Financial Markets and Economy
Oil Prices Largely Flat Ahead of OPEC Weekend Meeting (The Wall Street Journal)
Crude-oil futures were largely unchanged in early Asia trade Friday as investors wait for a meeting of oil producers this coming weekend for more hints on a proposed production cut deal.
These Are the Charts That Scare Wall Street (Bloomberg)
For finance professionals, Corporate America's credit cycle and the U.S. economic outlook — not to mention Brexit-induced stresses and debt dynamics in Asia — are all spookier than a deranged-looking Bozo.
Two Charts That Show How Renewable Energy Has Blown Away Expectations (Bloomberg)
The International Energy Agency, which was established as a watchdog of the industry in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, will “significantly” raise its estimates for renewables when it publishes its annual mid-term market report for the industry at the end of this month, a spokesman for Paris-based organization said.
The US economy can thank soybeans for its big GDP beat (Business Insider)
The US economy got good news on Friday morning.
According to the Commerce Department, gross domestic product — which measures the value of all economic output — grew by 2.9% in the third quarter.
Mexican peso getting crushed on reports the FBI is looking into new emails related to Hillary Clinton's investigation (Business Insider)
The Mexican peso is getting crushed after reports that the FBI is looking into new Hillary Clinton emails.
Crisis Gauge Flags China Cash Squeeze Followed by Growth Hit (Bloomberg)
Traders in China’s interest-rate swap market are bracing for a cash shortage as the central bank cools an overheated property market. Bond investors are preparing to benefit from the slower economic growth that may result.
China Construction Bank’s Bad-Loan Buffer Slips Below Minimum (Bloomberg)
China Construction Bank Corp. ground out a 1.3 percent gain in quarterly profit — by letting its bad-loan buffer fall below a regulatory minimum.
The World’s Safest Bonds Are Actually Wild Risks (The Wall Street Journal)
Desperate for yield, investors are buying government bonds that come due further and further in the future. If you lend your money to the government, you expect to get it back. It’s not for nothing that British government bonds are ‘gilt-edged,’ and the U.S. Treasury yield is considered ‘risk-free’ in financial models.
US companies are paying out rather than investing for the future (Business Insider Australia)
In an era of sluggish economic growth and short-term incentives linked to stock price performance, it perhaps comes as no surprise that many US firms are choosing to lift investor payouts rather than invest for the future.
The Great Wall Street/Washington Con Job: Part 3 of The Recovery Which Never Happened (David Stockman's Contra Corner)
We return to the mystery of 0.3% per capita real GDP growth per year since the pre-crisis peak in Q4 2007 compared to 2.5% per capita growth during the golden era of 1870-1913. The "mystery" part of it, of course, is what we are fobbing upon our Keynesian bettors.
Let Crude Crash: US Oil Producers Are Hedging At Levels Not Seen Since 2007 (Zero Hedge)
As warned here one month ago after the farcical OPEC meeting in Algiers, the cartel's latest jawboning ploy to keep prices artificially higher – if only for one more month – is fast falling apart.
"The Fed Failed…" And That Changes Everything (Alhambra Investment Partners)
There is a growing body of public work that suggests Federal Reserve officials are prepared now for a very different sort of normalization than what had been envisioned up until this year. That comes, as noted earlier, with the realization that the economy is not just in rough shape but likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
US Oil Rig Count Declines For First Time In 4 Months (Zero Hedge)
For the first time in 4 months, the US Oil Rig Count declined last week (down 2 to 441) as the total rig count rose 4 to 557 (gas rigs up 6). Oil remains above the $49.00 level for now.
Jump in Inventories Leads to Stronger than Expected GDP Growth (Economist View)
Jump in Inventories Leads to Stronger than Expected GDP Growth: The economy grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the strongest growth rate since the third quarter of 2014. Most forecasts had put growth for the quarter at just over 2.0 percent.
Companies
Chipotle’s planned new look includes adding dessert to its menu and making TV commercials (Salon)
Chipotle is planning on revamping its menu, customer service, and marketing strategy in order to reverse the negative trend that has afflicted the company since last year’s e. coli outbreak, according to a corporate call with Wall Street analysts on Tuesday.
Burrito Blues: Chipotle's Comeback Proves Elusive A Year After E. Coli Outbreak (Forbes)
Chipotle is celebrating an anniversary of sorts: It’s been roughly one year since reports of an E. Coli outbreak first surfaced.
The occasion is anything but a happy one for the Mexican chain, of course, which is still struggling to get people in the door a year after its food sickened hundreds of customers and sent its brand into a downward spiral.
Taxpayer Cost of Corinthian Collapse Soars to $350 Million (The Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration has written off $350 million in student debt accrued by thousands of former students of Corinthian Colleges Inc., a taxpayer tab that is likely to soar as alumni of other trade schools come forward with abuse claims.
Technology
How Despots Use Twitter to Hunt Dissidents (Bloomberg)
If you ignore all the self-promotion, ranting, and frog memes, it’s possible to see the Twitter that Jack Dorsey likes to talk about. It’s a “people’s news network,” he wrote in a memo earlier this year—a digital town square that connects voices from around the world.
Uber Unveils Ambitious Vision For Network Of On-Demand Flying Cars (Forbes)
Taking a page from tech industrialist Elon Musk, well known for promoting audacious futuristic concepts including a Mars colonization plan and a vacuum tube-based Hyperloop system to transport people and cargo at near supersonic speed, ridehailing giant Uber has laid out a vision for the future that includes small, helicopter-like vehicles to help commuters literally overcome congested roadways.
Earthquakes Will Be as Predictable as Hurricanes Thanks to AI (Singularity Hub)
In the fall of 2010, I traveled to New Zealand, and one of the places I visited was the small south island city of Christchurch. I was charmed by the tree-lined Avon River, the English-style cathedral in the main square, and the mountains looming in the distance. Inside the cathedral was a stack of poems with a moving message of peace. I saved one to tack on my cork board at home, where it remains to this day.
How technology is about to render diamonds worthless (Holy Kaw)
Diamonds: a girl’s best friend or the biggest con-job of the last century? Watch this video and decide for yourself, plus learn how they’re about to be worthless.
13% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they? (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.
Apple's MacBook Pro isn't the touchscreen laptop it ought to be (Engadget)
Ever since Phil Schiller brought up the issue while introducing the second-generation MacBook Air, Apple has made a point of publicly resisting the pressure to introduce touchscreen Macs. Computers need a fundamentally different interface than your smartphone or tablet, Apple argues, and it's cumbersome to keep raising your hand to the display.
Mozilla's New Firefox Browser Engine To Provide "Quantum Leap" In Performance (Digital Trends)
While most eyes were glued to Apple’s press event on Thursday revealing new MacBook Pros, Mozilla’s Head of Platform Engineering David Bryant made a reveal of his own: Firefox is receiving a new browsing engine called Quantum. Slated to arrive by the end of 2017, Quantum will replace the current Gecko engine, which is responsible for presenting and running all content on the internet.
Politics
America’s First ‘Rigged’ Presidential Election (The Wall Street Journal)
Andrew Jackson had every reason to consider himself the victor of the presidential election of 1824. In a hard-fought campaign, he had won the most popular votes and electoral votes, too. But because he didn’t gain an outright majority in the Electoral College, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, as the Constitution stipulated.
Even Trump’s Kids Haven’t Donated to His Campaign (The Daily Beast)
With less than two weeks until the election, Donald Trump has amassed an impressive army of small donors, fueling his bid with individual contributions of $200 or less. But noticeably absent from the list of contributors is basically anyone with the last name Trump, many of the surrogates who represent The Donald on national television, and members of his own campaign staff.
Halperin is talking about an article published on Bloomberg that quotes senior Trump campaign official Josh Green saying “We have three major voter suppression operations under way.”
US election 2016: Clinton 'confident' on new FBI email probe (BBC News)
Hillary Clinton says she is "confident" a new FBI probe linked to her emails will not change its original finding that she should not be prosecuted.
Pussy Riot takes on Donald Trump in new music video for “Make America great again” (Salon)
Donald Trump’s admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin is well-known, but soon he and the despot may share something else — a deep antipathy from the Russian feminist punk art collective known Pussy Riot.
If the election is really rigged, 33 states are rigged by Republicans (Think Progress)
Donald Trump continued on Monday to push his claims that the election is “rigged” against him, falsely suggesting widespread voter fraud and raising the specter of a conspiracy of media outlets scheming to provide negative coverage of his candidacy.
Arbitration, cultivating culture and the other stuff of night mayors (The Economist)
WHEN Amsterdam’s mayor heads home at the end of his working day, Mirik Milan, the city’s Nachtburgemeester, clocks in. As night mayor, Mr Milan serves as a liaison between “culturally creative nightlife” and City Hall; the results have been so transformative that other Dutch cities have created similar posts, as have Paris, Zurich and Cali. Stockholm and Sydney are looking to do the same.
It looks increasingly like the Icelandic Pirate Party will win the country's election this weekend (AFP)
Reykjavik (AFP) – The public face of the Icelandic Pirate Party, Birgitta Jonsdottir is a hacker, cyberspace anarchist, poet — and a rather reluctant politician.
Republicans created the ‘voter fraud’ monster. Now it’s tearing their party apart. (Think Progress)
The Republican Party is splintering.
In one corner stands Donald J. Trump, presidential nominee and conspiracy theorist. Trump suggests that everyone from the media to people of color to Saturday Night Live are trying to rig the election.
What Trump could (and couldn’t) do to restrict press freedom if elected (Columbia Journalism Review)
I’m increasingly convinced that Donald Trump, to quote Lord Varys in Game of Thrones, would happily see this country burn if he could be king of the ashes. And where better to start the fire than the First Amendment?
GOP insiders: Polls don't capture secret Trump vote (Politico)
Those battleground state polls that paint such a grim picture of Donald Trump's prospects against Hillary Clinton? Most Republican insiders don't believe they're accurately capturing Trump’s true level of support.
Obama job approval higher, but views of him are still the most polarized in recent history (Pew Research Center)
As the campaign to elect the next president enters its final days, approval of Barack Obama’s job performance is as high as it has been at any point over the past four years.
Democrats Face Difficult Obamacare Fight in 2017, Even If Clinton Wins (Bloomberg)
Everyone has plans for Obamacare next year.
After news broke Monday that premiums for the Affordable Care Act will rise an average of 22 percent next year, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spent the week defending the health-care law, saying its problems are fixable.
Fact-checking doesn’t matter: Human biases control whether or not we’re going to believe politicians (The Conversation)
During the debates, fact-checkers like CNN and Politifact focus on evaluating the truthfulness of what each candidate said.
While it is important to get the facts straight, focusing on the truth of the candidates’ statements is not nearly enough to evaluate the actual impact of the debate on the audience.
Trump “Will Probably Win” and Gold “May Rise $100” Overnight – Jim Rickards (Max Keiser)
The US election is just two weeks away on November 8th, and one of Hillary Clinton’s most vocal critics on the business side is finance commentator and monetary expert Jim Rickards. Jim is in Sydney this week, armed with his latest book, hot off the press entitled ‘The Road to Ruin – The Global Elites’ Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis’ and gave an interesting television interview to ‘The Business’ on ABC Australia.
The Best Way to Save Obamacare (The Opinion Pages, NY Times)
The Affordable Care Act has faced a rocky six months. First, major national insurers scaled back their participation, leaving about one in five people buying coverage through health exchanges with only one plan to choose from.
Health and Biotech
The Drug Industry Has Spent $109 Million to Kill Prop 61. Here’s Why (NY Times)
The pharmaceutical industry has contributed $109 million to defeat Proposition 61, the most money raised for or against any of the 17 statewide ballot initiatives this year.
Life on the Home Planet
Coast of Antarctica Will Host World’s Largest Marine Reserve (NY Times)
SYDNEY, Australia — The world’s biggest marine reserve, almost as large as Alaska, will be established in the Ross Sea in Antarctica under an agreement reached by representatives of 24 nations and the European Union in Australia on Friday.
Climate scientist Michael Mann’s new book says climate denial is ‘driving us crazy’ (Think Progress)
In their new book, The Madhouse Effect, renowned climate scientist Michael Mann and Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles dive into the science and politics of global warming. The authors sat down with Nexus Media to share their insights.
Green Burials Are Forcing the Funeral Industry to Rethink Death (Bloomberg)
Dan Lavin doesn’t know when, or under what circumstances, he will die. But he knows what will happen next.
How fake news sites frequently trick big-time journalists (Columbia Journalism Review)
IT WOULD’VE BEEN one hell of a story. Early this month, “news” surfaced that Michael Jordan—yes, the Michael Jordan—had threatened to move his NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets, from North Carolina unless the state repealed a law barring transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice. Air Jordan hadn’t seemed so heroic since he saved Bugs Bunny in the 1996 movie Space Jam.
First Dinosaur Brain Fossil Suggests They May Have Been Smarter Than We Thought (Singularity Hub)
Dinosaurs have a fearsome reputation for their hunting abilities but less so when it comes to their intelligence. This is partly due to the fact that many species have long been thought to have had relatively small brains, their heads full of protective tissue that supposedly left little room for gray matter. But the recent discovery of the first recorded fossilized brain tissue could help challenge that image.
Second Plane of the Day Explodes in Florida (Gizmodo)
Earlier today, an American Airlines plane with 170 people aboard caught fire at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Everyone was evacuated alive, though there are some minor injuries. But now a second plane, this one operated by FedEx, has exploded at the Ft. Lauderdale airport in Florida.
