Post Pandemic Shopping, the Bond King, Elon Musk, and Larry Bird

Monday morning news drop

• American Consumers Are Shopping, Traveling and Working Out Like It’s 1999 2019 People have returned to their old habits in many ways, while pandemic stars like hand sanitizer and stationary bikes have faded.(Wall Street Journal)

• Was the ‘Bond King’ Great? Bill Gross was synonymous with fixed income investing for 40 years — but the question of whether he generated real alpha still hovers over his legacy. (Institutional Investor)

• How Technocrats Triumphed at Apple: The man who helped give the world candy-colored computers eventually walked out the door. What does that mean for the company’s next big thing? (New York Times)

• Elon Musk bets the farm: How the billionaire’s Twitter buy could blow back on Tesla Musk is leveraging Tesla stock for his Twitter purchase, making the companies odd bedfellows. (Grid)

• Elon’s Twitter Play: Valuation and Corporate Governance Consequences To get a measure of Musk’s bid for Twitter, you have to also understand the company’s path to its current status. In this section, I will focus on the milestones in the company’s history that shape it today, with an eye on how it may affect how this acquisition bid plays out. (Musings on Markets)

• Does China have hidden reservoirs of growth potential? Sheer market size. The most important reason to be invested in China switched long ago from cheap labor costs to market access. Even if the Chinese government takes various steps to limit foreign companies’ market access and support home-grown competitors, even a tiny sliver of a billion consumers equals vast riches. So obviously, the question of whether the Chinese market will continue to grow is an important factor for investors. (Noahpinion)

• How the Blockchain Could Fix Asset Management: A DAO is like the crypto version of an investment club — and it could be the solution to one of the industry’s most nettlesome problems, writes columnist Angelo Calvello.(Institutional Investor)

• The strange business of hole-in-one insurance When golf tournaments promise big cash prizes for holes-in-one, they turn to niche insurers to protect against a stroke of luck. (The Hustle)

• Putin vs. His Oligarchs: As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third month, Putin’s chummy ruling class is feeling the burn. It’s a reminder that they were never so chummy in the first place (Puck)

• Why is it so hard to control our appetites? A doctor’s struggles with giving up sugar We’ve become convinced that if we can eat more healthily, we will be morally better people. But where does this idea come from? (The Guardian)

• Getting in the groove Music reminds us that the mind is more than a calculator. We are resonant bodies as much as representing machines (Aeon)

• You wouldn’t believe what he said’: The greatest trash talker ever, Larry Bird Jayson Jenks Apr 9, 2020 Michael Jordan once said, “Larry Bird is the greatest trash talker and mind-game player of all time. He taught me everything I know about getting in folks’ heads.” That was reason enough to call 17 of Bird’s former teammates and opponents and ask for their best trash-talking stories about Larry Legend. They delivered. (The Athletic)

Videos of the Week, Fed Rate Hikes, and Formula One Racing

Friday morning news drop

• As Fed issues rate hike, more warnings that stagflation is coming to North America 'Never again,' said economists decades ago. But inflation plus stagnation may be on the way (CBC)

• Cash Keeps Flowing Into ESG While Markets Tank Even after the worst April for equities in decades, ESG-labeled funds are drowning in cash. But maybe not for long. (Bloomberg)

• The pandemic was hard on office suck-ups. Now they’re back and ready to schmooze: In a just world, the shift to remote work over the past two years would reward productivity and expose the slackers. But as corporations have been returning to business as usual, guess who can’t wait to get back to the office? Suck-ups, the co-workers we love to hate. (Washington Post)

• Elon Musk’s China problem. Musk cannot afford to cross Chinese authorities because Tesla relies heavily on China for supplies, production and sales. In 2021, Tesla sold “470,000 cars made at its Shanghai factory” — more than half of the 936,000 vehicles Tesla sold globally. Sales in China account for about one-quarter of Tesla’s revenue. (Popular Information)

• We’re Flushing Some of Our Best COVID Data Down the Toilet: Wastewater testing has been used to track COVID-19 since nearly the beginning of the pandemic, but the idea goes back decades: In the 1940s, U.S. scientists started using it to track and contain polio and other viral disease like typhoid, and it continues to be used to track polio. (Slate)

• After years of progress on gay rights, how did the US become so anti-LGBTQ+? The US has witnessed a pronounced acceleration of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation, fueled chiefly by misinformation about what it means to be trans and hysteria over so-called grooming. (The Guardian)

• Formula One Finally Found a Way to Get Americans to Care The posh, stodgy European sport has been transformed for the U.S. with a hit Netflix series, race car drivers on Twitch, and a Miami-meets-Vegas overhaul—and it’s working. (Businessweek)

• Formula One Is Telegraphing a Move That Won’t Please American TV Viewers The odds of being able to attend a race in person are improving by 200%. Alas, not all the news is good for American fans. The bill is coming due on one of the sweetest deals in sports broadcasting, and those fans are going to have to pay in one form or another. (Sportscasting)

Videos of the Week

Darkfest 2022 – Official Highlights: We’re proud to present the Darkfest 2022 Official Highlights edit. Not only did Sam Reynolds and the crew open up the biggest freeride jumps on the planet to a new generation of riders to push the boundaries in 2022, but for the first time also including a full legendary line up of women who absolutely slayed it! Sit back, 'crack a monny' and absorb 17 minutes of pure freeride bliss with all the bangers and; slams in their entirety!

Born From Junk - Outlaw Origins of Mountain Biking: "Born From Junk" traces the outlaw roots of mountain biking back to its raw beginnings in Crested Butte, where a crew of unlikely pioneers in pursuit of wild times in the mountains blossomed into a global phenomenon.

Ride Every Day - Caroline's Code: Olympic BMX athlete Caroline Buchanan opens a door to women’s mountain bike freeride and reinvents herself as an icon in a new sport.

Cultcrew - Florida Downtime: Corey Walsh, Trey Jones, Jason Watts, and Preston Okert throwing down in FL.

Federal Bikes - Jacman: Jacman Hinss, one of our recent additions from Australia, needs no introductions. Sit back and enjoy.

Hell of a Month - April 2022 From Manderson runnin' double duty to T Funk's big trouble at China Banks, April was a certified scorcher. Revisit all the highlights here.

Enzo Cautela's "Wake N' Bake" Bones Part

REAL Presents: Postcard from Harry Lintell Filmed between his home and ours, Harry's first full part as a pro proves his place. From flying down escalators to gettin' lucky on a launcher in Las Vegas, he holds it down start to finish.

Thunder Welcomes Hermann Stene Hermann goes mach 10, tackling terrain with a stacked bag of psycho stunts. This is how you level up.

PADDLING INTO MASSIVE WAVES AT TEAHUPOO || TAHITIAN FIRE

(mains) On the side pt.3 - Some euro surf action

Spying on Citizens, Abortion Rights, the Stock Market, and Pusha T

Thursday morning news drop

• How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens NSO Group is perhaps the most successful, controversial, and influential firm in a generation of Israeli startups that have made the country the center of the spyware industry. The inside story of the world’s most notorious commercial spyware and the big tech companies waging war against it. (New Yorker)

• Abortion could light a powder keg in the U.S. Here's what happens in the aftermath First we'd see bans in two-dozen states. Then fights over cross-border movement of people, pills and payments (CBC)

• Why Does the Stock Market Go Up Over the Long-Term? The economy grows and corporations earn more money. In 1928, earnings per share for the S&P 500 was $1.11 while corporations paid out $0.78 per share in dividends. By 2021, it was $197.87 and $60.40, respectively. Over the past 94 years, earnings on the U.S. stock market have grown at an annual rate of 6% while dividends have grown 5% per year. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• ESG Investing Is Hard. Doing It via ETFs Is Harder Passive funds with a do-good focus have become one of the hottest corners of finance. (Bloomberg)

• Why Netflix Is the Worst Performing Stock in the S&P 500 Shares in Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have all fallen this year, but Netflix has come in for the harshest punishment. (New York Times)

• Everything’s a WeWork Now Years after the coworking giant’s highly publicized decline, its principles have permeated traditional offices and unlikely work spaces alike. (Wired)

• The winners and losers of Apple’s anti-tracking feature Apple’s big privacy update came out a year ago. What did it do for you? (Vox)

• The surprising resiliency of Russia's economy (and why it won't last) Continued oil and gas exports and a propped-up ruble is allowing Moscow to weather the West's sanctions (CBC)

• Pusha T Uncut The poet of coke rap holds forth on his No. 1 album It’s Almost Dry, his Drake beef, and the difference between Kanye and Pharrell. (GQ)

Supreme Court to Overturn Row v. Wade & the Politico Leak

Wednesday morning news drop

• Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court. (Politico)

• Biden vows to fight for abortion access after U.S. Supreme Court draft ruling leaked Protesters gather over draft opinion that suggests court poised to overturn ruling that legalized abortion (CBC)

• Is Leaking a Supreme Court Opinion a Crime? The Law Is Far From Clear The leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade quickly sparked a court investigation. Which laws may have been violated, if any, remains uncertain. (Wired)

• Undue Burden How abortion restrictions have become obstacles for women across the U.S. (fivethirtyeight)

• The Great Resignation is becoming a “great midlife crisis” Older, more tenured people are increasingly quitting their jobs. (Vox)

• The Extraordinary Wealth Created by the Pandemic Housing Market Rarely have so many Americans gained so much equity in so little time, but it’s also inseparable from the housing affordability crisis. (New York Times)

• One Reason for Warren Buffett’s Success May Not Outlast Him The CEO’s ability to move quickly has been key to building his Berkshire Hathaway empire, but he probably won’t be able to pass that luxury on to his successor. (Bloomberg)

• The Big Lie that keeps the Uber bezzle alive A credulous press continues to report massive losses as profitability. (Medium)

• U.S. intel helped Ukraine shoot down Russian plane carrying troops U.S. intel helped Ukraine protect air defenses, shoot down Russian plane carrying hundreds of troops Ukrainian forces have used specific coordinates shared by the U.S. to direct fire on Russian positions and aircraft, current and former officials tell NBC News. (NBC News)

• Apple just launched its first self-repair program. Other tech companies are about to follow. Under pressure from shareholders, Big Tech is finally making device repair easier. (Grist)

• Bylaw battles: Surrounded on all sides, the nonprofit Point Ellice House fights for survival The challenges of running a national historical site within one of Victoria’s few remaining industrial zones (Capital Daily)

• Arcade Fire: ‘I can’t believe I still live in America. But there’s something about it that I can’t quit’ fter the high-concept hijinks around their last record turned off fans, the indie troubadours have gone back to basics with a rousing new album about Trump and togetherness (Guardian)

• Raptors’ Ujiri to NBA teams who covet Nurse: ‘Keep dreaming’ If other NBA teams are coveting Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse, his boss Masai Ujiri says they can keep on dreaming. (Sportsnet)

Investing in a Bear Market, Bossware Tracking Software, and the Leafs

Tuesday morning news drop

• Nowhere to Hide It’s been a rough start for the year in the stock market. To find a worse performance through the end of April, you have to go all the way back to 1970. (Irrelevant Investor)

• Is It Time to Start Buying Growth Stocks? There are going to be a handful of growth stocks that people are going to look back on in 5,10, maybe 15 years that look like fantastic buys at the moment. But there are also going to be those stocks that never reach their 2021 peaks again. Investing is always easier with the benefit of hindsight. These things are never that easy in the moment. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• Making Your Cash Work Harder as Interest Rates Rise It’s possible to squeeze a higher return from even your safest assets. Here’s how to do it. (Wall Street Journal)

• Oil has long been used as a geopolitical weapon. Could electrified transport change that? Petroleum industry associated with wild price swings and armed conflict (CBC)

• ‘Bossware is coming for almost every worker’: the software you might not realize is watching you Computer monitoring software is helping companies spy on their employees to measure their productivity – often without their consent. (The Guardian)

• The Netflix Nightmare: What Happens When an Industry Becomes a Squid Game Desperate for subscriber eyeballs, streamers are pulling back on edgy content—and acting more like the networks they trounced in the revolution. (Vanity Fair)

• Content isn’t king: People in tech and media have been saying that ‘content is king’ for a long time – content and access to content was a strategic lever for technology. This isn’t really true anymore. Music and books don’t matter much to tech, and TV probably won’t matter much either. (Benedict Evans)

• Running and the Science of Mental Toughness Experts are agreed the brain controls physical exercise – but they are arguing about how it persuades us to stop before we reach the point of complete exhaustion. (The Wire)

• Maple Leafs face huge expectations as the puck drops on their best chance at the Stanley Cup in decades As the playoffs begin on Monday there is no team in the National Hockey League with more enormous expectations than the Maple Leafs. There is also nobody with more pressure. Nobody with more to prove. (Globe and Mail)

Netflix Wakeup Call, Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Mr Beast the Stunt King

Monday morning news drop

• Netflix’s Big Wake-Up Call: The Power Clash Behind the Crash As rivals toggle between schadenfreude and fear, top creators and insiders are increasingly becoming vocal about what’s gone wrong with the streaming giant’s culture. (Hollywood Reporter)

• In the dark: Seven years, 60 countries, 935 internet shutdowns: How authoritarian regimes found an off switch for dissent. (Rest of World)

• ‘It’s just good energy!’ How TikTok and Covid made drum’n’bass hot again The 90s genre is being freshened up by young, often female artists mixing hyper-fast breakbeats with soft vocals. But why is it so suited to our post-lockdown, attention-deficient era? (The Guardian)

• War Is Making One of the Richest Countries Even Richer Hosting the football World Cup is a coup for Qatar, but it’s Europe’s hunt to replace Russian natural gas that will give the Gulf state real influence. (Bloomberg)

• The Amazonification of the American workforce The e-commerce giant’s labor issues expose the complicated truth about getting what we want when we want it. (Vox)

• What to expect from Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs At long last we know the pairings in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and let me tell you, I am fired up. Sportsnet has put together thorough previews for those looking to go in depth on any individual series (Sportsnet)

• Is MrBeast for Real? Inside the Outrageous World of YouTube’s Cash-Happy Stunt King Jimmy Donaldson built a $54 million empire on elaborate pranks and eye-popping giveaways. Next up: Becoming the most popular creator on the planet. (Rolling Stone)

• The Sheryl Crow You Never Knew: For decades, the singer-songwriter carved her own path while battling sexism in the music industry and personal darkness. Now, at 60, she’s telling her story in a new documentary. (New York Times)

Videos of the Week, Diamond Mines, Elon Musk and Twitter

Friday morning news drop

• Diamond mines in the Northwest Territories are not a girl’s best friend Resource extraction restructures the lands and livelihoods of northern communities, bringing new, and newly gendered, colonial violence (Narwhal)

• Revealed: top US corporations raising prices on Americans even as profits surge A Guardian analysis uncovers how companies enriched themselves and their investors while boasting about jacking up prices (Guardian)

• Why Aren’t Rich People Happier? Buffett didn’t become a billionaire until he was 56 years old. Many of today’s tech titans strike it rich when they’re in their 20s. Having that much money can solve a lot of problems but it also creates a new set of complications, especially when it happens so young. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• Elon Musk Just Impulse-Bought a $44 Billion Pain in the Ass He only has stressful, annoying, and expensive paths ahead of him. (Slate)

• Ten immediate Twitter fixes for Elon Musk This isn’t that hard (Reformed Broker)

• Indian Premier League Valuations: Cricket Now Has A Place Among World’s Most Valuable Sports Teams. Franchise values in the world’s top cricket league are surging, outpacing the growth in even the NFL and the NBA. (Forbes)

• How the pandemic is changing home design Overall footprints are getting bigger as builders add on more smaller rooms, which may need to function as offices, play rooms, home gyms or dens, depending on the family. Bathrooms are getting bigger, in part because we use them more often when we’re home all day. And every room of the house is more wired — builders are adding power outlets and USB ports to accommodate the devices essential to working or attending school from home. (Axios)

• Russia Is Being Hacked at an Unprecedented Scale From “IT Army” DDoS attacks to custom malware, the country has become a target like never before. (Wired)

• The War in Ukraine Is a Colonial War For centuries, the country has lived in the shadow of empire. But its past also provides the key to its present (New Yorker)

• Julia Roberts Hasn’t Changed. But Hollywood Has. “I decided a while ago that I’ll never really understand what people think about me and I don’t need to. I also feel like I’m a neutral person. I’m not one of those polarizing personalities. Because my job is so perfectly positioned in the priorities of my life, I’m not investing time in understanding the relationship between who I am and who people might perceive me to be.” (New York Times)

Videos of the Week

Vans BMX Presents: Courage Adams “Balanced” Vans BMX proudly presents Courage Adams: Balanced, a new edit exploring the riding that has placed Courage on a path to success, steadily building his BMX career through hard work and dedication.

D.I.Y Dreamin' - Boyd Hilder for S1 Helmets

Marcel - Cultcrew: The video part is still the benchmark of what we look for to check a riders style, passion, and dedication to the game. Marcel comes through with a banging edit right out the gate. Enjoy this one and expect more to come from one of the coolest cats we know.

Sean Ricany - No Agenda: With no schedule or plans in mind, Sean Ricany packed his pup and bike and hit the road. Live through him in his new edit "No Agenda."

Rain Or Shine - Pat Laffey & Drew Mozell: As they prep for the 2022 DH race season, local Race Face and Devinci Development Racing riders Patrick Laffey and Drew Mozell dodge the rain, snow, and windstorms of Vancouver Island to tackle some rough off-season Prevost laps in their latest video, “Rain or Shine.”

POV: YOU ARE RIDING WITH JACKSON GOLDSTONE IN SQUAMISH | Finn Iles Some POV footage from a full day riding in Squamish with Jackson and his boys Colby Pringle and Johnny Helly! A very eventful day with a little bit of everything including some crashes, new-to-me trails, some snow, and a lot of fun! Hope you all enjoy this video, thanks for watching!

Katepere - Billy Meaclem: "Nothing beats pure speed and style on a downhill bike especially when Billy's on his home turf. We share with you some of the best spots for riding around Canterbury, Katapere. Enjoy the New Zealand rider with a kiwi local backtrack in some of NZ's finest locations." - Josh Birkenhake

Mike Anderson's "Blackhole" Spitfire Part: Manderson unleashes a torrent of switch moves and manuals with incomparable style from Ventura to The City. Raney, Teddy, and little brother Jake elevate the experience.

Dan Mancina's "Keep Rolling" Part

Working-Age Population, Affordability, and the Netflix Downfall

Thursday morning news drop

• Canada's working-age population is older than ever, StatsCan says Statistics Canada says even large-scale immigration will not be enough to soften blow of aging workforce (CBC)

• Greater Victoria builders say they can’t find workers to build new homes, because they can’t find homes for the workers The ‘vicious circle’ has deepened a persistent worker shortage during a period of record demand (Capital Daily)

• Global Supply Chain Crisis Flares Up Again Where It All Began Ports are already snarled, with the $22 trillion trade in global goods facing months of severe disruption. (Bloomberg)

• Affordable Prices Drive Home-Buyer Activity: The hottest places to live now are often the most affordable: Fast-rising housing prices have pushed buyers from expensive coastal cities into cheaper housing markets in recent years. Expanded remote-work opportunities and a search for different lifestyles during the Covid-19 pandemic have accelerated the trend. Less expensive cities with strong local economies climbed in the first quarter. (Wall Street Journal)

• A Race to Give Classic Cars Electric Hearts Vancouver Island motor heads rushed to help a hot rod owner wow the auto world. (Tyee)

• Why Netflix is a victim of its own success: The streaming giant’s stock plunged after it announced its subscriber numbers took a hit, signaling a problem many companies face when rapid growth slows. (Grid)

• The surprising afterlife of used hotel soap Hotel guests leave behind millions of half-used bars of soap every day. A nonprofit is on a mission to repurpose them. (The Hustle)

• Sweet and Squishy as Ever, the Gummy Universe Keeps Expanding On its 100th anniversary, the colorful candy has evolved from dancing bears to a booming industry — and for some, a bountiful obsession. (New York Times)

• Searching for the ‘Vibe Shift’ at Coachella Unchecked optimism, for better or worse. (New York Times)

• What Impact Did Canada’s Military Have on Ukrainian Resistance? Canadian soldiers helped train more than 30,000 of their Ukrainian counterparts. Many are left wondering about their legacy (The Walrus)

• How Gretzky was almost traded by the Oilers to the Red Wings instead of the Kings When Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings by the Edmonton Oilers in 1988, it was the end of an era and the dawning of a new age in the NHL, all at once. (Sportsnet)

The Stock Market and the Bond Market, Rich Criminals, and Jon Stewart

Wednesday morning news drop

• What Does the Bond Market Rout Mean for the Stock Market? Every stock market correction is different. There are different reasons, economic environments, interest rates, inflation levels, valuations, market leadership, magnitude of decline and duration. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• Eight Charts that Explain the Market: You can learn a lot about what’s going on inside the market by just looking at some charts. Is the price going up, down, or sideways? Simple enough. But looking at something in isolation only reveals part of the story. If a bank is down 20% from its highs but the rest of the bank sector is down 40%, you would call this a relative winner. (Irrelevant Investor)

• 700+ reasons why S&P 500 index investing isn’t very ‘passive’ Since January 1995, 728 tickers have been added to the S&P 500, while 724 have been removed. This comes with two big implications. (TKer)

• “The Richest People on the Planet are Criminals”: And other insights from Jay Newman, the hedge fund insider turned novelist who has some unique insights into the darker corners of the world of finance. (Wealth Simple)

• The Future of the Recent Flexible Work Revolution Depends on Men After decades of corporate America’s resistance to flexible, digital work, the pandemic forced what, in essence, has been a prolonged experiment in digital work. This is not just true for white-collar knowledge workers, but also tutors and those who work in call centers and some types of customer service. The result: Companies can not only survive but thrive when they fully use the tools of technology to give these workers more control in when, where, and how they work. (Slate)

• With Inflation, Workers Are Facing Return-to-Office Sticker Shock The cost of a daily routine — travel, coffee, food — is far pricier than it was when offices shut down two years ago. (New York Times)

• The Trump judge’s opinion striking down the airplane mask mandate is a legal disaster: This decision is what happens when judges don’t care what the law actually says. (Vox)

• What Happened to Jon Stewart? He is comedy royalty. But the world has changed since he was at the height of his powers. (The Atlantic)

Collectibles as Investments, Wind Energy, and Nokia Leaving Russia

Tuesday morning news drop

• Sorry, collectibles are terrible investments Nobody wants your beanie babies. And even “serious” collectibles are mathematically destined to underperform. (Full Stack Economics)

• This doesn’t look very recessionary: Economic data hasn’t just been strong — they’re exceeding expectations (Sam Ro)

• ‘The sound of money’: Wind energy is booming in deep-red Republican states: Far from the coasts, wind energy is thriving here in America’s heartland, on the vast plains of Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. Long an area devoted to oil and gas, Western Oklahoma is now home to one of the largest wind farms in the world. (CNN)

• Higher interest rates could help, Powell says. Not everyone agrees. The Federal Reserve has outlined a fix it says can help with surging prices and a tight labor market. Economists say it’s much more complicated. (Washington Post)

• When Nokia Pulled Out of Russia, a Vast Surveillance System Remained The Finnish company played a key role in enabling Russia’s cyberspying, documents show, raising questions of corporate responsibility. (New York Times)

• ‘Discrimination was their brand’: how Abercrombie & Fitch fell out of fashion A revealing new Netflix documentary looks back on the highs of the fashion brand that dominated a generation before controversies dragged it down. (The Guardian)

• The Unapologetic Heirs of Nazi Fortunes: How can it be that three of Germany’s most powerful business families, their companies and their charities are so out of step with the country’s lauded remembrance culture? (New York Times)

• How Serena Williams Saved Her Own Life Black women are nearly three times more likely to die after childbirth than white women. Serena Williams was almost one of them. Here, in her own words, she tells her story. (Elle)