Financial Markets and Economy
U.K. Economic Stamina Not Assured After Early Brexit Resilience (Bloomberg)
The U.K. economy has shown some post-Brexit strength. All it needs now is stamina.
Focus is on whether the economy can sustain the initial robust readings that came last week.
The benefits of the Rio Olympics aren't being shared across Brazil: Ford Foundation president (Yahoo Finance)
Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, loves the athletic competition of the Olympics as much as anyone. But as someone keenly aware of economic disparity, he also sees a somewhat less appealing side of the Olympics.
This Is The Reason For The Sharp Rebound In Q3 Hedge Fund Performance (Zero Hedge)
Yesterday, when we revealed the top 50 hedge fund long and short positions, we showed that after a record stretch of underperformance for the most popular stocks held by hedge funds, aka the Goldman Sachs hedge fund VIP basket, had finally posted a modest rebound.
Freshly Minted HP Inc. Plays the Long Game (The Wall Street Journal)
Former Hewlett-Packard printing-and-personal-computer business faces lower sales and earnings but sees financial breathing room to place bets that may take years to pay off
A 'Venezuela' is happening in capital markets (Business Insider)
This may be the darkest thing we've read about the market in a while.
In a letter to investors marking his hedge fund's 10th anniversary, James Litinsky of JHL Capital said he would rather be investing back in the dark days of 2008 than in the market we're seeing today.
Incoming Viacom CEO plans investor campaign as shakeup looms (Reuters)
As Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) prepares for the impending departure of CEO Philippe Dauman, his interim replacement, Thomas Dooley, is planning to reach out to investors, setting a new tone for a company that has kept communications minimal.
Janet Yellen, Jackson Hole, U.S. Housing: Week Ahead Aug. 22-27 (Bloomberg)
U.S. Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s two-day Monetary Policy Symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Investors will be watching her remarks closely to gauge the likelihood of a rate hike in September. Follow the TOPLive blog for real-time coverage here.
The 10 Worst Places In America To Start A Business (Zero Hedge)
Anywhere you start a business, it's going to be a gamble.
More new businesses fail than succeed, according to the Kauffman Foundation. And, as CNBC notes, U.S. Small Business Administration data shows that it's only a matter of time before at least half of all businesses go under:Nearly two-thirds of businesses with employees survive at least two years, but only about 50 percent survive at least five years.
Duterte Threatens to Withdraw Philippines From UN, Hits US (Bloomberg)
Davao, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines' brash-talking president threatened Sunday to withdraw his country from the United Nations and lashed out at U.S. police killings of black men in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.
China's economy is about to get pretty weird again (Business Insider)
We know two things about China right now.
We know that pretty much all of the country's July economic data was bad.
A handful of hedge funds just made a play that screams 'out of ideas' (Business Insider)
A bunch of hedge funds just sent a subtle message to the market: "Guys, we're out of ideas."
Biggest Money Managers Switch to Stocks as Israel Bond Run Slows (Bloomberg)
Israel’s largest money managers are turning to the country’s stock market as they bet a five-month corporate bond rally is coming to an end.
U.S. Vision for Mideast Stability Runs Through Gas Pipelines (Bloomberg)
The potential to benefit from new gas discoveries has created a rare opportunity for eastern Mediterranean countries including Israel and Turkey to forge closer ties, according to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s envoy on energy affairs.
Bond Bulls Have Most at Stake as India Gets New Central Banker (Bloomberg)
As Urjit Patel prepares to take charge at India’s central bank, investors in the nation’s rupee and bond markets have the most at stake.
Politics
Thomas Friedman Goes to the Wall (Rolling Stone)
Thomas Friedman, master of metaphor, has a new set of fixations: walls, webs and the tacking of that presidentially-contending center-left sailboat, Hillary Clinton.
Tunisia’s New Cabinet Keeps Old Security Chiefs in Place (Bloomberg)
Tunisia’s prime minister-designate unveiled a new cabinet that keeps holdovers from the old government in key security posts while bringing in new faces to try to revive the economy.
Former Soviet Leader Gorbachev Has A Message The World Needs To Hear (Zero Hedge)
In August of 1991, members of the Soviet Union’s government — who were also hard-line members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) — attempted to take control of the country. What many call a coup attempt failed in just two days.
Sadiq Khan: Jeremy Corbyn 'failed to win trust of British people' (BBC News)
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged Labour voters to ditch Jeremy Corbyn as leader and vote for Owen Smith in the party's leadership contest.
Mr Khan told BBC News Mr Corbyn had "failed to win the trust and respect of the British people".
Technology
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Russia has released the first official footage of its new 5th-generation fighter (Business Insider)
In honor of Russian Aerospace Force Day, the Russian Ministry of Defense has released its first official footage of the fifth-generation stealth aircraft, the PAK FA Sukhoi T-50.
5 High-Tech Tents that Light Up, Blow Up, and even Transform (Digital Trends)
It seems like every camper spent large parts of his or her childhood wide awake and shivering through the night, trapped in a tent that managed to be drafty, musty, leaky, heavy, and claustrophobic all at the same time. Tent design has gone from mammoth skin to A-frame to pole and dome, but the basic concept has remained the same — stretch some material over your head and hope for the best.
Health and Life Sciences
Scientists are close to rewriting the genetic code of life (Science Alert)
Geneticists have made a step forward in ‘recoding’ the genome as we know it, replacing 62,214 DNA base pairs in a synthetic E. coli genome.
Life on the Home Planet
Bombing at wedding party in southern Turkey kills at least 50 (Reuters)
At least 50 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 km (25 miles) from the Syrian border.
California wildfire victims search razed homes (BBC News)
Residents of Lake County, California have returned to the wreckage of their homes after wildfires swept through the area.
Carpooling with Stranger didn't Work for Lyft (Digital Trends)
No one writes nostalgic songs about commuting during rush hour. Stop-and-go traffic will likely be one of the major reasons people buy cars with highway driver assist features. Lyft thought it had a great idea to improve commuting between San Francisco and Palo Alto, California when it launched Lyft Carpool this past March.
Syrian rebels prepare attack from Turkey on Islamic State town (Reuters)
Hundreds of Syrian rebels are preparing to launch an operation to capture a town held by Islamic State at the border with Turkey, a senior Syrian rebel said on Sunday, a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand further in that area.
PSW Members' Section
Condolences to The Nattering Naybob from your friends at PSW. Here's TNN's touching story about his cat, Mistletoes.
One Man's Best Friend Part 2 (TNN)
For my good friend… Imagine if you will, a valuable life experience lesson to be learned from a genetically mutated house cat or perhaps feline familiar?
Point in fact, in European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits (sometimes referred to simply as "familiars" or "animal guides") were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and other cunning folk in their practice of magic. A familiar (or familiar spirit or familiar animal) is an animal-shaped spirit or minor demon believed to serve a witch or magician as domestic servant, spy and companion, in addition to helping to bewitch enemies or to divine information.
In the last eighteen years, Mistletoe's (pictured above) earned no less than half a dozen or so nicknames, including her given name. With her plucky resilience, perky sass and pesky persistence, that bobble headed, tuxedo wearing, finely appointed, poly dactyl puss schooled me in more ways than one.
Every morning Mistletoe's has awoken me with a combination of gentle purring and paw kneading at my chest or plucking at my facial hair or cheek. The patience of her hunger was only exceeded by her persistence, earning her an occasional pseudo expletive, Mother Plucker.
The word NO, has never been in that plucky pusses vernacular, as she feigns ignorance, stares quizzically and meows sassing you right back. So much so that in order to get the point across, one has to bust out a witches broom to menace her. Earning her first nickname, Sassy-pus or Sass-o-pus.
If you tried to hide something or put it out of reach, this is just a dare for the Sassopus. Being poly dactyl, (26 toes, anterior 8 digits right and 7 left; posterior 6 left and 5 right) the sass master has genetically mutated huge paws, all the better for opening cabinets, snatching, getting into and scaling things.
One day, not long after installing screen doors on our 4th floor balcony, replete with a bottom hook latch, that darn cat went missing. A quick interior and exterior scan was fruitless, until I looked at the neighbors balcony. Keep reading here.
With love for "little dinky-B, she's the kitty for me."RIP Mistletoes 08/17/2016
