Tuesday morning news drop
Reengineering the Recruitment Process - Hire for potential, not experience The Covid-19 pandemic has upended many traditional business practices. When it comes to recruiting, the crisis has not so much disrupted as accelerated shifts in the talent landscape that were already under way, leaving many companies poorly served by their current hiring practices. In a period of steep unemployment, it might seem that companies looking to add workers would be in the driver’s seat. But job openings have also been rising in recent months, meaning that competition for top talent remains keen—and in uncertain times, bringing on the right people is more important than ever. (Harvard Business Review)
Canadian economy contracted 5.4% in 2020, worst year on record Total economic activity in December was about 3% below the pre-pandemic level in February 2020 (Investment Executive)
Maximum Victoria Housing Market Hotness If there’s one good bit of news for house hunters in the February statistics, it’s that the market didn’t get much hotter than it already was in January. The 863 sales are up 53% from the 563 sales last February, while new listings are roughly unchanged from a year ago and inventory is down 38%. Sales have more or less been topped out at an average of 21 per day all of February which means that the percentage change from the previous year has been steadily declining throughout the month, down from 60% at the start of the month to around 40% now. The seasonally adjusted sales to new listings ratio is at 90%, unchanged from January. (House Hunt Victoria)
Being Honest About Your Investment Performance In October of last year I asked people on Twitter whether they knew how well their investments had done since they started investing. Of those that answered, 33% said “Yes” and 66% said “No.” Chances are that you are in the “No” camp. So was I, until recently. (Of Dollars and Data)
What If Interest Rates Don’t Matter as Much as We Think? Just because stocks have done fine when rates have risen in the past doesn’t mean it will happen in the future. But interest rate levels, in and of themselves, aren’t the sole cause of every market movement. They are just one factor among many that impact how people allocate their assets. And maybe, just maybe, they don’t matter as much as we all think. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
It’s Hard to Run on Bond ETFs For an S&P 500 ETF you can go buy all the S&P 500 stocks fairly efficiently and electronically, but for a 500-bond ETF it would be very difficult to go buy 500 bonds (Bloomberg)
How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million In October 2020, Miami-based art collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile spent almost $67,000 on a 10-second video artwork that he could have watched for free online. Last week, he sold it for $6.6 million. (Reuters)
‘Share-plunge’ GameStop traders serve valuable function Without short sellers, the investing public is truly doomed. And for proof, look no further than a one-time penny stock that’s headed back to nosebleed levels. What was largely overlooked during the hearings was that even as the hedge funds lost money, they were eventually proven right. As they predicted, shares of GameStop collapsed. Small investors who ignored the short thesis and engaged in the Reddit-induced mania by buying near the top (sometimes with borrowed money) got crushed as the stock plummeted below $50. (New York Post)
E-mail Is Making Us Miserable: In an attempt to work more effectively, we’ve accidentally deployed an inhumane way to collaborate. (New Yorker)
Surf’s Up. The Temperature Isn’t. Growing numbers of surfers are taking to the Great Lakes — even when the weather is well below freezing. (New York Times)
Brandon Westgate's "508" New Balance Part Westgate’s back, blastin’ street gaps and sailing off of every bump in sight. Must be fun to be able to fly. Great music and great skating.