The Big Picture

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• The Greek Economy: Which Way Forward?
• Ring System 200X Saturn’s Discovered 430 Light Years Away
• Look Out Below, fill-in-the-blank edition!
• The Shrinking American Middle Class
• Look Out Below, _____ edition!
• 10 Tuesday AM Reads
• Biohacking with Nootropics

The Greek Economy: Which Way Forward? Posted: 28 Jan 2015 02:00 AM PST

Ring System 200X Saturn’s Discovered 430 Light Years Away Posted: 27 Jan 2015 05:00 PM PST A ring system circling a young giant planet about 430 light years from Earth is 200 times the size of Saturn’s rings, scientists have discovered. WSJ’s Monika Auger reports.

Look Out Below, fill-in-the-blank edition! Posted: 27 Jan 2015 12:30 PM PST Markets were under intense pressure earlier today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down almost 400 points. Most indexes were down 2 percent or so around the globe before recovering some of the losses. As is often the case during big market swings, numerous narratives attempt to explain the causes of the market turmoil. Consider the following headlines: • “U.S. Index Futures Tumble as Microsoft, Caterpillar Disappoint” • “U.S. Stocks Tumble After Downbeat Data, Earnings” • “Ukraine crisis: EU leaders warn of more sanctions against Russia” • “Microsoft Gave All Kinds Of Gloomy Warnings During Today’s Earnings Call” • “Greece and Europe Dig In on Bailout Terms After Syriza Victory“ The only genuine surprise on that list was an unexpected drop in durable goods orders of 3.4 percent in December. Let’s take a look at the "news" that supposedly drove today’s stock market. Caterpillar missed fourth-quarter earnings expectations and lowered forecasts for the coming year on (surprise!)  plunging  energy prices and slower European and Chinese sales . Procter & Gamble blamed lower earnings on the stronger U.S. dollar (shocker!), while Microsoft said that software-license  sales for PCs declined (who ever could have seen THAT coming?).   Continues here

The Shrinking American Middle Class Posted: 27 Jan 2015 09:00 AM PST click for interactive infographic Source: The Upshot

Look Out Below, _____ edition! Posted: 27 Jan 2015 05:58 AM PST     Whats driving the market lower today: European softness, Grexit, Microsoft miss, Cat comments, or something else entirely? Often, the most accurate answer is we don’t know . . .   More on this later

10 Tuesday AM Reads Posted: 27 Jan 2015 05:00 AM PST My morning “Snowpacalypse Not” cancelled-trains-can't-get-into-the-office-even-if-I-wanted-to AM reads: • As Commodities Fall, Some Investors See Reasons to Buy (WSJ) • Technology and Finance: Drivers of a Profit Margin Explosion (Philosophical Economics) • Asia’s Richest Man Has Seen the Future and It’s in Europe (Bloomberg) • Vanguard’s funds reach new heights (Investment News) • The Shake Shack Economy (New Yorker) Continues here

Biohacking with Nootropics Posted: 27 Jan 2015 03:30 AM PST Smart Drugs via CNN/Money

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