Monday morning news drop
Bond Market’s ‘Game of Chicken’ With Fed Is Set for a Reckoning Investors are again reassessing one of the bond market’s premier reflation trades -- the curve steepener -- as expectations for growth and inflation perk up at a clip that was hard to imagine just a few months ago. (Bloomberg)
On Inflation How inflation drives asset prices and how to predict inflation Inflation is the economy’s Jay Gatsby: talked about by many, understood by few. Inflation can have big impacts on markets, yet predicting inflation is notoriously difficult and most investors’ portfolios are not optimized for inflationary environments. Since the 1980s when inflation peaked in the United States, research on this important economic topic has all but completely dried up. (Verdad)
16th-Century Traders Could’ve Predicted Zero Rates A Q&A with Paul Schmelzing, author of a paper that traces 800 years of borrowing costs, on central banks, inflation and the U.S.-China rivalry. (Bloomberg)
Is Value Investing Really Back? Value investing is back. But is it really? Jack Forehand showed that despite the impressive results over the last 12 months, there is more to the story than just value leading the charge. (Irrelevant Investor)
From Crypto Art to Trading Cards, Investment Manias Abound Each market frenzy seems crazier than the last. But all have the same roots. This past week, a trading card featuring the quarterback Tom Brady sold for a record $1.3 million. The total value of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin hit $1 trillion. And Christie’s sold a digital artwork by an artist known as Beeple for $69.3 million after bids started at just $100 (New York Times)
Tell Your Boss the Four-Day Week Is Coming Soon A century after the invention of the weekend, more companies are adding another day.(Businessweek)
How Unfair Property Taxes Keep Black Families From Gaining Wealth Flawed assessments for America’s $500 billion in annual property taxes hit Black neighborhoods hardest. (Businessweek)
In Boost for Renewables, Grid-Scale Battery Storage Is on the Rise Driven by technological advances, facilities are being built with storage systems that can hold enough renewable energy to power hundreds of thousands of homes. The advent of “big battery” technology addresses a key challenge for green energy — the intermittency of wind and solar. (Yale Environment 360)
How Lease Deals Have Truckers Hauling a Load of Debt Like many long-haul truckers, Frank Merrill dreamed of being his own boss. Some day, he told himself, he would buy his own big rig and become an owner-operator, king of the road, choosing what loads and routes he would take and carving out more time for a life outside the truck. (Westword)