My morning train WFH reads:
• Why U.S. Housing Prices Aren’t as Crazy as You Think I remain firmly entrenched in the camp that this isn’t another housing bubble. There are structural and market forces that are causing these price gains, even if it all feels out of hand. But there’s another reason the housing market isn’t as crazy as you think — housing prices in the rest of the developed world have outpaced prices in the U.S. for some time now. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Most stocks are duds (yes, you read that right) Highlighting the riskiness of individual stock selection, recent research has demonstrated that around the globe the majority of individual common stocks have generated long-run shareholder losses relative to a Treasury-bill benchmark. The implication is that the large, long-term equity risk premium delivered by the broad stock market was attributable to outsize gains generated by a relatively few high-performing stocks. (Evidence-Based Investor)
• How the pandemic turned humble shipping containers into the hottest items on the planet 18 months into the Covid-19 pandemic, global shipping is still in crisis, with backlogs looming over the peak holiday shopping period. One look at the market for steel shipping containers, and it’s clear that a return to normal won’t happen any time soon. Demand for goods, meanwhile, has soared — giving the network of ships, containers and trucks that deliver merchandise around the world little time to catch up. (CNN)
• The One Thing Successful Private Equity Firms Have in Common Eight industry leaders reveal how they’ve built their private investment empires. (Institutional Investor)
• From Goldfish to Whale: Can Upstart Tech Challengers Displace the Big Five? Disrupters focused on the ‘internet of things’ could be the ones to knock over today’s kingpins. Recall the fates of IBM and other one-time heavyweights. (CIO)
• Wallets Are Over. Your Phone Is Your Everything Now. Mobile payments replacing credit cards was just the start. Digital versions of your work ID, driver’s license and other card holdouts are coming to your smartphone. (Wall Street Journal)
• We want things to be normal so badly that we’re resorting to magical thinking Rationality has taken a backseat to the promise of comfort and normalcy. (Washington Post)
• Margaritaville and the Myth of American Leisure: The Times Square Margaritaville Resort Is an Unlikely Balm for a Restless Mind Margaritaville, as Parrotheads will tell you, is a state of mind. But it’s also — delightfully, sometimes inexplicably — a real place now open in Times Square. (Eater)
• New Studies Find Evidence Of ‘Superhuman’ Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals Studies has found that some people mount an extraordinarily powerful immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Their bodies produce very high levels of antibodies, but they also make antibodies with great flexibility — likely capable of fighting off the coronavirus variants circulating in the world but also likely effective against variants that may emerge in the future. (NPR) see also The Plan to Stop Every Respiratory Virus at Once The benefits of ventilation reach far beyond the coronavirus. What if we stop taking colds and flus for granted, too? (The Atlantic)
• Why Does Playing Tennis Make So Many Pros Miserable? Naomi Osaka is taking an indefinite break from tennis as she struggles to find meaning and joy from playing. It’s a sadly familiar script for the sport. (New York Times)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Jack Devine, a 32-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”). He served as both Acting Director and Associate Director of CIA’s operations. His latest book is Spymaster’s Prism: The Fight against Russian Aggression
The Gentrification of Blue America
Source: New York Times
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