Notes From All Over, Part 1 -- November 21, 2019

Slow, slow day. Will be off the net until later, after this note is completed. Good luck to all. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, career, travel, job, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

In trouble? Exxon steps up assets sale -- $25 billion plan -- Reuters:

• to divest up to $25 billion of oil and gas fields in Eruope, Asia, and Africa
• to focus on a handful of mega projects at home, abroad
• Guyana, Mozambique, Papua Guinea, and the US
• original plan: to sell $15 billion in assets; huge increase
• effectively leaves Europe (France and Poland have been major disappointments
• to divest British North Sea, Germany, Romania
• for some odd reason, keeps assets in Groningen which is slated to close anyway
• too little, too late?

In trouble? TD Ameritrade to be acquired by Schwab -- $26 billion --  Barron's. 

Acquisition closes: Bristol-Myers closes $74 billion Celgene takeover.  

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett continues to look for deals. Berkshire Hathaway hath found no way to spend part of its $125 billion cash hoard.

Qualcomm could test all-time high -- Investopedia --

-- finally nearing a historic test of the 2000 bubble high following an 18-year "bounce" that started in the low teens at the end of the bear market in 2002. The vast majority of big tech stocks have already mounted this ancient signpost, generating much stronger long-term returns than the San Diego-based digital communications giant. A breakout could finally lift this perennial cloud, allowing Qualcomm stock to roam freely in the triple digits.

Target sales soar; Forever 21, Sears shutter stores -- USA Today

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The History of Religion Page

Titles.

From wiki: Gratian, or Flavius Gratianus Augustus; May 359 – August 383) was Roman emperor from 367 to 383.  He favoured Christianity over traditional Roman religion, refusing the office of Pontifex maximus and removing the Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate.

From Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization, Lars Brownworth, c. 2009, continuing the Christianity vs paganism fight at this time (4th century AD, as Roman Empire imploded):

This wasn't the first time the [Roman] bishop had attempted to enlist imperial support in stamping out the last traces of the ancient [pagan] religion.

A few years before, the bishop had convinced the emperor Gratian that it was embarrassing for a Christian emperor to be carrying around the title Pontifex Maximus -- chief priest of the state religion -- prompting Gratian to go striding into the Senate House of Rome and publicly declare that he was renouncing the title.

Although Gratian was the last emperor to use the title Pontifex Maximus, it didn't disappear into the mists of history. 

In 590, Pope Gregory I adopted it in his role as "chief priest of Christianity" and from it we get the title "pontiff." 

Literally, "pontiff" is translated as "bridge builder" (think pontoon), because the Pontifex Maximus bridged the gap between the world of the gods and the world of man.
Constantine had kept the title because he saw himself as the "Bishop Bishops" -- a title that the pope also assumed. 

Words matter.