My Two-for-Tuesday morning train WFH reads:
• It’s not your imagination: Shopping on Amazon has gotten worse: The first page of Amazon results includes an average of about nine sponsored listings, according to a study of 70 search terms conducted in 2020 and 2021 by data firm Profitero. That was twice as many ads as Walmart displayed, and four times as many as Target. (Washington Post) See also How Amazon Become Ordinary: Amazon was never going to maintain a 50% market share of the growth in online retailing forever. The firm’s decision-making in terms of advertising, third-party sales, pricing, and general user experience is hastening a loss of that market share growth. You can no longer assume Amazon has the best selection and the lowest price, you must also look elsewhere. This is a major shift in consumer behavior. (The Big Picture)
•There’s a Job-Market Riddle at the Heart of the Coming Recession: Tech giants and banks are already cutting workers, but many employers seem desperate to keep hiring. (Bloomberg)
• FTX And The Rise Of Investment Scams: How To Guard Yourself: The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has triggered investigations. Aspects of the scandal are reminders that complaints of investment swindles are soaring. The good news? You can protect yourself by taking five precautionary steps.(Investor’s Business Daily) see also She Was a Little-Known Crypto Trader. Then FTX Collapsed. Caroline Ellison, who ran the cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, has found herself at the center of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire. (New York Times)
• Robot Landlords Are Buying Up Houses: Companies with deep resources are outsourcing management to apps and algorithms, putting home ownership further out of reach. (Vice)
• DCG, Multicellular Organisms, and Fed Minutes: Silicon Valley has aged, Big Tech has become people who *do* want worklife balance and time with their families, and I think most people would agree that’s an okay thing. But I would also say that VCs and investors have completely skewed the incentives for what to work on, creating some of the complacency that we see. (Kyla’s Newsletter) see also The Myth of the Tech God Is Crumbling: Believing that startup founders possess extraordinary powers harms wide swaths of society, particularly everyday workers and investors (Wall Street Journal)
• Get Big Tax Breaks for 2022 by Acting Now: From the timing of charitable donations to the unloading of money-losing investments, there’s still plenty you can do to reduce your taxes for this year. Here are key factors to consider before it’s too late. (Wall Street Journal)
• How VCs can avoid being tricked by obvious frauds A guest post by Rohit Krishnan: The tech world is still reeling from the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. Unlike in the cast of the fraudulent biotech company Theranos, FTX managed to hook lots of the supposedly most savvy investors in the space. So when venture investor and former hedge fund manager Rohit Krishnan offered to write a post about how venture capitalists can avoid being tricked by companies like FTX, I took him up on it. It’s a good sequel to Benn Eifert’s post on bullshit in the investing world. (Noahpinion) see also “That’s Our 2 Satoshis” — DCG, Genesis, and Grayscale Leave More Questions Than Answers: The digital assets market is reeling right now. Many retail investors have their money trapped or liquidated, while some institutional funds are unwinding. Reporters are out for blood, and the “I told you so” crowd is louder than ever. The rumor mill is nonstop, and even without merit, you’d be foolish not to at least take each rumor seriously enough to investigate. And as often is the case when an extreme event happens, many are trying to make heroes out of the few who saw these events coming. (Arca)
• How Do Fireflies Flash in Sync? Studies Suggest a New Answer. Field research suggests a new explanation for the synchronized flashing in fireflies and confirms that a novel form of “chimeric” synchrony occurs naturally. (Quanta Magazine)
• Twitter’s CEO is now Twitter’s main character: Elon Musk’s disaster month at Twitter has come to a close. Let’s discuss. (Vox) see also I Was the Head of Trust and Safety at Twitter. This Is What Could Become of It. (New York Times)
• This Is Where Most of the World’s Soccer Balls Come From: Sialkot, a city in northeast Pakistan, produces about 70% of the world’s supply—including Adidas’s Al Rihla, the official ball of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. (Businessweek)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend for a live interview at Bloomberg Invest with Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital discussing “Whales, Tails & Fails.”
Fed’s Aggressive Rate Hikes Are a Game Changer
Source: Wall Street Journal
