My Friday the 13th, end-of-week morning train WFH reads:
• F@*$#*! 2022 was a record year for earnings call swearing: The “polycrisis” of runaway inflation, pandemics, interest rate increases, supply chain snafus and wars helped lift swearing on earnings calls and investor days to a new record high in 2022. Good job everyone. (Financial Times Alphaville)
• Elon Musk Might Never Be the World’s Richest Person Again: It’s not just that he became the first person in history to have $200 billion erased from their personal fortune. At this point, the bedrock of Musk’s fortune is his 42% ownership of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the rocket launch company he founded in 2002, before he got involved at Tesla. (Bloomberg) see also Buffett Profile from 1979: “The investor’s investor” “I cannot promise results, but I do promise this: a. Our investments will be chosen on the basis of value, not popularity. b. We will attempt to reduce permanent capital loss to a minimum.” (Neckar’s Minds and Markets)
• RIP meme stocks. You were terrible investments: Unlike other bubbles, meme-stock mania didn’t really help anyone, including companies like Bed Bath & Beyond and GameStop. (Fast Company)
• What banning noncompetes could mean for the US workforce: Lina Khan’s FTC wants to change how we think about anti-competitive behavior. (Vox)
• Sergey Brin’s $100B Private Fiefdom: Bayshore, the family office at the center of Sergey Brin’s ongoing divorce, is a sprawling $100 billion entity with interests as disparate as Parkinson’s research, disaster relief, and superyacht management. Its real central interest, though, has been Sergey’s privacy—until now. (Puck)
• Social Quitting: As I type these words, a mass exodus is underway from Twitter and Facebook. After decades of eye-popping growth, these social media sites are contracting at an alarming rate. (Locus) see also Is Substack the future of media? Elon Musk’s ruin of Twitter has been a boon for the newsletter platform, which is reshaping the market for the written word. (New Statesman)
• Meet the most powerful Uber driver in India: Shaik Salauddin: the Indian driver-turned-union leader who is brushing shoulders with top politicians and giving ride-hailing firms a run for their money. (Rest Of World)
• Widening Highways Doesn’t Fix Traffic. So Why Do We Keep Doing It? With billions of dollars available to improve transportation infrastructure, states have a chance to try new strategies for addressing congestion. But some habits are hard to break. (New York Times)
• Life Lessons from 1,000 Years: I asked a number of 90-year-olds a simple question: “If you could speak to your 32-year-old self, what advice would you give?” In total, there was over 1,000 years of lived experience captured. The responses were…incredible. They range from fun, playful, and witty to deeply moving. I’d encourage you to read through them with your loved ones and reflect on those that hit you the hardest. (Curiosity Chronicle)
• Neutrinos from a Nearby Galaxy Reveal Black Hole Secrets: The IceCube observatory has detected neutrinos from an active galaxy for the first time, revealing clues about how supermassive black holes gobble matter (Scientific American)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Jennifer Grancio, CEO of Engine No. 1, where she guides the firm’s strategic vision. She previously was a founding member of BlackRock’s iShares business, where she led European, US, and global distribution, driving the growth of iShares and the global ETF industry.
Meme Stocks, below 2021 Highs
Source: Creative Planning via @PeterMallouk
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