A SINGLE CHART EVERYBODY NEEDS TO LOOK AT BEFORE TRUMP'S BIG FIGHT OVER BRINGING BACK AMERICAN JOBS

TOP OF THE NEWS:

- A single chart everybody needs to look at before Trump’s big fight over bringing back American jobs (WaPo) "But keeping this promise will be difficult, as Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, recently argued. That’s because American workers may be struggling, but American factories are not. U.S. factories now manufacture twice as much as they did in 1984, with one-third fewer workers, according to the Federal Reserve.

BUSINESS/FINANCE:

- Jack Bogle: “We’re in the Middle of a Revolution” (Bloomberg) "People are going to be using more index funds in 2025 than they are today. This is an underlying, fundamental trend—not one built on opinion, but on the relentless rules of humble arithmetic. Actively managed funds have been losing to index funds, in terms of cash flow, for eight consecutive years now. And it’s cascading now. Investors love it; Wall Street hates it. Mutual fund managers don’t like it either. Money is leaving them and coming to us every single day. We’re now doing a billion dollars a day. This is just totally beyond anything else in the industry’s history. 'The math is the math, and I think the mathematics are inarguable.'"

- Trump, and Great Business Ideas for America (NYT) "Professor Khurana warned that expecting these people to perform acts of genius was asking for trouble. The charismatic outsider tends to become authoritarian, alienating others in the company. The executive’s desperate efforts to live up to their promise may sometimes result in wild gambles. There are grounds for concern that President Trump could be this kind of outsider chief executive."

- Cashing in on Cryptocurrency in Hong Kong (Wired) "Users sign up for a free BitMEX account online, deposit Bitcoins — for which they’ve traded — and then bet on the value of currencies or financial derivatives that are based on real stocks, bonds and other financial products."

- One Money Question to Rule Them All: How Much Is Enough? (NYT)

HEALTH:

- Is “Screen Time” Dangerous for Children? (New Yorker) "Many parents worry that 'screen time' will impair children’s development, but recent research suggests that most of the common fears about children and screens are unfounded. The new guidelines emphasize that what matters is content and context, what children watch and with whom."

NEWS:

- Obama administration expands elite military unit’s powers to hunt foreign fighters globally (WaPo) "When finalized, it will elevate JSOC from being a highly-valued strike tool used by regional military commands to leading a new multiagency intelligence and action force. The new JSOC task force will report to the Pentagon through the U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, according to U.S. military officials, creating a hybrid command system that can circumvent regional commanders for the sake of speed."

- An ethical double standard for Trump — and the GOP? (WaPo) "If Trump wasn’t ready to put his business life behind him, he should not have run for president. And if Republicans — after all of their ethical sermons about Clinton — do not now demand that the incoming president unequivocally cut all of his and his family’s ties to his companies, they will be fully implicated in any Trump scandal that results from a shameful and partisan double standard."

- Trump the president-elect: So far, acting a lot like Trump the candidate (LA Times) "On policy, Trump repeatedly has softened or de-emphasized key components of his campaign pitch. A video released 13 days after the election did not mention three of the biggest applause generators at his campaign rallies — his promises to build a wall on the border with Mexico, to tear up the NAFTA trade agreement and to repeal Obamacare."

- The Real Concerns of the Trump Transition (New Yorker)

- The Disruptive Career of Michael Flynn, Trump’s National-Security Adviser (New Yorker)

POLITICS:

- Trump’s populism is about to face a rude awakening (WaPo) "Trump might have to decide between giving up on his populism, and giving up on getting anything done. Whichever he chooses, though, there's a good chance that wages will continue to go up and up as the labor market gets closer and closer to full employment. The irony is that they might not rise as much, at least not for the "forgotten men" and women who pushed Trump into the White House, as they otherwise would have."

TECHNOLOGY:

- Help Wanted: People on Autism Spectrum to Solve Cybersecurity Crisis (Wired)

BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:

- Being Kim Jong Un: A Chinese impersonator has little luck with the opposite sex (WaPo)

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