Financial Markets and Economy
Economists See Hawkish Hold Next Week as Fed Punts to December (Bloomberg)
The Federal Reserve will keep rates unchanged for the sixth consecutive meeting next week while strengthening guidance about its intentions to raise borrowing costs soon, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
As Deutsche Bank Teeters, DOJ Demands $14 Billion (Value Walk)
Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) has been under a lot of pressure over the past few months as regular readers of this site already know. However, last night the DOJ delivered what literally could be a fatal blow asking $14 billion (just for starters).
Goldman Downgrades S&P 500, Stoxx 600 To Sell, Cites "Elevated Valuations And The Risk Of Shocks" (Zero Hedge)
After tactfully warning clients for months that staying invested in US stocks and bonds is an unacceptable risk, overnight Goldman's Peter Oppenheimer finally changed Goldman's official "tactical" bias, and as of this moment recommends selling not only bonds, as well as the S&P500 and Europe's Stoxx 600 "due to elevated valuations across assets and the risk of shocks."
The Next Big Problem: "Stagflation Is Starting To Show Across The Economy" (Zero Hedge)
In the past few months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has gone out of its way to show that U.S. worker compensation is finally rising. There is one problem with that: while that may be true on an hourly basis…
Investor sentiment doesn’t support higher U.S. stock prices (Market Watch)
Sentiment is not yet favorable enough to push the U.S. stock market rally to new highs.
To be sure, sentiment has improved over the past week, but only moderately. We are nowhere close to the sentiment extreme that would support a major rally.
Cash Is an Asset Class (Mauldin Economics)
In this issue, I’m going to talk about something you never hear about on financial TV: the wisdom of holding cash.
Iran shouldn't be underestimated in 2 key oil markets (Business Insider)
China has been one of the biggest oil battlegrounds in recent years, with producers clawing at its coveted market share.
S&P 500 Gets Its First New Sector Since the Dot.com Era (The Wall Street Journal)
For the first time since the tech boom, the S&P 500 is gaining a new sector.
After the U.S. stock market closes on Sept. 16, S&P Dow Jones Indices will spin off real-estate companies from the financial sector to create an 11th stock grouping.
The number of people on food stamps is plummeting at the fastest rate ever after the government made a key change (Business Insider)
According to Paul Trussell, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, the number of people utilizing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in June 2016 was down 4.7% from the same month a year before, and the number of households using SNAP was down 5.2% year-over-year.
The one thing that kills a bull market (Business Insider)
In a recent note to clients, a UBS team led by strategist Julian Emanuel shared a chart showing the S&P 500 compared with recessions in the US.
Bernanke Urges Use Of Negative Rates When Next Recession Strikes (Zero Hedge)
Two months after Bernanke's unexpected trip to Japan failed to unleash the "helicopter money" many expected his visit to the BOJ would deliver, Bernanke is back with another shocking policy appeal, this time not as a result of a trip to the Pacific Rim, but in a post on his Brookings Institute blog, titled "Modifying the Fed’s policy framework: Does a higher inflation target beat negative interest rates?"
Obama’s Trickle-Up Economics (NY Times)
Only serious nerds like me eagerly await the annual Census Bureau reports on income, poverty and health insurance. But the just-released reports on 2015 justified the anticipation.
How the SEC Enabled the Gross Under-Reporing of CEO Pay (Naked Capitalism)
Think it’s scandalous that the average 2014 pay of the CEOs of the 500 biggest companies was 373 times that of the typical worker, as the AFL-CIO reported? You aren’t scandalized enough.
TOM LEE: Newton's law of motion is saying 'buy stocks' (Business Insider)
You can find Newton's law of motion in the US stock market around this time of year, and that's a reason to buy stocks.
More U.S. Consumers Than Ever Uncertain About the Economy (Bloomberg)
Good times ahead, or bad times? The percentage of U.S. consumers saying "it depends" rose to the highest on record in September, according to preliminary results of the University of Michigan’s monthly survey.
Bratislava summit: EU is at critical point, says Angela Merkel (The Guardian)
The European Union is in a critical situation, Angela Merkel has said, as she arrived in Bratislava for a special summit – without the UK – that hopes to set a new course for a project battered by Brexit.
Fear! Core Inflation Rises 2.3% YOY For August (10th Month in a Row) While Real Average Weekly Earnings YOY Falls to 0.4% (Confounded Interest)
The US Consumer Price Index (CPI) ex food and energy, also know as core inflation, rose by 2.3% YoY. That was the 10th month in a row that core inflation exceeded The Fed’s target rate of inflation of 2%.
Corporate Executives Are Making Way More Money Than Anybody Reports (The Atlantic)
On its website, the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, has a page called Executive Paywatch that is meant to demonstrate just how much corporate executives’ pay dwarfs the compensation of the average worker.
Companies
Mode Media, once valued at $1 billion, has suddenly shut down (Venture Beat)
Mode Media, a Silicon Valley-based company that raised at least $186 million to build a new age media giant, has abruptly shut down, according to a source close to the matter.
Google Study: Phone Research Quickly Leads To Purchases (Forbes)
Nearly everyone who does research on a product or service on smartphones makes a related purchase within just one day.
That’s according to a new study to be released today by Google GOOGL -0.52% Inc. Now, you probably already know that if you use your smartphone a lot (and who doesn’t?).
Politics
A neuroscientist explains how our unconscious anti-Arab biases fuel support for Trump (Raw Story)
Empirical research has unequivocally shown that most Americans have an implicit racial bias that makes them perceive black males as more threatening than whites.
All the excuses Trump has given for why he won’t release his tax returns (The Washington Post)
Republican presidential nominee and self-described billionaire Donald Trump says he makes a lot of money, gives millions of dollars to charity and has no investments in Russia.
Just 5.7 Percent Of Clinton Foundation Budget Actually Went To Charitable Grants (The Daily Caller)
Just 5.7 percent of the Clinton Foundation’s massive 2014 budget actually went to charitable grants, according to the tax-exempt organization’s IRS filings. The rest went to salaries and employee benefits, fundraising and “other expenses.”
In passionate rebuke, Michelle Obama rips Trump for years of birtherism (Business Insider)
Michelle Obama slammed Donald Trump on Friday over his previous questions about President Barack Obama's birthplace.
Insatiable: the Democrats Must Attack Democracy to Serve Corporate Power (Counter Punch)
You might think that pervasive election fraud, the conversion of mass media into propaganda, and the already insignificant role that everyday people play in federal government would be enough to satisfy the elite’s lust for power.
Technology
Robots pave the way for our sci-fi future now (Tech Crunch)
Walmart is experimenting with autonomous shopping carts. Domino’s, Uber and Auro are heavily invested in autonomous driving research. Robots are serving as security guards, performing surgery, checking inventory at grocery stores, assisting in warehouse work, delivering our room service and even hunting for underwater treasure.
Solar-Powered Helicopter Takes Flight (Popular Science)
This year we saw a solar-powered plane circumnavigate the globe and a solar-powered boat gear up to do the same. As of last week, we can add to that list of clean energy marvels the first ever piloted flight of a solar-powered helicopter.
13% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they? (The Pew Research Center)
For many Americans, going online is an important way to connect with friends and family, shop, get news and search for information. Yet today, 13% of U.S. adults do not use the internet, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data.
How the startup world is bringing digital nomadism closer to reality (Tech Crunch)
Traveling the globe used to be relegated to gap years and retirement fantasies, but thanks to tech innovation and some forward-thinking startups, you can now see the world while you take the professional realm by storm.
Elon Musk Wanted a Race. Now He Has One (Bloomberg)
Not so long ago that number would have been unthinkable. When Tesla Motors Inc. rolled out its first electric car, the 2008 Roadster, it boasted what was then a jaw-dropping range of 244 miles on a single charge.
Driverless Ubers, Disappearing Stars And More (Popular Science)
Starting this week, Uber users in Pittsburgh will be able to get rides in the company’s new self-driving cars. Those entering one of Uber’s autonomous vehicles will easily notice a few differences.
Apple just killed one of the best battery saving hacks for your iPhone (Tech Crunch)
There’s plenty to like about iOS 10 — assuming that it didn’t brick your iPhone or iPad — but you probably didn’t know that Apple has quietly killed off one of the neatest — and least-known — battery life hacks.
Health and Biotech
Building blocks of memories seen in brains for the first time (New Scientist)
We have cells in our brains – and so do rodents – that keep track of our location and the distances we’ve travelled. These neurons are also known to fire in sequence when a rat is resting, as if the animal is mentally retracing its path – a process that probably helps memories form, says Rosa Cossart at the Institut de Neurobiologie de la Méditerranée in Marseille, France.
This physicist says consciousness could be a new state of matter (Science Alert)
Consciousness isn’t something scientists like to talk about much. You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, and despite the best efforts of certain researchers, you can’t quantify it.
These are the tricks your brain uses to slow down the effects of ageing (Science Alert)
Ageing is an inevitable part of life, but our brains have learned some useful tricks to help hold off the effects as much as possible, according to new research.
Human Brain Map Gets a Bold New Update (Scientific American)
Most of us think little of hopping on Google Maps to look at everything from a bird’s-eye view of an entire continent to an on-the-ground view of a specific street, all carefully labeled. Thanks to a digital atlas published this week, the same is now possible with the human brain.
Life on the Home Planet
Tea from a spray can promises end to soggy bags (Reuters)
If there is one thing the British enjoy, it is a good cup of tea and one English drinks maker has come up with an unusual way of making the brew – sprayed into a cup from an aerosol can.
How NASA Goes To Space Without Leaving Earth (Popular Science)
On June 16, 1968, Joe Kerwin, Vance Brand, and Joe Engle climbed into and were sealed inside their Apollo command module. Over the next seven days they lived off their onboard systems and consumables as they slowly rotated to ensure even heating across the spacecraft’s skin.
This 18-Karat Gold Toilet Is Now Open For Public Use (Fortune)
The 18-karat gold, fully-functioning toilet was created by Italian artist and sculptor Maurizio Cattelan, and is a part of an exhibit called “America” at the Guggenheim. The exhibit is meant to “remind us of the inescapable physical realities of our shared humanity,” according to the museum’s blog.
Sinkhole causes 980 million litres of radioactive water to leak into Florida aquifer (The Telegraph)
A sinkhole has opened up at a fertilizer plant in the US, causing about 980 million litres of radioactive water to leak into one of Florida's main underground sources of drinking water.
