Why bond markets are unnerving rich-world politicians

You can now listen to the exact sound of Earth's magnetic field falling apart. Around 41,000 years ago, our planet's magnetic field did something dramatic: It flipped. Using data from the European Space Agency's Swarm satellite mission, combined with evidence of magnetic field movements preserved in ancient rock and sediment, geoscientists reconstructed the entire event and turned it into sound – layering in recordings of creaking wood and colliding rocks to represent the field's convulsions. It does not sound like a planet having a good time. As the ESA described it in 2024, "the process of transforming the sounds with data is similar to composing music from a score" – except the score, in this case, was written by the planet itself, 41,000 years in the past. Listen to the sound in the video below:To understand why it sounds so wrong, it helps to know what the field is actually doing up there. Our planet's magnetic field is generated by swirling liquid metal deep in Earth's core, and it extends tens to hundreds of thousands of kilometers into space, deflecting the solar particles that would otherwise strip away our atmosphere.

Twentysomethings are increasingly skeptical about homeownership and investing. But a retirement account (and the magic of compounding) could change their minds.

If the companies use their negotiating power to lower commissions and control share allocations, it could threaten banks’ lucrative IPO business model

Goldman Sachs says consumer-facing laggard stocks are the best way forward as earnings growth is set to slow next year and big tech stocks struggle.