Monday morning news drop
Virgil Abloh: The Designer of Progress Virgil Abloh, who has died today aged 41, will be remembered as one of the most popular and influential fashion designers of his era. As both the founder of Off-White and the Creative Director of Menswear for Louis Vuitton, Abloh’s ascent from show-crashing fashion tourist in 2009 to the very apex of the global luxury industry at the time of his passing is arguably the defining fashion story of the 2010s. For as both an African American and a creative whose work emerged from the rag-tag genre of streetwear—a genre whose definition he regularly contested—Abloh was the seminal boundary breaker in a notoriously bordered business. (Vogue)
Virgil Abloh, Menswear’s Biggest Star How the creative director brought something new to high fashion. (New Yorker)
Covid misinformation spreads because so many Americans are awful at math Two-step calculations are hard enough for some, but assessing vaccine effectiveness requires multiple steps. (Washington Post)
Everything you need to know about the endangered species, waterways and farmland in southern Ontario’s Greenbelt More than nine million people live within 20 kilometres of Ontario’s two-million-acre protected Greenbelt. For two decades, it's been hailed as a conservation success story, but it’s still under pressure from urban sprawl. (Narwhal)
Why more housing supply won’t solve unaffordability Five reasons this superficial solution to combating house price escalation often doesn't work. The city of Vancouver has added more housing units per capita than any city in North America over the last 30 years, yet housing prices have increased faster in Vancouver than any other North American city. (Vancouver Sun)
For Recruiters and Job-Seekers, It’s a Whole New Ball Game Asset owners and managers both face challenges as they search for talent in an employment environment turned upside-down by the pandemic. (Institutional Investor)
So You Wanna Be a Stock Picker I’m a big proponent of index funds. This doesn’t mean I disavow active management, but I think most people should get most of their exposure to stocks through an index. Picking stocks is hard, time-consuming, and emotionally exhausting. Even if you are able to outperform, it’s probably not worth the time necessary to achieve said outperformance. Tens and hundreds of hours to maybe beat the benchmark by a few percent doesn’t seem like a great trade. Unless it’s your passion, in which case you probably already stopped reading.(Irrelevant Investor)
Supply chains are screwing with prices for a lot of the world; It isn’t just a US thing. It turns out, the global economy can go a little haywire when a once-in-a-generation pandemic rolls around. The virus scrambled supply chains, squeezed off international travel, and shut down businesses and services. Now, even as the world is recovering from these shocks, Covid-19 is still surging and resurging, and combined with other disruptions — like climate-related events — supply chains are still trying to sort themselves out. (Vox)
The Women Behind Historic House Designs“ The designers, the architects involved — in many instances those were women, or women were part of the team,” says Christina Morris, manager of the year-old “Where Women Made History” initiative for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns the Edith Farnsworth House. “They were the patrons, they were the owners. Women were responsible for creating the preservation movement and continue to lead it today.” (CityLab)
Why Do So Many Young Americans Hate Sports? Nearly 30% of people under the age of 25 say they actively dislike sports, an alarming figure for leagues and their broadcasters. Why the decline in live sports viewership? Nielsen, the ratings analytics giant, said in 2019 that Gen Z individuals “have higher expectations for entertainment experiences than their elders, and new ways to discover and consume content.” Given the size of the sports industry complex — worth tens of billions of dollars a year in revenue, including about $20 billion in media rights — such precipitous drops of interest among young people raise concerns about the long-term sustainability of sports leagues and the media companies broadcasting their content. Market data paints a grim picture for the future of pro sports. In league offices around the country, the campaign to secure it is well underway. Stakeholders have taken notice. (Inside Hook)
Taylor Swift’s Quest for Justice: With “Red (Taylor’s Version),” Swift seeks to reclaim control in her business affairs and in matters of the heart. (New Yorker)