A look at Amazon’s newest concept—Amazon Go—a convenience store that opens in Seattle today complete with “shelves of food” found at other stores (including Whole Foods) but with nary a cashier in sight – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

In this week’s installment of “What’s old is new again” we present the return of BPOs. Congress outlawed broker price opinions (a sort of drive-by valuation done by real estate agents as a quicker and cheaper alternative to traditional appraisals) after the 2008 housing crash for traditional mortgages, but institutional landlords (think Blackstone’s Invitation Homes Inc.) have been relying heavily on them to value the collateral in their bonds – WSJ

More on the economic triggers to the recent weeks of unrest in Iran, including a massive Ponzi scheme run by Caspian Finance and Credit Institution—an entity “owned by well-connected elites: religious foundations, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or other semiofficial investment funds in the Iranian state” – NYTimes

A few early thoughts from the papers of record about the economic impact of a partial government shutdown – WSJ vs. NYTimes

Across the pond, it’s the no-deal Brexit that’s causing headaches.  And the insider take is “financial chaos” without a transition deal or final settlement – Bloomberg

Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason are joining forces to push Xerox to end its joint venture with Fuji and to explore a potential sale – WSJ

Law360 Analysis on how the White House’s deal last week to drop an appeal of the 2016 court ruling allowing MetLife to “escape” its SIFI label and to “include cost-benefit and other analyses in future” SIFI designations could make heightened regulation much tougher for future FSOCs – Law360

Trading floors? Please.  So 2000s.  Today’s apps let FX traders close $100+ million deals on their phones – Bloomberg

SDNY Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn has recommended that Royal Park’s suit against Wells Fargo for allegedly failing to oversee RMBS should not move forward as a class action, “saying the potentially hundreds of class members had more differences than similarities” – Law360

We’ve covered just about every angle on the bitcoin rollercoaster so far, but we haven’t touched on the very real electricity required to mine a very virtual currency.  Until now, that is – NYTimes

As if the fine folks at P&G don’t have enough to worry about these days – WSJ