My Two-for-Tuesday morning train WFH reads:
• World’s Biggest Crypto Fortune Began With a Friendly Poker Game With $96 billion, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is closing in on tech titans including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin. (Bloomberg) see also Where Did VC Money Go in 2021? Crypto Startups. New crypto and blockchain technology businesses drew $32.8 billion in funding from venture capital in 2021, according to Galaxy Digital. (Institutional Investor)
• The 3 Biggest Risks to the Market Right Now The biggest risks are often the ones we don’t see coming but the smaller risks can still cause some short-term discomfort. You could always say war or some other crazy variant or a collapse of civilization as we know it but I’m going to focus on market-related risks here. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Why Tesla Soared as Other Automakers Struggled to Make Cars The yawning disparity between the performance of the electric car company and established automakers last year reflects the technological change roiling the industry. (New York Times) see also Ford vs
FerrariTesla TSLA’s stock performance was stellar, adding 49.8% in 2021. But the rest of the autoworld is now making EVs. Example: Ford, which had gains of 137.5% in 2021 — nearly tripling the market performance of the pioneering EV company. (The Big Picture)• Is Wood a Good Green Fuel? Maybe Not Controversy dogs this biomass energy source. Depending on how wood burning is measured, it likely produces less greenhouse gas emissions than coal, but more than natural gas, some scientists say. The pro-wood forces insist that the calculation must include how much the trees that replace it contribute to removing carbon from the air. (Chief Investment Officer)
• Cathie Wood’s Rollercoaster Performance Offers A Familiar Lesson About Volatility ARKK’s ETF flows indicate the average investor in the fund is underwater. “The ARK Innovation ETF has returned 346% since its inception but no value has been created due to flows’ poor timing.” Cathie Wood isn’t the first star manager to deliver negative returns to their pool of investors. The problem? Investors tended to buy the fund after hot performance streaks and sell after cold streaks ensued. (Forbes) see also ARK’s stock picks still look extremely expensive . . . . . . even after a near 50 per cent drawdown. (FT Alphaville)
• CD Sales Have Increased for the First Time in 17 Years: Adele’s 30, three albums by Taylor Swift, and more contributed to the newfound interest in the physical format (Pitchfork)
• Covid Test Misinformation Spikes Along With Spread of Omicron The added demand for testing and the higher prevalence of breakthrough cases have created an “opportune moment” to exploit. (New York Times) but see A Texas team comes up with a COVID vaccine that could be a global game-changer A vaccine authorized in December for use in India may help solve one of the most vexing problems in global public health: How to supply lower-income countries with a COVID-19 vaccine that is safe, effective and affordable. The vaccine is called CORBEVAX. It uses old but proven vaccine technology and can be manufactured far more easily than most, if not all, of the COVID-19 vaccines in use today. (NPR)
• Mocking anti-vaxxers’ deaths is ghoulish, yes — but necessary It may be not a little ghoulish to celebrate or exult in the deaths of vaccine opponents. And it may be proper to express sympathy and solicitude to those they leave behind. But mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit, before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled. Nor is it wrong to deny them our sympathy and solicitude, or to make sure it’s known when their deaths are marked that they had stood fast against measures that might have protected themselves and others from the fate they succumbed to. (Los Angeles Times)
• The stakes in the Supreme Court’s vaccine cases are even bigger than they seem The Court doesn’t just threaten the public health, it threatens democracy itself. (Vox) see also One of America’s most partisan judges just gave Navy SEALs permission to defy a direct order The disturbing implications of a GOP judge’s ruling against the military’s vaccination requirement, explained. (Vox)
• What to Do When Playing the Word Game Wordle Isn’t Enough? Solve It. Linguists, engineers, and puzzle obsessives unite in the quest for the perfect first word (The Ringer)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Ray Dalio, founder, co-chairman and co-chief investment officer of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. Dalio’s latest book, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail.
How Every Asset Class Performed in 2021
Source: Visual Capitalist
