My mid-week morning train WFH reads:
• Lysol. N95 Masks. UPS. For Some Pandemic Winners, the Boom Is Over. Growth is slowing for some businesses, adding to challenges as they deal with rising costs and supply constraints (Wall Street Journal)
• Is the End Near for U.S.- Listed Chinese Companies? Probably, Says Carson Block The short-seller argues that China’s recent crackdown on public companies is a way for the country to get in front of an American law requiring auditors of Chinese companies to open up to U.S. regulators. (Institutional Investor)
• Commodities Rise: New Supercycle or Just a Temporary Blip? Many institutions, wary of the asset class’s notorious volatility, keep their exposure low despite raw material price climbs. (CIO)
• The Behavioral Economics Manifesto Gets Revised “Basically, all publishers rejected it,” Thaler says. “So it was originally published by an academic press.” It was only when the book was set to become a paperback that a commercial publisher saw its potential and bought the rights. Whatever the reason, Nudge caught fire and finally brought behavioral economics into the mainstream. (NPR)
• The stuff don’t teach you in books I was raised in this business to believe that stock and bond and fund selection was the most important aspect of helping investors succeed. We weren’t given a benchmark in terms of what a client succeeding even meant. “Lets emphasize whichever of these things went well in the next conversation.” (Reformed Broker)
• Corporations aren’t going to save America The danger in corporate solutions to government problems. (Vox)
• “Air Will Find A Way” How bad is wildfire smoke? An air quality specialist explains. (Warzel)
• My Community Refuses to Get Vaccinated. Now Delta Is Here. Only 35 percent of Arkansas is fully vaccinated, and with case rates rising, living there can feel like moving through a distorted reality. (The Atlantic) see also They Live in an N.Y.C. Virus Hot Spot. But They Won’t Get Vaccinated. Staten Island’s recent uptick in coronavirus cases foretold a larger increase across New York City. (New York Times)
• Swimming gives your brain a boost – but scientists don’t know yet why it’s better than other aerobic activities Regular swimming has been shown to improve memory, cognitive function, immune response and mood. Swimming may also help repair damage from stress and forge new neural connections in the brain. But scientists are still trying to unravel how and why swimming, in particular, produces these brain-enhancing effects. (The Conversation)
• Hollywood Calls the Russo Brothers When It’s Time to Build a New Universe Joe and Anthony Russo went from making movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to creating their own worlds. Amazon’s Citadel will test their vision. (Businessweek)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Dr. Charity Dean. Dean was the director of the California Department of Public Health in 2020. She is a lead character in Michael Lewis’ book The Premonition: A Pandemic Story; Lewis called her “one of the people who saw the real danger of the virus before the rest of the country did.” She is co-founder of The Public Health Company.
Consumers’ intention to spend has moderately improved after peaking in March 2021.
Source: Arbor Research via Ben Breitholtz
Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.
