Drew Matus' opinion of why the labor force participation rate — the size of the labor force as a percentage of the overall population — is falling.

Basically, Matus said it's due less to an anemic economy than shifting (especially aging) demographics: there are just more old people still working in America these days.

Now, as noted by Bill McBride, Merrill Lynch's Michelle Meyer has weighed in with her own take, and she basically agrees:

The two primary secular trends are the decline in the LFPR among the youth population and the rise among 55+. The LFPR for 16 to 19 year olds plunged to 34.3% last year from 52% in 2000. While this may have been accelerated by the past two recessions, we believe this is a permanent trend. On the other end, the LFPR of the older population has increased, likely reflecting higher life expectancy, less confidence in social benefit programs and loss of wealth from the Great Recession.

Meyer goes one step further and offers a projection of where the rate will go from here.

Her answer: sideways, thanks to the cyclically improving economy. Here's her chart:

She writes:

...we forecast the LFPR will slip slightly this year, but with a stronger recovery under way next year, the LFPR should start to level off some and potentially increase beginning in 2015.

The bounce-back won't happen right away, but it should be enough to partially ease the downward pressure from pure demographics, she says.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Bank Of Japan Must Crush All Resistance

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:10:00 -0400

Kudos to Kyle Bass at Hayman Advisers for warning that the Bank of Japan would lose control of its 70 trillion bond buying blitz. The spike in the 10-year yield to 1pc on Thursday was certainly shocking to behold.

His point is that the BoJ faces a “rational investor paradox”. The authorities are trying to drive up the inflation to 2pc and therefore to devalue Japanese government bonds (JGBs), so why on earth would you want to own them?

“If JGB investors begin to believe that Abenomics will be successful, they will ‘rationally’ sell JGBs to buy foreign bonds or equities,” he told Bloomberg

He says the scramble to sell has “overwhelmed” buying by the BoJ. Governor Kuroda will now have double down with a huge increase in the scale of QE.

The argument is similar to warnings by Nomura’s Richard Koo, Japan’s most famous economist and an arch-Keynesian. The two men reach the same conclusion coming from diametrically opposed theoretical starting points.

As I reported last night, Mr Koo thinks the Abenomics plan of monetary reflation is madness. “Once inflation concerns start to emerge the BoJ will be unable to restrain a rise in yields no matter how many bonds it buys.” This could lead a “loss of faith in the Japanese government” and the “beginning of the end” for Japan’s economy.

Mr Koo said the BoJ faces a “time inconsistency problem”, a variant of Mr Bass’s paradox. Markets react more quickly to events than the economy. “The Japanese authorities are trying to generate inflation first and then hope for recovery, which means debt service costs will increase before tax revenues do.”

This will worsen the debt trajectory, set to reach 245pc of GDP this year (IMF), roughly where Britain ended the Napoleonic Wars. But then Britain produced half the world’s manufactured goods in the early 19th century, so it may be tougher for Japan.

Mr Koo says “long-term rates may rise before the real economy”. If so lenders will respond to these signals more quickly that borrowers, choking credit.

He says Kuroda has “altered the market structure of the last two decades” and undermined a fragile equilibrium, inviting a speculative attack on the JGB market by foreign hedge funds.

So that then is the critique. I don’t agree that it is game over for Abenomics. My view is that the Keynesian doctrines of endless fiscal stimulus without monetary support advocated by Mr Koo over the years is the cause of Japan’s desperate crisis (though he says the economy could have achieved escape velocity long ago if they had done more of it, which is not as absurd as it sounds).

Au contraire. Monetary policy should take the strain, pursuing a nominal GDP target of 3pc and later 4pc to turn the vicious circle of the “denominator effect” (ie a rising debt load on a shrinking nominal base) into a virtuous circle.

This is what Takahashi Korekiyo achieved with such brilliance in the early 1930s, setting off a boom and falling debt ratios. Though he also forced the BoJ to finance fiscal spending too to kickstart recovery. I am not against that either if it works. In fact in it is a rather good idea (for Japan, not the UK obviously).

Mr Koo’s argument that balance sheet recessions require radical action by governments is correct, but I refute his claims that QE was tried and failed in Japan. It was never tried.

The BoJ meddled on the margins with pinprick purchases of short-term debt, buying from the banking system, and merely pushing up the monetary base. Of course it failed. Who cares about the monetary base. It is irrelevant.

What they should have done is to conduct old-fashioned open-market operations, la Friedman, Fisher, Hawtrey, Cassel, or Keynes himself, buying long bonds from non-banks to force up the M3 money supply. That works, as Ben Bernanke discovered when he finally alighted upon the policy by accident late in the Fed’s QE efforts.

True, the ructions in Japan over the last few days have been extraordinary. Governor Kuroda was forced to reassure the nation on Friday that the BoJ has the instruments to restore order to the bond markets

Premier Shinzo Abe was very blunt in parliament, warning that “sharp increases in long-term interest rates could have a grave impact on the economy and the government’s fiscal conditions. We expect the BOJ to respond appropriately,” he said.

Mr Abe is not pleased, I would surmise, and quite understandably so since the BoJ seems to have cocked up badly. My guess is that JGB market will settle down once they work out how to execute the task.

I stick with my view that the BoJ has the means to crush all resistance, and should do so. This may require financial repression. Rutaro Kono and Makoto Watanabe from BNP Paribas have an excellent note out this morning arguing that Kuroda will have to copy the “pegging operations” of the Fed in the 1940s.

In effect, the Fed became part of the Treasury’s debt management team as the budget deficit hit 25pc of GDP in WW2. It capped one-year notes at 0.875pc and 30-year bonds at 2.5pc. The markets knew that all necessary means would be used to hold the line (as the Swiss did in 2011 to hold the franc at 1.20 to the euro).

It certainly worked. It allowed the US to whittle away its wartime debt through inflation and negative real rates. The creditors paid the price. It was an “inflation tax”, or covert debt restructuring.

That is what lies in store for Japan, and it will be horrible for pensioners, savers, and those expecting an annuity. Whether the authorities can pull it off it without capital controls is an interesting question. My guess is that controls will be part of the mix in the end, and much else besides. Tough. Leaders don’t run countries for the benefit of markets.

But all this is clearly “doable”, and if the alternative is a spiral into mayhem and debt default, you can hardly blame Mr Abe for wanting to try. There was always a “Hail Mary” element to this massive reflation experiment, a last-ditch effort to avert a debt compound spiral.

The critics are right to say it may fail. But are they suggesting that the previous status quo was tenable? If Mr Bass happens to read this blog, I would like to know what he would do if he were prime minister of Japan.

As for the countless readers demanding an apology from me for backing QE, Abenomics, and all the sins of monetarism: I defy you all.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Bloodletting Continues In The Stock Market

Matthew Boesler — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:58:43 -0400

U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday and Thursday. That's not something we're used to seeing too much lately.

This morning, the bloodletting continues. The S&P 500 is trading near 1644, down 0.4%.

This comes after a totally insane session in Japan again Friday, which saw the market rally 3% in the early going before going red in the afternoon and then bouncing back by a hair late in the day.

European markets closed in the red across the board. Spain took the worst of it there, ending down 1.0%.

In commodities, WTI crude oil is down 0.4%, while metals and agricultural commodities are down pretty much across the board.

Ten-year Treasury yields are a basis point lower at 2.01%, while Italian and Spanish government bond yields widened 11 and 12.5 basis points to 4.12% and 4.40%, respectively.

Durable goods orders surprised to the upside this morning, but the release was unable to buoy markets.

MORE — A Boatload Of Money Flowed Into Stocks Again This Week >

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Michael Bloomberg Now Owns More Than A Dozen Different Properties Around The Globe

Rob Wile — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:50:51 -0400

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg now owns 14 properties worldwide after purchasing three Hamptons estates in as many years, Capital New York's Dana Rubinstein reports.

In 2011, he bought a $20 million, 35-acre estate in Ballyshear.

He has since acquired an adjacent home as well as a nearby 4.8 acre vacant plot of land.

Bloomberg also owns property in London, Colorado, Bermuda and Florida.

For the first time ever, he also disclosed that he has personal HSBC bank accounts in London, Paris, Bermuda and Hong Kong, in addition to his accounts in America.

Read the full story at Capital New York >

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

EL-ERIAN: Here's The Upside Of A Horrible Travel Delay

Mohamed El-Erian — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:40:25 -0400

It is a long weekend and many of you are traveling to be with friends and family. Some will come back with horrid stories of late flights, lost luggage, awful traffic and even collapsed highways. Well, I am trying to make it home after some epic delays. As much as I would like to complain, I am actually thankful for the long delay I have experienced over the last 24 hours.

My adventure started yesterday in New York where I was taking a Delta flight to St Louis to attend a meeting. The combination of a late incoming aircraft and a busy airport meant that, by the time we got in line for the runway, the “air corridors” out were blocked by serious thunderstorms. We waited and waited on the tarmac.

Almost three hours later we were back at the gate for a “fuel and go.” We were allowed to deplane … with one rather important proviso. Delta could not unload any of the bags, including those that were gate checked. As this was one of those small commuter planes with tiny overheads, virtually everyone had given up their carry-ons. So only a couple of people got off the plane.

Back to the tarmac we went for another 3 hours before we finally took off for a rather bumpy 2 ½ hour flight.

Now this was a packed plane with almost 70 on board and one (over-used) bathroom. People were rather crammed, and most had run out of batteries for their phones, computers and tablets. Food was limited.

Yet rather than complain and get edgy, the vast majority was engaging. Indeed, the mood on the plane was pleasant.

You heard very few, if any, complaints when we finally landed in St. Louis, some 7 hours after our scheduled time. Sure important meetings had been missed and plans badly disrupted; but there was a sense of community and, yes, even achievement.

Waiting now (the next day) for yet another delayed flight (American this time), I can’t help thinking how yesterday’s crowd dynamic was so different from what I have previously experienced on long delays. Why?

The cause of the delay – bad weather – was visible to all, and deemed by everyone to be outside the control of the airline. The pilot spoke to us often even though he mostly told us that he knew as much as us (i.e., very, very little).

Yet the constant communication proved re-assuring. And whenever he turned off the engines as we waited on the tarmac, he quickly released the “fasten seat belt” sign and we were allowed to use our electronics.

The flight attendants were also terrific. They were patient, communicative, and caring about individual circumstances.

Then there were the passengers. It was not long before we shared newspapers, snacks, magazines, stories and even family photos.

The result was a supportive and friendly group which, as my wife reminded me on the phone last night, is typical of Midwesterners. By the end of the flight, people were exchanging e-mail addresses and some were even making plans for family get-togethers.

There are many lessons here, particularly for business leaders.

Yes adversity stinks. No one wishes it, and we all seek to avoid it. Yet, when it hits, there are upsides if the aftermath is well managed.

Regular communication is essential, as is a genuine sense of caring and support.

In most instances, groups will do better with a sense of community as opposed to just individually driven. And place the adversity in a larger context; most of the time, it won’t seem so overwhelming. Also, it sure does help to have a critical mass of Midwesterners there!!

Happy weekend and safe travels to all.

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

SEX AT WORK: Please Take The Survey!

Henry Blodget — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:19:00 -0400

A couple of days ago, a BusinessWeek columnist, Liz Ryan, got everyone all hot and bothered by writing about sex at work.

Sex at work is a reality, Liz Ryan argued. And it's time everyone just acknowledged that.

(One lawyer told Ryan that his firm had to remove cameras from office stairwells because they kept recording attorneys jumping each other late at night. Ryan herself met her husband at work. And so on...)

Anyway, we figured it would be a good idea to get some actual data on sex at work.

So we put together the survey below.

Please take a few minutes to fill it out. We'll publish the results soon.

(And rest assured: We have no idea who you are. So your secrets will be safe!)

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »