My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:
• Austin’s office market is exploding. But no one is moving in. 6 million square feet of new office space will hit the market in the next few years — equivalent to 105 football fields. Between spaces completed since 2020 and what’s still in the pipeline, the office market will grow nearly 25 percent — the fastest rate on the continent. The Waterline, which will become the tallest building in all of Texas, at 74 stories, when it opens in 2026, and a mammoth 1.1 million-square-foot complex on the city’s outskirts. (Washington Post)
• BYD: The top electric car maker that is not Tesla: BYD is now ahead of Tesla in quarterly production – and second to the US car maker in global sales. Its success is also a sign of just how much China’s auto industry is growing – China overtook Japan this year to become the world’s biggest exporter. (BBC) see also How BYD snatched Tesla’s crown: BYD dominates the Chinese EV market. Now it’s coming for the world. (Rest Of World)
• The Hypocrisy at the Heart of the Insurance Industry: Sometimes, a town doesn’t have to be underwater to become uninhabitable. All it has to do is be uninsurable. (The Atlantic)
• ‘Like a cat with nine lives’: how the British corner shop has survived – and thrived: There are almost 50,000 convenience stores in the UK, offering everything from fruit and veg to home-cooked curries. Here’s how they have fought off Covid, shoplifters, the cost of living crisis … (The Guardian)
• 10 examples of technology going from the racetrack to the road: From the 550 Spyder to the Le Mans-winning 919 Hybrid and beyond. (Ars Technica)
• How ‘A.I. Agents’ That Roam the Internet Could One Day Replace Workers: Researchers are transforming chatbots into online agents that play games, query websites, schedule meetings, build bar charts and do more (New York Times) see also Restaurants embrace AI and robots — warily: Wendy’s, IHOP, Chipotle, Sweetgreen and other quick-serve restaurant chains are rapidly adding AI to their front- and back-of-house operations — while monitoring for embarrassing boo-boos and Big-Brotherish intrusions. (Axios)
• Mere Belief: Sliding down the curve of forgetting. (Harper’s)
• Trees Are Stressed. Now They Can Tell Us Why: TreeTag sensors, developed by startup ePlant, can give homeowners, farmers and forestry managers early warning when trees are water stressed or in danger (Bloomberg)
• Chinese fighter jets buzz U.S. planes in dramatic new videos: The Pentagon released previously nonpublic videos and photos of more than a dozen maneuvers by Chinese fighter jets harassing unarmed U.S. reconnaissance planes patrolling lawfully in international airspace. (Washington Post)
• The Canonization of Lou Reed: In a new biography, the Velvet Underground front man embodies a New York that exists only in memory. https://newrepublic.com/article/175921/lou-reed-biography-canonization
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Bethany McLean, contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and author of Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Her most recent book is The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed About Who America Protects and Who It Leaves Behind, was coauthored with Joe Nocera.
The Trusted 60-40 Investing Strategy Just Had Its Worst Year in Generations
Source: Wall Street Journal
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