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Quote of the Day
"If they can find someone or something cheaper than you, they’re going to work overtime to do so.
The alternative is to be local, creative, energetic, optimistic, trusted, innovative and hard to replace."
(Seth Godin)
Strategy
- Modern society didn't invent portfolio theory. (realreturns.blog)
- A Q&A with Dr. Brett Steenbarger on how to be a better trader while at home. (bloomberg.com)
- Have marijuana stocks finally stopped falling relative to the market? (allstarcharts.com)
Finance
- A look at the status of merger deals pending prior to pandemic. (ft.com)
- Why Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.A) has likely been buying back shares in pandemic. (rationalwalk.com)
Big Tech
- Pandemic created a lot of monetizable inventory for the social media companies. (om.co)
- Twitter's ($TWTR) big hack should prompt it to change for the better, but don't count on it. (theatlantic.com)
Funds
- The big index providers are very well entrenched at this point. (barrons.com)
- The trillions of dollars in index funds have a much bigger impact on markets than the newly minted class of retail traders. (msn.com)
- Active ETF launches have so far topped passive in 2020. (bloomberg.com)
- A look at the methods used by the non-transparent active ETFs launched so far. (barrons.com)
- Blackrock ($BLK) has $7.32 TRILLION in assets under management. (finance.yahoo.com)
Retail
- The National Retail Federation is now encouraging all retailers to adopt a face covering policy in order to protect workers as well as customers. (marketwatch.com)
- Some retailers are worried that a mask ban would put employees at risk. (ft.com)
- Abandoned retail locations are getting repurposed as online fulfillment operations. (wsj.com)
Housing
- Five questions to ask before moving from the city to the suburbs. (businessinsider.com)
- Five trends in suburban real estate. (nytimes.com)
- The Midwest is seeing houses sell quickly. (businessinsider.com)
- More Americans are buying houses sight unseen in pandemic. (nytimes.com)
- Which cities are most vulnerable, post-pandemic? (theirrelevantinvestor.com)
Policy
- Why are America's leaders so darn old? (nytimes.com)
- To rebuild it's democracy the the US is going to have to look overseas for clues. (ft.com)
- How the Electoral College is prone to big swings based on few votes. (theconversation.com)
- At least five million Americans have lost health insurance in pandemic. (nytimes.com)
- There was a big structural break in college graduate employment, post-2005. (nber.org)
- Why aren't there bonds that track GDP growth? (wsj.com)
China
- The coronavirus barely put a dent in China's residential housing boom. (wsj.com)
- Vanguard's joint venture in China with Ant Financial seems to be off to a good start. (ft.com)
Economy
- The Fed is indicating it is going to keep rates lower, longer. (msn.com)
- The US labor market is slowing. (wsj.com)
- The pandemic is, in part, a child care crisis. (vox.com)
- A succinct summary of the week's economic events. (ritholtz.com)
- The economic schedule for the coming week. (calculatedriskblog.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Top clicks this week on the site. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Saturday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Coronavirus links: walking weapons. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Finding better ways to care for your clients and yourself: why you should sign up for our new weekly adviser-focused e-mail newsletter. (abnormalreturns.com)
Mixed media
- What is behind the tension between VC and the media these days? (theverge.com)
- The pandemic has crushed NPR listenership which relies on drive time. (npr.org)
- Slack is allowing media workers to organize. (digiday.com)
- How do you even cover sports in the age of pandemic? (theringer.com)
- Why do sites, like the New York Times, continue to bother their paying customers? (daringfireball.net)
