Thursday morning news drop
Bank of Canada raises benchmark interest rate to 1.5%, signals more hikes on the way Decision was widely expected as central bank moves to rein in high inflation (CBC)
Nobody Likes Index Funds, Except Investors Index funds are being attacked from the Left as soft on corporate managment vestors, from the Right as being “woke” in their support for environmental, social, and governance principles, and from Active managers, by blindly purchasing whatever is in front of them. (Morningstar)
How the Market Crash Is Forcing Hollywood Giants to Reassess Digital Strategies. The crash marked the end of investors’ irrational exuberance for the content business with an exclamation point — on the same day last week that the TV industry was pitching content strategies to advertisers at upfront presentations in New York and the elite of the world’s movie business were being wowed by Tom Cruise and “Top Gun: Maverick” at the Cannes Film Festival. (Variety)
Active Managers Are on a Winning Streak. That Won’t Last. Stock pickers are beating the S&P 500 in droves, but it’s a mistake to assume their success will persist. Nearly 70% of the roughly 2,850 actively managed US stock mutual funds with the stated goal of beating the S&P 500 Index have done so this year through last week. That’s a vast improvement from last year, when just 15% of US large-cap stock pickers beat the market. (Bloomberg)
The Rise and Fall of Wall Street’s Most Controversial Investor Wood’s willingness to make such calls so far ahead of reality — and so out of step with Wall Street’s old guard — has earned her a rockstar reputation among stonks-obsessed retail investors, making her a mascot for buy-the-fucking-dip Robinhood traders, some of whom have dubbed her “Cathie Bae” on Reddit. (New York Magazine)
The problem of global energy inequity, explained by American refrigerators The average fridge in the US consumes more electricity in a year than an average person in dozens of countries. (Vox)
Hit Hard by High Energy Costs, Hawaii Looks to the Sun The state is seeking to replace coal and oil with solar energy, aiming to rely extensively on rooftop panels on single-family homes. (New York Times)
Space Is a Fragile Ecosystem: Thousands of satellites currently orbit the Earth, with commercial internet providers such as SpaceX’s Starlink launching new ones at a dizzying pace. Based on proposals for projects in the future, the authors note, the number could reach more than 100,000 within the decade. Artificial satellites, long a vital part of the space ecosystem, have arguably become an invasive species. (Slate)
Victoria has a bike theft problem. Here’s how to fix it. From secure lockers to bike valets, and what the City of Victoria is doing (Capital Daily)