Financial Markets and Economy
Credit Suisse Is Building a New U.S. Bank Just for Billionaires (Fortune)
Credit Suisse, which exited its U.S. private wealth business last year, is building out a new investment banking group in the region to serve billionaires.
China Doubles Down On Building Bigger, Badder, Better Economy (Forbes)
Between state-owned banks with a record $14 billion in new bond offerings in the second quarter, to Beijing promising more infrastructure spending, one thing is certain — they are hell bent on building rocket ship trains and bridges. The market hopes these aren’t bridges to nowhere.
Homeownership Hits 51-Year Low, but There May Be a Silver Lining (The Fiscal Times)
The housing market is still hot in many parts of the country, with national home prices hitting record highs, but the percentage of people buying rather than renting their home continues to fall.
EDF Pushes for U.K. Nuclear Project Energy Experts Call ‘Crazy’ (Bloomberg)
Critics of the U.K.’s first new nuclear plant in more than 20 years, who say the project will prove bad value for millions of British consumers, could be proved right after the government asked to review the deal.
Internet access growing worldwide but remains higher in advanced economies (Pew Research Center)
In many advanced economies, the ubiquity of the internet is now a given. It permeates commerce, social interactions, politics, culture and daily life. But this is not the case in all parts of the world. And while internet access continues to grow in poorer nations, there is still a long way to go before the world is completely wired.
Homeownership Rates Fall Again! (Logan Mohtashami)
Home ownership in the US peaked in 2004 at 69.2%. Since then we have seen a steady decline in ownership rates that began to flatten to the low 60s% around 2010. Today in 2016 we have hit a cycle low of 62.9%
Pound Set to Extend Decline as Investors Anticipate BOE Rate Cut (Bloomberg)
The pound looks set to extend its decline next week, when traders and economists predict the Bank of England will cut interest rates for the first time in more than seven years.
U.S. GDP Grew a Disappointing 1.2% in Second Quarter (Wall Street Journal)
Declining business investment is hobbling an already sluggish U.S. expansion, raising concerns about the economy’s durability as the presidential campaign heads into its final stretch.
The Federal Reserve And The Incredible Disappearance Of Low Cost Housing Act (Confounded Interest)
As expected, The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee kept rates unchanged yesterday.
Swedish Economy Grows at Half Estimated Pace as Boom Fades (Bloomberg)
Swedish economic growth continued to slow in the second quarter, adding to evidence that the country’s output boom may have peaked.
Monte dei Paschi approves privately-backed rescue plan (Reuters)
Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena unveiled a plan on Friday to prevent its centuries-old business from being wound up by regulators, a privately funded overhaul that Rome hopes will help stabilise the country's entire banking sector.
Zero down on a $2 million house is no problem in Silicon Valley’s ‘weird and scary’ real estate market (Prime Economics)
It turns out that even the well-off need help in a housing market as crazy as the one in the San Francisco Bay area, and lenders are elbowing each other in a rush to provide it.
US and Eurozone economies sail into the doldrums (Prime Economics)
Today we had the first estimates for 2nd Quarter GDP for both the Eurozone (from Eurostat) and the United States (from the BEA). Both sets of data give cause for concern that the world economy – and in particular the so-called “advanced economies” are stuck somewhere in the doldrums between sluggishness and stagnation.
UK helicopter money: a solution in search of a problem (Medium)
Talk of UK helicopter money is whirring up again. I can’t really see why.
Radical Economics, Marxist Economics, and Marx's Economics (The Hampton Institute)
The major global crises of the mid-1970s and 2008-9 provoked debates among the ruling class about the best economic policies to manage capitalism. For socialists and activists the question was different, and debates about whether and to what extent capitalism could be reformed to avert crisis and instil a more humane and fair system became even sharper.
Politics
A story of dueling racial optics: The Democratic versus Republican national conventions (Salon)
In the United States, the Democratic and Republican National Conventions are opportunities to show off their respective presidential candidates, win new supporters, and for political insiders to negotiate and cement alliances while also earning new favors. Political conventions are also an exercise in marketing and branding.
Judge Says We Should Ignore Voter Suppression. The Real Problem Is Political Correctness. (Think Progress)
Wednesday, a conservative federal appeals court handed down a 9-6 decision holding that Texas’ voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act. It was an unexpected victory for voting rights from an unusual source. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is, to put it mildly, a court that liberals typically try to avoid if possible.
The Excessive Political Power Of White Men In The United States, In One Chart (Think Progress)
White men make up 31% of the population, yet they hold 65% of elected offices in the United States.
Trump seems especially mad at Mike Bloomberg, and any New Yorker could tell you why (Business Insider)
Democrats spent four days trashing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump at their convention, but it seems that Trump has taken special issue with one speaker in particular: billionaire entrepreneur and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Technology
9 In 10 iPhone Owners Aren't Keen On Upgrading To iPhone 7 (Forbes)
So much for serial upgraders. Only about 1 in 10 current iPhone owners say they are very or extremely likely to upgrade to the iPhone 7 without a redesign, according to a survey from digital news outlet Quartz.
Watch This Amazing 3D Bioprinter Make Artificial Bones From Scratch (Singularity Hub)
According to Aether, the printer works with a wide range of materials — organic, non-organic and both — and is flexible about where those materials come from (instead of requiring anything proprietary). It can include 10 different materials in one print (way more than your average bioprinter) and is compatible with other tools like laser cutters and CNC routers.
Health and Life Sciences
Financing Healthcare (Our World In Data)
Health is a fundamental driver of our overall quality of life. In this entry we focus on healthcare – one of the most important inputs to produce health. There are many other factors affecting health, and you can read more about some of them in our entries about health.
Life on the Home Planet
England's plastic bag usage drops 85% since 5p charge introduced (The Guardian)
The number of single-use plastic bags used by shoppers in England has plummeted by more than 85% after the introduction of a 5p charge last October, early figures suggest.
Cleaning up the data (Economist)
What if all Londoners, no matter how young or frail, smoked for at least six years? In effect, they already do. The city’s air pollution exacts an equivalent toll on each resident, cutting short the lives of nearly 10,000 people each year and damaging the lungs, hearts and brains of children.
Venezuela is about to force people to work in the fields (Business Insider)
Amnesty International says a new decree in Venezuela that says the government can make any of its citizens farm the country's fields in order to combat its current, punishing food crisis "effectively amounts to forced labour."
