Financial Markets and Economy
Water is the biggest risk to the global economy (Business Insider)
It doesn't take long to draw up some crisis that could damage the global economy.
China's slowdown, ever-increasing emerging market debt, political instability in the Middle East, and the breakup of the European Union all pose serious risks.
Chipotle Spends $1 Billion on Stock Buybacks (Bloomberg)
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is stocking up — on itself.
Wall Street Cops to Hedge Funds: Treat Investors Better (Wall Street Journal)
Regulators are ramping up a new approach in policing the $3 trillion hedge-fund industry, focusing on how fairly managers treat their investors.
Goldman Sachs Calls the Bottom for the Dollar (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the dollar slump is over.
As Lending Club Stumbles, Its Entire Industry Faces Skepticism (NY Times)
Renaud Laplanche and his crew steered a 105-foot racing boat through New York Harbor one day last spring, its towering sails ripping across the water at 30 knots.
Asian shares edge down, take cue from Wall Street (Business Insider)
Asian shares fell on Thursday following a dismal day on Wall Street, while crude oil futures gave back some of their overnight gains after jumping on an unexpected fall in U.S. crude inventories.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2 percent in early trading, in the wake of the worst day for U.S. share markets since February, following downbeat quarterly retail reports.
An Investment Banker’s Worst Nightmare (Wall Street Journal)
One day late last month, two big companies announced takeovers that had something in common: Neither Comcast Corp. nor AbbVie Inc. used a banker.
Oil Bust Gives Billionaire Deal-Maker Buyer’s Remorse (Wall Street Journal)
Kelcy Warren became a billionaire oil man by making deal after deal, including purchases of thousands of miles of pipelines after Enron Corp. collapsed. Now he is suffering from a severe case of buyer’s remorse.
As Manila Stocks Soar, Investors Bet on Strife-Torn Island (Bloomberg)
Investors are betting one of the biggest winners from the post-election markets rally in the Philippines will be an island. They may have a long time to wait.
Ukraine's Free Trade Deal Was Just a Start (Bloomberg View)
Ukraine's free trade agreement with the European Union was so controversial that it caused the former Soviet republic's break with Russia, which had opposed the closer ties with Europe. Several months in, it looks like the deal is benefiting the EU more than it is helping Ukraine.
This chart shows how Amazon is totally crushing its retail competitors (Business Insider)
Big box retailer stocks are getting hit hard Wednesday, following Macy's dismal earnings report.
Marketplace Lending Takeaways (Economic Musings)
There’s been a flood of news over the last few weeks in the alternative lending space involving LendingClub, Prosper, SoFi, and OnDeck. What are the takeaways so far?
Clinton Son-in-Law’s Firm Is Said to Close Greece Hedge Fund (NY Times)
It was a hedge fund portfolio pitched by Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, as an opportunity to bet on a Greek economic revival.
Apple Pay spreads into a new market (Business Insider)
Like an expert player in a game of Risk, Apple is spreading across the globe.
Banking's New Normal (New Yorker)
If you listened only to speeches from the Presidential campaign trail, you’d come away with the strong impression that, eight years after the financial crisis, Wall Street reform has been a bust. Every Republican candidate called Dodd-Frank, the centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s reform effort, a dismal failure. Donald Trump called it “terrible”; Ted Cruz said that it had only helped “the big banks get bigger and bigger and bigger.” Hillary Clinton has been tepid in her defense of Dodd-Frank, and Bernie Sanders called it “a very modest piece of legislation” that changed little about the way the Street does business.
Why Investors Own More Stocks Now (A Wealth of Common Sense)
Many consider the gains seen in the stock market since 2009 the most hated bull market of all-time. As they say, stocks climb the wall of worry, and people have been mighty worried about pretty much everything over the past seven years or so. But it’s getting harder and harder to correctly judge sentiment anymore these days. There are more opinions out there because of the Internet, more financial news publications and more noise than ever.
Is Your Asset Manager Telling the Truth? (Chief Investment Officer)
The “prickly relationship” between consultants and managers worsens alongside the reliability of reported data, according to research.
The Appropriate Portfolio vs the Optimal Portfolio (Pragmatic Capitalism)
We all want the perfect portfolio, the portfolio that achieves the highest amount of return for the lowest degree of risk. But one of the inconveniences of a system as dynamic as a financial market is that it’s impossible to consistently maintain the perfect portfolio. This pursuit, unfortunately, causes more damage than good since it leads to increased activity, higher fees, higher taxes and usually lower returns. I have argued in my new paper, Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction, that this pursuit of alpha is misguided and that we should seek the appropriate portfolio as opposed to the optimal portfolio.
Politics
Republicans Pray Trump Will 'Evolve' on Foreign Policy (Bloomberg View)
Donald Trump may eventually find some common ground with Congress on economics, but there’s less hope for unity between the Republicans and their presumptive presidential nominee when it comes to foreign policy.
Trump launches tax plan rewrite (Politico)
Donald Trump’s campaign has enlisted influential conservative economists to revise his tax package and make it more politically palatable by slashing the $10 trillion sticker price. Their main targets: Lifting the top tax rate from Trump’s original plan and expanding the number of people who would have to pay taxes under it.
Technology
This Cute Wearable Device Teaches Kids How To Code (PSFK)
Technology Will Save Us, a startup educating kids about coding, has launched a Kickstarter for a wearable that kids will build and program. The DIY kit called the Mover Kit is the first active wearable that children can make and code on their own.
Health and Life Sciences
Zika virus 'shrinks brains' in tests (BBC)
The trio of studies provide crucial experimental evidence that backs up fears the virus is behind the surge in babies born with small heads in Brazil.
They showed the virus could cross the placenta during pregnancy and kill cells to slow brain growth.
Mom’s folate levels tied to baby’s autism risk (Futurity)
Women who plan to become pregnant are told they need enough folate to prevent birth defects, but new research suggests there could be serious risks in having far too much of the nutrient.
The researchers found that if a new mother has a very high level of folate right after giving birth—more than four times what is considered adequate—the risk that her child will develop an autism spectrum disorder doubles.
Life on the Home Planet
The perfect heists that involve stealing nothing at all (New Scientist)
In February, two artists, Nora al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles – claimed to have scanned the bust of Nefertiti in a German history museum using a handheld Kinect Sensor. They then posted the digital files online.
Their goal, they said, was to free the statue from its imprisonment inside the walls of Berlin’s Neues Museum by enabling anyone with access to a 3D printer to make their own near-perfect replica – a Nefertiti for all.
Gene Editing Makes Cows Without Horns (Popular Science)
Cattle have now been made hornless through genetic editing, with no apparent side effects, researchers say.
In the United States, roughly 80 percent of all calves raised for dairy and 25 percent of beef cattle get their horns removed every year — that's 4.8 million and 8.75 million head of cattle, respectively.
