My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:
• Americans are actually pretty happy with their finances: By the numbers: 63% of Americans rate their current financial situation as being “good,” including 19% of us who say it’s “very good.” Neither number is particularly low: They’re both entirely in line with the average result the past 20 times Harris Poll has asked this question. (Axios)
• Japan’s Market Roars Back to Life—With Old-Timers Leading the Way: After decades of setting its benchmark rate near zero, the BOJ is poised to tighten, spurring new opportunities for veteran traders. (Businessweek)
• Gen Z vs. the Silver Tsunami: As baby boomers sell off their homes, Gen Zers are poised to ride the wave. (Business Insider)
• How does the Fed control interest rates? Peter Coy comes along to tell me I’m way out of date. The Fed no longer relies on open market operations to influence interest rates. Instead, it just changes the rate it pays banks on their reserves. (Kevin Drum)
• The US Debt Is Now $34 Trillion. Don’t Worry. Seriously. Fiscal hawks who say borrowing is out of control only undermine a constructive conversation about the right priorities for the country. (Bloomberg)
• Powerful Realtors Group Loses Its Grip on the Industry: The National Association of Realtors is facing antitrust lawsuits and sexual harassment allegations, and real estate agents are now looking for alternatives. (New York Times)
• Inside Apple’s Plan to Change the Way We Watch Sports: Longtime Apple executive Eddy Cue happens to be an enormous sports fan. And with Apple entering the wild west of broadcasting live sports, he’s ready to shake up the way we watch games on TV—with a little help from none other than Leo Messi. (GQ)
• The Tyranny of the Algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same: From the generic hipster cafe to the ‘Instagram wall’, the internet has pushed us towards a kind of global ubiquity – and this phenomenon is only going to intensify. (The Guardian)
• The Myth of Social Media and Populism: Why the moral panic is misplaced. Yet social media is not inherently populist. And if populists do well this year, it will not be because there are no tools or strategies to stop them. (Foreign Policy)
• On the Sly A memoir of the Family Stone: it’s difficult to take in just how much change the Family Stone effected, with Sly Stone as songwriter, arranger, producer, co–lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist. Yes, the group was mixed in race and gender when that was still near-taboo, some players being Stone’s siblings (it really was “A Family Affair”) and others poached from the best of the Bay Area scene. They steamrolled over the binary of the respectability codes that governed northerly Motown versus the southern-bluesman grit fetishized by white-boy guitar wankers and record collectors. James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone funked that invention and flew it over the rainbow. (Book Forum)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Shomik Dutta, co-founder and managing partner at Overture, a venture capital firm focused on climate tech and sustainability startups. He is also co-founder and general Partner of Higher Ground Labs. Previously, he was an aide in the Obama White House and an advisor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
BLS Q4 data for its experimental “New Tenant Rent Index.”
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via @bencasselman
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