Monday morning news drop
How a Recession Could Weaken the Work-From-Home Revolution: Company culture may soon resemble what bosses want, rather than what workers want—and that could mean a lot more people in the office. (The Atlantic)
The World’s Bubbliest Housing Markets Are Flashing Warning Signs: Global monetary tightening is squeezing homebuyers, adding risks that a slowdown could ripple through the economy. (Bloomberg)
The Case For Owning Bonds: Yields are much higher than they were during the onset of the pandemic. The Fed is raising rates to bring down inflation which could lead to a recession. If we go into a recession yields will likely fall as the Fed will eventually be forced to lower interest rates. (Wealth of Common Sense)
Where does the wealth go when asset prices go down? It vanishes into nothingness. I’ve been writing a lot about the crashes in the stock and crypto markets. Sometimes I say stuff like “Over $2 TRILLION of notional value has now been wiped out compared to the peak in late 2021.” And some people have been asking me: Where did all that wealth go? The short answer is: It didn’t “go” anywhere. It vanished. It stopped existing. That’s not a natural or intuitive idea — how can wealth just disappear? — so this post is an explainer of how that works. And as we’ll see, this has implications for policy, for how we think about inequality, and for how we plan our own financial futures. (Noahpinion)
Scammers have been around forever. Then came crypto. Who is responsible for reining in cryptocurrency fraud? (Grid)
How Nike Won the Cultural Marathon: As the brand turns 50, it’s not letting up. After half a century there is no escaping the fact that, if Goldman Sachs was once described as the “vampire squid” on the face of humanity, Nike has become part of the root system that underlies the culture. And not just sneaker culture. (New York Times)
The Anxiety of Influencers: Educating the TikTok generation: According to a poll released in 2019, some 54 percent of Americans between the ages of 13 and 38 would, if given the chance, become a social-media influencer. A whopping 12% believed that this term already fit them. Once the purview of heiresses like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, it seems that influencing has become fully democratized: “It’s the new A-list celebrity except it’s attainable for anybody. You can be in Cleveland, Ohio, alone in your bedroom, and you can get a million followers overnight. That’s fucking crazy. That’s never been possible. Wealth, fame, status has never been more attainable for anyone in the history of the world the way it is right now.” (Harpers)
From bad refs to brain-eating amoebas: How climate change is reshaping warm-weather sports Increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and more extreme weather are affecting how we play outdoor sports at all levels, from the weekend warriors to the pros. (Grid)
Spotify’s Billion-Dollar Bet on Podcasting Has Yet to Pay Off Joe Rogan, Bill Simmons, and Call Her Daddy haven’t fixed the business. (Businessweek)