Financial Markets and Economy
Maybe stop forecasting where you think rates will go (The Reformed Broker)
These are the Federal Reserve’s expectations for where interest rates are headed, by year, from a Washington Post op-ed by Larry Summers. Suffice it to say, it’s not going well.
The Case for Free Money (The New Yorker)
In the mid-nineteen-seventies, the Canadian province of Manitoba ran an unusual experiment: it started just handing out money to some of its citizens. The town of Dauphin, for instance, sent checks to thousands of residents every month, in order to guarantee that all of them received a basic income. The goal of the project, called Mincome, was to see what happened.
Stop sending oil by rail (CNN)
Earlier this month a Union Pacific (UNP) train transporting North Dakota crude derailed and burst into flames along Oregon's picturesque Columbia River gorge. Although there were no injuries, the incident caused oil to spill into the river and the fire forced residents of Mosier, Oregon to evacuate their homes for days.
Investors fearing ‘summer shocks’ are hoarding the most cash since 2001 (Market Watch)
The last time fund managers hoarded this much cash, the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the New York Yankees 4 to 3 to win the World Series.
Don't Have Pristine Credit? You're Probably Not Getting a Mortgage These Days (Bloomberg)
The U.S. mortgage finance market today is all about credit for the best, with little left over for the rest.
Apple Investor Weekly: iPhone Beijing Issue, WWDC Financial Impact And Analyst's Estimate Changes (Forbes)
Apple Investor Weekly works to curate some of the more relevant articles and information related to the company’s financial outlook. This week it contains information iPhone 6 sales being halted in Beijing, what announcements at WWDC are financially important, an update on the App Store vs. Google Play and two analysts expressing concerns about the iPhone.
Brexit? What Brexit? Europeans Wake Up to Possibility of U.K. Departure (Wall Street Journal)
Friedrich Gärtner, a retired IT worker in Berlin, was paying little attention to Britain’s European Union referendum debate until last week, as German stocks dropped abruptly on fears that the U.K. would leave the bloc.
How insane work hours became a mark of American privilege (The Week)
Americans work a lot: 47 hours a week on average, according to a 2014 survey — and a fifth work as much as 59 hours a week. Unlike other advanced nations, the annual hours we spend at work stagnated in the last half-century. So now we work more than basically everyone in the West.
Fed Loses Control (Real Investment Advice)
As I noted yesterday, the FOMC press conference on Wednesday made one thing abundantly clear; the Fed has lost control of the narrative and their credibility.
No, I Don’t Think This Is the Reason BEA is Predicting a Massive Downward Revision in GDP (EconBrowser)
Political Calculations arrives at an alarming conclusion that real GDP will be downwardly revised by a large amount when the annual benchmark revision comes out in July.
Mad Money. Questionable Ethics. (Huffington Post)
The paper was co-authored by an MBA candidate and a Ph.D. candidate in statistics at the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. They studied the complete historical performance of Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS portfolio from 2001 to 2016, which reflects many of the stock recommendations made on his Mad Money television program.
All hail Microsoft, the anti-Midas of deal-making, as it swoops on LinkedIn (Telegraph)
When an entrepreneur, albeit a very successful one, talks about something being “a refounding moment,” the alarm bells should immediately start ringing.
Your Biggest Advantage is the Greed of Your Competitors (A Wealth of Common Sense)
My first boss in this business was not only an intelligent investor but also a great businessman. I learned a lot from him about investing but also about running a business in general.
Politics
The Overlooked Pathways to Legal Status (The Atlantic)
For the past 18 months, President Obama’s executive actions on immigration reform have been bogged down in litigation. Texas and 25 other states argue that Obama overstepped his authority by effectively overruling or rewriting federal immigration laws to allow unauthorized immigrants to stay and work in the United States. But some unauthorized immigrants are eligible to become legal residents using existing laws and regulations.
The Republican Party is dead (LA Times)
I have been a Republican as long as I can remember. Joining the Grand Old Party seemed like a natural choice for someone like me who fled the Soviet Union as a boy and came to Los Angeles with his mother and grandmother in 1976. Refugees from communism, whether from Russia or Cuba, generally oppose socialism and embrace conservative political views.
Technology
When Your Colleague Is A Robot: How 5G Will Connect Humans And Machines In Tomorrow's Factories (Forbes)
In contrast to the natural world, factories have evolved in leaps, from the advent of industrialism in the 18th century to automation in modern times. Along with the addition of steam power and electricity into factory life, each progressive step brought disruption.
Health and Life Sciences
Games for Better Brains (Scientific American)
Playing Call of Duty or Gears of War is not necessarily associated in people’s minds with improved mental function—better focus or an ability to switch attention quickly. Scientific studies, however, now show that, in fact, these games may be better at enhancing cognition than so-called brain games. Read “The Brain Boosting Power of Video Games” by Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green, and watch a video of Bavelier’s TED Talk.
Life on the Home Planet
Turning air into stone (Economist)
This year the world’s power stations, farms, cars and the like will generate the equivalent of nearly 37 billion tonnes of waste carbon dioxide. All of it will be dumped into the atmosphere, where it will trap infra-red radiation and warm the planet. Earth is already about 0.85°C warmer than last century’s average temperature. Thanks to the combined influence of greenhouse-gas emissions and El Niño, a heat-releasing oceanic phenomenon, 2016 looks set to be the warmest year on record, and by a long way.
HUMOR
It’s An Honor To Continue Being Valued Over Countless Human Lives (The Onion)
Look, I’m not the type who needs constant validation, and I have never sought preferential treatment from anyone. I just try to focus on doing what I do and not get too caught up in what people think or say about me. But I have to admit, it’s been hard to ignore all the support and appreciation I’ve been receiving lately, particularly over the past several years.
