Bartlett: Washington’s Inflation Hysteria Is Fueled by Corporate Greed

20a Men Wearing Sandwich Boards During Great Depression 821×600     Washington’s Inflation Hysteria Is Fueled by Corporate Greed With the help of Larry Summers and a battery of conservatives, the business lobby is disingenuously warning that Biden’s recovery plans will actually wreck the economy. TNR, April 14, 2021     I first heard about the...

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10 Sunday AM Reads

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures: • After the Riot It’s been 100 days since the attack on the Capitol, and those who were inside still struggle with their memories. (NBC News) see also 17 requests for backup in 78 minutes A reconstruction shows how failures of planning and preparation left police...

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MiB: Rob Arnott, Research Affiliates

    This week, we speak with Rob Arnott, founder and chairman of Research Affiliates. The firm created & patented a methodology for basing indexes on fundamental metrics instead of market cap weighting, and its strategies runs $157 billion in assets. Arnott plays an active role in the firm’s research, portfolio management, product innovation,...

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10 Weekend Reads

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish blend coffee, grab a seat on the sofa, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads: • Fraud, Short Sellers & Media Frauds and bad businesses usually aren’t exposed until markets fall and investors became more skeptical and conservative. When the returns are good and money is being made, there...

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Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 4.16.21

Succinct Summations for the week ending April 16th, 2021 Positives: 1. 200 million vaccinations or ~40% of Americans have been given in the U.S. as global total shots approach one billion. 2. Retail sales rose 9.8% m/o/m, above expectations. 3. CPI rose 0.6% m/o/m, above the previous increase. 4. Jobless claims fell 193k w/o/w from 769k to 576k....

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Shifting Balance of Power?

    A massive shift is occurring in the labor market today, one that has been misinterpreted by economists of all stripes: On the right, there is the false meme that lazy workers are staying home because the (3) massive CARES Act. Unemployment bennies are so generous, its leisure + easy living. This rehash of Reagan era dog whistle of welfare cheats...

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10 Friday AM Reads

My end of week morning train WFH reads: • Coinbase’s Public Listing Is a Cryptocurrency Coming-Out Party With acceptance from traditional investors, a profitable start-up that eases transactions is offering proof of the industry’s staying power. (New York Times) see also These Crypto Bros Want to Be the Guggenheims of NFT Art Perhaps you’ve heard of...

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1962 3500 GT Vignale Spyder

Another lovely convertible tailor made for Spring: The Maserati 3500 GT was first shown at the 1957 Geneva Salon. It was offered only as a “rolling chassis” designed by chief engineer Giulio Alfieri; various exotic coach builders came up with different body designs. It was a seminal vehicle for Maserati — the company’s first successful attempt at...

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Cash on the Sidelines?!?

Don’t Fall for the ‘Cash on the Sidelines’ Trope Money coursing through the economy can impact markets and investor sentiment for the better, just not in the way many think. Bloomberg, April 12, 2021       I find myself bothered these days by the quality of both bullish and bearish market arguments. The most prominent is the meaning of “all that...

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How The Next Batteries Will Change the World

Silicon Valley is about to commercialize revolutionary technology that will enable huge breakthroughs in the battle against global warming. The future of batteries, sought for decades by academics, startups, and corporate R&D armies is—quite possibly—just a slender sheet of ceramic material that’s supple enough to bend between two fingers. But...

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