Financial Markets and Economy
Gasoline Prices Around the World: The Real Cost of Filling Up (Bloomberg)
The price of gas is on the rise again—up five percent globally in the last three months. But cost per gallon alone doesn’t give a complete picture of how big a bite gasoline takes out of an average driver’s paycheck. We ranked 61 countries by three economic measures to see who has the most affordable gas, and who feels the most pain at the pump.
BofA Trading Tops Estimates as Moynihan Vows Deeper Cuts (Bloomberg)
Bank of America Corp. posted higher profit in each of its four main businesses as bond-trading revenue increased more than analysts estimated and expenses fell.
These are the best cars of 2016, according to Consumer Reports (Business Insider)
Every year, Consumer Reports and its team of automotive experts test and scrutinize virtually every car sold in the US. Of those cars, a select few stand above the rest and join the vaunted group of vehicles known as Consumer Reports' Top Picks.
Weird things are happening in financial markets — here's an approach that might get investors through them (Business Insider)
It's a strange time in the financial markets, and that's a problem for investors. The solution may be to start focusing on big ideas.
Silicon Valley leads avalanche of quarterly reports (Reuters)
A quartet of technology heavyweights will be part of an avalanche of quarterly corporate earnings reports next week that, along with a meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers, could hold the key to whether Wall Street extends its record-breaking rally or loses steam.
Goldman Seen Struggling to End Dive in Fixed-Income Share (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s fixed-income traders were supposed to take back market share in the second quarter, halting years of declines. That now looks harder, after JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. blew past analysts’ estimates last week.
America Needs a Good, Old-Fashioned Economic Depression (National Interest)
The boom cannot continue indefinitely. There are two alternatives. Either the banks continue the credit expansion without restriction and thus cause constantly mounting price increases and an ever-growing orgy of speculation – which, as in all other cases of unlimited inflation, ends in a “crack-up boom” and in a collapse of the money and credit system.
Politics
Trump Campaign Struggles to Put Plagiarism Controversy to Rest (Bloomberg Politics)
Donald Trump's presidential campaign struggled Tuesday to contain the fallout from revelations that portions of his wife's Monday night speech before the Republican National Convention were lifted from an address delivered eight years earlier by Michelle Obama.
Trump's Appetite for Destruction (Rolling Stone)
Hell, yes, it was crazy. You rubbed your eyes at the sight of it, as in, "Did that really just happen?"
It wasn't what we expected. We thought Donald Trump's version of the Republican National Convention would be a brilliantly bawdy exercise in Nazistic excess.
Hillary Clinton Picks Tim Kaine For Vice President (Zero Hedge)
Moments ago the worst kept secret in Washington was confirmed when Hillary Clinton announced on Twitter she has picked Virginia senator Tim Kaine as her running mate in an attempt to bolster her support among blue-collar workers and maximize votes from US Latinos dismayed by Donald Trump.
Technology
This $50 Smartphone May Be All You Need (Wall Street Journal)
Exceptions: Costco wine, $1 New York City pizza and the Blu R1 HD smartphone, now sold by Amazon for $50. In those cases, the quality of the product far exceeds your low expectations.
Health and Life Sciences
Mystery of what sleep does to our brains may finally be solved (New Scientist)
It is one of life’s great enigmas: why do we sleep? Now we have the best evidence yet of what sleep is for – allowing housekeeping processes to take place that stop our brains becoming overloaded with new memories.
Why Placebos Really Work (Wall Street Journal)
Scientists are finding a growing number of ways placebos appear to bring about real health benefits in patients.
E-Cigarettes May Help More Than They Hurt (Bloomberg)
The world may be better off with e-cigarettes than without them. Sort of.
Although a slew of studies have found the device serves as a gateway to cigarette use, such concerns may be exaggerated, according to a new study. Researchers in the U.S., Australia, and Canada have devised a model showing that, among people born after 1996, the option of using e-cigarettes may end up triggering a 21 percent reduction in smoking-attributable deaths and a 20 percent decrease in life-years lost.
Life on the Home Planet
Suicide bombers at Kabul demonstration kill at least 29 (Reuters)
Suicide bombers hit a large demonstration by members of Afghanistan's Hazara minority in Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 29 people and wounding 142, officials said.
