Thursday morning news drop
Canada's inflation rate rises to new 30-year high of 4.8% Grocery prices increasing at fastest pace in more than a decade (CBC)
Lumber Prices Are off the Rails Again. Blame Climate Change. “This is a supply-side problem. This is unlike any other market that any of us lumber traders have ever experienced.” (Atlantic)
Housing starts slow in Canada amid record shortage of homes for sale The December pullback could add to concerns about soaring home prices (Financial Post)
Why Is Canadian Architecture So Bad? Buildings from the past fifty years have been largely uninspiring. Why don’t we take good design seriously? (Walrus)
After Another Great Year for Stocks, Peril Lingers Inflation and the coronavirus did not hold back the stock market last year, but in 2022, investors face new worries. (New York Times)
The Market is Tightening Cheap money impacts the winners, both individuals, and corporations. It’s hard to say with certainty that low borrowing rates have contributed to stock market inequality, but maybe there’s something there. (Irrelevant Investor)
Bill Nygren Market Commentary | 4Q21 Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” -Warren Buffett. I recently participated on a panel discussing topics that most concerned investors. Of course, I was asked for Oakmark’s view on cryptocurrency. As you could guess, my answer was that we won’t buy it because we have no idea how to value it. To my surprise, another panelist, a bull on crypto, said they completely agreed with me that its value can’t be defined, but that’s exactly why they own it. If a crypto coin is worth somewhere between $0 and $500,000, then they want to own it at $50,000. Today, it’s become so commonplace for price to become completely untethered from value that investors now actively seek out such assets rather than avoid them. (Oak Mark Funds)
China’s looming property crisis threatens economic stability A growing number of Chinese property developers are facing financial strain, while property sales and home prices in China are falling sharply. The Chinese government, worried that an engine of growth is losing steam, is struggling to keep the property sector afloat. Evergrande is a leading indication that China’s model of property-led growth is unsustainable and needs to change. (Peterson Institute for International Economics)
Microsoft is buying one of the biggest names in games — if Washington lets it Microsoft-Activision is like Disney-Fox. Maybe bigger. (Vox)
André Leon Talley, Editor and Fashion Industry Force, Dies at 73 Called “a creative genius,” he was the rare Black editor at the top of a field that was mostly white and notoriously elitist. (New York Times)