My morning train WFH reads:
• Life and Debt at a Private Equity Hospital: A decade ago, a buyout giant took over a group of Catholic medical centers and made some clever financial moves. The pandemic highlights the strategy’s success—and its cost. (Businessweek)
• Howard Marks: Time for Thinking: Titanic forces are arrayed against each other: Fed and Treasury versus disease and recession. Which will win? (Oaktree)
• Concentrated Performance in the Stock Market: The market has been this concentrated in the past but it’s been a while since the numbers have been this high. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Why Shouldn’t Retirement Savers Buy ESG Stocks: Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia’s proposed rule appears to impinge on pensioners’ freedom. (Bloomberg)
• The TikTok-Microsoft-Trump drama, explained: TikTok has become the center of geopolitical controversy between the US and China over technological power. (Vox) see also Microsoft Sells Its Soul To Buy TikTok: Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves for going along with this. They’re not just trying to win a deal, they’re enabling a President to paint gray legal lines. (5ish)
• More Farmers Declare Bankruptcy Despite Record Levels of Federal Aid: Coronavirus pandemic adds strain to agricultural economy already reeling from trade fights, commodity glut (Wall Street Journal)
• Can Killing Cookies Save Journalism? A Dutch public broadcaster got rid of targeted digital ads—and its revenues went way up. (Wired)
• 25 Colorful Quotes on Bitcoin & Bitcoin ETFs: Investors have long had a love-hate relationship with gold. What happens when “digital gold” enters the picture? (The ETF Educator)
• Can We Outrun Dark Energy In The Race To See The Universe? An extra component to the Universe — whether it’s a new force, a new source of energy, a new field, or a new understanding of gravity — determines the fate of the Universe on the greatest cosmic scales of all (Forbes)
• A Jazz Drummer’s Fight to Keep His Own Heart Beating: Milford Graves devoted himself to studying the rhythms of the heart. It turns out he was creating a technique to treat himself. (New York Times)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Paul Wraith, Chief Designer for Ford, and over the past several years, the Chief Designer for the new 2021 Ford Bronco.
U.S. Satisfaction at 13%, Lowest in Nine Years
Source: Gallup
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