Obamacare's popularity has gone through the roof after Trump’s election

• Bob Bryan
 

• 20h
• 7,891

U.S. President Barack Obama smiles as he takes part in the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty at Georgetown University in Washington May 12, 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Apparently, all it took for Americans to warm up to Obamacare was for President Barack Obama to leave office.

According to a new Gallup poll, 55% of American surveyed approve of the Affordable Care Act, the law known as Obamacare. This is the first time in Gallup's polling of the ACA that the law has cracked 50% approval since the firm began asking about the law in November 2012.

The 55% approval and 41% disapproval of the ACA represents a huge shift from just after the 2016 election. In November, Gallup found that Obamacare had only a 42% approval rating, while 53% disapproved.

The shift also comes after a number of polls have showed increasing popularity for the law, as well as the failure of the Republican Party to pass their repeal and replacement bill — the American Health Care Act — through the House. That legislation was viewed highly unfavorably, with one survey suggesting as few as 17% of Americans viewed it in a positive light.

Gallup also found that 26% of those surveyed favored keeping the ACA in place as it is. Another 40% wanted Obamacare in place with significant changes, while 30% wanted Obamacare repealed and replaced.

Take a look at the progression Gallup has found through the years:

Gallup

SEE ALSO: The new GOP Obamacare replacement could have a fatal flaw

NOW WATCH: Watch Trump's budget director explain proposed cuts for after-school programs that feed children

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DIMON: 'We are creating generations of citizens who will never have a chance'

• Matt Turner
 

• 13h
• 11,988

Getty/Win McNamee

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is worried about labor-force participation.

Dimon just published his annual shareholder letter, setting out his thoughts on JPMorgan's strategy as well as on broader issues of regulation and public policy. Included in the 46-page report was a section on labor-force participation and education.

Dimon said he was concerned about the labor-force participation rate, particularly for men in their prime working years, ages 25 to 54. He highlighted the role of education in this problem, saying "many high schools and vocational schools do not provide the education our students need."

His comments can be summarized as follows:

• The labor participation rate for men ages 25 to 54 has gone from 96% in 1968 to a little over 88% today. "This is way below labor force participation in almost every other developed nation," Dimon said.
• "If the work participation rate for this group went back to just 93% — the current average for the other developed nations — approximately 10 million more people would be working in the United States."
• "Fifty-seven percent of these non-working males are on disability, and fully 71% of today's youth (ages 17–24) are ineligible for the military due to a lack of proper education (basic reading or writing skills) or health issues (often obesity or diabetes)."
• "We should be ringing the national alarm bell that inner city schools are failing our children — often minorities and children from lower income households. In many inner city schools, fewer than 60% of students graduate, and many of those who do graduate are not prepared for employment."

Here are the full extracts on labor force participation and education:

"Labor force participation in the United States has gone from 66% to 63% between 2008 and today. Some of the reasons for this decline are understandable and aren't too worrisome — for example, an aging population. But if you examine the data more closely and focus just on labor force participation for one key segment; i.e., men ages 25-54, you'll see that we have a serious problem. The chart below shows that in America, the participation rate for that cohort has gone from 96% in 1968 to a little over 88% today. This is way below labor force participation in almost every other developed nation.

"If the work participation rate for this group went back to just 93% — the current average for the other developed nations — approximately 10 million more people would be working in the United States. Some other highly disturbing facts include: Fifty-seven percent of these non-working males are on disability, and fully 71% of today's youth (ages 17–24) are ineligible for the military due to a lack of proper education (basic reading or writing skills) or health issues (often obesity or diabetes)."

And:

"Many high schools and vocational schools do not provide the education our students need — the goal should be to graduate and get a decent job. We should be ringing the national alarm bell that inner city schools are failing our children — often minorities and children from lower income households. In many inner city schools, fewer than 60% of students graduate, and many of those who do graduate are not prepared for employment. We are creating generations of citizens who will never have a chance in this land of dreams and opportunity. Unfortunately, it's self-perpetuating, and we all pay the price. The subpar academic outcomes of America's minority and low-income children resulted in yearly GDP losses of trillions of dollars, according to McKinsey & Company."

AOL and Yahoo plan to call themselves by a new name after the Verizon deal closes: Oath

• Avery Hartmans and Julie Bort

• 21h
• 67,676

AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong at Advertising Week New York 2016 John Lamparski/Getty Images

When Verizon merges Yahoo with AOL after its acquisition of Yahoo closes, the newly created division will get a new name.

That new name is Oath, sources tell Business Insider.

In a deal that was announced in July, Verizon will acquire Yahoo's core internet business for about $4.8 billion in cash.

Yahoo will be merged with Verizon's AOL unit under Marni Walden, the executive vice president and president of product innovation and new businesses, with Verizon scooping up Yahoo's search, mail, content, and ad-tech businesses.

In January, Yahoo announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that after the close of the merger, the parts of Yahoo that Verizon is not buying — which includes Yahoo's 15% of the Chinese retail giant Alibaba and a part of Yahoo Japan, a joint venture with SoftBank — would continue under the name Altaba.

It's unclear if the Yahoo name will live on for any part of the internet business that will be run by AOL. However, a big new branding campaign is expected in the coming weeks, along with more details about the new company.

Yahoo declined to comment on the new name. While an AOL spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied the new name, she told us to watch for the "launching" of the new company.

"In the summer of 2017, you can bet we will be launching one of the most disruptive brand companies in digital," she said.

The Yahoo-Verizon deal is supposed to close in the second quarter of 2017, perhaps on or before April 24. After April 24, the parties can seek a three-month extension, but there's also an opening for either party to terminate the deal.

Update: AOL CEO Tim Armstrong confirmed the new name, posting on his Twitter account Monday afternoon: "Billion+ Consumers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017." 

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SEE ALSO: This woman has been given the job of merging Yahoo with AOL

DON'T MISS: Why Marissa Mayer's team is looking into getting fired by Verizon

NOW WATCH: Your neighbor's WiFi is ruining yours — here's how to fix it

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Saudi Aramco might be worth just half of the $2 trillion suggested by Saudi officials

• Ben Moshinsky
 

• 8h
• 1,658

Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Reuters

LONDON – Saudi Arabia's national oil company may be worth half the $2 trillion (£1.61 trillion) valuation suggested by the country's officials, according to an in-depth report by the Financial Times.

The kingdom is due to list shares in Saudi Aramco in both Riyadh and at least one other foreign stock exchange by 2018, selling up to 5% of what will likely become the world's biggest company by market capitalisation.

The valuation of those shares has been the subject of intense debate. As the FT points out, the company is yet to disclose financial details such as sales or profits.

Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is in charge of the Saudi Arabia's economic policy, has said the IPO will value Aramco at $2 trillion or more, which is around two-thirds the size of the entire London Stock Exchange.

But, according to FT estimates using valuations from previous shares sales of British Petroleum and Brazil's Petrobras, the correct valuation should be no more than $1.1 trillion.

The analysis chimes in with the views of investors and fund managers, according to a survey by regional investment bank EFG Hermes last month. That study found that most investors see Aramco having a market capitalisation of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion when it sells shares to the public.

The survey found 39%of respondents predicted the market would value Aramco at between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion, with 36% expecting a valuation below $1 trillion.

Around a quarter of the 510 participants expected a figure above $1.5 trillion, the bank said.

Policy decisions by Saudi authorities, including which of Aramco's huge selection of assets will be included in the share sale, will have a big effect on the overall price and valuation.

You can read the full FT analysis here.

Global debt has hit an eye-watering $215 trillion

• David Scutt, Business Insider Australia

• 9h
• 1,475

Global debt levels soared over the past decade, with the vast majority accumulated by emerging market nations.

According to figures from the Institute of International Finance (IIF), global levels of debt held by households, governments, financials and non-financial corporates jumped by over $US70 trillion in the past decade to a record high of $US215 trillion, equating to 325% of global GDP.

Here’s what that increase looks like, looking back not only over the past decade but also to the decade before.

Business Insider Australia

The bars are getting bigger, especially in emerging markets.

$US215,000,000,000,000.

According to the group, emerging market indebtedness increased by $US40 trillion over the past decade, a significant acceleration on the $US9 trillion that was added in the decade before.

It currently stands at $US56 trillion, or 215% of emerging market GDP.

Of that, some $US48.5 trillion has been issued in local currency, with the remaining amount is in foreign currencies such as the US dollar, euro and yen.

“The rise in emerging market debt has been concentrated in non-financial corporate sector, where debt-to-GDP has risen from 68% in 2006 to 100% in 2016,” the IIF says. “Firms in China, Turkey, Chile and Saudi Arabia have seen the largest increases in their debt ratios over the past decade.”

While significantly larger, growth in debt in developed nations has been slower than for emerging markets over the past year, increasing by $US32 trillion to $US160 trillion.

That equates to 390% of developed markets GDP, with most of the increase driven by a sharp lift in public sector indebtedness.

“The relatively moderate increase of $US32 trillion over the past decade has been driven by the public sector, while the household and financial sectors have deleveraged markedly in the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis,” the IIF wrote.

“Outstanding government debt in the US and UK has more than doubled since 2006, while Japan and the Euro Area have seen an increase of about 50% in the dollar value of their outstanding government debt.”

Now that the debt has been issued, there’s just the small task of refinancing it, or having to actually pay it back.

Read the original article on Business Insider Australia. Copyright 2017. Follow Business Insider Australia on Twitter.

Elon Musk just made his smartest strategic move ever for Tesla

• Matthew DeBord
 
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He lives in the future.Tesla

TSLA Tesla

 298.52 20.22 (+7.30 %)

DisclaimerGet real-time TSLA charts here »

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It could be bad news that Tesla's CFO is retiring

Elon Musk Just Said Tesla Sales Are Tanking In China, Sending Stock Down 6%

There's never been a more challenging time to be Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a survivalist.

Yes, he's also a billionaire, presiding over Tesla and SpaceX, with plans to save the world and colonize Mars.

But when you get right down to it, Musk has never forgotten what it was like to live on the entrepreneurial edge. In 2008, Tesla nearly went bankrupt. Only a last-minute fund-raise staved off a Chapter 11 filing for a company that's now riding high with a $47 billion market cap. Later, Musk would sell stakes in the carmaker to Daimler and Toyota and provide those companies Tesla-designed electric powertrains.

Tesla is once again up against a huge financial challenge as it prepares to launch its $35,000 Model 3 in the coming months. Musk and his team plan to spend nearly all of Tesla's cash, about $2.5 billion, to bring the Model 3 to market and manufacture it at scale. Burning cash at that rate required a capital raise of more than $1 billion in March, as well as another more strategic move, reminiscent of Tesla's deals with Daimler and Toyota.

China's Tencent announced last week that it had bought a 5% stake in Tesla, to the tune of $1.8 billion. The Chinese firm will be a passive investor, but the BBC reported that Musk expected advice on how to expand Tesla's fortunes in the Middle Kingdom — a potentially enormous market for the automaker that's expected to increase its annual sales to well above its current 20 million vehicles.

Musk can at times seem as if he's making things up as he goes along — he recently started a tunneling company, apparently on a whim, to deal with Los Angeles traffic — but he's also someone who's accustomed to peering deeply into the future and coming up with strategies for Tesla based on what he sees.

A prime example

Tesla's new stakeholder.Thomson Reuters

The Tencent deal is a prime example. Electric cars have, thus far, been a disappointment. Their sales amount to only about 1% globally, and Tesla is the only car company that has defined itself through electrified, long-range mobility. The Model 3 will be a major test of whether there truly is a mass market for EVs.

But Musk doesn't want to take that chance. At best, Tesla sales in the US could rise to 1 million by 2020, giving the company a bit more than 5% of the market. (That would be better than what Volkswagen and Audi together have now.) And the US's market is unlikely to match China's, which is already notably larger. Furthermore, growth in the US is tapped out.

So Musk is logically thinking about a pivot to China, where the market could grow by another 10 million annually — and where the government can get behind EVs in a big way, giving Tesla a leg up on gas-powered vehicles.

But Musk doesn't have that many powerful levers to pull. Tesla has been around for only a decade, and unlike other major automakers, it still hasn't established a joint venture with a Chinese car company to build Teslas in that country rather than import them.

Tesla's most powerful asset

A Tesla in China.Ng Han Guan/AP

Musk has turned to the powerful asset Tesla currently owns: the company itself and its stock, which has been rallying since the beginning of 2007 and at a few points has threatened to cross the critical $300-per-share barrier. (It's now trading at about $280.)

Tesla doesn't look cheap to many investors, but if you accept that electric cars could be big in the future, then buying a chunk of Tesla now makes sense. Tencent will own 5% of Tesla's growth going forward, and in China, that growth could be considerable.

As compensation, Tesla obtains a stalwart investor and adviser to provide the company some financial cover. Tencent won't want to see its nearly $2 billion stake obliterated and is far more likely to buy more of Tesla.

The track record of companies taking a stake in Tesla is also impressive — both Daimler and Toyota got in before Tesla's initial public offering and sold after their holdings had appreciated well above the IPO price, which was under $20.

Because Musk is a survivalist and a strategic genius, he doesn't waste time when it comes to stuff like this. Whatever negative jitters result from capital raises, debt issuances, and big changes in stock ownership are mere blips. The only thing that matters is that Tesla hits its milestones and sets itself up as one of the dominant companies in a post-fossil-fuel world.

We already knew 2017 was going to be a big year for Musk and company. The Tencent investment just makes it bigger.

Musk also wants to go to Mars.Reuters

The selfless survivalist

Anyone who wants to can acquire a huge stake in Tesla at any time. But the long-term value of the investor being an important Asian firm can't be understated, for all the reasons I've outlined — and because Musk isn't by nature a deal-maker. He doesn't care if Tencent's move is better for Tencent than for Tesla. What's important is that Tesla now has another anchoring shareholder beyond Musk himself and some large institutional funds.

This might not be all Musk has in store for us this year. In terms of fundamentals, Tesla still doesn't look particularly strong — it isn't profitable, it doesn't build that many cars (yet), and acquiring SolarCity has added billions in debt to the balance sheet.

Musk has recognized that now is the time to play a little financial defense, with a capital raise and a new, major investor. The important thing to note, of course, is that Musk isn't being defensive with his defense — he's on the offensive, defining Tesla's future before it can be defined by forces he can't control.

SEE ALSO: Tesla is about to confront dueling best- and worst-case scenarios, and anything could happen

NOW WATCH: Tesla will begin selling its Solar Roof this year — here's everything you need to know

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