It’s Election Day. Have We Learned Anything?

(Bloomberg View) -- The Lesson of 2016: Humanity Needs to Catch Up With Technology 

As Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, Tyler Cowen mulls over the ‘innovations' of 2016: weaponized hacking, social-media deception campaigns, Twitter troll armies, and more. If there's one overarching theme of this year in politics, he says, it's that the internet has developed faster than our ability to use it wisely. 

Pity the Election Forecaster

Political forecasting has become a booming business for journalists, but as the payoffs for being right have increased, so have the costs of being wrong. Conor Sen argues that perverse incentives have compelled the granddaddy of the forecasting sites to hedge its bets, offering an overly optimistic forecast for a Trump win.

When Voting Machines Misbehave

Ballot-booth malfunctions don't happen often, but they're common enough to worry computer scientists. Faye Flam examines the vulnerabilities of America's flawed — but not rigged! — voting system.

Obama Would Thump Trump. Romney Would Conquer Clinton.

Enough with the real election — how about a thought experiment? Bloomberg Politics recently asked voters who they'd support if the 2016 candidates squared off against 2012's picks, and Albert R. Hunt says the results expose Clinton and Trump's weaknesses.

Dubious Trump-Clinton Hack Reveals Wall Street's ‘Secrets'

If you still have an appetite for illicitly obtained e-mails, well, then let's imagine some new ones! Michael Lewis shares a cache of mysterious e-mails he obtained ... somehow (don't ask too many questions) that reveal the tangled relationship between Clinton, Trump, Wall Street and Russian intelligence. 

Ritholtz's Reads

• How big data is creating a detailed picture of U.S. earnings (Wall Street Journal)
• The money management gospel of Yale's endowment guru (New York Times)
• Facebook is harming our democracy, and Mark Zuckerberg needs to do something about it (Vox)

(Read Barry Ritholtz's full daily news roundup.)

Bloomberg Gadfly 

• Overcoming SolarCity's language barrier
• Ferrari's growl won't sound so seductive in electric era
• Tesco Bank hack is a warning to fintech's upstarts

(Read more from BV's sister site for fast business commentary.)

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