Financial Markets and Economy
Deutsche Bank's chief US economist thinks the economy has a lot of problems and very few solutions (Business Insider)
Joe LaVorgna, the chief US economist for Deutsche Bank, had been fairly upbeat on the economy up until a little over a year ago.
Crude oil is going wild amid more OPEC rumors (Business Insider)
The energy component tumbled to almost $43.50 per barrel, a loss of more than 2%, after an OPEC source told Reuters that, "the Saudis have threatened to raise their production to 11 million barrels per day and even 12 million bpd, bringing oil prices down, and to withdraw from the meeting."
Japanese day traders went nuts after confusing the governor of the Bank of Japan with a baseball player (Business Insider)
A brief moment of panic hit the Japanese day trading community on Friday, after a misunderstanding about the apparent retirement of Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda.
U.K. Retail Sales Break Out of Nine-Month Slump (Bloomberg)
Britain’s retailers received a much-needed boost last month as sales grew for the first time since January.
Atlanta Fed upgrades U.S. fourth-quarter GDP view to 3.1 percent (Reuters)
The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 3.1 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter due to expected stronger consumer spending and equipment investments as well as a smaller trade gap, the Atlanta Federal Reserve's GDP Now forecast model showed on Friday.
Brexit Is Even More Complicated After Court Ruling (The Wall Street Journal)
If the pound rallied after the British High Court’s ruling Thursday because investors expect Brexit to now be less likely, they will probably be disappointed. The odds are that the court’s decision, rather than ruling out Brexit, will just make it messier.
What We Know About the 92 Million Americans Who Aren’t in the Labor Force (The Wall Street Journal)
The Labor Department only classifies people as unemployed if they are actively looking for work. All those who don’t have a job and aren’t looking are lumped together under the fishy-sounding classification “not in the labor force.” The share of Americans not in the labor force has been climbing for nearly 15 years, a development that even many economists and demographers failed to anticipate.
These Jobs Numbers Show an Economy That Is Basically Healthy (The Upshot, NY Times)
That is the simplest, most important thing to take away from new jobs numbers released Friday morning, four days before the presidential election. These numbers affirm that Americans were probably right to focus on other things during this election. The United States still has plenty of problems and economic challenges. But they are more of the long-building variety than the get-us-out-of-this-slump variety.
This is how the economy should work (Vice Money)
According to new numbers released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees rose 2.8 percent in October compared to the same month last year. That’s the fastest annual pace of wage increases since the U.S. economy climbed out of the Great Recession.
The government's retirement problem is headed for a disaster (Mises Institute)
The combined debt held by U.S. public pension plans will top $1.7 trillion next year, according to a just-released report from Moody’s Investors Services.
People Not In Labor Force Surge By 425,000 To 94,609,000 (Zero Hedge)
On the surface, the establishment survey print of 161K jobs was just good enough when taking into account the 44,000 in upward revisions to August and September jobs. However, the household survey was less impressive, with the number of workers employed declining by 43,000 to 151,925 even as the number of persons unemployed declined from 7,939K to 7,787K.
Nobody Knows Why Fortysomethings Are Driving U.S. Productivity (Bloomberg)
Dartmouth College economist James Feyrer noticed something odd about a decade ago: Across a large set of countries, an economy’s productivity seemed to be connected to the proportion of fortysomethings in its labor force. The higher the ratio of people age 40-49, the faster the economy tended to increase its output per hour of work.
Poll finds Americans' economic anxiety reaches new high (MarketPlace)
Last October, Marketplace launched our first-ever national economic survey, the Marketplace-Edison Research Poll. We did it so that we could find out and track — over time — how people are feeling about the economy all through this election year and heading into the voting booth. And find out we did.
Companies
M&S seen axing stores at home and abroad as profits slump (Reuters)
Struggling British retailer Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) is expected to announce plans next week to shut some stores at home and abroad, with analysts forecasting a slump in first-half profit and another fall in clothing sales.
The Best Reason to Buy Chipotle Stock Now And a Bear's Response (Fool.com)
Long-term shareholders of Chipotle Mexican Grill(NYSE: CMG) have endured a rags-to-riches…and back to rags story. After years of meteoric growth, the company's sales — and its stock — have been deflated. But does that mean that the company is doomed?
Technology
Apple is taking 104% of the profits in the entire smartphone industry (Business Insider)
According to a new estimate from BMO Capital Markets, as reported by Investor's Business Daily, the Californian technology giant managed the seemingly impossible feat of generating more than 100% of the industry's profits in the third quarter of 2016 — 103.6%, to be precise.
China cracks down on growing live streaming industry (CNN Money)
The Cyberspace Administration of China posted a 20-point edict that will go into effect next month. It said the regulations were aimed at "promoting the healthy and orderly development" of the industry.
2.8 million Samsung washing machines recalled due to explosions (Mashable Asia)
The company responsible for the infamous exploding Galaxy Note7 is now recalling a whopping 2.8 million of its top-loading washing machines, for… well, exploding.
State of the smartphone industry 2016: top brands and trends (Android Authority)
Strategy Analytics has published its latest set of reports into the smartphone industry. The research gives us plenty of information to sift through for global and regional trends, as well as showing which brands are coming out on top and which are struggling to perform in today’s ultra competitive market.
You no longer need to own a solar panel to reap the financial benefits of solar energy (Quartz)
Solar energy isn’t an option for millions of people living in cities—who have no rooftop to call their own—or without reasonable solar prices. There are 113 million homeowners in markets with competitively-priced solar power—but because of poor credit scores, 90% of them can’t get solar panel installation loans at terms favorable enough to make the panels financially viable, reports Greentech Media.
Someone Just Used The Mirai Botnet To Knock An Entire Country Offline (Forbes)
Last month, the Mirai botnet emerged from the shadows and directed its fury at security expert Brian Krebs. A few weeks later, the DNS servers at Dyn fell victim and many of the biggest sites on the Internet went dead for millions of Americans. Now it appears that Mirai knocked an entire country offline.
Politics
South Korean president says she’s willing to be investigated in corruption scandal (The Washington Post)
SEOUL — South Korea’s embattled president on Friday apologized to the nation over a snowballing political crisis involving a secret aide and said she would submit to an investigation “if necessary,” as her approval ratings dropped to the lowest recorded since democracy arrived here.
‘Mortal sin’ to vote Democratic, says San Diego Catholic church flier, linking Hillary Clinton to Satan (The Washington Post)
SAN DIEGO — The Sunday bulletin of San Diego’s Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Oct. 16 wasn’t very different from all the others. Seven pages. A welcome to newcomers. A Mass schedule.
Ryan may face battle to keep his job as House Freedom Caucus leaders withhold support (CNN)
A number of members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus — a group of roughly 40 members who have been a persistent thorn in the GOP leadership's side — are refusing to say if they will back the Wisconsin Republican's bid to keep his gavel if their party maintains the House majority.
Islamists March in Jakarta, Demanding Christian Governor Be Jailed (NY Times)
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Tens of thousands of Indonesians marched in Jakarta on Friday, demanding that the city’s first Christian governor in decades be jailed for blasphemy. The rally was a show of strength by conservative Islamic groups, who were offended by his earlier remarks about the Quran and want to weaken him as he runs for re-election.
FBI warns of possible pre-Election Day terror attacks (Fox News)
Al-Qaeda may be planning pre-Election Day attacks on Monday in New York, Texas and Virginia.
US intelligence officials have alerted joint terrorism task forces of the threat, whose credibility was still being assessed, sources told The Post.
Clinton up 47-44 in Post-ABC News Tracking Poll, despite Trump’s 9-point edge on dealing with corruption (The Washington Post)
illary Clinton holds a narrow three-point edge over Donald Trump as supporters of each candidate lock in to their candidate as the best equipped to handle a variety of national issues, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll.
China could ban lawmakers from Hong Kong parliament as crisis escalates (The Guardian)
China could ban two young pro-democracy lawmakers from taking up their places in Hong Kong’s parliament, a move seen as deeply unpopular by the city’s legal community and opposition politicians.
Trump just proposed ending all federal clean energy development (Think Progress)
In the last week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to zero out all federal spending on clean energy research and development. And the plan he released would also zero out all other spending on anything to do with climate change, including the government’s entire climate science effort.
Paths to Victory: Here's how Clinton, Trump plan to hit 270 (Fox News)
The polls are tightening. The electoral map is shifting. And while Donald Trump still faces a narrow path to the White House, analysts say the first-time, convention-defying Republican presidential candidate has a real shot four days from now.
Donald Trump's late surge in polls hits European shares as fear and uncertainty mount (Independent)
Mounting uncertainty over the outcome of the US election next week continues to punish stocks across the world
Trump Presidency Could Mean a "Material Repricing" of Bonds, George Magnus Warns (Bloomberg)
With recent polls suggesting Donald Trump's electoral prospects are back in play, market participants are getting anxious about the vote next Tuesday.
Clinton White House plus GOP Senate? It’s a recipe for total disaster (Salon)
When Justice Antonin Scalia died in his sleep at age 80 several months ago, I don’t think anyone thought it would be easy to replace him before the election. President Barack Obama’s appointing a justice to his seat would change the balance of the court, and that would be a fraught proposition regardless of the timing.
Fox Misleadingly Spins Solid October Jobs Report As A Win For Trump (Media Matters For America)
Fox News pulled out all the stops in its desperate attempt to frame a solid October 2016 jobs report in a negative light just days ahead of Election Day. The studio crews of Fox & Friends and Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria joined forces to misleadingly label the latest jobs report as “underwhelming” and a potential boon for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
More Pot, Fewer Guns, Higher Pay: The Other Big Issues on the Ballot This Year (Bloomberg)
There's no shortage of attention on what Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would do as president. But voters in many states are taking matters into their own hands to settle contentious debates over marijuana, the minimum wage, and gun control, among other issues.
The dangerous rise of Alex Jones: How Austin’s pet conspiracy kook conquered the Republican Party (Salon)
Alex Jones earned his spot in Donald Trump’s basket of deplorables by being the king of the conspiracy theorists. During my college years in the mid-to-late ’90s, Austin’s public access TV shows provided my friends and me with a frequent source of low-cost entertainment.
The real Clinton email scandal is that a bullshit story has dominated the campaign (Vox)
Some time ago, Hillary Clinton and her advisers decided that the best course of action was to apologize for having used a personal email address to conduct government business while serving as secretary of state. Clinton herself was, clearly, not really all that remorseful about this, and it showed in her early efforts to address it.
Trump violates federal labor law, refuses to negotiate with his Vegas workers’ union (Think Progress)
As Donald Trump makes his final pitch to U.S. voters?—?calling himself “financially brave” and promising “law and order, balanced with justice and fairness”?—?he faces new charges that he violated the federal labor rights of his own employees.
Health and Biotech
This might be what quantum mechanics looks like (Holy Kaw)
Quantum mechanics is one of the biggest question marks in physics. But silicone droplets might have unlocked some of the questions about quantum mechanics.
The most expensive ballot measure in California has drugmakers fighting 'tooth and nail' (Business Insider)
The price of prescription drugs has been a topic of heated debate in the US over the last year.
Humana Says 2017 Obamacare Premium Revenue Will Drop $2B (Forbes)
The health insurer’s disclosure in its third-quarter earnings report puts a dollar figure on the amount of business it gets from Americans who will be forced to choose a different health plan next year.
Life on the Home Planet
NASA’s rover just discovered a rare, metal rock on Mars (Business Insider)
It's not everyday that you find a space rock on Mars. But that's exactly what NASA's Curiosity rover discovered on Oct. 27. The rock looks completely different from its surroundings because it's made of completely different materials.
When It Comes to Success, Age Really Is Just a Number (NY Times)
The question hangs over the career of every ambitious soul: Is there still time to make a mark?
Charles Darwin was 29 when he came up with his theory of natural selection. Einstein had his annus mirabilis at age 26; Marie Curie made big discoveries about radiation in her late 20s. Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 in E flat: 8 years old.
It’s the annual Jimmy Kimmel “I ate my kid’s candy” torture-fest (Holy Kaw)
It’s that time of year again! The annual celebration of child torture that is the Jimmy Kimmel skit in which parents tell their kids that they ate all the kids’ candy.
