Today is the first full day of a new administration. Here’s hoping the news flow returns to normal. Kick it off with your morning WFH reads:
• 10 Challenges Biden Faces in Righting the Economy The pandemic has damaged the economy and cost millions of people their livelihoods. These are some of the areas that demand Joe Biden’s attention. (New York Times)
• Which Injections Should Investors Watch in 2021? Everyone is eager for vaccine news and numbers, but longtime investor Tony Waskiewicz argues the real portfolio boosters will be any actions from the Fed and Congress. (Chief Investment Officer)
• Could California’s Shopping Centers Be a Housing Fix? A trio of bills propose plugging the state’s huge housing gap with commercial-to-residential conversions of strip malls. New research suggests it could work (Citylab)
• Bitcoin cannot store energy Some people think Bitcoin can store energy. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work like that. Bitcoin — like any financial asset — cannot store energy. But it might be able to help speed the transition to green energy in other ways. (Noahpinion)
• Farewell to the Trump Administration’s Favorite Brands From Amazon to Goya, and MyPillow to Zoom, an A to Z of brands have helped to define the presidency of Donald Trump. (Bloomberg)
• Snapchat Wants You to Post. They’re Willing to Pay Millions. Top performers are raking in cash as the company seeks to compete against TikTok and similar platforms. (New York Times)
• The U.S. Needs More Covid Testing, and Minnesota Has Found a Way Get everybody in an entire state to spit into a tube? You betcha. (Businessweek)
• QAnon believers grapple with doubt, spin new theories as Trump era ends: ‘We all got played’ The administrator of 8kun, the longtime Internet home of the mysterious Q, says it’s time to move on, and a moderator on Wednesday wiped Q’s ‘drops’ from the website (Washington Post) see also Where MAGA Insurrectionists and QAnon Followers Will Post Now Pro-Trump extremists need a new home after the Great Deplatforming. It’s primarily the violent and conspiratorial elements of the pro-Trump movement that have had to migrate. So where will they go? (Slate)
• How a 22-year-old L.A. native became Biden’s inauguration poet Jill Biden, a fan of Amanda Gorman’s work, convinced the inaugural committee she would be a perfect fit. And so before she even became First Lady, she accomplished more than her predecessor did during her entire 4 years in the White House. (Los Angeles Times)
• Joe Biden’s Dogs Shepherd In New Era of Presidential Pets at the White House Throughout history, presidential pets have come from all corners of the animal kingdom: President Theodore Roosevelt had a badger named Josiah, while the Benjamin Harrison family had two opossums. The children of Abraham Lincoln had goats, Mr. Hager said, and Tad Lincoln once tied his chair to a goat and let it drag him through a group of visitors in the East Room. (Wall Street Journal)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Andrew Beer, Founder and Managing Member of Dynamic Beta investments. The firm manages several ETFs that seek to replicate illiquid alternatives at lower costs, with full transparency and daily liquidity. Their hedge fund replication fund, iM DBi Long Short Hedge Strategy ETF (DBEH) is up 27.7% since it launched in December 2019.
How equities have performed under various Presidents since the start of the 20th C
Source: Deutsche Bank
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