First, the saddest, heartbreaking news today. Way too soon. RIP Prince.
Financial Markets and Economy
Dollar's Post-Fed Rate Increase Slump Shows History Is Repeating (Bloomberg)
When it comes to the dollar’s slump this year, history is repeating itself.
Oil Producers Saw $32 Billion Boost Before Doha Freeze Talks (Bloomberg)
Even if oil producers didn’t seal the output freeze deal they hoped would stabilize the market, they saw revenues soar in the run up to the failed meeting last weekend in Doha.
PBOC Rates Seen on Hold Through Year-end as Data Improve (Bloomberg)
Economists now see China’s central bank keeping its main interest rate on hold until the fourth quarter, when policy makers will lower it to help safeguard a stabilizing expansion.
Here’s why stocks are suddenly back near record highs (Market Watch)
To the surprise of many, including me, the S&P 500 Index traded over 2,100 Wednesday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average changed hands above 18,000.
Gold Shines, Silver Breaks Out, As China Starts Gold Fix and Deutsche Bank Admits Manipulation (Jeff Berwick, at Max Keiser)
Every day there are big things happening in this most epic of Jubilee years… and it’s just getting started.
Why the big banks can't imagine their own demises (New Yorker)
One of the signal, but formerly obscure, achievements of the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in the wake of the financial crisis, was the requirement that big banks write “living wills” in preparation for their eventual deaths. These documents (the technical term is “resolution plans”) specify everything from how subsidiaries might continue to operate after a head office has declared bankruptcy to how I.T.-service contracts can be transferred to new ownership. Their larger aim is to insure that, in the event of a 2008-level crisis, the big banks can die with dignity, so to speak, instead of requiring taxpayers to bail them out.
Here’s why Mario Draghi will backpedal on ECB interest rates (Market Watch)
Mario Draghi might need to change his tune on the prospect for additional rate cuts.
China has 4 years worth of unsold housing stock, yet they're still building more (Business Insider)
China’s construction sector enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in the first quarter of the year, snapping the prevailing trend seen in the previous two years.
Is Silver's 11-Month High Just The Start? (Forbes)
The silver market has taken off in spite of gold’s struggle to make new gains, and, according to one international bank, silver’s 11-month high is just the beginning.
VW Said to Pay At Least $10 Billion in U.S. Cheating Deal (Bloomberg)
Volkswagen AG has agreed to set aside at least $10 billion to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government and lawsuits by American car owners over diesel vehicles rigged to cheat pollution controls, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
ECB Undermines Riksbank's Clout as All Measures End in Limbo (Bloomberg)
Sweden’s Riksbank just put its monetary policy cards on the table in the hope that the European Central Bank won’t blow its best intentions to smithereens.
7 Non-Traditional Ways You Can Earn More Money (Fox Business)
Are you hunting for a way to bring in more income into your life? Today's modern economy provides plenty of ways to do so even if you do not have a lot of time or experience. You just need to be willing to think outside the box and put in a little extra effort and you could easily build up a nice side income for yourself in no time.
China's 'zombie' steel mills fire up furnaces, worsen global glut (Reuters)
The rest of the world's steel producers may be pressuring Beijing to slash output and help reduce a global glut that is causing losses and costing jobs, but the opposite is happening in the steel towns of China.
Brexit means blood, toil, sweat and tears (The Telegraph)
William Pitt the Younger already knew the full horror of Britain's predicament in November 1805, even as he celebrated the victory of Trafalgar in his last poignant but unyielding words to the nation.
China has started a crackdown on its shadow banking sector (Business Insider)
Anyone thinking about setting up an internet-based finance company in China has just suffered a setback. According to a report from Bloomberg, citing Chinese magazine Caixin, authorities have just initiated a year-long crackdown on the sector.
As part of the tougher approach, new applicants with finance-related names or businesses can no longer simply register with local offices of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce, requiring firms instead to first obtain approval from financial regulators.
`Shameful' Mitsubishi Fraud Risks Pushing Carmaker to Brink (Bloomberg)
Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s disclosure that it manipulated fuel-economy tests risks putting the Japanese carmaker back in a familiar position: needing help from Mitsubishi group companies to stay in business.
Dreams of Draghi Cash Drop Fade in Europe's Political Abyss (Bloomberg)
Should Mario Draghi ever want to start raining down helicopter money, the European Central Bank president is likely to struggle to get off the ground.
Uber Surpasses Rental Cars for Business Travelers; You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (Mish Talk)
Since 1st quarter of 2014, Uber’s percentage of ground transportation business booked on Certify, the second-largest provider of expense software in North America, has soared from under 10% to 43%.
American Express beats big on earnings, shares jump (Business Insider)
American Express posted a big beat on first-quarter earnings and revenues after Wednesday's closing bell.
Here's Why Bank of America Is So Much Safer Today (and Less Profitable) (Fox Business)
As someone who reads, thinks, and writes about banks almost every day, I'm still getting my head around the lasting impact that the increasingly burdensome post-financial crisis regulatory regime will have on the industry's profits going forward. It's still too early to predict what things will look like once all the rules and regulations passed in the wake of the crisis are fully implemented, but a glance atBank of America's balance sheet shows one important way that profitability has been impaired.
China Could Be Preparing to Challenge Canada’s Sovereignty Over the Northwest Passage (Time)
China has declared that it plans to ship cargo through the Northwest Passage, a series of waterways in the Arctic Circle over which Canada claims sovereignty.
Chinese maritime authorities tacitly declared the news by printing a lengthy guide to Arctic shipping and navigation; a state spokesperson then confirmed it to reporters on Tuesday, the Globe and Mail reports.
Sony Operating Profit 9.4% Below Forecast on Impairment Charge (Bloomberg)
Stalling global demand for smartphones has made a larger-than-expected dent in Sony Corp.’s annual profit growth.
Operating income was 290 billion yen ($2.6 billion) in the 12 months ended March, 9.4 percent below its January outlook, Sony said Thursday. That’s still a fourfold increase from the last fiscal period. The Tokyo-based company booked a 59.6 billion yen impairment charge for the business that makes camera modules, citing “a decrease in projected future demand.”
Big Tobacco's Pot of Gold (Bloomberg Gadfly)
If the estimated $45 billion or so of yearly demand for recreational marijuana is in the right ballpark, then more Americans crave cannabis than cabernet or candy bars. And as legalization efforts pull marijuana sales out of the shadows of the black market, an industry is, er, budding.
Amazon Wins $30 Million Contract to Sell E-Books to New York City Schools (Wall Street Journal)
Amazon.com Inc. won a deal worth about $30 million to provide e-books to New York City, the nation’s largest school district.
Politics
When early bird voters in the Queens borough of New York City arrived at one polling location Tuesday morning, they found all three voting machines out of order.
Nearly two hours after polls were supposed to open, some Brooklyn voters found themselves still waiting outside while officials scrambled to find poll workers.
Technology
Opera is the first big web browser with a built-in VPN (Engadget)
If you've wanted to use a virtual private network to improve your web privacy or (let's be honest) dodge content restrictions, you've usually had to either install a third-party client or use a relatively niche browser with the feature built-in. As of today, though, you have a more mainstream option: Opera has released a developer version of its desktop web browser with native VPN support. You only have to flick a virtual switch to get a 256-bit encrypted connection that hides your connection details and prevents sites or governments from blocking content they don't want you to see.
"Smart Homes?" Not Until They're Less Dependent On The Internet (Fast Company)
Buying into a smart home ecosystem is sort of like selecting a holy grail in the Temple of the Sun. Choose poorly, and everything crumbles.
Just look at the Revolv hub, which was acquired by Nest (itself owned by Google parent company Alphabet) in 2014. Next month, Nest will shut down the Revolv service, rendering its home control smartphone apps inoperable. Those who spent $300 on the hub will have to find a replacement to control their smart door locks, light bulbs, and thermostats.
Health and Life Sciences
How Getting More Alone Time Will Significantly Improve Your Life (Inc.)
Thanks to your ever present smartphone, these days you don't have to be alone even when there's no one else around. When we have a moment to ourselves, our first instinct is often to log on to Facebook, send a quick text, or catch up on email.
Why you feel terrible when you’re sick (Alltop)
When you’re sick, you’ve probably had this thought: “Why do I have to feel this bad?” You might be tempted to blame the virus that’s making you sick, but technically, that’s not the case: it’s your body making you feel bad.
Cancer: The Final Frontier (The Atlantic)
Condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of cancer’s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. If it were 50 years old, human beings would know very little about its first 49 years, except that it killed men and women with the ease of a scythe slicing through wheat. About a year ago, mankind finally began to fight back, using the crude tool of surgery as a caveman would use a cudgel. Two months ago, humanity finally began to understand the nature of cancer and began to use radiation therapy. This week, humanity declared war on cancer. Yesterday, the modern cancer-fighting apparatus developed, spanning hospitals and academic research centers with cutting-edge research, imaging, and treatments. But now, as the clock strikes midnight, for the most part cancer is still the menace that it was, beyond the reach of humankind and mostly beyond the range of a cure.
Life on the Home Planet
Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures (Quartz)
Cities are mankind’s most enduring and stable mode of social organization, outlasting all empires and nations over which they have presided. Today cities have become the world’s dominant demographic and economic clusters.
As the sociologist Christopher Chase-Dunn has pointed out, it is not population or territorial size that drives world-city status, but economic weight, proximity to zones of growth, political stability, and attractiveness for foreign capital. In other words, connectivity matters more than size. Cities thus deserve more nuanced treatment on our maps than simply as homogeneous black dots.
'Zombie grass' is causing serious trouble for Florida fishermen (Business Insider)
Decades ago, the sight of seagrass swaying beneath the waters off south Florida conjured romance for those who dangled their fishing lines in hopes of catching redfish, snook or mangrove snapper.
But now, seagrass is dying at a rate unseen since the late 1980s in the Florida Bay, off the southern tip of Florida between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
London gets its first naked restaurant, waiting list already at 5,000 (Independent)
I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing that’s always bugged me about eating in restaurants it's having to wear clothes. Why stain them, when you can imbibe as the Romans might, naked, with sauce and wine spilling all down your body?
This is presumably the gap in the market The Bunyadi is hoping to fill, a pop-up restaurant coming to London this summer for three months.
