House Hunt Victoria, Climate Crisis, and Electric Cars

Tuesday morning news drop

• What Will Be the Tipping Point of the Climate Crisis? Glaciers are melting. Coral reefs are dying. Eventually, the devastation will be impossible to reverse (Walrus)

• “Asset price inflation” is not a thing American society — healthcare, childcare, and related goods really are becoming less affordable. But that’s not what inflation is. Also not inflation is the thing that some people, including major investment managers and venture capitalists, have taken to calling “asset price inflation.” (Slow Boring)

• The US Is Real Close to Screwing Up Electric Vehicle Charging Forever There is no such thing as “the” EV charging network. It’s a complicated patchwork of plugs and proprietary software. And unless something changes, it’s only going to get worse. (Vice)

• Germany’s Climate Obstacle: Its Love Affair With Combustion Cars Automakers enjoy deeply embedded support from customers and have influence over government policy.(Bloomberg)

• The ‘Green Energy’ That Might Be Ruining the Planet The biomass industry is warming up the South's economy, but many experts worry it's doing the same to the climate. Will the Biden Administration embrace it, or cut it loose? (Politico)

• How Much Money Do You Need To Make To Be Considered Rich? If the last year or so has taught us anything about U.S. government debt, it should be that we don’t need to “pay” for more spending. The money is essentially created out of thin air by issuing more U.S. treasury bills and bonds. It’s not like the government came to each household and asked for more tax revenue before spending trillions of dollars. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• Who Helps Pay Amazon’s Low-Wage Workers? You Do. Taxpayers pick up the tab for employees at big companies whose paychecks won’t cover basic necessities. (Bloomberg)

• Mortgage insights & a new measure of affordability Every year since 2005, Mortgage Professionals Canada has put out a meaty annual mortgage report summarizing the state of the market in Canada. And while MPC is an industry lobby group, the author Will Dunning has a wealth of experience in mortgage and real estate analytics and always puts out quality analysis of Canadians’ mortgage and housing experience. Generally these reports are based on a survey of both owners and renters as well as other statistical sources and is always worth a read. (House Hunt Victoria)

Origin of the Coronavirus, US Democracy, Coal Plants, and Higher Taxes

Monday morning news drop

• What happened in Wuhan? Why questions still linger on the origin of the coronavirus A lack of transparency from Chinese officials and looming geopolitical consequences have damaged the credibility of a WHO-led inquiry into how the virus that causes COVID-19 originated. Lesley Stahl reports. (60 Minutes)

• US sinks to new low in rankings of world’s democracies The US has slipped 11 points in a decade – below Argentina and Mongolia – according the latest report by a democracy watchdog. Extreme partisan gerrymandering – the manipulation of electoral district lines to boost one party over the other – has contributed to dramatic polarization in the US, threatening its democratic foundations. Gerrymandering, the report says, “has the most corrosive and radicalizing effect on US politics.” (The Guardian)

• Preachers and their $5,000 sneakers: Why one man started an Instagram account showing churches’ wealth: Serious questions about wealth, class and consumerism, including whether it’s appropriate to generate massive revenue from selling the gospel of Jesus. The fuzzy line” between successful ministry and booming business.  (Washington Post)

•  The Coal Plant Next Door: Near America’s largest coal-fired power plant, toxins are showing up in drinking water and people have fallen ill. Thousands of pages of internal documents show how one giant energy company plans to avoid the cleanup costs. (ProPublica)

• Dave Kindred goes back on the beat to cover high school girls basketball Renowned sportswriter Dave Kindred has covered the biggest moments and brightest stars in sports for more than half a century, but now he tells 60 Minutes he's found his most fulfilling work: writing about girls high school hoops in central Illinois. (60 Minutes)

• Higher Taxes? Deficit Spending? Why the Stock Market Isn’t Worried. “To some extent, higher taxes are priced into the market. Since Biden was elected, people have gotten prepared for that,” says Byron Wien, of the Blackstone Group.“ (Barron’s)

• What Happened to the Corporate Income Tax? Biden wants companies to pay a bigger share of their profit to the federal government, but he’ll have to reverse a decades-long slide. (Bloomberg)

Canadian Housing Market, Foreign Investment, and What Happened to Pickup Trucks

Weekend news drop

• Gilded Age or Roaring Twenties? “The Gilded Age in US history spans from roughly the end of the Civil War through the very early 1900s. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner popularized the term, using it as the title of their novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which satirized an era when economic progress masked social problems and when the siren of financial speculation lured sensible people into financial foolishness. (Investor Amnesia)

• What Happened to Pickup Trucks? Why have pickup trucks morphed into such huge, angry, and dangerous presences? Traffic safety experts, commentators on U.S. automotive culture, and social scientists have suggested a range of forces behind truck bloat. As U.S. drivers buy more full-size and heavy-duty pickups, these vehicles have transformed from no-frills workhorses into angry giants. They are more than just a polarizing consumer choice: Large pickups and SUVs are notably more lethal to other road users, and their conquest of U.S. roads has been accompanied by a spike in fatalities among pedestrians and bicyclists. (CityLab)

• 10 ways office work will never be the same IKnowledge workers — high-skilled workers whose jobs are done on computers — will likely see the biggest changes, from physical locations to the technology used to the ways in which productivity is measured. How we work impacts everything from our own personal satisfaction to new inventions to the broader economy and society as a whole. From where we work to how our work is measured, office work will be permanently different after the pandemic. (Vox)

• Smuggling, price-gouging, dognapping: True tales from inside the great pandemic puppy boom Prices for puppies in the U.S. rose by 36% after the pandemic began, according to PuppySpot, an online listing site for breeders. Goldendoodles were the most popular breed, and for the priciest breed—English Sheepadoodles—prices have soared by ~90%. The puppy demand could also exacerbate already mounting problems: The U.S. government, which buys German shepherd and Labrador puppies for the military on the open market, must compete with civilian puppy demand. (Fortune)

• Canadian Property Bubble Nears Systemic Failure, And Not Even A Big Crash Can Fix It Canadian real estate markets have become such a large bubble, even a crash can’t fix prices. That’s what the Globe’s Rob Carrick argued earlier this week. The personal finance expert says it’s now too late for young adults in Toronto and Vancouver. Policy failures made markets so inefficient over the past few years, ownership is now an unrealistic dream for them. As a result, the trend of flight to small towns might be a more permanent shift, even after the pandemic. (Better Dwelling)

• Canada calling? Hong Kong residents shift billions abroad after clampdown As China imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong last year after massive protests, residents of the city moved tens of billions of dollars across the globe to Canada, where thousands are hoping to forge a new future. (Reuters)

• Why tinkering with the capital gains exemption is the nuclear option for housing market intervention 'You think it's hard to get a home now, imagine if they bring in a new tax on home equity. People will simply stay in their homes longer, maybe to the last parts of their lives' (Financial Post)

• Here's how government can cool housing prices without hurting homeowners The three tiers of government should collaborate to address the chronic undersupply of housing (Financial Post)

• Wall Street’s Sleepless Nights Junior bankers are burning out. What should banks do about it? (New York Times)

Videos of the Week, Carbon Tax is Constitutional, Generational Debt, Inflation, and Financial Bubbles

Friday morning news drop and videos of the week

• Supreme Court rules Ottawa's carbon tax is constitutional In 6-3 decision, top court finds federal government can impose nationwide pricing standards (CBC)

• Someone has to pick up the tab for lockdown-induced debt Generational fairness is key in paying for the estimated $550 billion in added debt Ottawa has run up fighting the pandemic, says a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. The analysis in this paper indicates that the income loss arising from the recession can only be deferred, not eliminated, by issuing debt because debt has an economic cost. Government needs to implement a set of debt reduction policies that, given the distribution of income losses during the recession, achieves a fair sharing of the burden of the recession, without passing the debt on to future generations. (CD Howe)

• Fear of Inflation Finds a Foothold in the Bond Market There is little evidence for a big jump in prices, but some economists and bond investors fear President Biden’s policies could lead to inflation. (New York Times)

• Here’s Why So Many People Intend to Die With Money in the Bank Close to two-thirds say “saving as much as I can makes me feel happy and fulfilled.” (Businessweek)

• Bitcoin Miners Are on a Path to Self-Destruction Producing the cryptocurrency is a massive drain on global power and computer chip supplies. Another way is needed before countries balk. (Bloomberg)

• Len Sassaman and Satoshi: a Cypherpunk History We’ve lost far too many hackers to suicide. What if Satoshi was one of them? (Medium)

• How much money does the federal government collect in student loan payments each year? An Extremely Important Statistic About Student Debt That Has Never Been Published: The grand total: $70.3 billion. (Slate)

Videos of the week

Chapter 11 - 009 SURFERS Matt Mccabe, Craig Anderson (One shit wave from when we got skunked in PR) Eithan Osbourne (Maybe only clip of the trip) Dane Reynolds Dylan Graves (Fly’s through frame) Jake Anderson (He’s either going hate or love this) Andrew Doheny (Last track is the first song he ever wrote)

A Tall Tale – Perception is reality aboard the all-new Instinct From exaggerated stories of blissful alpine singletrack to rubbing elbows with the pros, everyone has “that friend” whose tales from the trail are too good to be true. But this story feels different. They're telling it with confidence and you’ve heard their new Instinct has them riding trails in a whole new way. Your friend has always been good on their bike, but have they really transformed their riding completely? Featuring: Kevin Calhoun, Felix Burke, Thomas Vanderham

My Canada – My Canyon | Mark Wallace At only 25 years old, it's hard to believe Mark has been part of the pro racing scene since way back in 2013.

'LET GO', Alex Donnachie's latest video from BSD.

Down Bad - Kink BMX Follow the Kink Pro Team through Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Vegas as they hit the road together to kick off 2021. Half the squad was hurt and down bad, but everyone made it happen to clock another banger trip in the books. Enjoy!

ANIMAL BIKES - WIDDIT

Alexy Krasniy's "Green Grey" Part Alexey explores the outskirts of Moscow, annihilating the cutty slopes and absurd kinkers.

Speedriding Through An Alpine Resort | From Avoriaz With Love Always known for pushing his limits by combining freestyle and speedriding, Valentin Delluc is back at it again—but this time he’s taking on the deserted alpine resort Avoriaz. From the cables of the chairlifts to barrels, keys and wall rides, the French speedrider uses the empty French Alps

Canadian Housing Markets, Investing, and London's Calling

Thursday morning news drop

• Hot Canadian housing markets call for a policy response The resilience of Canada’s housing market—in the face of a global pandemic and resulting severe economic shock—has been nothing short of extraordinary. But with activity and prices headed for the stratosphere, what was initially viewed as a positive development is now causing some hand-wringing. In this note, we address some common questions about the situation and potential policy responses. (RBC)

• The Worst Type of Sell-Off Maybe this is a buying opportunity. Or maybe there is still time to sell. How you think about these things depends on your past experiences, your style of investing, your timeframe, and a whole host of other items. I think the risk I’m taking today will be rewarded in the future, but I’m ready for more pain tomorrow. (Irrelevant Investor)

• Institutional Investors Have Been Influenced by Reddit — But They Still Don’t Trust It One in five investors surveyed by Brunswick said they made a trade, changed a recommendation, or altered a position because of the WallStreetBets subreddit. (Institutional Investor)\

• Started From the Bottom It’s been one year since the market bottomed during the coronavirus crash on March 23, 2020. I remember that day well because it was the same day I published this blog post explaining why it can be so lucrative to buy during a crisis. Yes, publishing this on the day of the bottom was pure luck, but my bullish stance wasn’t. (Of Dollars and Data)

• The Story Behind the Iconic Bass-Smashing Photo on the Clash’s London Calling Pennie Smith was not a fan. Maybe that’s what made her the perfect photographer for The Clash. She wasn’t even particularly in love with the most famous shot of her career — the iconic photo of bassist Paul Simonon raising his Fender Precision at New York’s Palladium, seconds before smashing it to bits. “I said, ‘it’s completely out of focus,’” Smith remembers of the image when Joe Strummer insisted on using it for the cover of legendary double-LP London Calling. “But Joe wouldn’t have it. He said, ‘That one is the photo.’” (Open Culture)

Bank of Canada Liquidity Program, Electric Vehicles, and Inflation

Wednesday morning news drop

• Bank of Canada to wind down crisis liquidity programs Bank of Canada announces the discontinuation of market functioning programs introduced during COVID-19. Reflecting the continued improvement in the general functioning of Canadian financial markets, the Bank is announcing the discontinuation of the Commercial Paper Purchase Program (CPPP), the Provincial Bond Purchase Program (PBPP), and the Corporate Bond Purchase Program (CBPP) on their originally announced end date. These programs were each activated for a term of 12 months. (BNN Bloomberg)

• Bank of Canada working hard to avoid a taper tantrum when it eventually slows government bond purchases Kevin Carmichael: Deputy governor says shift to be gradual, soothing traders who might panic if it happened too abruptly (Financial Post)

• Infrastructure bank chief clashes with MPs over private-sector investment The head of the Canada Infrastructure Bank clashed with members of Parliament at a committee hearing March 23 about whether the federal financing agency was living up to its mandate of generating private-sector funding for its investments. (On-Site)

• Greater Victoria unemployment rate drops below five per cent Provincial rate sits at 6.9 per cent while national unemployment is 8.2 per cent (Victoria News)

• Posthaste: If you are hankering for an electric car, take heart — they are about to get cheaper EVs to cost less to make than their fuel-powered counterparts by late 2020s, predicts economist (Financial Post)

• These Electric Motorcycles Are Set to Take Charge in 2021 After years of underpowered toys, the EV market for motorcycles is surging with exciting new possibilities. (Bloomberg)

• How Not to Panic About Inflation Do you remember the great inflation scare of 2010-2011? It’s an episode worth revisiting, because there’s a good chance that we’ll see a replay over the next year or so. (New York Times)

• A Look Back at the Corona Crash One Year Later In the span of a month there were 8 days with losses of 3% or worse, 4 daily drops of 5% or worse, 7 daily gains of 3% or more, 5 daily gains in excess of 6%. Out of 21 trading sessions, there was only one that wasn’t a gain or loss of 1% or more. I never thought it would be possible to top what took place in 2008-09 but March 2020 did that for me. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• Started From the Bottom We may never see a better 1-year rally: If you had bought the S&P 500 on March 23, 2020, you would now be up by 76% (excluding dividends): (Of Dollars And Data)

• B.C. tackling overdose crisis in Vancouver Island construction industry People who work in the trades and construction industries on Vancouver Island will soon have more addictions supports available for them. The Vancouver Island Construction Association (VICA) and the B.C. government have launched a new program, called the Tailgate Toolkit Project, to help address addictions and the overdose crisis in the industry. (CTV)

House Hunt Victoria, Renewables, Digital Currency, NFT, and Investment Banking

Tuesday morning news drop

• The home of Canada's energy sector is set to outpace the country in renewables growth: forecast Alberta and Saskatchewan are expected to overtake Ontario in renewable power capacity (CBC)

• 'The fire has been lit': U.S. Federal Reserve's push for digital dollar worries Wall Street A digital currency could fundamentally change the way Americans use money, leading some financial firms to lobby the Fed and Congress to slow its creation (Financial Post)

• The Wealth Gains That Made 2020 a Banner Year for the Richest 1% The richest 1% of households saw their net worth rise by some $4 trillion in 2020, meaning that they captured about 35% of the extra wealth generated nationwide, according to the latest quarterly study of household wealth from the Federal Reserve. The poorest half of the population, by contrast, got about 4% of overall gains. (Bloomberg)

• Financial world greenwashing the public with deadly distraction in sustainable investing practices Former BlackRock executive blows the whistle on Greenwashing; Fear of missing out on fund flows gives asset managers a strong incentive to pretend all their offerings are green. (USA Today)

• ‘I’m in a really dark place’: Complaints at Goldman Sachs set off a workplace debate. A group of 13 disgruntled first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs has made waves by assembling a professional-looking presentation in the company’s style about their experiences at the investment bank. They work an average of around 100 hours per week, rating job satisfaction as 2 out of 10; they were unlikely to stay at Goldman. (New York Times)

• Forget griping staffers, investors love Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon He uses the corporate jet to travel to his mansion in the Bahamas, even as he indulges in hobbies that include pricey wines, kitesurfing and DJing at nightclubs — all the while demanding that his people get back to the office as the COVID pandemic subsides. (New York Post)

• The coal plant next door Near America’s largest coal-fired power plant, toxins are showing up in drinking water and people have fallen ill. Thousands of pages of internal documents show how one giant energy company plans to avoid the cleanup costs for coal ash. (Georgia Health)

• How Beeple Crashed the Art World An N.F.T., or “non-fungible token,” of the digital artist’s work sold for sixty-nine million dollars in a Christie’s auction. It’s good news for crypto-optimists, but what about for art? (New Yorker)

• March 22 Victoria Housing Market Update It’s been one year since the pandemic hit the real estate market in Victoria. Few predicted that we would still be in the middle of it 12 months later, and no one predicted an unprecedented economic shock would ignite an ultra hot market across the entire country. (House Hunt Victoria)

Market Bottom, Electric Vehicles, Housing Prices, and Cell Phones

Monday morning news drop

• One Year Since the Bottom One of the big lessons from 2020 is that risk is always present, even if we don’t always feel it. Things were smooth sailing until they weren’t. The other big lesson: Survival is the name of the game. It’s not about maximizing returns or beating the market. It’s about staying the course. And you can only stay the course if you have a course to stay on. (Irrelevant Investor)

• Big Market Delusion: Electric Vehicles The “big market delusion” is when all firms in an evolving industry rise together, although as competitors ultimately some will win and some will lose. The electric vehicle industry, with its astronomical growth in market-cap over the 12 months ending January 31, 2021, is a prime example of a big market delusion. In the highly competitive and capital-intensive auto industry, the January 2021 valuations of electric vehicle manufacturers are simply not sustainable over the long term. (RAFI)

• What If Housing Prices Aren’t As High As They Appear? Mortgage rates were more than 10% in 1989. So while prices were far lower in the past, borrowing rates were much higher. Taking the median sales price and applying the prevailing 30 year fixed mortgage rate (after accounting for a 20% down payment) shows a different story when it comes to monthly payments: (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• If You Look at Your Phone While Walking, You’re an Agent of Chaos An experiment by Japanese researchers revealed how just a few distracted walkers really can throw off the movements of a whole crowd. (New York Times)

Penny Stocks, Conspiracy Theorists, Google, Tobacco and Cannabis, Piazza

Weekend news drop

• Penny Stocks Are Booming, Which Is Good News for Swindlers Penny stocks — the name given to more than 10,000 tiny companies — have been around forever, but they’re booming as small investors flood the market. Retail investors see the tiny companies as the next big opportunity after meme stocks and cryptocurrency. This time around, social media is fueling the craze. But shares are an easy target for fraud. (New York Times)

• What Conspiracy Theorists Don’t Believe The question “How could anybody believe this stuff?” comes naturally enough. That may not be the most helpful question, however. Conspiracy theorists believe strange ideas, yes. But these outlandish beliefs rest on a solid foundation of disbelief. (The Atlantic)

• The government’s lawyers saw a Google monopoly coming. Their bosses refused to sue. FTC memos suggest Obama-era regulators passed on an opportunity to rein in Google when the company still had viable competitors. (Politico)

• Our Strange Addiction The transformation of tobacco and cannabis into early modern global obsessions. The 1610s were a key decade in tobacco’s transformation into a new global obsession. Before long, the gift (or curse) of smoking had given rise to one of the world’s most lucrative industries, emerged as a key driver of the Atlantic slave trade, and initiated a global bad habit that humanity still hasn’t kicked more than four hundred years later.. (Lapham’s Quarterly)

• The Year Live Music Stopped Most musicians’ primary source of income is gone, venues everywhere are struggling, and the government hasn’t come through on an aid package. It’s hard not to lose hope, but in talking with professionals across the industry and looking to regions around the world, we gain perspective on how to rebuild live music from the ground up. (Pitchfork)

• The Amazin’ True Story of Piazza, Clemens and the Broken Bat. With so much for Mets fans to be excited about in 2021, one lifelong masochist reminds us: In New York, nothing ever changes. The Mets are gonna Mets. Case in punishing point: This 21-year-old tale about two dudes, a beef and a splintered chunk of wood (Sports Illustrated)

Investing, Bank CEO pay, Nerf, Amazon, Marvel, and Videos of the Week

Friday news drop and videos of the week

• Prices peak on hot softwood lumber demand If there was ever an incomprehensible year for forestry and sawmilling, it was 2020. Macroeconomic conditions in Canada and the U.S. weren’t any easier to decipher. However, one sector that clearly did well was housing: home building and selling activity across the continent revved up to white-hot levels. Indeed, according to the latest U.S. employment data, job gains in the construction sector entirely offset all the other job losses put together. (Forest Industries)

• Marvel’s Most Superhuman Feat Was Saving Itself In 1996, Marvel filed for bankruptcy. Its business was in shambles. That wasn’t the first time in the company’s history that it stumbled hard—but each time it’s reemerged, stronger than before, like that supervillain you think you’ve defeated who suddenly reappears in the final battle. How is Marvel so resilient? Seems like its real superpower is making comebacks. (Slate)

• The engineers building ridiculous dart blasters that Nerf won’t touch Out of Darts is at the forefront of a cottage industry selling original blasters and parts that can leave the official Nerf brand (owned by giant Hasbro) in the dust. It’s almost something of an arms race, where the Nerf internet community one-ups each other by making their toy blasters shoot more foam faster, farther, and more accurately, whether to show off or to perform that much better in an actual game of Nerf. (The Verge)

• CEO Pay Tied to ESG Sets Canadian Banks Apart From the Crowd Canada’s six largest banks have all added ESG components to their chief executive officers’ compensation frameworks, putting them in a small minority of companies that tie executive pay to such measures. (Bloomberg)

• How Amazon Crushes Unions In a secret settlement in Virginia, Amazon swore off threatening and intimidating workers. As the company confronts increased labor unrest, its tactics are under scrutiny. (New York Times)

• The Longest Winter - How Parks Got Us Through a Tough Winter The pandemic showed just how important green spaces are to our mental health. How can we keep them accessible during the coldest months? (Walrus)

• What Happens When Investment Firms Acquire Trailer Parks The financial industry’s pursuit of profits from mobile-home communities is undermining one of the country’s largest sources of affordable housing. (New Yorker)

• Reverse Wealth Transfer on Steroids Stop scrolling, stop gaming, stop trading, stop making memes. Stop collecting things that don’t function and will, with the passage of just a year or two, become completely laughable. Nobody’s going to want to buy any of this stuff from you because they’re going to make 70 billion versions of everything you’re buying now. It’s artists today, but eventually it will be corporations. They will sell you limited edition ziploc bags filled with air if you demonstrate a willingness to buy it from them. (Reformed Broker)

• P/E Ratios and the Case of the Dueling Denominators The E, not the P, is the driving force behind P/Es these days—and shows why stocks aren’t overvalued. (Fisher Investments)

• It’s A Bubble If you know nothing else about a bubble, know this: “Assets whose prices more than double over one to three years are twice as likely to double again in the same time frame as they are to lose more than half their value.” (Irrelevant Investor)

Chapter 11 TV - SURFERS - Matt Mccabe, Craig Anderson (One shit wave from when we got skunked in PR) , Eithan Osbourne (Maybe only clip of the trip), Dane Reynolds, Dylan Graves (Fly’s through frame), Jake Anderson (He’s either going hate or love this),Andrew Doheny (Last track is the first song he ever wrote)

Into the gnar - Crazy steep lines on the North Shore in Vancouver in the rain with Steve Vanderhoek

Hitting Rowdy Loamers on The Shore with Gully & the Crew in 'Weekend Slayer' The local crew on the steep, and wild loamers of Mount Seymour! We link up with Geoff Gulevich, Scott Mackay, Brian Serneels, and Fraser Vaage for an insane ride, packed with loose moments and hilarious trail banter.

Rémy Métailler Pushing the limits with Yoann on some steep terrain.

Quiver Collective is a series that invites the viewer to look into a collection we might not otherwise ever get to see. From professionals to enthusiasts these collections might be fit for a museum someday, but for now here is the visual archive. Join in as we go to private homes, garages, closets, backyards, vaults, even shoeboxes. These are the stories of the collectors of memories because it's important to them. Maybe the collections are important to you too.

Brute SF in Miami Video Jafin Garvey, Jonathan Perez, Blake Norris and the Brute crew bring the Bay vibes to MIA’s steep steps and sketchy rails.