Good morning. Mmmm. The US retail sales numbers keep on surprising on the downside…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-13/retail-sales-miss-third-month-row-worst-print-january

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/08/retail-sales-unchanged-in-july.html

Cisco results, the short version

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-13/cisco-quarter-nutshell-terminating-6000-while-buying-back-15-billion-stock

The population divide in China

https://twitter.com/Amazing_Maps

This one is going for the Best Title of 2014 Award!

http://finance.yahoo.com/tumblr/blog-the-power-of-shareholder-yield-183625528.html

…but this one is also pretty sharp. The Economist on prostitution: “More bang for your buck!”

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21611074-how-new-technology-shaking-up-oldest-business-more-bang-your-buck

For those working in the mutual fund business: chasing the best performing fund does not work, according to Vanguard

http://www.scribd.com/doc/236535631/Vanguard-Quantifying-the-impact-of-chasing-fund-performance

Some thoughts on the US repo market

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/banks-withdrawing-repo-market.html

Interesting: did you know Nash Grier? No? Het is bigger than the Beatles!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/07/nash-grier-vine_n_5631144.html

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