Daily Pulse: Oil The World's a Stage, The Fed — Finally? Chipotle's Factory-To-Table Pivot

Sell! Congressional leaders have agreed to lift a 40-year ban against crude oil exports. It’s part of a sweeping, $1.15 trillion 2016 spending bill, and reverses a policy dating back to the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Producers will be thrilled, refiners (who can already export) not so much, and the big question is what impact it would have on US gasoline prices (at lows because of the world glut). None of this is a done deal, and Congress is expected to once again punt the deadline for the 2016 budget from midnight today to Dec. 22. But what seemed unthinkable even a few months ago is probably about to happen.

Bank On It: Even more likely — the Fed is expected to raise its benchmark rate this afternoon for the first time in nearly a decade. While nothing is certain, this is one of the most highly telegraphed decisions in the history of finance. World markets will pore over every syllable of Fed’s accompanying statement (and chair Janet Yellen's press appearance) for clues on subsequent increases. But as Paul Davidson argues in USA Today, you may not feel the impact since banks are awash in cash, which will keep it something of borrower’s market for a while.

Local Schmocal: Chipotle will use less local ingredients in a bid to prevent further e.coli incidents. Centralized prep goes against the company’s DNA, but farm-to-table produce is thought to be the source of the outbreaks at several of the chain’s locations. Chipotle will be able to do more testing and quality control this way. But the decision comes at the expense of Chipotle's key differentiator in the cutthroat world of fast casual, “forcing the once-scrappy upstart to act more like the big chains it long has derided,” in the words of The Wall Street Journal’s Julie Jargon.

Fore! Presidential candidate Donald Trump held his own in last night’s GOP debate, but real estate developer Donald Trump lost a big one today: Britain’s Supreme Court rejected his appeal of a decision by Scotland to build a wind farm off the coast of his Aberdeenshire golf course. Trump vowed to keep on fighting, but took the news characteristically well. "History will judge those involved unfavourably and the outcome demonstrates the foolish, small minded and parochial mentality which dominates the current Scottish government's dangerous experiment with wind energy,” a Trump Organization statement said. (Image: Opening day at Trump International Golf Links course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on July 10, 2012.)

It’s Personal: Retail pioneer Lillian Vernon has died, at 88. Vernon created an industry with a simple idea that was unheard of in 1956: A mail-order catalogue with a theme. When the Lillian Vernon catalogue debuted, the norm was phonebook-sized reference works from Sears and Montgomery Ward. Vernon found there was a huge appetite for personalized — just about anything she sold could be monogramed — gifts and gadgets. She started her business in 1951 on her kitchen table with $2,000 of wedding gift money, went public in 1987 and in the crowded market she spawned, sold her empire for $60.5 million in 2003.

Cover Art: The numerals '1' and '6,' to be used to spell out '2-0-1-6' during the Times Square New Years Eve celebration, are unveiled in Times Square on December 15, 2015 in New York City. The '2-0-1-6' are powered by 516 L.E.D. bulbs.

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