Lack of workable replacement (so far, at least) be damned—the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has announced that [the scandal-plagued] Libor will be phased out by 2021 in favor of “transaction-based benchmarks” – Bloomberg and NYTimes and WSJ

The X factor with yesterday’s post-FOMC statement wasn’t so much interest rates (which most observers didn’t expect to change this month) but rather the Fed’s bond holdings.  And on that front, the phrase of the day was “relatively soon”—aka, when [likely September] the Fed plans to start reducing its more-than $4 trillion book of Treasury securities and MBS amassed over the past nine years or so – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Markets were pleased with the news – WSJ

With the DOJ wrapping up its case against Martin Shkreli (with a series of pretty damning e-mails), the courtroom version of the pharma bro saga appears to be nearing an end. Shkreli’s lawyers have indicated that they won’t be calling any witnesses, and the case is likely to go to the jury shortly – NYTimes and Law360

A new Facebook ad strategy helped make Q2 one that Zuck must like.  A lot – WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar has issued a stinging rebuke of the fiduciary rule in a recent letter to the Labor Dep’t – Law360

Breakingviews reacts to the SEC’s move to regulate ICOs – NYTimes

State Street made a bold statement with its Fearless Girl statue. And it appears to be making good on its March pledge to vote against companies that don’t have women in their corporate boards – Bloomberg

The Upshot offers an interesting take on the productivity slump in which the US currently finds itself mired. That is, maybe slow growth is causing the low productivity (and not the other way around). A new paper from the Roosevelt Institute promotes this new way of considering the growth/productivity relationship – NYTimes

Mexico City—the 12th most congested city in the world, in which residents lose up to 9 days a year in the aggregate to traffic jams—is pushing a somewhat counterintuitive solution to the problem: capping parking spaces in the city. The results of the experiment are worth watching, as the strategy could make its way north of the border in coming years – Wired

Finally, it’s time again for the Daily Dose summer hiatus.  Have a good start to August, and we’ll see you back here bright and early on the 7th.