As anticipated, the Fed raised its benchmark interest yesterday (for only the second time since the 2008 financial crisis) to somewhere between .5 and .75 percent  and, perhaps more critically, revealed its expectation for another three hikes in the coming year – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

But before we start feeling too optimistic about  the powerhouse US economy, keep an eye on a rise in defaults—from credit cards to auto loans—in the coming year – WSJ

A big gulp for Yahoo’s users (the more than 1 billion whose accounts were hacked in 2013), but perhaps an even bigger one for Marissa Mayer and the Yahoo leadership trying to close a deal with Verizon that’s suddenly looking much more vulnerable – NYTimes and WSJ and Law360

There’s some recent room at the top at Goldman and Exxon.  Here’s who’s stepping up – NYTimes [Goldman] and NYTimes [Exxon]

In its role as trustee for two RMBS trusts, Deutsche Bank has asked a NY appellate panel to reinstate claims against Morgan Stanley over $2.5 billion in bad loans that make up the RMBS pools under the theory that its actions were timely because of FHFA involvement – Law360

Don’t you just love the smell of packages in the morning?  Amazon does – WSJ and Bloomberg

Despite some reports, it’s apparently not reunion time for Kraft and Mondelez quite yet – Bloomberg

The sheer scale of present-day China evades most of us. With that in mind, these pre-ghost towns probably shouldn’t be as eerie as they seem. But still.  Whoa – Wired