Financial Markets and Economy
Hong Kong Leader Defends Decision to Scale Back Housing Project (Bloomberg)
Hong Kong’s leader, Leung Chun-ying, defended his decision to postpone two phases of a massive public housing project in the city’s northern outskirts, as he sought to address allegations that the government made the decision to benefit rural landlords.
Treasury Post-BOJ Selloff Pauses as Attention Switches to Fed (Bloomberg)
In a day dominated by two of the world’s premier central banks, bond traders are already turning their focus to the Federal Reserve after shrugging off the Bank of Japan’s policy tweaks.
Facing doubts over its firepower, Bank of Japan tries something new (CNN Money)
After years of failed efforts to pull Japan out of deflation, the country's central bank is trying something different.
The Bank of Japan said Wednesday that it's introducing a new long-term interest rate target of around zero.
South Africa Inflation Rate Falls Into Target Band in August (Bloomberg)
South Africa’s inflation fell below the upper end of the central bank’s target band in August for the first time this year, leaving room for policymakers to continue to pause their tightening cycle.
Coming Soon, Economists Hope: Big Spending on Roads, Bridges and Ports (NY Times)
OAKLAND, Calif. — The docks at the Port of Oakland are a tangle of cranes, shipping containers, railroad tracks and snaking lines of trucks waiting to load and unload cargo.
What does China’s ‘belt and road initiative’ mean for EU trade? (Bruegel)
Much has been written about the Belt and Road initiative since Xi Jinping made it Beijing’s flagship initiative in September 2013. There are many interpretations of the initiative’s ultimate objectives, but one objective is clear.
Russian Bonds Halt Drop as Global Stimulus Eclipses Local Policy (Bloomberg)
Ruble-denominated bonds halted four days of losses as oil prices rose and optimism global central banks won’t rush to dial back stimulus boosted appetite for Russian risk.
The state of macroeconomics is not good (The Washington Post)
Yesterday’s post about the stale quality of international relations theory provoked some pushback from international relations scholars. It also probably generated some bemusement by economists.
Oil jumps on chance of another U.S. draw, Norway strike supports (Reuters)
Oil prices were up as much as 2 percent on Wednesday, reacting to the possibility of another surprise weekly drop in U.S. inventories amid an industry strike in Norway that threatened to cut North Sea crude output.
The Way the World Thinks About Easy Monetary Policy Is Changing (Bloomberg)
While analysts and economists had long debated the efficacy of quantitative easing — the central bank bond purchase programs aimed at lowering borrowing costs to stimulate the economy and stoke inflation — the narrative surrounding such efforts is rapidly shifting.
Lost Track of an Old 401(k)? Here’s a Plan to Help You Find Your Money (Bloomberg)
It’s surprisingly easy to lose track of your retirement savings, leaving them to be eaten up by inflation and fees—or even seized by the state.
Supersized Corporate Bond Sales Are Taking a Bigger Bite Out of an $8 Trillion Market (Bloomberg)
Companies selling their debt to eager investors have replied with a collective 'yes.' They've opted to increase their issuance of mega-sized bonds of $5 billion or more to a record $330 billion in 2015, according to data from HSBC Holdings Plc.
BOJ overhauls policy focus, sets target for government bond yields (Reuters)
The Bank of Japan made an abrupt shift on Wednesday to targeting interest rates on government bonds to achieve its elusive inflation target, after years of massive money printing failed to jolt the economy out of decades-long stagnation.
Companies
J.P. Morgan Chase Names Berkshire Hathaway Investment Manager to Board (The Wall Street Journal)
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. named one of Warren Buffett’s two stock pickers to its board, raising the executive’s profile and bringing the patina of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to the bank.
Goldman Romps Past JPMorgan in Wall Street Battle of ETF Newbies (Bloomberg)
Two of the financial industry’s biggest names — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — are in the race for Wall Street supremacy in the $3 trillion global market for exchange-traded funds.
Inditex’s Unique Fast-Fashion Model Delivers More Breakneck Growth (The Wall Street Journal)
Inditex SA, the retailer behind the Zara fast-fashion chain, said Wednesday that a combination of more-efficient stores and its continued push into online sales lifted profit in the first half of the year, setting itself further apart from struggling competitors.
It's Uber Vs. Ola For The Battle Of Supremacy In The Indian Market (Forbes)
On August 1, Uber announced the decision to merge its China operations with the dominant ride-hailing service of the country, Didi Chuxing. As part of this deal Uber will pick up a 20% stake in a combined entity with Didi Chuxing that is likely to be valued at $36 billion.
Volkswagen faces $9 billion legal headache (CNN Money)
Volkswagen investors are demanding more than $9 billion in damages for the losses they sustained as a result of the automaker's huge diesel emissions scandal.
Chipotle Has a New Plan to Convince Customers Its Food Is Safe (AP, TIME)
(NEW YORK)— Chipotle is making another push to convince people that its food won’t make them sick, with plans to run more newspaper and digital ads outlining the safety steps it has taken since last year’s E. coli outbreak.
Politics
Why Do People Who Need Help From the Government Hate It So Much? (NY Times)
Arlie Hochschild’s generous but disconcerting look at the Tea Party presents a likable fellow named Lee Sherman, who once worked for a Louisiana chemical plant where his duties included illegally dumping toxic waste into the bayou.
How Donald Trump retooled his charity to spend other people’s money (The Washington Post)
Donald Trump was in a tuxedo, standing next to his award: a statue of a palm tree, as tall as a toddler. It was 2010, and Trump was being honored by a charity — the Palm Beach Police Foundation — for his “selfless support” of its cause.
Is the U.S. election killing the economy? (CNN Money)
Growth was already off to a lousy start in 2016. Experts predicted a summer rebound, but so far, election concerns are growing and the economic gauges are lagging.
Top Earners Back Clinton in Bloomberg Poll After Decades With GOP (Bloomberg)
Higher-income voters are narrowly supporting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in another sign of how the 2016 presidential race is fracturing traditional voting blocs.
The lousy reason I didn't vote in 1968 — and why Sanders supporters shouldn't fall for it (Vox)
It is 1968. Year of blood. Year of protest. Year of insurgency. Year of a pivotal election: Republican Richard Nixon versus Democrat Hubert Humphrey.
I decide that Nixon and Humphrey are indistinguishable, and I refuse to vote. I encourage others to do the same.
Technology
Rush to Take Advantage of a Dull iPhone Started Samsung's Battery Crisis (Bloomberg)
Few things motivate Samsung employees like the opportunity to take advantage of weakness at Apple Inc.
Earlier this year, managers at the South Korean company began hearing the next iPhone wouldn’t have any eye-popping innovations.
Apple In Talks To Buy McLaren (Jalopnik)
Apple, the computer company, is in talks to buy McLaren, the supercar and race car company, according to a report from the Financial Times. Apple has been attempting to develop its own car for a while now, and this would appear to be a huge change in its direction.
Uber investors aren’t paying for innovation anymore (Quartz)
When Ayda Valilar first read that Uber was losing billions of dollars, she couldn’t believe it. She’d been driving for the ride-share service for nearly five years, and had tried unsuccessfully to organize a union in Los Angeles with other Uber contractors.
You Can Now Exchange Your Recalled Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (TIME)
The new devices come after battery cell issues were discovered in the Note 7 earlier this month
Samsung has shipped more than 500,000 replacement units of the Galaxy Note 7 to carrier and retail stores in the U.S., the company recently announced.
Google's mobile search results now show fast-loading sites (Engadget)
Chug a Mountain Dew, turn that thrash metal up to 11 and grab your smartphone, because it's time to get AMP'd. Cringeworthy play on words aside, you'll now find Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) across the entirety of Google's search results.
Health and Biotech
Price Gouging and the Dangerous New Breed of Pharma Companies (Harvard Business Review)
I met Tony in 2001 when he was sent to me with severe muscle weakness. Confined to a wheelchair and unable to care for himself, Tony had been told he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder.
Delhi hospitals fighting uphill battle against drug-resistant superbugs (The Guardian)
Like medical centres across India’s sweltering capital, the Kalawati Saran hospital in north Delhi is bearing the brunt of an outbreak of mosquito-borne disease.
How disease testing tech is saving lives faster (BBC News)
When a nurse at Monrovia's Redemption Hospital in Liberia fell ill, the doctors thought she had typhoid fever.
But three days later, they realised it wasn't typhoid – it was the deadly Ebola virus.
Life on the Home Planet
Air raid kills several medical workers, insurgents near Aleppo: monitors (Reuters)
An air raid carried out overnight by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed four medical workers and at least nine rebel fighters near Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Wednesday.
Israel Says Attack Near Embassy in Ankara Was Foiled (Bloomberg)
Security personnel shot one of two would-be attackers who attempted to enter Israel’s embassy in Turkey’s capital city Ankara, Turkish media reported on Wednesday.
Obama Administration Considers Arming Syrian Kurds Against ISIS (NY Times)
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is weighing a military plan to directly arm Syrian Kurdish fighters combating the Islamic State, a major policy shift that could speed up the offensive against the terrorist group but also sharply escalate tensions between Turkey and the United States.
A new class of galaxy has been discovered, one made almost entirely of dark matter (The Washington Post)
Much of the universe is made of dark matter, the unknowable, as-yet-undetected stuff that barely interacts with the "normal" matter around it. In the Milky Way, dark matter outnumbers regular matter by about 5 to 1, and very tiny dwarf galaxies are known to contain even more of the stuff.
Fighting further buries hopes for Syria truce (Reuters)
Syrian rebels and pro-government forces battled each other on major frontlines near Aleppo and Hama, and air strikes reportedly killed a dozen people including four medical workers, as a ceasefire appeared to have completely unraveled.
After Explosion, Chelsea’s 23rd Street Slowly Comes Back to Life (NY Times)
Steps away from the site where a Dumpster was blasted into the air, the owner of King David Gallery on West 23rd Street took his first look at the shattered glass covering his windowless store in Manhattan on Tuesday morning.
