My back to work morning train WFH reads:
• Why Your Adviser Might Start Talking Up Bitcoin: The advent of bitcoin-related ETFs makes it easier for financial professionals to help you add crypto to your portfolio. It also lets them earn fees on it. (Wall Street Journal) but see also Should You Invest in the Bitcoin Futures ETF? Tread Carefully. The flurry of futures ETFs may be a turning point for Bitcoin and the broader crypto investment space. Bitcoin came to life as a piece of libertarian digital agitprop—a decentralized money-transfer system aimed at swiping power from central bank fiat money and the broader financial establishment (Barron’s)
• Being a Contrarian is Easier in Hindsight It’s human nature to go with the herd. Unfortunately, being a contrarian is much easier with the benefit of hindsight. Gold is a clear example but it surely wasn’t this clear at the time. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• A More Nuanced Look at Corporate VCs Corporate venture capitalists are finding their own ways to thrive in the VC ecosystem, according to a Silicon Valley Bank survey of 106 CVC leaders across 10 countries. (Institutional Investor)
• Workers Are Quitting These 4 Kinds of Jobs in Droves The high levels of quitting seems to be a good indication that people are not happy with their jobs — often due to low pay and difficult working conditions — and also that they see better opportunities elsewhere, which is unsurprising given that companies must compete for employees due to a much-heralded labor shortage. The number of job openings in America fell slightly in the most recent report, but it’s still near an all-time high. (Money)
• Deal Breaker: Private-Equity Firm Bans the Word ‘Deal’ At Partners Group Holding, using the word can cost $1,000 for each violation; ‘Please don’t roll your eyes if I bust you’ (Wall Street Journal)
• Jim Chanos: China’s “Leveraged Prosperity” Model is Doomed. And That’s Not the Worst. the real switch occurred in 2019 when he started going after celebrities like Jack Ma [co-founder of Alibaba]. At that point, it was clear that this president was not stepping down at the end of 10 years. He was taking a much harder line on the “flowers of capitalism,” if you will, than past presidents. In 2021, all of this exploded into the open. There’s been initiative after initiative. Redistributing wealth to the masses. Going after other leaders. Overlaid on top of this is the Evergrande saga (Institute for New Economic Thinking)
• Where Facts Were No Match for Fear Civic boosters in central Montana hoped for some federal money to promote tourism. A disinformation campaign got in the way. (New York Times)
• People Aren’t Meant to Talk This Much Breaking up social-media companies is one way to fix them. Shutting their users up is a better one. (The Atlantic)
• The coronavirus is still mutating. But will that matter? ‘We need to keep the respect for this virus.’ A drop in infections offers hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight. The virus may have something to say about that. (Washington Post) see also Past Pandemics Remind Us Covid Will Be an Era, Not a Crisis That Fades We are living in the Covid-19 era, not the Covid-19 crisis. There will be a lot of changes that are substantial and persistent. We won’t look back and say, ‘That was a terrible time, but it’s over.’ We will be dealing with many of the ramifications of Covid-19 for decades, for decades.” (New York Times)
• 25 great rockumentaries every music (and movie) fan should see From “Woodstock” to “Amy,” here are the best documentaries that every music — and movie — fan should watch (Salon)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Sukhinder Singh Cassidy author of “Choose Possibility” hailed as one of the Top 100 People in the Valley by Business Insider and a Power Woman by Elle. She has 25 years of experience founding, scaling, and running companies: She was an early hire at Junglee (acquired by Amazon), helped to build Google Maps and Local before developing Google International, was CEO of StubHub, and a co-founder of the firms Yodlee and Joyus.
The US SHift from Over to Under Supply of Single-Family Homes
Source: @lenkiefer
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