Monday morning news drop
Huge 'Pandora Papers' leak exposes secret offshore accounts of politicians, celebrities and billionaires Canadians named in confidential files include former auto-racing and figure-skating champions (CBC)
Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation Frances Haugen says in her time with Facebook she saw, "conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook." Scott Pelley reports. (60 Minutes)
Facebook Struggles to Quell Uproar Over Instagram’s Effect on Teens The social network has been all hands on deck as it grapples with revelations that it knew the harmful effects its Instagram photo-sharing app was having on teenagers. (New York Times)
Facebook is Weak and Facebook is in Trouble Not financial trouble, or legal trouble, or even senators-yelling-at-Mark-Zuckerberg trouble. What I’m talking about is a kind of slow, steady decline that anyone who has ever seen a dying company up close can recognize. It’s a cloud of existential dread that hangs over an organization whose best days are behind it, influencing every managerial priority and product decision and leading to increasingly desperate attempts to find a way out. Insiders see a hundred small, disquieting signs of it every day — user-hostile growth hacks, frenetic pivots, executive paranoia, the gradual attrition of talented colleagues. (New York Times)
‘Major’ Oil Spill Off California Coast Threatens Wetlands and Wildlife Southern California beaches, marshland under threat after massive oil spill. A pipeline failure sent at least 126,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific off the coast of Orange County, creating a 13-square-mile slick. Dead fish and birds washed ashore in some areas. (CBC)
Alberta acted like the pandemic was over. Now it's a cautionary tale for Canada Saskatchewan faces similar surge in hospitals, while Manitoba is at risk from low vaccination rates. (CBC)
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms vs. vaccine mandates — and government inaction on COVID A look at how some sections of the charter might hold up in court (CBC)
America’s pandemic is now an outlier in the rich world The one big exception to this story is America at 2,000 covid-19 deaths a day. That is only 40% below the country’s January peak. But the true death toll is even worse. The Economist’s excess-deaths model, which estimates the difference between the actual and the expected number of deaths recorded in a given period, suggests that America is suffering 2,800 pandemic deaths per day, with a plausible range of 900 to 3,300, compared with 1,000 (150 to 3,000) in all other high-income countries, as defined by the World Bank. Adjusting for population, the death rate is now about eight times higher in America than in the rest of the rich world. (Economist)
What an end to blind bidding for real estate could look like Majority supported elimination of blind bidding for property in a recent poll commissioned by CBC News (CBC)
Canadians are unknowingly buying homes in climate change danger zones, report finds Climate change could boost damage costs by billions; more risk disclosure needed for adaptation (CBC)
How Miami Seduced Silicon Valley: Wall Street may not be quaking over Miami’s ascendancy, but in the zero-sum game among cities, San Francisco is indisputably feeling some pain. In July, according to Redfin, Miami was the top migration destination for home buyers in the U.S., while San Francisco had the largest homeowner exodus. Suarez told me about a playful text he recently received from the mayor there, London Breed: “Stop stealing my techies.” He says he replied, “Sorry, London, I love you, but no.” Awash in coders, crypto, and capital, the city is loving — and beginning to shape — its newest industry. (New York Magazine)
The real stakes of Apple’s battle over remote work Inside the unexpected fight that’s dividing the most valuable company in the world. “There’s this idea that people skateboarding around tech campuses are bumping into each other and coming up with great new inventions,” said Cher Scarlett, an engineer at Apple who joined the company during the pandemic and has become a leader in, among other issues, organizing her colleagues on pushing for more remote work. “That’s just not true,” she said. (Vox)
How Tesla’s ‘Self-Driving’ Beta Testers Protect the Company From Critics Every so often, a clip of a Tesla running experimental beta driver assistance software goes viral. But who are the people behind the wheel? And why does it matter? (Vice)
Does New Cash Make Stocks Go Up? Financial theory said more investors coming into the market doesn’t matter. Then meme stocks hit. Flows of cash really do move prices—is catching on among the data-minded investors known as quants. That’s partly thanks to an influential 2020 paper by academics Xavier Gabaix of Harvard and Ralph Koijen of the University of Chicago. It’s also a matter of timing: The stock price surges unleashed by Reddit chat boards have shown what can happen when new investors pour into a stock. “It’s really important that this event on the Reddit stocks happened suddenly,” says Bouchaud, chairman of Capital Fund Management. It threw light on the idea that “prices move because people do things independently of fundamental value.” (Businessweek)
A Lot of Money Sloshing Around in Everything The Great Depression created an entire generation of frugal spenders and savers. The pandemic may have created an entire generation of degenerate gamblers and speculators. Most people assumed speculative activity in the markets would cool off once sports came back, the casinos opened up again and people were able to move about more freely with their normal activities. Judging by the action in options trading, that’s not the case. If anything, there is even more speculation going on in 2021 than 2020. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
This Is How Much Crypto to Hold in Your Portfolio Nothing about crypto is that simple, of course, including its value as an alternative asset. Yes, some brokerages argue that adding a dollop may boost returns in a well-diversified portfolio. But the market is evolving so fast that data sets from even a year ago may now be stale. More governments including China are cracking down on digital tokens than embracing them. Investors also need to separate the tokens from the technology: Blockchain networks have the potential to revolutionize financial markets. If you’re going to bet on crypto, those companies may be safer than speculating on the coins. (Barron’s)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Daniel Craig At long last, the star of the James Bond franchise bids farewell to 007 with “No Time to Die” (and learns for the first time about his life as an internet meme). (New York Times)
The Surveillance Apparatus That Surrounded Britney Spears An account by a former employee of the security team hired by Ms. Spears’s father created the most detailed portrait yet of the singer’s life under 13 years of conservatorship. (New York Times)
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga prepare for Bennett's last big concert The 95-year-old singer is gearing up for two more shows at Radio City Music Hall, though he's grappling with Alzheimer's. Anderson Cooper was there as he prepared. (60 Minutes)
Top 10 S&P Companies 1980 - 2020
