There are only 38 days until the election, which means 38 more days of non-stop political news. This week the big commodities story was the impending (or fake, depending on who you believe) global pig shortage. Meanwhile, world leaders descended on New York for the United Nations, no one with the new Apple Maps could figure out where they were going, and Europe resumed being the mess that we’ve come to expect over the last few years. Here’s what we’re reading headed into the weekend:

• August’s low volume just a dip within a larger downward trend for futures and options (Futures Magazine)
• What does the durable goods story mean for GDP? (ZeroHedge)
• Cell phone culture is changing Americans’ spending habits (Wall St. Journal)
• Spain keeps looking more and more like Greece (The Telegraph)
• And the dismal expectations for Europe are back… again (Reuters)

And Just for fun

• You can’t make this stuff up – Scientists say Nazi Buddha statue made of meteorite (Spiegel Online)
• Categorizing the different types of online “Econo-Trolls” (Noahpinion)
• Japanese scientist may have discovered a new element! Lucky number 113 (Popular Science)