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Japan Stocks Sink
Drag Asian markets down.
Big declines in Japanese stocks continued, as the Nikkei index fell a stunning 6 percent on the day. What gives? Foreign investors who rushed into the rapidly booming Japanese market have apparently realized that stocks there can set as well as rise. Investors are also beginning to question whether Abenomics (the new economic policy of easy money, cheaper yen, and reform) is actually working to promote growth.
Palace Intrigue at Goldman
Deputy Cohn wants top job.
“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” Goldman Sachs, the investment bank everybody loves to hate, could be facing a tumultuous leadership struggle. The New York Times reports that while longtime second-in-command Gary Cohn wants the top job, CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who has helmed the company for seven years, shows no signs of leaving. Over the past few decades, most Goldman heads have gone on to prominent positions in Washington, D.C. But given Goldman’s unpopularity, Blankfein landing a position like Treasury secretary is unlikely.
Primed for the Majors
Are the big publishing houses using independent presses as a farm league to scout for talent, and giving up gambling on splashy debut novels? James McGirk reports.
When Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station came out in 2011, it won major awards and seemed in every respect like one of those dazzling debut novels that preceded it: Everything Is Illuminated, The Art of Fielding, White Teeth. Except that it was published by little-known Minneapolis art-house company Coffee House Press. How could the big publishing houses have missed it? There have been indications that the Big Six—Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House, and Simon & Schuster—were steering away from splashy debuts.
Why Oprah’s New Shows Are Working
OWN (3); AP
Oprah’s network got off to a weak start. But a new raft of shows highlighting the real lives of black women is giving audiences something new—and something they want.
Just this week OWN, the cable network founded by talk show icon Oprah Winfrey, announced the renewal of three of its top reality shows: Iyanla: Fix My Life, starring Iyanla Vanzant; Life with La Toya, starring La Toya Jackson; and Raising Whitley, starring Kim Whitley, which all feature black women at the center. Erik Logan, president of OWN, credited each show with increasing the network’s ratings overall and propelling the once-struggling cable station to the No.
Deathblow for Unpaid Internships?
Dimitri Vervitsiotis, via Getty
A judge for the southern district of New York ruled Wednesday that Fox Searchlight violated the law by not paying interns on ‘Black Swan.’ David Freedlander on whether unpaid internships are on their way out.
Is the unpaid internship dead?That’s what corporate CEOs and employment law attorneys were trying to figure out Wednesday after a U.S. district court judge ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures had violated the law by not paying interns who worked on the film Black Swan.In a lacerating ruling, Judge William H. Pauley III found that had the interns not been hired to do the mostly remedial tasks they were assigned, paid employees would have been.
Surrender, Xbox!
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty
The great gaming wars are over and PlayStation 4 is the clear winner, writes Winston Ross. Plus: Sony's John Koller on the company's smart choices.
For gamers, this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3) in Los Angeles arrived with all the suspense and drama of a presidential election. Up for grabs: the spot as America’s favorite new gaming platform. The contenders: Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4. It’s been eight years since the Xbox 360 came out; seven years since the PS3. Both companies announced there would be updates to the platforms earlier this year, and since then gamers have been anticipating the unveilings, which may have a bigger influence on millennials than the Great Recession did on their ability to buy a videogame console in the first place.
What Deficit?
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. The golden age of deficit reduction has arrived. But will Republicans ever admit the truth? Unlikely.
It may not seem like it, but the Golden Age of Deficit Reduction we’ve been writing about is truly upon us.The May monthly treasury statement came out on Wednesday. And while it shows a hefty $139 billion deficit for the month of May, a look inside the data shows why we are entering a brief age of deficit-reduction nirvana.Many analysts believed the huge revenue gains seen in the first few months of 2013 would wilt away as winter turned into spring.
Chart of the Day
Mary Altaffer/AP
A day after the shocking announcement of Lululemon CEO Christine Day’s resignation, investors continue to cut and run.
As if it were wearing a pair of its see-through pants, Lululemon’s tumble has been laid bare for all to see. Under CEO Christine Day, high-end yoga apparel maker Lululemon was a huge success story, with its stock growing steadily over the past five years. Then on June 11, to the shock of investors and the business world, Day said she would be stepping down as CEO, without naming a replacement or giving a detailed explanation for her departure.
First LIBOR, Now Currency Exchanges
Bankers rig exchange rates.
And the reasons clients continue to trust big banks are? Bloomberg News reports that some of the biggest banks globally have been manipulating benchmark foreign-exchange rates to profit from moves they subsequently make for clients. The $4.7 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market (FX market) is one of the least regulated. The rigging of these rates affects the value of trillions of dollars in funds, including pensions and savings accounts.
It’s All Greek to Him
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Five years ago, Chobani didn’t exist. Now it’s a billion-dollar business. How the son of a small-town shepherd made good.
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Huffington Post Politics
Republican: I Oppose Abortion Because Male Fetuses Masturbate
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Mental Floss
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Markets React to Fed Tapering
With news of potential Fed tapering, Julie Hyman joins In the Loop with Betty Liu on Bloomberg News to give analysis of market reaction.
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James D. Hamilton and Menzie Chinn
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Mark Thoma – Economist’s View
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Barry Ritholtz – The Big Picture
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Tyler Cowen/Alex Tabarrok – Marginal Revolution
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Greg Mankiw
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Peter Boone, Simon Johnson, and James Kwak
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Brad De Long
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Calculated Risk
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Dealbreaker
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Eddy Elfenbein — Crossing Wall Street
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Zero Hedge
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Owning a Piece of the Sun
Save the planet, turn a profit.... More
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I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.... More
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It’s All Greek to Him
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Asymmetrical Information
Megan McArdle
Why Aren't We Creating Enough New Jobs?
Labor markets aren't adjusting to the disappearance of certain kinds of work
Latest from The Daily Beast
Channing Tatum’s (Hilarious) Music Video
Jimmy Kimmel Live aired a hilarious music video starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Kimmel, and more.



