Financial Markets and Economy
Are We Ready for the Next Recession? (PS Mag)
Sometime in the next three years, the United States economy will likely enter another recession.
In Australia, All That Glitters Isn't Gold (Bloomberg View)
If Australia is an economic miracle — the so-called Lucky Country, beneficiary of more than a quarter century of uninterrupted growth — then its banks are its most visible sign of strength. After a near-death experience in the 1990s, they’ve reformed and bounced back dramatically: Returns on equity now average around 15 percent, compared to single digits in the U.S. Share prices and dividends have risen strongly over the past decade. At around twice book value, market valuations are well above global levels.
Japan weak retail sales bolsters tax hike delay plan (Business Insider)
Japanese retail sales fell in April for the second consecutive month, bolstering the argument that a nationwide sales tax increase scheduled for April next year should be delayed.
Japanese retail sales fell 0.8 percent in April from a year earlier, less than a median market forecast for a 1.2 percent annual decline, government data showed on Monday. That marked the fastest decline since March 2015.
The biggest problem in the bond market explained with the help of fried chicken (Business Insider)
What is liquidity?
It is a big topic in financial markets — especially the bond market lately, where there's been a lot of hand wringing about the lack of liquidity.
“3 Things That Surprised Me When I Browsed 12,000 Mutual Funds” (Medium)
My team just launched Goodbye Gun Stocks. It is a website made for activism?—?it helps you find gun-related stocks in your mutual funds, and discover gun-free alternatives.
Why May jobs report won’t reflect speedier economy (Market Watch)
The economy has sped up in the spring after a feeble first quarter, but don’t expect to get much proof from what’s likely to be a humdrum May jobs report.
Asia shares slip, dollar firm after Yellen's hike remarks (Business Insider)
Asian shares edged down on Monday and the dollar marked fresh highs after Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen suggested that an interest rate hike could be around the corner.
Oil Pessimists Exit Market as Supplies Seen Closer to Balance (Bloomberg)
The oil market doomsayers are beginning to capitulate.
Why Institutional Participation Matters in the Stock Market (Trader Feed)
Above we can see a chart of SPY (blue line) from 2014 to the present. The red line represents what I refer to as Institutional Participation. It is a measure of total upticks and downticks among all NYSE stocks each trading day.
Senators Slam Loretta Lynch: End The Climate Change Witch Hunt (Zero Hedge)
Exxon Mobile filed court papers in Texas last month seeking to block a subpoena issued in March by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands which alleges that Exxon is deceiving the public and shareholders about the effects of climate change. Exxon has said that the subpoena is an unwarranted fishing expedition into Exxon's internal records and violates its constitutional rights; "The chilling effect of this inquiry, which discriminates based on viewpoint to target one side of an ongoing policy debate, strikes at the protected speech at the core of the First Amendment" the court filing said according to the WSJ.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Dilemma With Conservatives (Bill Moyers)
For one of the wealthiest people on the planet, Mark Zuckerberg sure is an easy mark. I don’t mean financially. I’m sure the guy gets good advice on how and where to store his billions (and billions). I mean ideologically. A couple of anonymous accusations against Facebook about a feature hardly anyone reads and all of a sudden Zuckerberg can’t do enough to try and placate conservative critics. If “working the refs” were this easy on a basketball court, the NBA champs would be whichever team had the fans who whined the loudest.
Big Confusion on “Passive” Investing (Pragmatic Capitalism)
Here’s a new fund filing which is both hilarious and sad. The ticker symbol is BIGD, which stands for Big Data. The fund will be comprised of big data firms. I am tempted to short such a fund, however, I feel uncomfortable being anything less than long a ticker such as BIGD.¹ In all seriousness, what I love about this filing is this part.
Politics
Surprise, Surprise. Trump's Been Lying About His Opposition To Cutting Social Security (Crooks and Liars)
It should come as a shock to no one that Trump's been saying one thing to his supporters on the campaign trail, while telling the Zombie-Eyed Granny-Starver from Wisconsin something else in private. It seems someone who doesn't care for Trump was leaking like a sieve following his meeting earlier this month with House Speaker Paul Ryan: Trump Supports Cutting Social Security From A ‘Moral Standpoint:’ Report.
Judge acknowledges Donald Trump's attacks, unseals files in Trump U suit (Politico)
A federal judge blasted Friday by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has taken note of the fact that Trump isn't happy with the way the judge is handling lawsuits over alleged fraud by the Trump University real estate seminar program.
After latest email revelations and endless dishonesty, time for Hillary Clinton to head for the hills (NY Daily News)
If the Democrats want to save themselves the indignity of a total slaughter, Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race. After last week, a Hillary-led ticket has as much chance of winning the White House as Trump has of losing the white vote. Sanders can beat Trump. And Hillary can’t — not anymore.
Technology
Apple's intelligent assistant plans shouldn't just echo the Echo (Macworld)
So, rumor has it that Apple is working on a competitor to the Amazon Echo, and has been for a while. Rumor also has it that the company may also be adding a microphone and speaker to the Apple TV, to make it more Echo-like. Furthermore, yet another rumor points to the emergence of a Siri API.
Basically, there’s a lot going on.
Gchat Was the Future of Messaging, But Google Didn’t Know What It Had (Slate)
Everyone has been talking about Slack lately. The chat app, which is primarily aimed at offices and productivity, is simple, well designed, fun to use, and powerful. Slack is also the company people were obsessed with in 2015. Whether you love the product or not, though, it’s time to admit something: Slack is just Gchat.
Health and Life Sciences
Beyond Antibiotics (PBS)
Late on the night of December 26, just three days after I had given birth to my son and two days after receiving two blood transfusions for complications, I was back in the hospital. This time, I had gone straight to the emergency room. There we were: me, my days-old baby, and my husband. The ER doctors put us in a separate room to try to isolate us from the contagion filling the hospital floor. But a few hours in, my husband started vomiting. He was asked to leave if he did not wish to become a patient. My baby could not stay with me. It was dangerous just having him there. I was alone.
Life on the Home Planet
Killing of gorilla to save boy at Ohio zoo sparks outrage (Reuters)
The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 4-year-old boy tumbled into the ape's enclosure triggered outrage and questions about safety, but zoo officials called the decision to use lethal force a tough but necessary choice.
More than 2,000 people signed a petition on Change.org that sharply criticized the Cincinnati Police Department and the zoo for putting down the animal and called for the child's parents to be "held accountable for their actions of not supervising their child."
Cash-Strapped ISIS Is Selling Sex Slaves On Facebook: Asking Price $8,000 Each (Zero Hedge)
One month after disturbing reports emerged that the cash-strapped Islamic State regime, which as noted last week is rapidly losing control over territory it had gained during its 2014 blitz offensive in 2014 in Iraq and Syria, has been killing its own fighters in order to sell their organs, as well as paying $50 to fighters for every female sex slave they own, ISIS has now tapped into yet another critical cash-flow stream: selling female sex slaves.
