Another week off and online but at least as of Friday, the new desktop is on order, supercharged i7 processor with 16GB RAM for video editing and a turbo-charged video card, should be a dream compared to what I've been putting up with.  It'll be ready in about another week so hopefully in about two weeks I'll be back online and back to normal.


Meanwhile, the 5th CFP exam is coming up this Wednesday, this time on the topics of taxation and retirement planning.  Believe it or not, and I realize this opens me up to charges of nerdness, but I find taxation to be the most fascinating of all the topics we've studied.  It is so exciting to be dissecting all the options the IRS makes available to help us avoid taxes and I am so looking forward to the day that I can apply all these tools in the service of clients.  After Wednesday, I have just one exam left and then the threat of expulsion will be forever ended.

Below is the weekly commitment I have made to provide everyone with a summary of the week's events.  This Sunday's bonus is the weekend reading list with a particularly insightful article that seeks to explode the myth about the high price of developing drugs, plus a very instructive graphic showing the recent trends in bonds and who's holding what?  Are we about to have a bubble?  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 8.26.16

August 26, 2016 4:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending August 26th 2016

Positives:

1. Durable goods rose 4.4% in July, up from a -4% reading previously.
2. New home sales came in at an SAAR of 654k, well above the 580k expected.
3. Jobless claims fell to 261k, from 262k. 4-Week moving average is down to 264k.
4. Chicago Fed National Activity Index came in at 0.27, up from 0.16 previously.
5. PMI services flash came in at 50.9, in line with expectations.

Negatives:

1. GDP rose at just a 1.1% annualized rate (but consumer spending rose 4.4% annualized).
2. Corporate profits fell 2.2% y/o/y.
3. Consumer sentiment fell to 89.8, slightly below the 90.7 expected.
4. PMI manufacturing came in at 52.1, down from 52.9 previously and below the 53.2 expected.
5. Existing home sales fell to an SAAR of 5.39M, down from 5.57 previously and down 3.2% m/o/m.
6. MBA mortgage applications fell 2.1% w/o/w.

10 Weekend Reads 8-27-16 - The Big Picture

10 Weekend Reads

August 27, 2016 7:00am by Barry Ritholtz

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of KickAss coffee, grab a comfy seat poolside lounger, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:

• Holdout: If a private development wants your place, and you refuse to sell, there’s not much they can do (99% Invisible)
• The iBrain is Here – And It’s Already Inside Your Phone (Backchannel)
• Busting the billion-dollar myth: how to slash the cost of drug development (Nature.com)
• How Researchers Discovered the Basketball ‘Hot Hand’ (NY Mag)
• The Spectrum Auction: How Economists Saved the Day (Priceonomics)
• Like. Flirt. Ghost: A Journey Into the Social Media Lives of Teens (Wired)
• How Chicken Conquered the American Dinner Plate (First We Feast)
• The Drone Presidency (NY Review of Books)
• How the Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ Gave Brian Wilson a Nervous Breakdown (Medium)
• America’s Golf Courses Are Burning (Bloomberg)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Gina Martin Adams, head of Equity Strategy ay Wells Fargo.

What global fixed-income markets are in bubble territory?

Source: CFA Institute