This week’s highlights: The New Midlife Crisis, Are Whole Food’s Prices Actually Lower, and Cybersecurity.

Fifteen on Friday – 10/13/17 – Issue 257

Food for Thought:

1. Oprah – The New Midlife Crisis – Why (and How) It’s Hitting Gen X Women – “I called my best friend, a reporter a few years older than me who grew up in the Midwest. “Hey,” I said, happy to have caught her on a break from her job, “do you know anyone having a midlife crisis I could talk to?”  The phone was silent for a second. Finally, she said, “I’m trying to think of any woman I know who’s not.”
2. New Yorker – Is Health Care a Right?  It’s a question that divides Americans, including those from my home town. But it’s possible to find common ground.
3. Politech – Here’s What Would Happen If Donald Trump Nuked North Korea.  – Credit SF – In 1945, America won the war with nukes. Today, it could end the world as we know it.
4. ESPNFC – U.S. out of excuses after defeat in Trinidad leaves it out of World Cup
5. Racked – We All Have a Retail Flinch Point.  It’s the moment when a purchase turns painful, and it varies more widely than you might expect.

Business/Economics:

1. SS – State Street October Chart Pack.  A well constructed, graphical look at the market today.
2. Bloomberg – How UBS Became Home to Half the World’s Billionaires
3. EMR – What’s Changed a Month After Amazon’s Whole Foods Buy.  Widely anticipated price changes haven’t materialized yet.
4. RetailDive – Supply chain might be the biggest retail disruptor
5. NYT – Yale Endowment, Often a Pacesetter, Is a Laggard This Time

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. NS – Half the universe’s missing matter has just been finally found
2. TS – The value of raising the threshold of crappiness – Credit Farnam Street – To operate successfully as a coffee shop, say, you have to be at least as good as a chain or else you fail
3. TheAtlantic – The Barriers Stopping Poor People From Moving to Better Jobs.  Highly educated people still relocate for work, but exorbitant housing costs in the best-paying cities make it difficult for anyone else to do so.
4. NYT – Making the Lives of Cybercriminals and Spies Harder Online
5. BoF – The 10 Commandments of New Consumerism.  Consumers are reassessing their priorities and increasingly questioning what they truly value, but what does the change mean for fashion companies?