My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:
• The Best 50-Year-Old Investing Advice Money Can Buy: Nearly 50 years ago, the economist Burton Malkiel came out with a book that said, in effect, that all of us should be in index funds. The stock and bond markets incorporate new information into prices almost instantly, so trying to beat them is a fool’s errand, Malkiel wrote. Instead of trying to winnow winners from losers, you’re better off saving on brokerage commissions and headaches by spreading your investment dollars across the entire market. (New York Times)
• US Is Focused on Regulating Private Equity Like Never Before: An industry that has long escaped scrutiny in Washington has found agencies slow-walking deals and enforcing long-dormant competition laws. (Businessweek)
• Billions of Dollars at Stake in a Puzzling Holiday Shopping Season: It promises to be unpredictable, with retailers and consumers still figuring out how much will be spent and on what kinds of goods. (New York Times)
• The donut effect: How COVID-19 shapes real estate: Rents in high-density areas and central business districts of America’s largest cities have fallen more than 10 percent since the start of the pandemic. Though housing demand within cities is shifting from dense urban centers to more spacious suburbs, there has yet to be a substantial move from more expensive to less expensive cities. Working from home has caused commercial office occupancy rates to plummet and commercial property prices to fall in crowded zip codes. Falling property values in cities are likely driven by richer, more skilled residents leaving high-value properties. That will cause a drop in property taxes and strain city budgets. (Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research)
• How New York City Became a Free-for-All of Unlicensed Weed: Shops selling weed have proliferated since the state legalized cannabis last year, thriving in confusion over their legality and a lack of enforcement. (New York Times)
• This essay isn’t true: Alethic nihilism is the theory that nothing is true. There is much to gain by taking this radical idea seriously (Aeon)
• Anthony Fauci’s Sign-Off Message: While America’s top doc fought Covid, deniers fought him. He still can’t figure out why. (Wired)
• Against “polycrisis”: We have lots of problems, but they’re not mutually self-reinforcing. (Noahpinion) but see also We do not yet know what the polycrisis is We are doubtless being called upon to reform the world. But we first need to understand, as well as catalogue, what is causing the current economic carnage. (The Political Economy Blog)
• Dimming the Sun to Cool the Planet Is a Desperate Idea, Yet We’re Inching Toward It: The scientists who study solar geoengineering don’t want anyone to try it. But climate inaction is making it more likely. (New Yorker)
• Sandy Hook families sued Alex Jones. Then he started moving money around. Records show Jones transferred millions from his media company to firms that he or his family members controlled. (Washington Post)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend for a live interview at Bloomberg Invest with B0az Weinstein of Saba Capital discussing “Whales, Tails & Fails.”
Weight Gaining Season Begins!
Source: Primecuts
Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.
