As expected, Wells Fargo has promoted former Fed governor and current vice chair Elizabeth Duke to succeed Board chair Stephen Sanger. Incredibly, the move makes Duke the first woman to hold the top spot at one of the country’s largest banks – WSJ and Bloomberg and NYTimes
The solar energy industry is having something of an existential crisis, prompted in large part by the push from two struggling domestic solar equipment makers to “impose steep tariffs and minimum price guarantees on similar imports” – NYTimes
Speculation about the Fed’s next steps (rate hikes? Portfolio wind-down?) is rising, and Fed watchers will take particular note when the Fed’s July meeting minutes are released this afternoon. Here’s a preview – WSJ and Bloomberg
We’ve been tracking the subprime auto loan market for some time here, as the Times and others have suggested that it’s the next big bubble about to burst. Equifax has come out with a new report indicating that deep subprime car loans are in a very bad place, with delinquency rates creeping toward eve-of-2008 levels – Bloomberg
On remand from the Supreme Court’s 2016 Spokeo decision addressing the injury-in-fact allegations for statutory-based claims, the Ninth Circuit found that plaintiff Thomas Robins did indeed sufficiently allege both a concrete and particularized injury and therefore allowed his proposed class action FCRA claims to proceed. The decision undercuts what the defense bar had hoped to be a SCOTUS-sanctioned tool to oppose FCRA and TCPA suits – Law360
Amazon is reportedly planning to offer $16 billion in bonds to help fund its purchase of Whole Foods, a rare move for Bezos’ behemoth that’s a product of strong investor demand and “favorable borrowing conditions” – WSJ and Bloomberg
Uber has agreed to a staggering 20 years of outside privacy and security audits as part of its deal to resolve Federal Trade Commission allegations that it didn’t properly protect customer data. The FTC pursued Uber after reports that Uber employees were looking into customer travel logs – NYTimes and WSJ
KPMG will pay $6.2 million to settle an SEC complaint over an allegedly botched audit of oil-and-gas company Miller Energy Resources. The SEC suggested that KPMG’s failings led to investor misinformation on a massive scale, though KPMG admitted to no wrongdoing – WSJ
Your EclipseWatch 2017 update courtesy of a true pro. [The big event’s just 5 days away] – NYTimes
Given the current state of affairs, it’s somehow oddly comforting to learn that there’s a secret pumpkin cabal operating virtually unchecked here in the US – Marketplace