Financial Markets & Economy
The Fed Does Not Control the Money Supply (NY Times)
Brad DeLong points us to David Glasner on John Taylor; I don’t think I need to add to the pile-on. But I do think Glasner misses a point when he says that the quantity of money, unlike the Fed Funds rate, is not an instrument under the direct control of the Fed.
Here's How Much New York and San Francisco's Tight Housing Markets Are Hurting the Economy (Bloomberg)
Limited housing is keeping workers away from the cities where they could be most productive, and that's costing the U.S. economy.
Reducing land-use constraints in high-productivity New York, San Francisco and San Jose to the level of the median city would expand their labor forces, boosting U.S. gross domestic product by 9.5 percent, according to estimates from a new study by the University of California at Berkeley's Enrico Moretti and the University of Chicago's Chang-Tai Hsieh.
"Mystery" Buyer Of Stocks In The First Quarter Has Been Identified (Zero Hedge)
Three days ago, when looking at the unprecedented, record outflows from US equities (coupled with continued inflow into bond funds into what BofA's Hans Mikkelsen would likely dub the Great Antirotation) we asked a simple question: "who is buying… no really".
Alibaba's Robust Results Can't Hide Narrowing Market Value Gap With Amazon (Bloomberg)
Will Alibaba's strong sales growth in the first three months of the year and a new chief executive officer be enough to turn around an exodus of investors from the stock?
Here's what Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said about Google trying to buy his company (Business Insider)
Trading in Yelp was halted this morning after the stock spiked as much as 15% on a Wall Street Journal report that the company was looking into a sale.
German Bond Reversal a Welcome Risk Reminder (Wall Street Journal)
For months, it seemed like nothing could stop eurozone government bond yields from falling. In a strange way, that has turned out to be true: despite the absence of any real catalyst, the market has slammed into reverse. That has been painful, but may ultimately be good news if it makes investors less complacent.
A Partial Defense of Our Obsession with Short-Term Earnings (HBR)
Here’s a conundrum: On the one hand, there’s a consensus among thoughtful businessleaders that too many companies are sacrificing long-term growth on the altar of smooth, reliable short-term earnings. On the other hand, most large sample studies in the accounting literature show something different: firms that manage their earnings perform better than firms that don’t (and not just in the short term)
Regulators just demonstrated they are serious about making digital currency companies follow the rules (Business Insider)
FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, has levied its first fine on a virtual currency exchange.
U.S. Consumers Are Spending Again, Early Data Suggest (Bloomberg)
Everybody just relax: Last quarter's slowdown in consumer spending doesn't spell gloom and doom. There are hints that households are again ready to unleash the pent-up buying power spurred by low gasoline prices.
What the Debate on Inequality Is Missing (NY Times)
The United States economy is one of the most effective on earth in terms of generating new wealth. But for all the wealth it generates, it does an exceptionally dismal job at sharing it broadly among Americans.
Is this the best we can do?
Over the last four decades the debate in Washington about poverty and inequality has been bogged down in a somewhat pointless, often surreal debate about the size of government and the amount spent on behalf of the poor.
Shake Shack gets destroyed (Business Insider)
Shake Shack shares got destroyed on Thursday.
Shares of the burger chain fell more than 12% after falling all day and taking another dive into the close. And though there appeared to be little news on the company, the number of Shake Shack shares trading hands was about double the average on Thursday.
The stock, however, had been on a tear, rising about 45% in less than a month after doubling in its January market debut.
Politics
U.K. Election Exit Pollster Says His Poll May Be Vague or Wrong (Bloomberg)
The first indication of who’s won Britain’s general election will be an exit poll commissioned by news broadcasters. According to one of the academics putting it together, it’s likely to be imprecise and may well be wrong.
The findings of the country’s only exit poll will be released by the BBC, ITV and Sky News at 10 p.m. on the night of May 7, just as polls close across the U.K.
Goodbye to all that: Hillary ditches the caution that helped doom her 2008 campaign (Salon)
One of Hillary Clinton’s first ominous stumbles in the 2008 presidential race came during an October 2007 debate, when she waffled on a question about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to issue drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. The plan “makes a lot of sense,” she told moderator Tim Russert, but she also expressed rambling reservations. It wasn’t Clinton’s stance but her waffling that got her into trouble – a three-minute YouTube clip went viral, and not in a good way. The erstwhile-frontrunner seemed to be trying to have it both ways on a divisive issue.
“He wants to take Kansas back into the Dark Ages”: Waitress explains why she told off Sam Brownback (Salon)
Located in a towering late Gothic revival building – apocryphally described by locals as the first million-dollar high school west of the Mississippi River — Topeka High School, situated just four blocks from the Statehouse, is the pride of Kansas’ capital city.
The hallowed halls of the 84-year-old building have served as the academic home of Herbert Hoover-era Vice President Charles Curtis, basketball legend Dean Smith, the revered Republican Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum, and renowned poet and novelist Ben Lerner. The school’s bevy of Advanced Placement courses and its acclaimed programs in music, theater and debate attract many transfer students who live outside the school district; I was one of them.
Technology
The Future Of Supersonic Travel Is 'Closer Than Many People Imagine' (Forbes)
It’s been nearly a dozen years since the last flight of the Concorde. For over a quarter century, the sleek and sexy Anglo-French airplane represented the jet set era of the the late 20th Century. Ernie Edwards, a veteran of the private jet industry thinks the next passenger supersonic flights are not that far away. Last week, the former Gulfstream, Cessna and Embraer boss joined Reno-basedAerion Corporation to assist in its bid to get us flying faster again. Before EBACE in Geneva later this month, he took the time to giveForbesLife an update on where the program is, and what the future holds.
Advanced Micro Devices wants to bet the farm on data centers (Fortune)
AMD, like Intel, anticipates a future spending spree on the horizon for data center operators who crave powerful new computer chips.
After missing out on mobile and playing second fiddle to Intel for decades in the personal computing market, Advanced Micro Devices is ready to remake itself with a new type of semiconductor and venue for sales. This time it’s using a combination of the graphics chips found in gaming consoles and the traditional X86 chips inside a computer to make what it hopes is its ticket to success in the corporate data center market.
Are you in the market to buy a 12.9 inch iPad Pro (Ipad Insight)
Apple is rumored to be announcing a larger screen iPad sometime later this summer–possibly during WWDC, with a release date expected somewhere in the fall. This has been a persistent rumor that has been around for a while but has gained some momentum since the beginning of the year. Some potential rumored hardware features include an Apple supported stylus, support for Force Touch technology in the screen similar to what is now found in the new MacBook, and possibly even a USB-C connection in addition to, or instead of a Lightning connector.
Health & Life Science
Vaccines Might Not Stop the Midwest Bird Apocalypse (Wired)
TWENTY-FOUR MILLION DEAD birds on over 120 farms across 13 states. US poultry banned in at least eight countries. Three governor-declared states of emergency. Right now, the United States is experiencing the worst avian influenza epidemic in its history, and all farmers can do about it, at least for the moment, is kill infected birds by the barn.
Life On The Home Planet
Amount of carbon dioxide in air keeps rising, hits milestone (The Big Story)
Global levels of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent heat-trapping gas, have passed a daunting milestone, federal scientists say.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says in March, the global monthly average for carbon dioxide hit 400.83 parts per million. That is the first month in modern records that the entire globe broke 400 ppm, reaching levels that haven't been seen in about 2 million years.
Antarctica is melting faster than ever before — and the result will be devastating (Business Insider)
Study after study shows that Antarctica isn't in great shape. Its ice shelves are disappearing and its ice sheets are collapsing, hastening swiftly rising sea levels. Sounds terrible.
Germany’s Nuclear Cutback Is Darkening European Skies (Time)
If Germany wants to phase out nuclear power, coal is the only realistic option.
Germany’s influence in Europe is unquestionable, but it appears that some of its neighbors may be adversely affected by recent German decisions; and Greece is not the neighbor in question here. France has been reporting heavy levels of air pollution which authorities in the country are blaming on diesel cars there. But the real culprit may in fact be the renewed German penchant for coal power.
Cody Wilson, Who Posted Gun Instructions Online, Sues State Department (NY Times)
When is a gun not just a gun? When it’s also constitutionally protected free speech.
That is the legal argument being made by Cody Wilson, a Texas man who gained attention two years ago by posting what are believed to be the world’s first online instructions for how to build a 3-D printable gun. Mr. Wilson’s files for what he called the Liberator, a single-shot pistol mostly made of plastic, were partly a statement about freedom in the digital age and partly a provocation — and provoke they did.
5 things in NYC that will disappear as sea levels rise and weather patterns change (Business Insider)
New York City is one of the world's 10 cities most vulnerable to climate change. As sea levels rise, many things that make New York a great place to live will start to disappear. In this video, Nexus Media explores five iconic New York sights and activities that we'll lose as climate change continues to affect the environment.
Japan Has The Scariest-Looking Bridge Ever (News Republic)
We've seen truly terrifying bridges before, but nothing quite as scary-looking as the Eshima Ohashi Bridge in Japan.
The bridge, which connects the cities of Matsue and Sakaiminato, appears to go straight into the sky and suddenly drop off. Built high so that fishing boats can pass underneath, the structure fortunately isn't quite as steep as it looks.
Hawaii Will Soon Get All Of Its Electricity From Renewable Sources (Think Progress)
Hawaii is on its way to having the greenest grid in the nation.
The state legislature sent a bill to the governor’s desk this week that moves the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) up to 100 percent by 2045 — which means that all electricity provided by the electric companies will have to come from renewable sources like solar and wind. Nationwide, electricity generation makes up about a third of all carbon emissions.
Nice Ivy League Degree. Now if You Want a Job, Go to Code School (Bloomberg)
In a Boston basement that houses a new kind of vocational training school, Katy Feng says she’s working harder than she ever did at Dartmouth College. The 22-year-old graduated last year with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and studio art that cost more than a quarter-million dollars. She sent out dozens of résumés looking for a full-time job in graphic design but wound up working a contract gig for a Boston clothing store. “I thought, they’ll see Dartmouth, and they’ll hire me,” Feng says. “That’s not really how it works, I found.” She figures programming is the best way to get the job she wants. Hence the basement, where she’s paying $11,500 for a three-month crash course in coding.
Why Barbara Corcoran thinks business school is a waste of time (Business Insider)
A traditional MBA typically costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and two years of your life.
Is the degree worth it?
"Shark Tank" investor Barbara Corcoran says it's not. In fact, she thinks it could hold you back.
How friendship became a tool of the powerful (The Guardian)
Imagine walking into a coffee shop, ordering a cappuccino, and then, to your surprise, being informed that it has already been paid for. Where did this unexpected gift come from? It transpires that it was left by the previous customer. The only snag, if indeed it is a snag, is that you now have to do the same for the next customer who walks in.
Humor
The Hilarious Hipsterization of McDonald's (Esquire)
McDonald's is equal parts pop, kitsch, and nostalgia. The act of choosing McDonald's over another "fast-casual" restaurant like Chipotle, Five Guys, or Shake Shack seems ironic and self-aware. String all of those adjectives together. What do you get? A hipster, more or less
