Financial Markets and Economy
There are 2 clear Wall Street winners in the year of the megadeal (Business Insider)
There are two clear winners on Wall Street in this year's deal-making bonanza.
JPMorgan ranked as the top investment bank globally by fees for the year to December 17, according to data provider Dealogic, with Goldman Sachs a close second.
$1.7 Trillion of Sub-Zero Euro Debt Shows ECB Outlook for 2016 (Bloomberg)
As the European Central Bank wound down its asset purchases for the year, the amount of euro-region government bonds that yield less than zero was at about $1.68 trillion, indicating investors see the potential for further easing of monetary policy in 2016.
Facing The New Year With Eyes On The Stars, Feet On The Ground (Trader Feed)
To a surprising degree, we think in narratives. We have stories we tell ourselves about our relationships, our trading, our careers, our future. Those narratives provide continuity to life. They also can become ways in which we lie to ourselves and fall victim to self-delusion.
Inflation will be the biggest economic story in 2016 (Business Insider)
The year 2016 will be all about inflation.
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Samsung Units Given Until March to Trim Cross-Holdings in C&T (Bloomberg)
South Korea’s antitrust regulator ordered Samsung Group to cut cross-shareholdings strengthened by a merger between two key affiliates, giving the country’s biggest conglomerate until March to rationalize its governance structure or face possible penalties.
The trades that killed hedge funds in 2015 (Business Insider)
It has been a horrible year for the hedge fund industry.
The average hedge fund is down 3.72% this year, according to Hedge Fund Research.
And there have been numerous highly publicized hedge fund closings and redemptions in 2015.
Pound Traders See No 2016 BOE Rate Increase Amid Low Oil Prices (Bloomberg)
Investors in the pound have waited more than six years for the Bank of England to raise interest rates and bolster the U.K. currency. With money markets signaling no move next year, it looks like they may have longer to wait.
Everything Central Banks Have Tried Has Failed: According To Citi's Buiter Just One Thing Remains (Zero Hedge)
Seven years after ZIRP (then NIRP) was launched and central banks grew their balance sheets by $13 trillion, in the process inflating the biggest bubble the world has ever seen, sending risk prices to record highs and trillions in government debt to record negative yields, first the Fed admitted QE was a mistake, and now the investment banks – especially those who were bailed out and were the biggest beneficiaries of QE such as Citigroup – admit central bank quantitative easing failed.
Shanghai Gold Withdrawals Top 2500 Tonnes For This Year (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
With 57.75 tonnes withdrawn in the latest week, the number of tonnes of gold bullion withdrawn from the Shanghai Gold Exchange stands at 2,503 tonnes for the year to date.
140 Year Old Stock Streak In Jeopardy (Dana Lyons)
The U.S. stock market has not been lower for any year ending in a “5″ since 1875…that streak is in jeopardy.
Politics
Disappearing Presidential Candidates (The Atlantic)
Hey, remember Scott Walker? That corn-fed, Kohls-shopping, union-busting, unintimidated governor of a blue state who had a real shot at next July’s nominating convention?
He’s probably sitting in his Madison, Wisconsin, office right now reading the same stories about Donald Trump that you are.
Technology
GM’s next-generation hybrid Volt plugs away (Market Watch)
My trip from L.A. to San Francisco in a 2016 Chevrolet Volt was an outlier, as Malcolm Gladwell would say. The redesigned Volt is a city car, with 53 miles of all-electric-vehicle range before it has to fire up the range-extending 1.5-liter gas engine. That’s enough to cover Americans’ average daily commute (37 miles) with room to spare. And within those 53 miles, the Volt thrives as a light, quick presence, an electric hummingbird, with premium cabin innards and 0-30 mph acceleration (2.6 seconds) that will dispatch your coffee to the back seat.
Health and Life Sciences
Gonorrhoea 'could become untreatable' (BBC)
Gonorrhoea could become an untreatable disease, England's chief medical officer has warned.
Dame Sally Davies has written to all GPs and pharmacies to ensure they are prescribing the correct drugs after the rise of "super-gonorrhoea" in Leeds.
Graphic Warnings on Cigarettes Help Smokers Consider Quitting (Medicine Net)
Graphic images on cigarettepackaging help smokers consider quitting, a new study finds.
Researchers from Ohio State University found that photos of damage caused bytobacco use are more effective than words alone in deterring smokers.
Life on the Home Planet
Wildfire burns 1,200 acres outside Los Angeles, closes highway (Reuters)
Ventura, Calif. Firefighters on Saturday gained the upper hand on a wildfire northwest of Los Angeles that burned about 1,240 acres of land, forced the closure of parts of a major highway and led to evacuations, fire officials said.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze in the Solimar Beach area of Ventura County and were able to draw containment lines around 60 percent of the conflagration by Saturday evening, county fire officials said.
Waterside pub in north England partially collapses as river floods (Mashable)
A former pub outside of Manchester partially collapsed Saturday as the river that runs beneath it flooded due to the heavy rain that has been relentlessly pounding north England.
No one was in the 200-year-old Waterside Inn, in Summerseat, near Bury. Locals fear that the bridge that it sat on over the River Irwell will not last.
