My back to work morning train WFH reads:
• In the Tarantino Market, the Hottest Stocks Are Getting Quietly Killed Turmoil under the surface of the S&P 500 is reminiscent of the quant crisis. (Bloomberg)
• 95% of the time the market is in a state of drawdown. One out of every 5 stocks is down 20% or worse from its 52 week high. One out of every 8 stocks is down 30% or more from 52 week highs and more than 6% of stocks are down 50% from one year highs. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Elon Musk Needs China. China Needs Him. The Relationship Is Complicated. To attract Tesla, the government rewrote its rules for foreign auto businesses, but now, the company is entering bumpier terrain (Wall Street Journal)
• Wall Street Wants to Sell a Special Index, Just for You The biggest asset managers see customization—a blend of passive and active—as the future of investing. Or maybe it’s just the latest way to make a buck. (BusinessWeek)
• Every time I think the inflation discourse can’t get dumber, I’m proven wrong Corporate greed. The cancellation of an oil pipeline that didn’t yet exist. A secret plot to cancel Halloween. Every time I think the inflation discourse can’t get dumber, I’m proven wrong. To be fair: The forces behind inflation, like many economic problems, are complicated. Economists can’t fully explain what determines current pricing behavior and inflation expectations in the real world, much less precisely predict where prices will land in a few months. New waves in the pandemic aren’t helping, either. (Washington Post)
• A stunning shift in the way rain falls in America Think your area has had more rain than usual? You’re probably right. Think your area has had less rain than usual? Again, you’re probably right. 126 years of monthly data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing annual precipitation at 344 climate divisions + daily precipitation data from weather stations to measure the change in frequency of extreme rain events across the U.S. from 1951-2020. (USA Today)
• America’s Gambling Addiction Is Metastasizing: When life feels this precarious, it’s only natural to roll the dice on just about everything. (The Atlantic)
• Want to Fly Private Jets and Not Be ‘Flight Shamed?’ Try Hailing a Ride The pandemic has sparked a private-aviation boom, even as concerns about the environmental cost have grown. On-demand services could allow companies and the megarich to have their cake and eat it too. (Wall Street Journal)
• Could Covid Lead to Progress? Mass tragedies sometimes have unexpected consequences. Most of the people alive during the 1918 outbreak were born during the 19th century, when death from infections was tragically familiar, when losing a third of your children to disease was the norm. To them, the mechanized carnage of World War I, with its fighter planes, machine guns and chemical weapons, was a step change in the history of human violence. (New York Times)
• You know the Beatles. Here are 16 other important names in the epic ‘Get Back’ series. As you work your way through “Get Back,” here’s a primer to the stream of characters not named John, Paul, George and Ringo who play a key role in the footage of 21 days in January 1969, a creative and tumultuous period that led to “Let It Be,” the final album released by the band. (Washington Post)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins. Doerrr has backed some of the most successful tech start-ups, including Compaq, Netscape, Symantec, Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, Intuit, Macromedia, and Google. He is also the author of the best-selling Measure What Matters; his latest book is Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now.
US wages for the lowest earners are growing at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis
Source: Peterson Institute for International Economics
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