Must Read Money Stories for Tuesday, June 14

The logic of LinkedIn.

Why would Microsoft want LinkedIn? Re/Code reports the software giant wants to know where people work, to better sell them business services. Re/Code writes: "with this purchase, Microsoft is basically buying the company org chart for the whole world." Microsoft doesn't have much of a play in the broader world of social media, but it's hoping that it can make money by standing at the intersection where many in the business world meet online. And it's an important deal –  a $26.2 billion purchase is big, even for Microsoft.

A tale of two indicators.

The New York Times' Upshot blog takes a look at two economic indicators that tell a very different tale of the state of our economy. The first is the unemployment rate, which is at its lowest level in nine years. An unemployment rate below five percent is usually a sign of a strong economy, and that's where we are right now. But Upshot also looks at the Labor Market Conditions Index, which tells a different story. This index is actually headed in the wrong direction. Check out Upshot for some thoughts on why that is.

Apple news.

Apple announced a bunch of new software plans at its annual developers conference. Bloomberg writes the company is hoping a better version of Siri will help it compete against Amazon and Google, which are both working on their own digital assistants that can be operated with natural speech. Apple is also upping its emoji game. If you're wondering where the big, splashy announcements about devices were in yesterday's program, those usually come at a different event later in the year.

A different kind of stock market.

If you're jaded about how the stock market works, and think it drives short-term thinking at companies that live and die by quarterly results, some folks in Silicon Valley have a new idea for you. Quartz writes, the idea is called The Long-Term Stock Exchange, and it's got some big names attached who are committed to making this pie-in-the-sky plan a reality.

"LinkedIn" by flickr user "coletivomambembe" CC license CC-by-2.0.

Source: Must Read Money Stories for Tuesday, June 14