Why is there so much hype over the Jackson Hole conference?

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Mo., has been hosting its annual financial conference since 1978, although it used to move around to different locations and drew little attention outside of economic analysts. But in 2010, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke used his speech there to lay out the Fed's policy options on spurring economic growth, which included a second round of bond purchases that began in November 2010. That speech sparked a 28 percent stock market rally over the next eight months. Most analysts don't expect Bernanke to make such news Friday, but market-watchers are paying a lot of attention anyway.

Will D.C.'s LivingSocial go public?

D.C.'s business world has been buzzing about when the five-year-old company -- now with swanky new office space in downtown and a nice tax break from the city to stay here -- will go public. But LivingSocial's execs have been cagey about if and when they'll file for an initial public offering. In June, CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy said the daily deals company has "no immediate plans to file" for an IPO. Just weeks later, the company's U.K. and Ireland offices general manager, Peter Briffett, called an IPO "the likely next stage of our development" in 2013. But with rival Groupon's latest stock slide, it gives execs even more reason to pump the brakes and stay mum.

Where is Julian Assange these days?

He's still in Ecuador's Embassy in London. Although the WikiLeaks founder has been offered asylum by the Latin American nation, British police will arrest him if he sets foot outside the mission. Assange has been holed up inside the embassy since June 19, as he attempts to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over allegations that he raped two women. But Britain is legally required to arrest him and extradite him to Sweden if he leaves the embassy.