Financial Markets and Economy
Oil Patch Bankruptcies Hit $34.3 Billion (Value Walk)
The number of oil patch bankruptcies continues to rise, and the number of companies filing for creditor protection is accelerating, that’s according to according to law firm Haynes and Boone LP’s May Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor.
Oil Price Drop Vanquishes Cutting-Edge Projects (Wall Street Journal)
The world’s largest energy companies are sidelining big ideas that they touted just a couple of years ago as the future of the industry.
Cupertino's mayor urges Apple to pay more tax: 'where's the fairness?' (The Guardian)
The last time the mayor of Cupertino walked into Apple – the largest company in his small Californian town and, it so happens, the most valuable company in the world – he hoped to have a meeting to talk about traffic congestion.
Barry Chang barely made it into the lobby when Apple’s security team asked him to leave, he said.
Britain's economy slows, risks stalling as EU vote nears – PMI (Reuters)
Britain's economy slowed in April and may stall as consumers worry about June's EU referendum, reaching levels at which in the past the Bank of England began to consider rate cuts, a survey of the dominant services industry showed.
The global economy is like the Titanic and it is about to sink 'below the icy waves' (Business Insider)
There are cynics, there are naysayers, and then there's Albert Edwards of Societe Generale, who is in a League of Doom all of his own.
Inside the Risky Bets of Central Banks (Wall Street Journal)
Every two months, more than a dozen bankers meet here on Sunday evenings to talk and dine on the 18th floor of a cylindrical building looking out on the Rhine.
Chart o’ the Day: The Dollar Bulls Vanish (The Reformed Broker)
The other day, we looked at the recent risk-on rally and tied it to a breakdown in the US dollar, via a chart from Jefferies and some data on earnings expectations improving.
Talking our way into recession? I don’t think so (Market Watch)
It’s not every day that I read something by a Nobel laureate in economics in a general-interest publication, not in an academic journal, and find myself wondering, what on earth he was thinking? But that was my reaction to Robert Shiller’s “Economic View” column in the New York Times on Sunday.
This Stock Has A 12.69% Yield And Sells For Less Than Book (Forbes)
NorthStar Realty Finance Corp has been named as a Top 10 Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), according to Dividend Channel, which published its most recent ”DividendRank” report.
China Evicts Investment Firms Amid Fears of Unrest (Bloomberg)
China’s authorities, seeking to forestall potential social unrest due to growing failures of investment firms and online lenders, are ordering many to break leases and close their storefronts on busy streets — lest they become magnets for protesters.
The Worst Bear Market That Nobody Ever Talks About (The Irrelevant Investor)
The longest bear market didn’t begin in 1929 or 2007, but rather on January 11, 1973 [i]. The 437 days from peak-to-trough gave birth to many well-known value investors and also left in its wake a generation of brokers that would never return to Wall Street. Roger Lowenstein described how this period is remembered forgotten today.
Put Buffett's Advice Into Action With These Two ETFs (Bloomberg)
Warren Buffett's advice may now extend beyond the grave.
Fitbit is getting destroyed? (Business Insider)
Fitbit shares fell as much as 17% on Thursday after the maker of smart wearables forecast second-quarter revenues lower than analysts expected.
Don't Let McKinsey Scare You, Millennials (Bloomberg Gadfly)
Poor millennials. Up to their ears in student debt. Facing stagnant wages. Beset by obscene housing costs in the big cities where they are most likely to land a job – if they can land a job, that is.
International money transfer app Azimo raises $15 million from Japan's Rakuten to crack Asia (Business Insider)
Online-only international money transfer startup Azimo has raised $15 million (£10.3 million) to break into Asia and is relaunching its app with new branding.
One number in Whole Foods' earnings report should terrify investors (Business Insider)
Whole Foods investors should be worried.
Politics
The Case for Vice President Al Franken (Politico)
This is not a joke. Senator Al Franken should be the Democratic Party’s choice for vice president.
If I had said that 10 years ago, or even six months ago, the notion would have been preposterous: a former Saturday Night Live writer, perhaps best known as the mock self-help guru Stuart Smalley, Franken became synonymous with left-wing bombast thanks to his best-selling book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. He took the presidency itself as a joke, writing a satirical campaign memoir, Why Not Me, in which Franken wins the White House on a platform of eliminating ATM fees, only to be quickly chased out by the “Joint Congressional Committee on the President's Mood Swings.”
Ryan and Trump’s Relationship Status: It’s Complicated (The Atlantic)
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he’s “not ready” to back Donald Trump. President Obama commuted the sentences of 58 non-violent drug offenders. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration tightened rules on e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. And Trump named Steven Mnuchin as his finance chair.
The GOP Is Failing. Democracy Can, Too. (Bloomberg View)
Donald Trump's pending presidential nomination has confirmed what many have argued for years: The Republican Party is not well.
The party's heightened political obstruction and ideological extremism during the presidency of Barack Obama undermined governing norms and political standards. Now Republican voters have gone the distance, choosing a presidential candidate who functions as a performative and rhetorical riot, smashing to bits rudimentary expectations of competence, coherence and civility.
Technology
Live concerts could be just the ticket for virtual reality (Recode)
Much has been written about what the killer use case beyond gaming will be for virtual reality.
Armchair tourism, e-commerce and professional sports are frequently tossed out as possibilities. But one of the most intriguing options could be to take in big-name concerts.
Who wields the knife? (Economist)
They don’t drink, they don’t get tired and they don’t go on strike. To hospital managers, the idea of robots operating on patients without human intervention is an attractive one. To patients, though, the crucial question is, “are they better than human surgeons?” Surgery is messy and complicated. A routine operation can become life-threatening in minutes.
Health and Life Sciences
Massive recall of frozen fruits and veggies expands after Listeria outbreak (Washington Post)
A food-packaging company in Washington state has expanded a voluntary recall — which at one time included just 11 products — to encompass nearly 360 different organic and non-organic frozen fruits and vegetables that may be contaminated with the deadly Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the outbreak, which has hospitalized eight people across three states. Two of those patients, one from Maryland and the other from Washington state, died, though listeriosis was not considered to be the cause, the CDC said. The other cases were reported in California.
Four Reasons Why Women With Heart Disease Are Less Likely To Be Prescribed Statins Than Men (Forbes)
You’ve probably heard that the U.S. death rate from heart disease has been falling for years. In fact, it’s dropped every year since 1980, except for a slight increase in 1993,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But did you know that women have not experienced as great a decline in heart disease deaths as men? As a result, heart disease has killed more women than men in the United States since 1984, says Dr. Alexander Turchin, an endocrinology physician and researcher at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Life on the Home Planet
United States of extinction: Threat to America’s iconic animals (New Scientist)
You might think being declared a national or state animal comes with some perks. On 27 April, the US House of Representatives voted to make the American bison the first US national mammal, so what does this mean for this beast that once ruled the plains?
