More Money Than Ever Is Flowing Into Climate Tech The question now is, where and how is that going to pay off? (Green)
CFA pass rate plummets to lowest level since testing began Only 25% of applicants passed the test (Financial Post)
The Delta Variant Is the Symptom of a Bigger Threat: Vaccine Refusal There are almost as many reasons for vaccine hesitancy and refusal as there are unvaccinated Americans. But this problem, not the variant, lies at the root of rising infection rates. (New York Times)
The Best And Worst Places to Be as Reopening, Variants Collide: 1) Norway 2) Switzerland 3) New Zealand 4) France 5) United States. The world got a reality check this month. The road to recovery from the worst pandemic in a generation won’t be smooth. (Bloomberg)
Starbucks Is the New Talent Factory Powering Corporate America The coffee chain—which has produced as many executives as significantly larger companies—is a favorite source for recruiters, and it’s fine with that. (Businessweek)
The Chobani Story: Strained yogurt and a strained balance sheet Is it possible for an immigrant to build a multi-billion dollar food business without venture capital? Chobani’s founder Hamdi Ulukaya made an all-in bet on his heritage and a powerful emerging consumer trend: Greek yogurt. (Neckar’s Notes)
The Time Tax: Why is so much American bureaucracy left to average citizens? To make sure that the safety net catches us, to make sure that our social-insurance programs insure us, to make sure that we get what we pay Uncle Sam for, we work as our own health-care administrators. Our own tax professionals. Our own social workers. Our own disability-law experts. Our own child-support advocates, long-term-care reps, and public-housing officials. (The Atlantic)
Hou Yifan and the Wait for Chess’s First Woman World Champion For years, Hou was the only woman who stood a chance against the very best. But she had her own ambitions. (New Yorker)
Investing, the End for US Listed Chinese Companies, and Vaccination Rates
Wednesday morning news drop
‘I’m Not Anti-Anything. I’m Pro-Hawaii.’ U.S. Olympic surfers from Hawaii — the proud home of the sport — would prefer to compete under their own red, white and blue banner. (New York Times)
Is the End Near for U.S.- Listed Chinese Companies? Probably, Says Carson Block The short-seller argues that China’s recent crackdown on public companies is a way for the country to get in front of an American law requiring auditors of Chinese companies to open up to U.S. regulators. (Institutional Investor)
The stuff don’t teach you in books I was raised in this business to believe that stock and bond and fund selection was the most important aspect of helping investors succeed. We weren’t given a benchmark in terms of what a client succeeding even meant. “Lets emphasize whichever of these things went well in the next conversation.” (Reformed Broker)
Corporations aren’t going to save America The danger in corporate solutions to government problems. (Vox)
My Community Refuses to Get Vaccinated. Now Delta Is Here. Only 35 percent of Arkansas is fully vaccinated, and with case rates rising, living there can feel like moving through a distorted reality. (The Atlantic)
They Live in an N.Y.C. Virus Hot Spot. But They Won’t Get Vaccinated. Staten Island’s recent uptick in coronavirus cases foretold a larger increase across New York City. (New York Times)
Hollywood Calls the Russo Brothers When It’s Time to Build a New Universe Joe and Anthony Russo went from making movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to creating their own worlds. Amazon’s Citadel will test their vision. (Businessweek)
Swimming gives your brain a boost – but scientists don’t know yet why it’s better than other aerobic activities Regular swimming has been shown to improve memory, cognitive function, immune response and mood. Swimming may also help repair damage from stress and forge new neural connections in the brain. But scientists are still trying to unravel how and why swimming, in particular, produces these brain-enhancing effects. (The Conversation)
Matt Damon’s Disappearing Acts The enduring career of the megastar no one really knows. (New York Times)
House Hunt Victoria, Inflation, and Real Estate
Tuesday morning news drop
The Dream Team days are long gone for USA Olympic basketball The era when American players could win gold at the Games just by showing up is over. The rest of the world has simply become too good (Guardian)
What Does the Delta Variant Mean for the U.S. Economy? Predictions of a second “Roaring Twenties” have proved premature. (New Yorker)
Anti-vaccine groups changing into ‘dance parties’ on Facebook to avoid detection The ban-evasion efforts on Facebook and Instagram are ratcheting up as the White House has increased pressure on the social media platforms to do more to contain vaccine misinformation. The secret language being used by anti-vaccine groups to skirt detection (NBC News)
The China Model: What the Country’s Tech Crackdown Is Really About After spending years emulating Silicon Valley, the world’s second-biggest economy is now officially charting its own course. (Businessweek)
U.S. inflation just topped 5 per cent. Is Canadian inflation next? Prices have steadily climbed since the start of the year and the Bank of Canada won't be changing its guidance just yet (National Post)
As Good As it Gets? The U.S. stock market is not only up 12 out of the past 13 years (assuming this year’s gain holds), but 10 out of those 13 years have been double-digit gains. And the worst down year was a loss of just 4%. (Wealth of Common Sense)
Real Estate Agents Target Record $100 Billion as Home Sales Boom Commission revenue — the cut that brokers collect for helping buy and sell homes — is on track to surge 16% in 2021, surpassing $100 billion for the first time. (Bloomberg)
New listings drought while out of town buyers stay high Buyer origin data is out for the second quarter, and we’ve seen a continued growth in the percentage of buyers from out of town. The proportion of all deals year to date rose to 26.4% from 22.9% in 2020. It’s not at record levels (that was 28.4% in 2016) but it’s substantially elevated from the roughly ~20% average between 2004 and 2012. Remember that out of town buyers are one of the categories of pure demand and any increase has a much bigger effect on the market than an increase in buyers that already own locally (i.e. market turnover). (House Hunt Victoria)
Forest Fires, Coronavirus Misinformation, Culture Wars, and Stephen Colbert
Monday morning news drop
The West is burning. Climate change is making it worse. Almost 1.5 million acres of the US are on fire right now. (Vox)
The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19, researchers and regulators say. An internet-savvy entrepreneur, he has published over 600 articles on Facebook that cast doubt on vaccines. (New York Times)
More Variants Are Coming, and the U.S. Isn’t Ready to Track Them The people hunting for mutations want the country to fix its virus sequencing mess. (Businessweek)
In Alabama and Louisiana, partisan opposition to vaccine surges alongside Delta variant Many people are turning down Covid vaccines because they are angry that President Donald Trump lost the election and sick of Democrats thinking they know what’s best. (Politico)
Never mind NIMBY and YIMBY–it’s time for ‘QUIMBY’ urbanism We need a major rethink of gentrification and affordability challenges if we’re going to get anywhere. “Quality In My Back Yard” may offer a path. (CNU)
The Nightmare of Our Snooping Phones A Catholic official’s resignation shows the real-world consequences of practices by America’s data-harvesting industries. (New York Times)
Taibbi: The Myth of the Winnable Culture War Since the people we disagree with aren’t going anywhere, we might as well talk to each other (TK News)
How Stephen Colbert Survived the Pandemic, Trump and the Loss of Laughter. As happy as he is to settle back into a familiar routine with state-of-the-art production facilities, Colbert wants to harness the ingenuity demonstrated by department leaders during trying times to keep the show unpredictable as it heads into Season 7 in the fall. The late-night series that changed its name to “A Late Show” during the pandemic months — to signify that it was not full-fledged “The Late Show” they’d intended to produce — is on a roll with recognition for its feats of on-air derring-do. (Variety)
What Will Happen to My Music Library When Spotify Dies? If your entire collection is on a streaming service, good luck accessing it in 10 or 20 years. (The Atlantic)
Videos of the Week, Vaccine Skepticism, Saudi Oil, Cross Boarder Carbon Tax, and the Olympics
Friday morning news drop and videos of the week
Vaccinated America Has Had Enough In the United States, this pandemic could be almost over by now. The reasons it’s still going are pretty clear. (Atlantic)
As Virus Resurges, G.O.P. Lawmakers Allow Vaccine Skepticism to Flourish As the coronavirus’s Delta variant rips through conservative communities, most Republicans remain reluctant to confront vaccine misinformation and skepticism in their midst. (New York Times)
The Saudi Prince of Oil Prices Vows to Drill ‘Every Last Molecule’ Abdulaziz bin Salman, the most powerful man in petroleum, navigates unruly OPEC+ nations, huge swings in price and production—and the end of fossil fuels. (Bloomberg)
Are We Living in an MMT World? Not Yet Sure, Congress wrote some giant checks during the pandemic. But the architects of Modern Monetary Theory say tolerance for deficits and spending is only part of their mission. (Businessweek)
Europe Is Planning a Border Carbon Tax. Is Canada Next? Such tariffs on imports ensure polluting producers aren’t just pushed overseas. Ultimately, a global approach is needed. (Tyee)
What Does Car Theft Insurance Cover? Despite the existence of comprehensive car insurance, some people do not completely understand what it covers. In this article, we will explain what a car insurance policy can cover in terms of auto theft (Walrus)
Why Olympians Are Struggling to Get Sponsorships You can be the fastest in the world, but when you’re competing against influencers for corporate cash, athletic performance isn’t all that matters (Walrus)
Videos of the Week
Olympics aim for younger audiences with surfing, skateboarding Surfing and skateboarding are among the new sports debuting at Tokyo 2020, and organizers are hoping the events will encourage younger viewers to watch.
HIGHLIGHT REEL | X Games 2021 Perhaps the Olympics are too late to the party?
Andreu Lacondeguy - Welcome to the Reverse Components team - "THE HOLE"
WHISTLER BIKEPARK'S GNARLIEST LAP | Finn Iles Nothing better than Whistler Bike Park laps with a sick crew! Stoked to take a break from world cup racing, and hang out at home in Canada for a few weeks.
BEST OF BMX | X Games 2021 Need a refresher on two days of BMX action from X Games 2021? From Dirt to Park to Best Trick to Street, it's all covered in this highlight reel.
Mike Hoder: Fake BMX You want that fake real, or that real real? Whatchu want? Hoder is always a rider who has been best captured while out chilling, having sessions with his
BEST OF SKATEBOARDING | X Games 2021 Need a refresher on two days of skate action from X Games 2021? From Park to Vert to Street to Best Trick, it's all covered in this highlight reel. And of course we can't forget about Tony Hawk skating in Vert Best Trick, or Gui Khury's 1080...
Silas Ribeiro's "Chaze" Part Classically trained in the ledge game, Silas lays out proper lines across Brazil and throws a hot front nose to close the deal.
Tolya Titaev's "Clarity" Part A major player in the Moscow scene, Tolya makes his mark on Russia’s incredible spots before stacking in NYC. Keep this guy on your radar.
Silas Baxter-Neal's "Open Sequence" Part Silas masters the angles of Portland’s geometry like a Northwest Pythagoras, employing fast feet and a sharp eye for lines. Study up on a SOTY.
Zane Timpson's "Sufferlove" Heroin Skateboards Part He blessed us with the Sundial hammer last time around and this new part builds on Timpson’s reputation as one of the craziest out. Zane always brings the pain.
Kyle Walsh's "Dogwood" Part Water hazards, street snowboarding and massive rails, this vid is pure party. Heavy Muska vibes on that noseslide…
Sean Imes' "WPC" Part Originally from Massachusetts, Sean brings a fresh perspective to South Bay's rails and gaps. Who doesn’t love a good hammer section?
DANE REYNOLDS - PREMIUM VIOLENCE Our second collection, 'PREMIUM VIOLENCE' and accompanying film featuring Dane Reynolds online now at FORMER.XXX
MOTO X BEST WHIP: HIGHLIGHTS | X Games 2021
MOTO X FREESTYLE: HIGHLIGHTS | X Games 2021
Stock Market, Value Investing, Bonds, Delta Variant, and Giannis Antetokounmpo
Thursday morning news drop
People Want To Work, They Just Don’t Want To Work For You When people treat those they’re hiring with distaste because they demand remote work, or say that people “don’t want to work,” it’s because they either lack self-awareness, either in how their business runs or how they conduct themselves. (Ed Zitron)
How the Stock Market Works If there were no risk, there would be no wonderful long term returns. And because there is risk involved when owning stocks, your returns can vary widely depending on when you invest in the stock market. (Wealth of Common Sense)
We Are All Investors Now Over the last few hundred years, and especially over the last half century, investing has evolved from something only done by the rich and powerful to something done by everyday people. And given how much access has expanded in recent years, the entire world is slowly being brought into the investment fold. We are all investors now. (Of Dollars And Data)
What Happened to Price-to-Book Ratio in Value Investing? Assets that are developed internally don’t appear on companies’ books and cause businesses to appear more expensive than they truly are. (Bloomberg)
Is the U.S. Economy Too Hot or Too Cold? Yes. The economy is a riddle, but clearly it’s having a harder time rebooting itself than had seemed possible in the spring. (Upshot)
The Bond Market Loves New Jersey. Yes, New Jersey. Now New Jersey is one of only seven states with an improving economy over the last 3 1/2 years, measured by employment, personal income, home prices, tax receipts, mortgage delinquencies and the equity of their companies. It’s the only one of those seven with perennial leadership in public education and health care. (Bloomberg)
Billboard’s U.S. Money Makers: The Top Paid Musicians of 2020 A year with minimal touring resulted in top-streaming acts, many of them hip-hop artists, replacing the rock and country acts that fill arena and stadiums on Billboard’s annual ranking. Taylor Swift tops the list. (Billboard)
The Truth About Facebook’s Anti-Vax Problem: The social media is company has improved how it handles misinformation, but it s users still see, share, and spread a lot of bad dope about Covid vaccines. (Slate)
Delta variant sweeps through states that dialed back health powers In Texas, where Covid hospitalizations are up 30 percent and deaths up 10 percent over the past week, Gov. Greg Abbott recently barred counties, cities and school districts from requiring masks.Delta variant sweeps through states that dialed back health powers In Texas, where Covid hospitalizations are up 30 percent and deaths up 10 percent over the past week, Gov. Greg Abbott recently barred counties, cities and school districts from requiring masks. (Politico)
How Boosted Went Bust An inside look at how the beloved electric skateboard startup fell apart (Verge)
The Fire That Forged Giannis Antetokounmpo In an exclusive excerpt from ‘Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP,’ Mirin Fader details the trials and tribulations that helped the Bucks star go from a baby-faced rookie to a superstar with a mean streak—and that scowl (Ringer)
House Hunt Victoria, Financial Markets, Tesla's Government Subsidy, and Bitcoin Miners
Tuesday morning news drop
Virus Headwinds Hit Wall St. After Months of Smooth Sailing Fear jolted the financial markets on Monday as investors realized that the path to global economic recovery after the pandemic would be anything but straightforward. (New York Times)
Meet the Man Who Started the $11 Trillion Index Revolution The unsung hero of modern investing spends his days on the sunny vineyards of Sonoma, California — a world away from Wall Street. John “Mac” McQuown never helmed a big bank, crafted policy from Washington D.C., nor enjoyed name recognition like his kindred spirit Jack Bogle. (Bloomberg)
What’s the Future for Bond and Stock Returns? The outlook for bonds is clearer than that for stocks. (Morningstar)
Tesla's Cheap 94-Mile Model 3 Has Cost Canadian Taxpayers $115 Million Never really intended for sale, it was produced to pull the Model 3's base price below a key tax credit threshold. (Drive)
The pandemic-induced renaissance of malls For the last decade or so, malls have been dying. Surprisingly, the pandemic may save them. A year and a half of isolation has reignited a desire to gather in public spaces — and spruced-up, futuristic malls could make billions off of a cooped-up America. (Axios)
Bitcoin Miners Navigate Extreme World of Crypto Power-Hunting A crypto crackdown sent them in search of cheaper, greener power sources (Bloomberg)
Trump’s Cult of Animosity Shows No Sign of Letting Up With all his histrionics and theatrics, Trump brought the dark side of American politics to the fore: the alienated, the distrustful, voters willing to sacrifice democracy for a return to white hegemony. (New York Times)
The greedy developers A common criticism of new developments is that developers will make an inordinate profit, and increased density is simply a cash grab. The real estate industry consistently receives amongst the lowest public trust ratings, and in fiction developers are often the villains that must be fought to save the neighbourhood. In that sense it’s understandable that people are apt to be suspicious of new projects or the pro-social arguments used to justify them. (House Hunt Victoria)
Canada's 4th Wave, Anti Vaccine Skeptics, Bitcoin, and MLB Pitchers Spin Rates
Monday morning news drop
Canada needs to jump-start a stalled first-dose campaign to avoid a fourth wave, experts say With more virulent variants in circulation, vaccination numbers need to be higher than originally forecast (CBC)
Who are America’s vaccine skeptics? Party politics is only part of the story when it comes to vaccine hesitancy (The Critic)
Your Brand Has Never Been Easier to Destroy Welcome to the wild world of product displacement, in which no brand is safe from “hatejacking” and other threats. (Bloomberg)
Welcome to the Church of Bitcoin Thousands gathered in Miami to talk about the OG cryptocurrency — but instead of your typical finance conference, it had the feeling of a fringe religious event (Rolling Stone)
Will ‘the Great Wealth Transfer’ Trigger a Civil War? Over the next quarter century, 45 million U.S. households will collectively bequeath $68.4 trillion to their heirs. This transfer will constitute the largest redistribution of wealth in human history. GenX stands to inherit 57% of that $68.4 trillion; millennials will collect the bulk of the rest. (New York Magazine)
Are the Roaring 20s Already Here? Things are far from perfect now (and they always will be) but you could make the case that our version of the roaring 20s is already here.(A Wealth of Common Sense)
The Pitchers Whose Spin Rates Fell Most After a Crackdown on Sticky Substances Strikeouts have decreased and on-base percentage has risen — midseason changes without parallel in decades of baseball in the majors. (Upshot)
Videos of the Week - X Games, Investing, and the 5 Day Workweek is Dead
Friday news drop and videos of the week
It’s About to Be the Biggest Year for ETFs. Ever. Wall Street has surrendered to the $500 billion ETF rush; Vanguard leads the way as industry prepares to shatter annual record with months to go. (Bloomberg)
The five-day workweek is dead; It’s time for something better. But there’s nothing inevitable about working eight hours a day, five days a week (or more). This schedule only became a part of American labor law in the 1930s, after decades of striking by labor activists who were tired of working the 14-hour days demanded by some employers. (Vox)
Spotify’s Top Lawyer Has Spent Years Making Apple the Bad Guy Horacio Gutierrez has done more than almost anyone to push the narrative of the iPhone maker as an abusive monopolist (Businessweek)
The Car Market Is Insane. It Might Stay That Way for a While. How long will we be stuck with these shortages? Is the car biz’s COVID hangover destined to linger on? Or will the industry, like the rest of our once-dreary-eyed economy, soon return to normal? It could be well into next year before prices fall back to earth and customers see the sort of selection they’re used to at dealerships. (Slate)
The Best Memes of 2021 (So Far) What is the internet, but memes persevering? (Thrillist)
Editor’s Letter: The Plot Twist in COVID-19’s Story Our drawn-out, often convoluted fight against the pandemic has been a narrative nightmare (Walrus)
Videos of the Week - X Games Edition
TOP 5 BMX MOVES OF DAY 1 COUNTDOWN | X Games 2021
Milton Martinez: REAL STREET 2021 | World of X Games
Frankie Spears: REAL STREET 2021 | World of X Games
GOLD MEDAL VIDEO: Men’s Skateboard Park | X Games 2021
GOLD MEDAL VIDEO: Women’s Skateboard Park | X Games 2021
The Economic Risks from the Anti-Vaxxers
One of the favorite parts of my job is thinking about issues in ways other people often do not. That often includes identifying business problems, implications, and providing recommendations to clients that can assist them in moving forward. Even for financial issues we fully understand that we cannot underestimate the impact other factors (black swans) can have on the overall economy.
Currently a large proportion of the population has protected themselves (and their loved ones) from Covid by getting vaccinated. Although the vaccination roll-out in BC has been slow it has been an overall success with 80% of the population being vaccinated for at least one dose, the local economy is booming and the stock market is at all-time highs. But… the adoption rate is slowing throughout North America. At the present pace, it will take many more months to cover the population needed for herd immunity.
Which leads to the bad news. North America is now fighting three simultaneous Covid related battles, and not doing well in any of them:
Variants/Mutations are increasingly infectious/deadly;
Vaccinations have become politicized;
Provinces and Cities with low Vaxx rates have higher infection rates.
So far, the Markets and the Economy are acting as if the pandemic is over. But these concerns raise the risk of an unanticipated economic slowing or even a contraction (and possible market effect) over the next 12-24 months. The probability of things getting worse could easily be caused by a number of factors including the Delta Variant and other mutations.
The biggest risk factor is the unvaccinated individuals. They are the fastest-growing proportion of new cases thanks to Q-Anon, Fox News, OANN, NewsMax, and other random media sources, large swaths of the population now believe that Vaccines are problematic. What was once a bizarre and self-destructive movement has become a full-blown public health and economic threat. However it is not just a USA problem, Anti-Vaxxer propaganda is spreading in Canada with individuals who lack formal education.
In the USA, there is a hypocrisy problem: Rupert Murdoch was vaccinated in December 2020 and he never promoted that on Fox News. Donald Trump got his vaccination in January 2021. What these folks have been saying about vaccines and what they did personally are polar opposites. Republican regions with lower vaccination rates have higher infection rates and the variants are pummeling unvaccinated people. The numbers are pretty staggering since unvaccinated people now account for 99.7% of new corona virus cases. Even worse, every unvaccinated person is a chance for the virus to mutate again. The unvaccinated are “variant factories.” They do more than risk their own health and safety, they put the lives of everyone in the community at greater risk.
The risk here is not a new mask mandate, but regions selectively shutting down stores, restaurants, offices, and local businesses. Worse, once people in a local high infection area come to realize what has happened, they will engage in a quarantine or lockdown, local economies could crash, and people may begin to panic creating future economic turmoil.
Since 2000, we have been through 3 major economic crashes: The ending of the 1990’s dot-com implosion, the Great Financial Crisis, and now Covid-19. We are so close to putting this pandemic behind us, it would be a shame that if we do not get a handle on this, the repercussions will be serious and very expensive for future generations.