My morning train WFH reads:
• Why Jerome Powell Pivoted on Inflation A surge in wages and benefits got his attention. Other data soon confirmed his concern. (Upshot)
• Inflation in the Housing Market And we haven’t even considered the fact that rising inflation makes your fixed monthly payment lower over time. Just look at the debt profile of homeowners in the United States: You could argue the homeowner has never had it better than they’ve had it this past cycle. (A Wealth of Common Sense) see also Millennials Are Supercharging the Housing Market The generation that supposedly didn’t want to buy things now accounts for over half of all home-purchase loan applications; economists expect them to bolster demand for years (Wall Street Journal)
• Six Rules For Avoiding Market Panic Attacks Pity the investor without a panic plan. Delete becoming chum for the hysterical shark-infested financial media. What should you do? How about turning to West Point for some practical solutions? Nate Zinsser runs the performance psychology program at our most prestigious military academy. Cadets face immense stress grinding through the four-year program. Zinsser’s tips are indespinsable. (A Teachable Moment)
• Top Advisors Weigh In: What Financial Habits Should Americans Change in 2022? Sharpen those financial resolutions: We asked advisors and other wealth management experts for the habits Americans should consider changing in 2022. It’s part of The Big Q, our regular feature where we seek advisors’ best answers to challenging questions. (Barron’s)
• The history of the metal box that’s wrecking the supply chain: Shipping containers, explained by a historian. Behold the simple shipping container. It’s a large, steel box that can carry tens of thousands of pounds of cargo. It’s also stackable and designed to fit on ocean freight ships, trains, and even trucks. These containers have been an unnoticed cog in the world’s highly complex manufacturing network for decades. But not anymore. (Vox)
• It’s beginning to look a lot more expensive for Christmas The holidays feel more expensive this year because they are. This year’s holiday season will likely feel more normal than last. It’s also going to be more expensive, essentially across the board. In the United States and in many parts of the world, inflation is running higher now than it has in recent decades thanks, in part, to supply-demand mismatches, supply chain kinks, and a generally weird economic moment. (Vox)
• How the Chinese trade deal led to the Great Awokening: Twenty years on, who are the big winners from globalisation? (Wrong Side of History)
• A Stranger Looked Like My Twin. That Was Just the Beginning. How a family secret was unraveled by 23andMe. (New York Times)
• NFL and NBA Games Are Now Being Decided by Covid Tests NFL teams like the Browns and Rams are suffering through outbreaks while NBA stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden are sidelined by the virus in a paradigm that accepts competitive imbalances. (Wall Street Journal) see also The NFL Is a COVID Superspreader Right Now There are currently more than 70 active players on the NFL’s COVID-19 list. (Vice)
• Mel Brooks says his only regret as a comedian is the jokes he didn’t tell Over the course of his career, Brooks has told countless edgy jokes, but he doesn’t regret any of them. “Not one would I take back!” he says. Instead, he says, it’s the jokes he opted not to tell that haunt him: “There were plenty, plenty of jokes I should have just exploded with and I said, maybe that’s a bit too much for the kids or whatever.” (NPR)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Michael Mauboussin, who runs consilient research at Morgan Stanley’s buyside firm, Counterpoint Global. Mauboussin (and his co-author, Alfred Rappaport ) revise and update their book Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns.
2010-20 Saw the Strongest Earnings Growth in More than a Century
Source: A Wealth of Common Sense
Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.
