The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Mocha Java coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• The World Wants Greenland’s Minerals, but Greenlanders Are Wary As global warming melts the ice that covers 80 percent of the island, it has spurred demand for Greenland’s potentially abundant reserves of hard-to-find minerals with names like neodymium and dysprosium. These so-called rare earths, used in wind turbines, electric motors and many other electronic devices, are essential raw materials as the world tries to break its addiction to fossil fuels. (New York Times)
• Will Shortages Ruin the Holidays? What You Need to Know. December outages of hit toys are nothing new. This year could see more shortfalls than most, judging by the 88 vessels backed up near an important California port complex. But predictions of holiday sales strangled by supply-chain havoc—think Charlie Brown Christmas trees surrounded by few boxes and bows—look decidedly overblown. (Barron’s)
• How Miami Seduced Silicon Valley: Wall Street may not be quaking over Miami’s ascendancy, but in the zero-sum game among cities, San Francisco is indisputably feeling some pain. In July, according to Redfin, Miami was the top migration destination for home buyers in the U.S., while San Francisco had the largest homeowner exodus. Suarez told me about a playful text he recently received from the mayor there, London Breed: “Stop stealing my techies.” He says he replied, “Sorry, London, I love you, but no.” Awash in coders, crypto, and capital, the city is loving — and beginning to shape — its newest industry. (New York Magazine)
• Songs of Experience: Reminiscences of a Strategist “Bull markets are born on pessimism, they grow on skepticism, they mature on optimism and they die on euphoria.” Some of the messages imbedded in Templeton’s most famous quote—as well as in those below—are even more important to ponder given today’s lofty valuations and not-so-subtle signs of investor complacency. There is nothing wrong with rejoicing in bull markets; but we must always remember that they do eventually end, so heed the messages from some of the greats of finance. (Charles Schwab)
• The real stakes of Apple’s battle over remote work Inside the unexpected fight that’s dividing the most valuable company in the world. “There’s this idea that people skateboarding around tech campuses are bumping into each other and coming up with great new inventions,” said Cher Scarlett, an engineer at Apple who joined the company during the pandemic and has become a leader in, among other issues, organizing her colleagues on pushing for more remote work. “That’s just not true,” she said. (Vox)
• Existential Optimism: Or what to do when you control your own destiny Power is shifting away from institutions and towards individuals. If we’re going to have more control over our own lives, working from anywhere, owning the internet, governing the institutions that support us — then we need to figure out how to handle that responsibility. We need a self-governing philosophy. (Not Boring)
• Babel: Could a machine have an unconscious? A Cambrian explosion in the world of natural language processing raises a question: How much of what we write is essentially autocomplete? (n + 1)
• How Tesla’s ‘Self-Driving’ Beta Testers Protect the Company From Critics Every so often, a clip of a Tesla running experimental beta driver assistance software goes viral. But who are the people behind the wheel? And why does it matter? (Vice)
• When public health becomes the public enemy: But the pandemic changed everything. As COVID cases increased in Montana, discussion swirled around what precautions to take, and Robinson became an easily recognizable public figure — and a convenient scapegoat for local citizens’ fears and frustrations. Every day, hateful emails and phone calls accused her of threatening people’s constitutional freedoms and destroying businesses. Far-right extremists are robbing the West of the officials who protect community health. (High Country News)
• Here’s the truth about Brett Kavanaugh’s finances: No, liberals, the Koch brothers don’t own him. The idea that Brett Kavanaugh has taken bribes to sustain his country club lifestyle is one of the hardiest conspiracy theories on the political left. And like most conspiracy theories, this one suffers from some internal logic problems. While he was maddeningly obtuse in admitting it, Kavanaugh seems to have gotten lots of money from his parents. (Mother Jones) see also Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh tests positive for COVID-19 Kavanaugh shows no symptoms, is fully vaccinated, court says (Fox News)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Jack Schwager, author of various Market Wizard books. He is also the founder of Fund Seeder, a platform designed to match undiscovered trading talent with capital worldwide. His latest book is “Unknown Market Wizards: The best traders you’ve never heard of.”
Top 10 S&P Companies 1980 – 2020
Source: John VanGavree
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