My Two-for-Tuesday morning train WFH reads:
• The Office Tower Has a New Job to Do: As workers opt to stay home, developers are packing commercial buildings with amenities that mix private and public spaces. (Bloomberg) see also Workers Are Coming Back, and Coming Out, at the Office More LGBT employees who used to maintain separate personas at home and work say they won’t do it anymore, after the pandemic blurred the line between what’s personal and professional (WSJ)
• If the U.S. Is in a Recession, It’s a Very Strange One Economic output is down but the job market is strong, unlike in previous recessions. (Wall Street Journal)
• What’s Priced Into the Stock Market? The S&P 500 is down around 20% from its all-time highs. It sure feels like the stock market is currently pricing in an imminent recession. But it’s important to remember the stock market doesn’t have a perfect track record of pricing in economic contractions ahead of time. (A Wealth of Common Sense) see also The Higher the Vix, the Higher the Clicks. George Carlin was wise to this forty-five years ago. The news business is really the advertising business. They get paid to attract as many eyeballs as possible, and nobody tunes in to hear that everything is fine. Rainbows don’t attract attention the way a fire does. (Irrelevant Investor)
• A Time of Troubles: The U.S. has fundamental strengths, but politics puts us at a difficult juncture. difficult juncture (Noahpinion)
• The Mushy Middle: This is the hard part. The shock of being in a bear market wears off quickly. Some stuff blows up and the losses are not evenly distributed. Some stuff looks okay – defensive stocks, utilities, etc. Down but not down and out. Some stuff looks horrendous – the drawdowns in the hardest hit sectors (tech, this time) have always been underway for awhile by the time the bear market is truly established for the broader averages. (Reformed Broker) see also Too Late to Sell, Too Early to Buy… To be a seller here means you believe 3 things: 1. The S&P will drop at least 25-30% from here, on top of down -23% ytd; 2. Your capital gains taxes will be less than the rest of the drop; 3. You will be able to get back in and at or near the lows. (Big Picture)
• Anatomy of a Product Placement: As consumers skip ads and streaming content balloons, brands aim to be everywhere all at once. (New York Times)
• With sweep and speed, Supreme Court’s conservatives ignite a new era Supreme Court’s conservatives ignite a new era with sweep and speed – The Washington Post (Washington Post) see also Clarence Thomas’ Latest Guns Decision Is Ahistorical and Anti-Originalist One of the most remarkable features of Justice Stephen Breyer’s trenchant dissent in Bruen is his frank assessment of the appalling quality of the history being pedaled by his colleagues. Calling out the justices for engaging in “law office history,” a degraded form of legal analysis that warps history to fit the desired ends favored by a judge or justice, is something scholars have criticized the courts—including the Supreme Court—for practicing with some frequency. (Slate)
• He’s the Best Cyclist in the World. He’s Only Getting Better. Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia is 23 and already has won the Tour de France twice. With a three-peat on the line, the all-time legend talk is building. (Wall Street Journal)
• The People v. Donald Trump The evidence for a possible criminal case against the former president is piling up. (The Atlantic) see also The Case for Prosecuting Donald Trump Just Got Much Stronger New testimony may have produced a smoking gun. (The Dispatch)
• ‘No Aliens, No Spaceships, No Invasion of Earth’: An oral history of Contact, the sci-fi movie that defied Hollywood norms and made it big anyway. “I think people were surprised by the amount of resonance,” says Jodie Foster, who plays Ellie Arroway in Contact, of the movie’s reception. “We used to do that. We used to make movies that were resonant and were entertaining.” (Vulture)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week Perth Tolle with founder of Life + Liberty Indexes, index provider and sponsor of the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF. The first-of-its-kind strategy uses personal and economic freedom metrics as the primary factors in its investment process. Prior to forming Life + Liberty Indexes, Perth was a private wealth advisor at Fidelity Investments in Los Angeles and Houston and had lived and worked in Beijing and Hong Kong, where her observations led her to explore the relationship between freedom and markets.
Latest Real GDP Estimate estimate: -1.0% June 30, 2022
Source: GDP Now
