My Two-for-Tuesday morning train WFH reads:
• Bonds Are the New Stocks. Where to Find the Best Yields. TINA is dead. She was murdered in this year’s bond massacre, a victim of the Federal Reserve’s belated lifting of short-term interest rates from near zero. But her passing presents opportunities not seen by many in this generation of investors. (Barron’s) see also Farewell, TINA: For years, we have heard that “there is no alternative” – TINA – to equities, and that thanks to the Fed, “Cash is trash.” No longer. The Federal Reserve, in its belated attempt to fight inflation, has cranked up rates to the point where today, there is an alternative to stocks: Bonds. (The Big Picture)
• California Poised to Overtake Germany as World’s No. 4 Economy: Contrary to popular belief, the Golden State has proven resilient, outperforming its US and global peers. (Bloomberg)
• Buying a Home Gets Easier in a Cooler Market—for Those Who Can Afford It: Higher mortgage rates mean fewer bidding wars. They are also pricing out many would-be purchasers. (Wall Street Journal) see also Renters Hit Breaking Point in a Sudden Reversal for Landlords: Affordability pressures and inflation are holding back tenants, forcing landlords to ease off big increases. (Bloomberg)
• How Institutions Game Benchmarks: Richard Ennis argues that allocators are choosing a low bar to assess their performance, a practice that ultimately keeps active managers in business. (Institutional Investor)
• Higher Interest Rates Can Take a Long Time to Bring Down Inflation: Lags between rate increases and real-world impacts raise the twin risks of tightening too much and too little. (Wall Street Journal) see also How Front-Loading Rate Hikes Risks Financial Instability: Inflation requires faster increases, which intensify the threat of large financial accidents that can have nasty economic spillovers. (Bloomberg)
• The financial infrastructure industry needs a new playbook Five big murky clouds on the horizon for the financial market infrastructure sector: fewer regulatory tailwinds; a paucity of scalable newer products; slower capital markets growth; a democratisation of data and a tougher M&A environment. The golden era is over.(Financial Times)
• America’s Trumpiest court just declared an entire federal agency unconstitutional: The Fifth Circuit’s opinion in Community Financial v. CFPB is completely incoherent. (Vox) see also The ‘election-denier trifecta’: alarm over Trumpists’ efforts to win key posts: Republican contenders for secretary of state, attorney general and governor have loudly echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraud. (The Guardian)
• The Smash and Grab of Kroger-Albertsons: The Kroger-Albertsons supermarket deal is uglier than you might expect. The “special cash division” of $4 billion may be intended to get around antitrust enforcers. (BIG Stoller)
• Russia’s destroying infrastructure in Ukraine, and the consequences are dire: Moscow’s next target may be a massive dam in Kherson. (Vox) see also Russian Oligarchs Keep Dying in Suspicious Ways. Wikipedia Is Keeping a List. An anonymous Wikipedia editor started Wikipedia’s 2022 Russian mystery deaths article, which chronicles “unusual deaths of Russian-connected businessmen that occurred under what some sources suggest were suspicious circumstances.” When the article was first published, it listed just 9 Russian oligarchs.Today, it chronicles 17 deaths, and it’s been viewed more than 400,000 times. (Slate)
• Comedy Wildlife Photo finalists – in pictures: From smiling triggerfish to a waving raccoon, the shortlisted images for the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photo awards have been announced. Whittled down from thousands of entries submitted by professional and amateur photographers from around the world, we’re presented with a wonderful mix of hilarious wildlife. The winners will be announced on 8 December (The Guardian)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Marta Norton, Chief Investment Officer of Morningstar Investment Management. The firm manages directly or advises on $249.4B in client funds. She began her career as BLS economist, and before her current role, she was Head of U.S. Outcome-Based Strategies for Morningstar.
Google Reports Earnings Today: How Its Revenue and Profit Break Down
Source: Visual Capitalist
