10 Wednesday AM Reads

August 5, 2015 7:00am by

I’m off to Maine for some fishin’ & drinkin.’ But I won’t leave you in the lurch — my morning train plane reads:

• Jon Stewart and ‘The Daily Show’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 9 Essential Moments (NYT)
• Higher Fees Are Fruitless for Pension Funds, Think Tank Says (CIO)
• Citadel’s Ken Griffin Leaves 2008 Tumble Far Behind (WSJ)
• Twitter May Be a Takeover Target, but Google Is Unlikely to Take It Over (Re/Code)
• Oil prices are falling again. Here’s why (Quartz)
• A Sense Of Self: What Happens When Your Brain Says You Don’t Exist (NPR)
• Farmland Investments Take Root (WSJ)
• For His Next Trick, Barefoot Genius Aims to End Broker Rip-Offs (Bloomberg)
• How to Make Sense of Donald Trump’s Perch Atop the Polls (Upshot)
• I left San Francisco to visit a quaint historic village called ‘New York City’ (Fusion)

What are you reading?

 

Timing the Next Bear Market, circa 2019
next bear
Source: Ed Yardeni

 

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Discussions found on the web:
  1. rd commented on Aug 5

    Is gold done as a safe haven? I think this column misses a key proofpoint on this: the second half of 2008. When the entire financial system was in the processing of collapsing with questions about whether or not ATMs in the US would be available on Monday morning etc., gold was plunging. If it couldn’t fulfill its safe haven role then, when would it? I think GLD killed gold as a safe haven because it turned gold into an easily traded pure-play commodity without having to play in the futures market. As a result, gold has simply turned into a plaything for traders and speculators.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-wont-have-been-tested-until-the-crap-really-hits-the-fan-2015-08-05?page=2

  2. DeDude commented on Aug 5

    It is sort of sad that after decades of Fox “news”, organizations like Planned Parenthood still do not understand how saying:
    “We do not sell organs for profit” quickly can be turned into “We [snippet] sell organs for profit”.
    Of all the organizations in the world they should understand and be prepared for this kind of attack. They should have dedicated highly trained specialists who are the only ones authorized to talk with anybody about fetal tissue and organ donations.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/politics/planned-parenthood-fifth-video-houston/index.html

  4. RW commented on Aug 5

    The Future of Work: Don’t Blame the Robots

    There has been a bizarre debate in national policy circles in recent years, with many raising the prospect that the development of robots and other technologies will lead to mass unemployment and lower living standards. The debate is bizarre for two reasons. First, productivity growth has actually been quite slow in recent years; this is the opposite of the “robots replacing workers’’ story. Second, faster productivity growth should mean higher wages and better living standards in a well-working economy.

    Taking these points in turn, …

    • willid3 commented on Aug 5

      suspect that most of the ‘down turn’ in productivity growth is really driven by the lack of investment by business. they have seen no reason to do so since wages havent been growing much for quite a while now. and that was what has always driven productivity since the last plague killed off so many Europeans and drove the cost of labor higher. and that lead to a lot of technology as human labor was expensive. and if and when wages start to grow (by no means a sure thing) then we will see some investment by business in technology . and most ‘investment’ in technology is reduce labor costs. and you cant do that if have as many high paying jobs as before you did the investment can you? about the only way that works out is if you can produce more products with fewer people (like say GM. with less than 100,00 workers produces more products that in did with more than 300,000 workers. course it does pay them more but then the cost of living is higher now than then. but if you told the company that they could actually produce more than today with about 1/2 of the workers they did today, they might invest. but today business see issues tryiong to keep sales going. as there is a less and less buyers

  5. VennData commented on Aug 5

    CHARTER CEO: Young people can’t afford cable

    These guys make their minimum package so expensive and blame it on their customers!?

    TV used to be free. The government agreed to stop air transmission and these guys used the opportunity to jack up their minimums

    And the GOP supports them on Ending “Net Neutrality.”

    End the bundle! Screw Big Cable.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/charter-ceo-young-people-cant-afford-cable-2015-8

  6. Jojo commented on Aug 5

    Oil prices are falling again. Here’s why
    —–
    But gas prices remain high northern Calif. I paid $3.43/gal at Costco for premium the other day and Costco is usually the lowest price. Most other stations are selling premium for $3.60 – $4.20/gal.

  7. Jojo commented on Aug 5

    Forget about futuristic cars — here are plastic roads
    By Jurica Dujmovic
    Published: Aug 3, 2015

    We know cars pollute our environment, but did you know roads do as well?

    Road building and maintenance result in more than 96 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) being released into the atmosphere every year. Putting plastic refuse to good use could help the environment, and make roads safer and sturdier.

    Dutch company VolkerWessels is actually preparing to test one such road — PlasticRoad — in Rotterdam. The project is in line with other developments such as Cradle to Cradle and The Ocean Cleanup, which aim to rid the seas of plastic waste.

    Although still in the concept stage, the idea of PlasticRoad holds promise. It’s lightweight, much easier to build, virtually maintenance-free and has a life span that’s three times that of an asphalt road. PlasticRoad is made from 100% recycled material, which is turned into lightweight prefabricated parts placed on to a sand surface. Compared with the process of laying asphalt, a plastic road is installed much faster, the entire operation being completed in weeks instead of months.

    …

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/forget-about-futuristic-cars-here-are-plastic-roads-2015-08-03

    • VennData commented on Aug 5

      What makes this really special is this dentist shot the lion with a bow and arrow. Wounded, the lion walked on in probably excruciating pain, bleeding out. For two days. Then this patriot finally caught up to him and then…decapitated him for his “trophy”.

      A GOP hero.

  9. formerlawyer commented on Aug 5

    With your changed role – can we expect a market flameout if you are travelling?

    Seriously, take time off, get recharged and take care of your family,

    Cheers,
    A long time reader

  11. rd commented on Aug 5

    The solution to many of the tax collection issues in Greece may have been found during the cash control crisis over the past few weeks. Many people did not have debit or credit cards, so transactions were largely by cash, which had significant limits imposed. However, apparently debit cards worked fine for transactions as long as it was buying a good or service in Greece instead of abroad. This is apparently resulting in a much more auditable electronic trail than traditional cash transactions.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-03/in-cash-starved-greece-plastic-casts-light-into-shadow-economy

  13. willid3 commented on Aug 5

    hm. can you detect a trend here?
    http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/08/04/GE-Saved-Billions-Cutting-Retirees-Benefits

    seems that companies have found a new place to cut employees expenses. cut their retiree’s benefits. course i always wondered why companies didnt just let Medicare do this,

    didnt there used to be a party line about employees being the most important asset? seems like they have really decided thats old school. let the government do it

    course some party seems to think that Medicare just needs to go away too.

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