A volatile August on Wall Street has insiders asking whether we should be taking our cues from 1998 or 2007 – NYTimes
With that in mind, our financial term of the week is “countercyclical capital buffer,” a wonkish special for you econ diehards out there that’s a potential new tool for the Fed that would allow the central bank to “require banks to hold more loss-absorbing capital should the economy show signs of overheating, or to keep less of it during bad economic times” – WSJ
The bond market appears to be preparing for the worst, too – Bloomberg and WSJ and MarketWatch
The latest on CBS/Viacom negotiations – WSJ
A $15 billion investment by Saudi Aramco in Reliance Industries, one of “India’s biggest companies,” appears part of a larger strategy of closeness between the two nations that—for India—delivers the added benefit of frustrating Pakistan while giving Aramco a boost in refining – NYTimes and WSJ
We finally have more details on the long-awaited Volcker Rule 2.5, with a Fed-led group of 5 federal agencies set to release the latest iteration of an overhaul expected to “loosen[] restrictions on banks investing their own money in private equity and hedge funds” – Bloomberg
Amazon is closing in on a deal in which it will take a 10% stake in Future Retail Ltd., India’s second-largest retailer “as the U.S. company moves to bolster its brick-and-mortar presence in one of the world’s fastest-growing retail markets” – Bloomberg
A look at Silicon Valley’s (perhaps belated) pro-America turn in an effort to fend off the sea of “privacy scandals, antitrust investigations, congressional hearings, Chinese tariffs, presidential tweets and Senator Elizabeth Warren” that Big Tech perceives as threats to their way of life (and bottom line) – NYTimes
The SEC’s hit a giant pause button on its decision regarding approval of two crypto ETFs, citing market concerns for the delay and “dealing another blow to those in the cryptocurrencies community holding on to the belief that a favorable decision was imminent” – Bloomberg
Former for-profit higher ed outpost ITT Tech Institute will pay $60 million to resolve a CFPB-led suit accusing ITT of alleged predatory private lending in which the school pressured students to take out loans it knew they couldn’t afford – Law360
GM and Volkswagen both announced this week that they’re cutting future development of hybrid vehicles in order to focus completely on electric cars, a decision that puts them at odds with Toyota and Ford—both of whom are keeping hybrids in the mix while working on fully electric models – WSJ
Verizon’s ditching Tumbler, the blogging site it acquired as part of Yahoo’s Oath holdings in 2017. It’s selling to Automattic Inc., the owner of “popular online-publishing tool WordPress.com” – WSJ and Bloomberg
Anyone love breadsticks and feel like putting some pretty serious stock in the Olive Garden’s staying power? – MarketWatch
