My Two-for-Tuesday morning train WFH reads:
• Why Mid-Terms Matter More Than Presidential Elections — At Least for Investors: A study tracking elections back to the advent of the U.S. republic reveals some intriguing trends. (Institutional Investor) see also What Will the Midterms Mean for Big Business? The G.O.P. and corporate America, longtime allies, are showing signs of a breakup — which recent polls suggest will likely play out with a Republican House. (Dealbook)
• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s First Year on the Job: Undoing Bezos-Led Overexpansion: Amid one of the worst stretches for financial performance in Amazon’s history, the new CEO is working to cut back the excesses of an e-commerce operation the company expanded at breakneck pace during much of the Covid-19 pandemic (Wall Street Journal)
• The Housing Market Is Worse Than You Think: Buyers, sellers and renters are in for more twists and turns, as soaring mortgage rates and stubborn inflation signal belt tightening ahead. (New York Times) see also Older, White and Wealthy Home Buyers Are Pushing Others Out of the Market: The share of first-time buyers fell to 26 percent, plummeting to the lowest level in four decades, when a real estate trade association began tracking such data. (New York Times)
• Ray Dalio: The Changing World Order Is Approaching Stage 6 (The War Stage): History shows that the movements to civil and/or international wars that change the domestic and world orders take place via a progression of stages that transpire in big cycles that have occurred for logical reasons throughout history. (LinkedIn)
• The Harvard of Automobile Restoration Gets $500 Million Pledge: An anonymous donor has given McPherson College a big boost Tiny Kansas school offers bachelor’s in automotive restoration (Bloomberg) see also Weird cars are becoming the new normal: With brands struggling to maintain their identities in an age of silent electric cars with incredible performance, many are leaning into gimmicky features to find traction on the road ahead (The Verge)
• This Brain Molecule Decides Which Memories Are Happy—or Terrible: When the brain encodes memories as positive or negative, a small peptide called neurotensin determines which way they will go. (Wired)
• Democrats limp behind Republicans on the messaging game: The GOP has turned to their standards, crime and the economy, to rally voters. (Vox) see also Democrats’ Long Goodbye to the Working Class: The party’s biggest challenge heading into the midterm elections is the erosion of its traditional base of support. (The Atlantic)
• John Oliver on Republicans and voting: ‘If I lose, it’s rigged, if I win, it’s fine’ The Last Week Tonight host examines election denialism, GOP attempts at election subversion and the fragility of American democracy. (The Guardian)
• Letters, Tweets, TV: How Midterm Disinformation Has Washed Over Pennsylvania: One state’s experience underscores how pervasive false and misleading information has become in the country’s electoral process, online and off. (New York Times) see also In the hunt for voter fraud, Republican door knockers are intimidating residents: The canvassers in California’s Shasta County in September wore reflective orange vests and official-looking badges that read “Voter Taskforce.” Four residents said they mistook them for government officials. The door knockers grilled residents on their voting history and who lived in their homes, probing questions that violated state laws on intimidation and harassment, according to the county’s chief election official. (Reuters)
• The Real Story of How the Weird Al Movie Scored Fake Cameos: The comedian talked to WIRED about how he raided his address book to cast his biopic parody Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. (Wired)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with financial historian Edward Chancellor. He is currently a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews and an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal and MoneyWeek. In 2008, he received the George Polk Award for financial reporting. Chancellor is the author of “Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation.” His new book “The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest” is a nominee for FT’s 2022 Business Book of the Year.
Biggest Donors of the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections
Source: Visual Capitalist
