Financial Markets and Economy
ECB Throws Twelfth Zero at Inflation (Bloomberg)
The European Central Bank has added a digit to its odometer to read 1,000,000,000,000. Euros, not kilometers.
That's the amount of excess liquidity now sloshing through the financial system — equivalent to almost 3,000 euros ($3,360) for each of the 340 million people in the 19-nation region.
GDP Now (FRB of Atlanta)
The growth rate of real gross domestic product (GDP) is a key indicator of economic activity, but the official estimate is released with a delay. Our GDPNow forecasting model provides a "nowcast" of the official estimate prior to its release.
Oi’s Biggest Shareholders Said Close to Restructuring Agreement (Bloomberg)
Two of Oi SA’s biggest shareholders are close to an agreement on a recovery plan for the company, a potential step toward recovery for the beleaguered phone carrier, according to people familiar with the matter.
Credit-Crimped Companies Rise to Most Since 2009, S&P Says (Bloomberg)
You’d have to go back to the months following the financial crisis to find so many companies facing potentially ruinous debt problems.
That’s according to the latest tally by S&P Global Ratings of “weakest link” issuers. S&P counted 251 with ratings at the low end of junk status and a negative outlook, the most since October 2009, when the total was 264.
You Can Become a Goldman Sachs Partner for Just One Dollar (Here's Why You Shouldn't) (Money Morning)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), the second-largest bank in America and frequent target of scorn at Wall Street Insights & Indictments, has launched a new venture.
The most irrational chart in the world strikes again (Business Insider)
In a note to clients on Friday, FactSet's John Butters highlighted what is, forever and always, the most irrational chart in the market.
Just three years ago, the future was bleak for Texas technology company Dell Inc. Declining hardware sales and the rise of China’s contract manufacturing hammered the company’s core build-to-order hardware business model.
Shale and demand uncertainty put Big Oil on its back foot (S&P Global, Platts)
Under pressure from low oil prices and their rising debt levels, top oil executives at the ONS 2016 conference this week might well have found the blunt message of shale driller Scott Douglas Sheffield unsettling.
Uberworld (The Economist)
“LET’S Uber.” Few companies offer something so popular that their name becomes a verb. But that is one of the many achievements of Uber, a company founded in 2009 which is now the world’s most valuable startup, worth around $70 billion.
Inside one of the fastest-growing clothing companies that's making some millennial moms rich (Business Insider)
Women are going nuts over LuLaRoe, a clothing brand that has catapulted from near obscurity to cult status in the past couple of years.
American Air Deal Removes Hurdle to Republic’s Bankruptcy Exit (Bloomberg)
Republic Airways Holdings Inc. reached a deal to continue providing regional flights for its largest customer, completing its third pact with the biggest U.S. carriers and removing an obstacle on the path to exiting bankruptcy.
Musk Urges Tesla Workers to Cut Costs Ahead of Fundraising Round (Bloomberg)
Elon Musk sent an e-mail to employees at Tesla Motors Inc. urging them to cut costs and deliver “every car we possibly can” in a push to show positive cash flow in the third quarter.
The most irrational chart in the world strikes again (Business Insider)
In a note to clients on Friday, FactSet's John Butters highlighted what is, forever and always, the most irrational chart in the market.
The green line going up is the S&P 500, which, since the beginning of the third quarter, has risen by 3.4%.
The bond market looks like a 'classic bubble' (Business Insider)
Bond yields are low. Historically low.
Yields on government bonds in the US, Europe, Japan, and beyond are at seriously depressed levels. Even corporate bonds are reaching multi-decade lows as more investors pour into the asset class.
Worst US Macro Slump In 6 Months Sparks Stock, Bond, Silver Buying Spree (Zero Hedge)
This was the worst 2 weeks for US Macro data in 6 months…
S&P Warns High-Yield Credit Quality Worst Since 2009 As "At-Risk" Debt Soars To $359 Billion (Zero Hedge)
A new report by S&P Global points out that the number of "at-risk" high-yield issuers (i.e. those with a B- or lower rating and negative outlook) soared in 2016 to the highest level since the "great recession" of 2009.
The U.S. Economy: Bad Moon Rising (DiMartino Booth)
April 1969 saw the release of what would soon become Credence Clearwater Revival’s second gold single. Bad Moon Rising’s popularity quickly secured it a permanent spot in rock history. But it was also headed somewhere else, if not everywhere else, to places the young rockers never saw coming. In hindsight, it can only be said that while their music was great, their lawyer was lousy.
China’s Monetary Ascension Is Paved with Gold (Money Metals Exchange)
The world monetary order is changing. Slowly but steadily, global trade and currency markets are becoming less dollar-centric. Formerly marginal currencies such as the Chinese yuan now stand to become serious competitors to U.S. dollar dominance.
Politics
Trump Met With A Few Black Leaders In Philadelphia. The Public Wasn’t Welcome. (The Huffington Post)
Donald Trump met Friday with 12 black Philadelphia community leaders and business people most of them politically active Republicans for a roundtable discussion on urban communities.
Michigan Begs Supreme Court To Reinstate Ban On ‘Straight-Ticket’ Voting (The Huffington Post)
Running against the clock, Michigan on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce a ban on “straight-ticket” voting the practice of voting for all the candidates of the same party by marking a single box on a ballot.
For many voters, it’s not which presidential candidate they’re for but which they’re against (Pew Research Center)
American voters are generally skeptical that either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would make a “great” or “good” president. But another dynamic in the 2016 presidential election is the significant share of voters who say their vote is based more on which candidate they are against rather than which one they are for.
Technology
Robot “employees” coming to select Lowe’s this fall (Salon)
Lowe’s home improvement retailers will begin “employing” what the company is calling “LoweBots” in select stores starting later this year.
Apple’s App Store purge is long overdue — here’s why (Business Insider)
Apple’s ready to cleanse the App Store. The iPhone maker on Thursday announced that it will soon start to remove apps that “no longer function as intended, don’t follow current review guidelines, or outdated.” In other words, it’s taking out the trash.
YouTube's "ad-friendly" content policy may push one of its biggest stars off the website (Vox Culture)
Prominent YouTube star Philip DeFranco has seen the site undergo enormous changes — from major shifts in its position on copyright to the introduction of its subscription service, YouTube Red — in the 10 years he’s been posting videos to the platform.
Mercedes to Transform Cars Into Roving Parking-Space Finders (Bloomberg)
To help end the blind search for a parking gap in crowded city streets, Mercedes-Benz cars will start giving each other a headsup when a space is free.
This gadget will let you take phone calls with your finger like a secret agent (Business Insider)
A startup called Innomdle Lab is developing a watch strap named Sgnl that will let you take calls by holding your finger to your ear.
Health and Life Sciences
NASA just released a haunting video of Jupiter's clouds (Business Insider)
NASA's Juno spacecraft became the first ever to fly above and below Jupiter on Aug. 27, and at a breakneck speed of 130,000 mph.
The Opioid Addiction Epidemic And The U.S. Surgeon General (The Huffington Post)
Last week, at my home address, I received a letter with a pocket card enclosed, from Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, our current United States Surgeon General in the Obama Administration. The Surgeon General’s position and role is often used to reach citizens about their health and the measures they can take to protect or improve it (among many other respons
Life on the Home Planet
Green Beret Warns: “World Governments Are Preparing For Disaster And War” (SHTF Plan)
As written in previous articles, it is my firm conviction that we will be involved in a World War that will be initiated by an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon detonated over the continental United States.
Tropical Storm Hermine kills one person in Florida, blasts Georgia, and takes aim at the Northeast (Business Insider)
Hurricane Hermine weakened into a tropical storm after making landfall in Florida early Friday morning.
Weather.com reports that Hermine killed one man in Marion County when high winds knocked over a tree that struck his tent in a homeless camp.
How Fox News women took down the most powerful, and predatory, man in media. (New York Mag)
It took 15 days to end the mighty 20-year reign of Roger Ailes at Fox News, one of the most storied runs in media and political history. Ailes built not just a conservative cable news channel but something like a fourth branch of government; a propaganda arm for the GOP; an organization that determined Republican presidential candidates, sold wars, and decided the issues of the day for 2 million viewers.
A meteorologist reveals what it's like to fly an airplane through a hurricane (Business Insider)
Most meteorologists sit behind computers to crank out hurricane forecasts and warnings.
Others, however, fly straight into the giant storms.
The End of Meaningless Jobs Will Unleash the World’s Creativity (Singularity Hub)
Many experts studying the topic of automation believe that the current rate of advancement is leading us into a future with fewer and fewer available jobs.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
