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Top 25 Psychiatric Medications for 2020

This article from psychcentral.com may be of interest. Here is a section: 

Psychiatric medications are a crucial part of treatment for many mental health conditions, helping to ease symptoms and boost mental well-being. But there are some more commonly prescribed.

Mental health conditions are complex. Just one medication will help in some cases. Other times, you might try a few different medications before finding the right one or even need more than one medication.

Psychiatric medications are an important part of many people’s treatment plans, including therapy and other strategies. While they can’t cure your mental health condition, they can help manage your symptoms.



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Re-Emerging Equities

Thanks to a subscriber for this report from AQR which may be of interest. Here is a section: 

However, lower risk in emerging markets isn’t just a China story. Fundamentals have also improved more broadly. Over the past 20 years, per capita GDP in emerging markets has roughly doubled as a share of developed markets (Exhibit 5, left side). Measures of external vulnerabilities have also improved from their periods of peak fragility in the 1980s and 1990s. Current account balances in emerging markets are now positive in aggregate, and measures of external debt sustainability (e.g., external debt as a percentage of exports) look much healthier (Exhibit 5, right side).

Bottom line: there are many reasons to believe that the relatively attractive valuations found in emerging markets represent a 5-10 year opportunity. In other words, the current expected premium is likely due to these markets being relatively underpriced, as opposed to representing compensation for assuming meaningfully greater portfolio risk.



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LVMH's Value Nears $500 Billion, Enters World's Top 10

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

LVMH, Europe’s largest company by market value, has now made it to the world’s top 10.

A first-quarter sales beat sparked a 5% increase in the share price Thursday, giving the luxury powerhouse a 29% rally for the year. That, along with a gain in the euro against the dollar, lifted LVMH’s market capitalization to $486 billion, briefly ranking it as the world’s 10th-biggest company. Should it reach $500 billion, it would become the first European company to achieve that milestone.



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US Service Gauge Falls More Than Expected as Demand Moderates

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest. Here is a section: 

The group’s index of new orders at service providers dropped more than 10 points to a three-month low of 52.2. While still consistent with expansion, the scale of the drop suggests a significant slowing in the pace of bookings growth. The business activity measure, which mirrors the ISM’s factory production index, slipped to 55.4.

“There has been a pullback in the rate of growth for the services sector, attributed mainly to a cooling off in the new orders growth rate, an employment environment that varies by industry and continued improvements in capacity and logistics,” Anthony Nieves, chair of the ISM Services Business Survey Committee, said in a statement.



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Stolen Range Rovers Are Tip of Alarming Iceberg

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

The US’s largest car insurer, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., reported a $13.4 billion (!) underwriting loss last year, the largest shortfall in its 100-year history; Allstate Corp.’s auto-insurance underwriting loss was $3 billion, while Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Geico car-insurance unit lost $1.9 billion.

In the UK, Direct Line Insurance Group Plc’s chief executive departed in January after mounting losses at the motor division forced it to scrap its dividend. The stock has declined more than 50% in the past year.

These woeful results have shaken confidence in the industry’s purported ability to assess risk and forecast accurately. Insurers are belatedly hiking premiums, though often not as quickly as they’d like. Customers who drive Range Rovers and other vehicles prized by thieves, may struggle to get coverage at all.

Soaring used-car prices are the proximate cause of insurers’ woes – a textbook example of how supply chain upheaval can cascade through the economy. Historically, vehicles were a depreciating asset, but suddenly the cost of replacing a stolen or damaged vehicle was far more than insurers had calculated.



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LVMH, Hermes Climb to Record Highs as Luxury Lifts Europe Again

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here isa section: 

LVMH shares rise to a record high, contributing most to gains in the French and European indexes on Friday as analysts upgrade their estimates for the French luxury behemoth. Peer Hermes International also hits an all-time peak.



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Brazil's New Fiscal Plan Is Cautiously Welcomed by Markets

This article for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

“The broad ideas are orthodox and the government does agree with the idea of stabilizing debt,” said Katrina Butt, a senior economist at AllianceBernstein LP. “Still, there are some unanswered questions and the government seems to bank on economic growth to be able to achieve the targets, given an increase in the tax burden doesn’t look feasible at this moment.”

The proposal is crucial for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to win over investors, who have been worried about the health of public finances since the leftist leader obtained congressional authorization to boost outlays, bypassing current spending rules that will be replaced by the new fiscal framework. Since then, concerns about swelling debts have helped to fuel inflation expectations keeping, in turn, borrowing costs high.



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Autonomies reweight



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Sweden Wrestles With an Economic Crisis Built at Home

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest. Here is a section: 

Sweden has long fallen short on its constitutional pledge to provide an affordable place to live for all of its 10.4 million people, but until recently that was masked by the growing economy which had helped disguise flaws in the system. 

The shortage of affordable accommodation is hitting recruitment. The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce reported last year that three out of four heads of human resources said the housing situation was making it harder for their firms to hire new staff. 

Rents are negotiated annually by landlords and the tenants association. Advocates say the system helps create a rental market in Stockholm where teachers, police officers, street cleaners and other public sector workers can afford to live alongside bankers, software developers and government officials. Yet supply hasn’t kept up with demand for decades. Average waiting times for a rent-controlled apartment is now 9.2 years, but can stretch up to 20 years in some parts of the capital.



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Email of the day on getting the bad news out on a Friday

Collapses of Large Banks on Fridays:

- Friday, Mar. 14, 2008: Bear Stearns hit by liquidity crisis

- Friday, Sept. 12, 2008: Last trading day before Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy

- Friday, Sept. 26, 2008: Washington Mutual seized by regulators marking largest bank collapse in US history

- Friday, Mar. 10, 2023: SVB seized by regulators, marking 2nd biggest bank failure in US history

- Friday, Mar. 10, 2023: Signature Bank sees $10 billion in withdrawals, seized by regulators 2 days later

- Friday, Mar. 17, 2023: UBS bids for Credit Suisse, $CS, to avoid its collapse

- Friday, Mar. 24, 2023: Deutsche Bank, $DB, credit default swaps hit 4-year high on contagion fears

Just about every large bank failure in recent history has occurred on a Friday.

This can't be a coincidence.



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