Former Bridgewater Associates’ co-chief executive officer Eileen Murray has filed an updated version of her complaint against the hedge fund firm, with fresh allegations of "brazen hypocrisy" at the $140 billion asset manager.

That settlement… reduced the bank’s earnings by $2 billion to $373 million, or 53 cents a share. Previously it had reported profits of $2.4 billion, or $6.26 per share, holding steady during a stretch in which the coronavirus pandemic hammered other banks’ results.

U.S. Added 1.8 Million Jobs in July [NYT]The increase reported Friday by the Labor Department was well below the 4.8 million jump in jobs in June and a sign that momentum is slowing after a burst of economic activity in late spring.“The easy hiring that was done in May and June has been exhausted,” said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America. “With many companies not running at full capacity, it becomes harder to get that incremental worker back in.”

Finally, a Path Emerges to European Bank Mergers [WSJ]Intesa-UBI, though an all-Italian affair, is the region’s first big acquisition not borne out of financial distress in many years. If it proves successful, other lenders might consider similar moves. The European Central Bank has made clear its support for tie-ups and even laid out its supervisory approach…. With the EU now willing to raise its own financial firepower—even if it insists the Covid-19 recovery package is a one-off—markets are more...

The Manhattan district attorney’s office issued the subpoena last year to Deutsche Bank, which has been Mr. Trump’s primary lender since the late 1990s, seeking financial records that he and his company provided to the bank, according to four people familiar with the inquiry….

Deutsche Bank complied with the subpoena. Over a period of months last year, it provided Mr. Vance’s office with detailed records, including financial statements and other materials that Mr. Trump had provided to the bank as he sought loans, according to two of the people familiar with the inquiry….

The subpoena to Deutsche Bank sought documents on various topics related to Mr. Trump and his company, including any materials that might point to possible fraud, according to two people briefed on the subpoena’s contents…. Some Deutsche Bank officials viewed Mr. Trump’s financial statements as based on wildly optimistic assumptions and, in some cases, reduced his estimates of his assets’ values by...

Liability Shield Is a Stumbling Block as Lawmakers Debate Relief [NYT]So far, there has been little sign of a surge in litigation as the economy reopens, and prominent voices have opposed such a measure, arguing that liability shields are unfair to workers and that businesses must take responsibility to keep them safe…. Opponents of the provision, including the American Association of Justice, also argue that the United States has not yet seen a profusion of coronavirus-related lawsuits, because the requirements for bringing such a suit are already high. Companies that act reasonably are protected from such lawsuits, and plaintiffs have to prove that they contracted the coronavirus at the place of business, not somewhere else, they say.

The last time Eastman Kodak needed a little spring in its stock, it looked to what was fashionable and the came up with a ridiculous plan to transform itself by getting into the cryptocurrency and blockchain business. It has done neither, but it worked—for a time, anyway—more than doubling the price of Kodak shares.

Two years later, the effect of that ruse had more than worn off, and Kodak shares were trading for little more than $2—a third lower than before the KodakCoin announcement. By then, Kodak had a new CEO and the world had a new obsession that was making companies and corporate insiders very rich: COVID-19. So that new CEO, Jim Continenza, decided another transformation was in order, one as fanciful as the last. Kodak would become a pharmaceutical company. Sure, the company has no more business doing that than it did moving into matters crypto, but that didn’t stop an administration stocked with as many fabulists and fantastical thinkers from offering it $765...

Lapse in Extra Unemployment Benefits to Hurt U.S. Recovery, Economists Say [WSJ]“It could take weeks and weeks and weeks to get this money to people, which means of course they will default on a number of obligations,” said Trevon Logan, an economics professor at Ohio State University…. Missing those payments could trigger evictions, fines and late fees—costs that consumers will try to avoid by pulling back on other kinds of spending, he said….“If we went to a world with no supplement, we’d see spending of the unemployed fall,” said Peter Ganong, a University of Chicago economist and one of the study’s co-authors. “Because there are so many unemployed people right now, that would have a really dramatic effect on the macroeconomy.”

By April, the Fed had lent another nearly half a trillion dollars to counterparts overseas, representing most of the emergency lending it had extended to fight the coronavirus at the time.

The massive commitment was among the Fed’s most significant—and least noticed—expansions of power yet. It eased a global dollar shortage, helped halt a deep market selloff and continues to support global markets today. It established the Fed as global guarantor of dollar funding, cementing the U.S. currency’s role as the global financial system’s underpinning….

“The Fed has vigorously embraced its role as a global lender of last resort in this episode,” said Nathan Sheets, a former Fed economist who was the Treasury Department’s top international deputy from 2014 to 2017 and now is chief economist at investment-advisory firm PGIM Fixed Income. “When the chips were down, U.S. authorities acted.”

You might think that the wave of bankruptcies impacting pandemic-stricken America are an unreservedly bad thing. That the dire straits or worse in which many iconic companies—J. Crew, Gold’s Gym, Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney, Hertz, GNC, Chuck E. Cheese, Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant, California Pizza Kitchen, Lord & Taylor, Men’s Wearhouse—have no silver lining amidst the lost jobs and general immiseration. CFOs of such companies—in particular, you might expect—would not see much to celebrate in the legal acknowledgment that their employers can no longer, you know, finance their continued existences.

On Aug. 4, 1995, Maria Bartiromo made history as the first reporter to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. For our younger readers, this was more of a milestone than it may now seem. For one, there were a hell of a lot more people crowding that hallowed space back then. For another, they were misogynistic pricks.

The bank is going through an overhaul centered around job cuts and branch closures to improve its profitability. Cerberus, which holds more than 5% of Commerzbank, has called for even deeper cuts. Its urgency comes amid a dismal performance by the bank’s stock, which was trading above €10 when Cerberus disclosed its stake in mid-2017 and is now at €4.45….

Mr. Vetter will replace Stefan Schmittmann, who along with Chief Executive Martin Zielke announced their resignations early last month…. While the resignations seemed to be a victory for Cerberus, the appointment of Mr. Vetter isn’t. As the German press started reporting his likely pick over the weekend, Cerberus sent a letter to Commerzbank’s board on Sunday saying it had “serious doubts that Hans-Jörg Vetter is the right person for this job or has the right experience for it.”

Stocks Edge Higher as Earnings Season Marches On [WSJ]“The market’s assumption is that the U.S. economy is not yet ready to stand on its own two feet. It appears that there is agreement that more needs to be done, it’s just about the shape of that package,” said Hugh Gimber, strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management…. More than three-quarters of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings, with the majority beating analyst expectations, according to UBS. This has led estimates for the third quarter to rise by 2.5% since the end of June.

In June 2013, the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and two of her Deutsche Bank colleagues purchased a Park Avenue apartment for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates, according to New York property records.

Mr. Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, disclosed in an annual personal financial report late Friday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had received $1 million to $5 million last year from Bergel 715…. Typically banks restrict employees from doing personal business with clients because of the potential for conflicts between the employees’ interests and those of the bank.

And so, the law as written allows hedge fund managers to keep paying the capital-gains rate on carried interest—as long as they wait three years. But that’s such a long time and such a pain in the ass. Luckily, the law also says, thanks apparently to some typically shoddy drafting, that corporations are exempt from that onerous delay and can have their carried interest after just one year. Now, it doesn’t take even a particularly sharp or gifted lawyer to figure out what comes next.

Cliff Asness, the co-founder of AQR Capital Management, has sold his Miami Beach penthouse for $22 million, a significant loss from the $26 million he paid for it just two years ago…. The buyer, represented by Seth Feuer of Compass, is a private-equity executive from the Northeast who is considering relocating to Miami….

Pelosi: Democrats still at odds with GOP, White House on stimulus [UPI]"We have been for the $600. They have a $200 proposal, which does not meet the needs of America's working families," Pelosi said, after saying that President Donald Trump is standing in the way of the stimulus package being passed."It's a condescension quite, frankly," she added. "Because they're saying, 'They really don't need it; they're just staying home because they make more money at $600.' So the idea that they made a proposal is really not actually factual…."Pelosi also said she did not have faith that an agreement would be reached soon, anticipating Republicans would not support the $600 plan.

“Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe this moment,” Klarman said in a letter to investors reviewed by Bloomberg News. Investor “psychology is surprisingly ebullient even though business fundamentals are often dreadful,” he added….

“Investors are being infantilized by the relentless Federal Reserve activity,” said Klarman, who runs hedge fund firm Baupost Group. “It’s as if the Fed considers them foolish children, unable to rationally set the prices of securities so it must intervene. When the market has a tantrum, the benevolent Fed has a soothing yet enabling response.”

According to the single charge, Odey has been accused under the Sexual Offences Act 1956 with “indecently assaulting a woman over the age of 16” on July 13, 1999.

The alleged attack happened in Swan Walk, an exclusive street in Chelsea near to the Thames, where Odey owns a home and a series of his businesses are registered…. He has yet to enter a plea to the charge of indecent assault.

Europe’s Markets Are Having a Moment [NYT]The region’s benchmark index, the Stoxx 600, is set for a second straight month of gains greater than those of the S&P 500 index, in dollar terms…. This week, the euro climbed to more than $1.18, the highest since June 2018, as demand for the currency and other European assets increased amid expectations that normal economic activity would resume more quickly in the region.

A federal judge in Boston sentenced Manuel Henriquez, the founder and former chief executive of specialty finance company Hercules Capital Inc., on Wednesday to six months in prison for his role in the Varsity Blues college-admissions cheating scandal….

The sentence exceeds the five month recommendation from prosecutors. Mr. Henriquez’s attorneys had urged the judge to give him a sentence at the low end of the zero-to-six-months range.

In asking for a lighter sentence, his lawyers noted unspecified health issues and concerns about placing him in a prison setting as the coronavirus pandemic rages across the country and in correctional facilities.

Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management told clients it will close to new investments next month, after raising $10 billion since it started managing outside capital less than three years ago…. It now manages $17.2 billion, with about $7 billion belonging to the founder, according to investors. That makes it one of the fastest-growing hedge funds at a time when many competitors are losing assets.

“The head of a large hedge fund was being relocated and paid $175,000 to charter a brand-new Gulfstream G450 to move his dog and its nanny while the owner and his wife flew British Airways,” says Privé Jets co-founder Isaac Grimberg….

“I think the war on COVID is almost over,” Empire Financial Research’s Enrique Abeyta says.

“Of course,” you might respond. “The war is almost over because COVID has just about won.”

By mid-September, Abeyta, who holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and owns magazines dedicated to heavy metal and tattoos but whose expertise in public health is not otherwise apparent on his LinkedIn page, continues, there will “maybe” be “less than 50” daily fatalities in the U.S.

“Yeesh,” you think. “That’s gruesome. I mean, sure, 1,400 people (at least) and rising are dying every day, and about 70,000 people (at least) get it every day, and (at least) 4.4 million people have or have had it, and 150,000 of them have died. But I still don’t think enough of us will be dead by mid-September for there to be so few left than only 50 of us a day will be dying.” And then you realize, Abeyta is not the most grimly pessimistic man on the planet, but the most cock-eyedly optimistic one....

U.S. Economy Contracted at Record Rate Last Quarter; Jobless Claims Rise to 1.43 Million [WSJ]The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy—fell at a 32.9% annual rate in the second quarter, or a 9.5% drop compared with the same quarter a year ago. Both figures were the steepest in records dating to 1947…. “The key caveat is that it will be a lot less better than we were expecting a few months ago,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said about the third quarter….Separately, the Labor Department said applications for weekly unemployment benefits rose by 12,000 to 1.43 million in the week ended July 25, and the number of people receiving unemployment benefits increased by 867,000 to 17 million in the week ended July 18, signs the jobs recovery is losing momentum.

Divorce isn’t known to bring out the best in people. And in some cases, it brings out the pure blind animus that animates certain Martin Lawrence movies. This seems the only possible explanation of Cooper vs. Hohn, formerly Cooper-Hohn vs. Cooper-Hohn.

You see, after Jamie Cooper cured her husband Chris Hohn of being a bastard, he founded a hedge fund that pledged one-third of its management fee income to a charity dedicated to helping children, hence it’s not-at-all-creepy name: The Children’s Investment Fund. Some years back, he stopped doing this, ostensibly because it had enough money to solve all problems faced by children, although coincidental evidence suggests it had more to do with the fact that the Cooper-Hohns were going to go back to being Cooper and Hohn.