Links for May 1, 2017

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Only profitable enterprises will see any advantage from a cut to the corporate rate—and that’s more likely to be mature companies than startups. Among publicly traded corporations, 82 percent of mid-caps were profitable in 2016, vs. 68 percent of smaller companies, according to FTSE Russell, which compiles various stock indexes.

Businesses Don’t Benefit Equally From Trump’s Tax Proposal - Bloomberg

The Trump administration has proposed reducing the maximum tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. House Republicans favor a 20 percent rate; they also want to lower the top rate for so-called pass-through entities, a category that includes limited liability companies and S corporations, from 39.6 percent to 25 percent. More than 90 percent of U.S. businesses—28.3 million—are pass-throughs; most are small to midsize. Under Trump’s plan, the 15 percent rate would also apply to such enterprises. That could benefit his own businesses, which are structured as limited liability companies.

Businesses Don’t Benefit Equally From Trump’s Tax Proposal - Bloomberg

Last month, both the US Department of Homeland Security and the UK Department of Transport issued a new ban. Passengers flying from certain areas of North Africa and the Middle East can no longer carry electronics larger than a smartphone on flights. Royal Jordanian airlines cheekily responded by offering travellers “12 things to do on a 12-hour flight with no tablet or laptop.” Number 11 was “analyse the meaning of life.” These days, spare moments are filled with using our smartphones and other devices There’s nothing inherently funny about this suggestion. It’s amusing because the thought of quiet contemplation on a long flight rather than being entertained via a screen is, in today’s world, ridiculous... In 2012, researchers found that letting your mind wander can lead to better creative problem solving. And anecdotal links between daydreaming and creativity abound. From Einstein to Nobel Prize-winning chemists to the inventor of the Post-it note, many of the world’s great thinkers have espoused the benefits of giving your mind a rest. And perhaps you too have noticed that your best ideas come in the shower or while out for a walk.

BBC - Capital - Why idle moments are crucial for creativity

Governments damage their economies when they shut down Internet applications and services, according to a new analysis. During the past year, 81 disruptions in 19 countries cost those economies at least $2.4 billion, according a study by Darrell West at the Brookings Institution that estimates the cost of disrupting a nation’s online activities. Governments can cut off citizens’ Internet access for a variety of reasons, including to quell dissent or force a company to comply with a law. In 2011, the Egyptian government shut down access for five days to prevent communication between protesters, while more recently, Brazil blocked the messaging app WhatsApp after it refused to comply with requests for user data.

Shut Down the Internet, and the Economy Goes With It - MIT Technology Review

There is something fishy about our attitude to fish. It is estimated there are a staggering 250,000 species of fish in our oceans, yet despite their diverse looks and behaviour, many people perceive them to be universally dim-witted. This widely-held belief may persist due to an unconscious bias, based on an old-fashioned view of how evolution works. Culum Brown of Macquarie University in Australia, who is also assistant editor of the Journal of Fish Biology, suspects that many people underestimate how smart fish are because they assume fish are primitive creatures. "The reality is that most of the fish on the planet today evolved around the same time as humans," he says.

BBC - Earth - Why fish do not deserve their reputation for forgetfulness

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Those who think surveys of expectations have predictive power for spending and saving might therefore conclude the uptick bodes well for America’s growth outlook. However, a closer look at who exactly is excited about the future suggests there is less here than meets the eye. Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Slok points out that the improvement in expectations is entirely due to Americans without a college degree, rather than those with greater spending power and higher earning potential. Americans with degrees have been getting steadily less optimistic since mid-2015

America’s rising consumer confidence mostly due to the elderly and less-educated | FT Alphaville

Le Pen said could use capital controls if she wins the presidential election and triggers a flight of money out of France. "I found her comments strange because, by saying that, she essentially admitted her policies would cause that kind of turmoil," said Charles Lichfield of Eurasia Group.

Marine Le Pen floats idea of capital controls if she wins presidency

ForceShares has introduced two new exchange-traded funds that deliver four times the returns, either higher or lower, of S&P 500 futures. The ForceShares Daily 4X US Market Futures Long Fund and ForceShares Daily 4X US Market Futures Short Fund are designed to return 400 percent of the performance of the index. While such "leveraged" ETFs are hardly new — a plethora of products offer double or triple up or down movements in various parts of the market — this marks the first time a quadruple fund has been launched. Some market participants worry that the temptation of such outsized returns will be impossible to resist, with dire results possible.

'Market crack': New ETFs that can quadruple gains — or losses

The CBOE Volatility Index is often referred to as the "market fear gauge," since it tends to rise as investors become more and more willing to pay for protection against a decline in equity prices. But just because the index is plumbing 10-year lows this week, that does not necessarily mean that complacency has overtaken the market.

The real reason the ‘fear index’ is at 10-year lows

But there are reasons to stay hopeful, too, especially if you're someone who's tried toughing it out on protein shakes and salads and still failed to see results. Plus, a growing body of research on fasting suggests that in addition to helping with weight loss, the method could have other beneficial health outcomes, such as potentially reducing the risk for certain cancers and even possibly prolonging life.

Fasting for weight loss: Newest research, science - Business Insider