Financial Markets and Economy
Here's exactly how much America's biggest companies bent the truth about earnings this year? (Business Insider)
Corporate America has been playing a lot of games with earnings.
Little for U.S. stock investors to cheer on anniversary of S&P record high (Reuters)
A year ago the U.S. stock market minted new all-time highs, but you could excuse investors for not celebrating the anniversary.
Unsold U.S. retail inventory a challenge after dismal earnings season (Reuters)
A pile-up of unsold inventory across U.S. retail chains is likely to squeeze profits further as stores struggle to make up for a weak first quarter marred by weak sales and share declines.
Corporate America Is Drowning in Debt (Fortune)
A new report from S&P questions financial health of much of Corporate America.
Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein Sees Signs of Improving Economy (Wall Street Journal)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s chairman and chief executive said he sees signs that economic growth is accelerating, evidence that should improve conditions for many of the Wall Street firm’s businesses.
America’s 25 richest companies control 51% of corporate cash (Market Watch)
You know the old adage “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer”? This recently became a reality for American companies.
Here's Why the Market Has Been Going Nowhere Fast (Fortune)
Gold, the Fed, and China: It’s not just the Dow that has been running in place.
A 'hedge fund apocalypse' is coming (Business Insider)
It's the end of the hedge fund world as we know it, or so it appears.
The poor are paying more and more for everyday purchases, a new study warns (Washington Post)
The poor often spend more on all kinds of things. Households that have less money to spare in any given week, for example, are forced to buy toilet paper and similar goods in small packages, increasing the prices they pay. In addition, poor families must rely on a whole range of alternative financial services, which might charge exorbitant fees and expose customers toserious risks.
‘Brexit,’ a Feel-Good Vote That Could Sink Britain’s Economy (NY Times)
If not for the trifling matter of Britain potentially abandoning the European Union, Rowan Crozier figures the factory he oversees would already be clattering away with extra urgency. Men and women in blue coveralls would be busy patrolling the concrete floor, monitoring molded hunks of steel that stamp loops of metal into electronics parts. A new order would be destined for a major customer.
This is the 'world's cheapest currency' (Business Insider)
It's the Polish zloty.
With oil prices stubbornly low, Saudi Arabia’s future looks fraught (Washington Post)
Persistently low oil prices appear to be taking a heavy toll on Saudi Arabia, spurring rare labor unrest as the kingdom’s rulers pursue radical changes to stabilize the economy.
Companies in the oil-exporting country have been forced to shed tens of thousands of employees in recent months.
China approves plan to clean up online finance industry (Reuters)
China's government has approved a plan to clean up the country's online financial sector, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, including rules to limit the activities of P2P lending firms, the source of recent fraud scandals.
Investors can't wait to see what the ECB's next trick will be (Business Insider)
A few weeks ago, few people had heard of the ECB’s Governing Council Member Vitas Vasiliauskas. In the last week that has all changed, thanks to a surreal interview Vasiliauskas gave to Bloomberg in which he described Europe’s central bankers, with apparent deadpan seriousness, as “magic people” endowed with limitless powers to shape Europe’s economic environment.
IMF researchers say Japan monetary easing has benefits for Asian economies (Reuters)
Japan's extraordinarily easy monetary policy, a source of friction with the United States for pushing the yen’s value down, has had some positive effects on emerging Asian economies, including increased growth and equity prices, International Monetary Fund researchers have found.
Politics
R.I.P., GOP: How Trump Is Killing the Republican Party (Rolling Stone)
Indianapolis, Indiana, May 3rd, 2016, a little before 8:30 p.m. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz strode onstage beneath a gorgeous stained-glass relief in the city's Union Station. The hall was doubling as a swanky bar for an upscale local hotel, and much of the assembled press was both lubricated and impatient. The primary had been called for Donald Trump more than an hour before. What was the holdup?
Trump and Sanders are right: Obama's trade deal is a dud? (Business Insider)
To the extent that Donald Trump has any definable public policy positions, the main one is that middle-class Americans have been battered by trade policies written to favor other countries at our expense.
Bernie Sanders doesn’t put it quite the same way, but he attacks trade deals for benefiting corporate profits over American workers.
Technology
Google is bringing its futuristic gesture-sensing radar to actual products (Mashable)
Google's closer than ever to making Project Soli, its experimental gesture-based radar project, a reality.
During a session at the I/O developer conference Friday, Google's ATAP (Advanced Technology and Products) group showed off two new products that have Project Soli's radar tech embedded in them.
Wrist-strap device for alcohol monitoring wins $200,000 prize (Venture Beat)
A San Francisco-based company has won a U.S. government-sponsored competition with an alcohol monitoring devices that can be worn on the wrist, the latest milestone in the development of wearable technologies that monitor and diagnose medical conditions.
Science fiction can tell us a lot about our problems with artificial intelligence (Business Insider)
Given that the reality of AI may be fast approaching, it’s of the utmost importance that we work out what might a future with artificial intelligence might look like.
Last year, an open letter with signatories including Stephen Hawking and Nick Bostrom called for AI to be of demonstrable benefit to humanity, or risk something that exceeds our ability to control it.
Health and Life Sciences
The future of medicine is food? (Quartz)
In between anatomy and biochemistry, medical students in the US are learning how to sauté, simmer and season healthy, homemade meals.
Since 2012, first and second year students at Tulane University School of Medicine in Louisiana have been learning how to cook. Since the program launched, Tulane has built the country’s first med school-affiliated teaching kitchen and become the first medical school to count a chef as a full-time instructor.
Breathe Better: How to Improve Your Mind, Attention, and Memory (Big Think)
Your state of mind affects how you breathe, and how you breathe determines your emotional state. Here is a breathing technique to restore calmness, concentration, and energy.
Does Staying Busy Really Benefit The Brain? (Forbes)
Staying mentally sharp as long as possible is a hot subject these days, but oddly little is known about how to do it. Recent work, for instance, has shown that yoga and meditation may do more for mental acuity than computer programs that are designed for that very purpose. And now, a new study in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience finds that people who stay busier as they age may also have better scores on tests of memory and cognition.
Life on the Home Planet
Australia Will Pump Herpes Into Rivers To Unleash "Carp-aggedon"? (Co Exist)
Australia is planning on releasing a herpes virus into the Murray River in order to kill off an invasion by European carp. The plan, nicknamed "carp-aggedon," by science minister Christopher Pyne, will take up to three decades to reduce the carp population by 95%.
The $10 Billion Solution to Climate Change (Fortune)
Even if the world keeps rolling out solar panels and wind farms at the current, record rate, the chance of meeting our climate change targets remains thin. That’s because China, India, and other parts of the developing world, while embracing renewables, are still building hundreds of coal plants to produce cheap, reliable power without having to depend on the variability of the sun and wind.
