Mar 12, 2023
Welcome to Bespoke Brunch Reads — a linkfest of the favorite things we read over the past week. The links are mostly market related, but there are some other interesting subjects covered as well. We hope you enjoy the food for thought as a supplement to the research we provide you during the week.
While you’re here, join Bespoke Premium with a 30-day trial!
Entertainment
WWE in talks with state gambling regulators to legalize betting on scripted match results by Alex Sherman (CNBC)
Seeking to get in on the sports gambling goldrush, wrestling matches (which are scripted with results pre-determined) are trying to become legally sanctioned gambling events. [Link]
Why Are So Many Guys Obsessed With Master and Commander? by Gabriella Paiella (GQ)
An investigation into the enduring popularity of a mid-budget sailing movie set during the Napoleonic Wars which has persisted to become a near-obsession for men of a certain age. [Link]
The Stunt Awards by Bilge Ebiri and Brandon Streussnig (Vulture)
An important corrective to the glaring omissions of the traditional Academy Awards, which conspicuously overlook the stunt professions which make movies great. [Link]
Doom Loops
The Dollar’s Imperial Circle by Ozge Akinci, Gianluca Benigno, Serra Pelin, and Jonathan Turek (Liberty Street Economics)
A new model characterizes the dollar’s role in the global economy as a procyclical force which wrecks factory activity and commodity prices as the greenback gains steam. [Link]
North Carolina trucking company to shut down after top customer pulls out by Clarissa Hawes (FreightWaves)
Demands for “massive rate and volume concessions” from customers led FreightWorks to shutter the doors, laying off 200 employees including 140 drivers. [Link]
Real Estate
Millionaires row no more: Number of houses that cost seven figures nationwide is dropping by Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy (USAToday)
Only about 7% of the US housing market is worth more than $1mm, a drop of 1.6 percentage points versus the peak of the market but still almost double the 4% at that price level from January of 2020. [Link; auto-playing video]
Ukraine
Dispatch From Kyiv: Ballet in a Time of War by Carol Schaeffer (The Nation)
Ballet, bombs, and the strange world of Kyiv which has been spared Russian occupation but is still a acutely war-time city as the invasion pushes through its second year. [Link; soft paywall]
Renewables
This geothermal startup showed its wells can be used like a giant underground battery by James Temple (MIT Technology Review)
A Nevada geothermal company thinks it may be able to turn its wells into what is in effect a giant battery, with important implications for keeping amperage flowing when renewable generation is no longer operating. [Link]
Unhappy Customers
How ‘Excuseflation’ Is Keeping Prices — and Corporate Profits — High by Tracy Alloway and Joe Wiesenthal (BNN/Bloomberg)
Corporations have been eager to push prices higher and take advantage of unique disruptions, driving prices higher with input costs but not returning the favor after input disruptions calm. [Link]
As Customer Problems Hit a Record High, More People Seek ‘Revenge’ by Katie Deighton (WSJ)
The National Customer Rage Survey has been run since 1976 and its 2023 edition showed a uniquely poisoned relationship between businesses in aggregate and their customers. [Link; paywall]
Elon
Bodyguards Follow Elon Musk Everywhere at Twitter HQ, Even to Restroom, Says Engineer by Philippe Naughton (The Daily Beast)
Employees report Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk gets followed around the social media company’s headquarters by two bodyguards. [Link]
Elon Musk Is Planning a Texas Utopia—His Own Town By Kirsten Grind, Rebecca Elliott, Ted Mann, and Julie Bykowicz (WSJ)
The company town is back, this time plotting itself outside of Austin, TX. A “Texas utopia” is in the cards near SpaceX and Boring Co facilities in the Lone Star State. [Link; paywall]
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Have a great weekend!
Mar 8, 2023
Searching for ways to better understand the fixed income space or looking for actionable ideas in this asset class? Bespoke’s Fixed Income Weekly provides an update on rates and credit every Wednesday. We start off with a fresh piece of analysis driven by what’s in the headlines or driving the market in a given week. We then provide charts of how US Treasury futures and rates are trading, before moving on to a summary of recent fixed income ETF performance, short-term interest rates including money market funds, and a trade idea. We summarize changes and recent developments for a variety of yield curves (UST, bund, Eurodollar, US breakeven inflation and Bespoke’s Global Yield Curve) before finishing with a review of recent UST yield curve changes, spread changes for major credit products and international bonds, and 1 year return profiles for a cross section of the fixed income world.
In this week’s report, we take a look at booming debt markets in Europe.
Our Fixed Income Weekly helps investors stay on top of fixed-income markets and gain new perspectives on the developments in interest rates. You can sign up for a Bespoke research trial below to see this week’s report and everything else Bespoke publishes free for the next two weeks!
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Mar 5, 2023
Welcome to Bespoke Brunch Reads — a linkfest of the favorite things we read over the past week. The links are mostly market related, but there are some other interesting subjects covered as well. We hope you enjoy the food for thought as a supplement to the research we provide you during the week.
While you’re here, join Bespoke Premium with a 30-day trial!
Climate Disruption
As Oil Companies Stay Lean, Workers Move to Renewable Energy by Clifford Krauss (NYT)
While energy companies avoid adding headcount and keep a laser focus on cashflows, renewables are rapidly scaling up and are poaching talent in the process, meaning American jobs are rapidly shifting from the oilpatch to wind and solar farms. [Link; soft paywall]
California senate pushes to stabilize the homeowners insurance market by Morgan Rynor (MSN/KFMB San Diego)
After a catastrophic run of forest fires, fire insurance in California is either not available at all or becoming prohibitively expensive, making homeowners far more vulnerable to the still-significant fire risk that has beset much of the state. [Link]
Prices
Column: With winter almost over, Europe’s gas stocks are at seasonal record high by John Kemp (Reuters)
With winter winding down, EU and UK gas storage is still 61% full, with more than 680 terawatt hours worth of gas in inventory. That offers hope that building supplies ahead of next winter will be a much easier task. [Link]
Sellers’ Inflation, Profits and Conflict: Why can Large Firms Hike Prices in an Emergency? by Isabella M. Weber and Evan Wasner (UMass Amherst Economics Working Papers)
New research that argues post-COVID inflation is mostly about expanding market power and margins rather than excessive demand. [Link]
Lilly to cut some list prices by 70% and offer $25 insulin by Bhanvi Satija and Patrick Wingrove (Reuters)
After a $35 price cap on insulin was extended to most Americans who have insurance, drugmakers have made equivalent cuts to the out-of-pocket costs of their drugs in a move that will make it much easier for diabetics to access insulin. [Link; registration required]
Ukraine
In an Epic Battle of Tanks, Russia Was Routed, Repeating Earlier Mistakes by Andrew E. Kramer (NYT)
The latest egregious blunder from Russian war planners: massed tank attacks with little infantry support or tactical flexibility to deal with ambushes, mines, and Ukrainian anti-tank doctrine. [Link; soft paywall]
Trapped In The Trenches In Ukraine by Luke Mogelson (NYer)
Remarkable dispatches from the front lines of the war in Ukraine. A very long read, but filled with incredible and engaging detail about the soldiers and environment on the battlefield. [Link; soft paywall]
National Defense
‘Havana Syndrome’ Not Caused By Energy Weapon Or Foreign Adversary, Intelligence Review Finds by Shane Harris and John Hudson (WaPo)
The malady blamed on some sort of energy weapon wielded by foreign adversaries is much more quotidian than science fiction, an embarrassing challenge to a narrative that had treated ‘Havana syndrome’ as some sort technological wonder. [Link; soft paywall]
The First Battle of the Next War by Mark F. Cancian, Matthew Cancian, and Eric Heginbotham (CSIS International Security Program)
This report summarizes the findings of a wargame run by the CSIS and designed to simulate Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The result of US/Taiwanese/Japanese resistance to a Chinese invasion is typically success but at massive cost; generally, the failure is thanks to stiff Taiwanese resistance once Chinese troops have landed. [Link; 165 pg PDF]
Crypto
Crypto Companies Behind Tether Used Falsified Documents and Shell Companies to Get Bank Accounts by Ben Foldy and Ada Hui (WSJ)
One of the owners of Tether Holdings, issuer of the tether stablecoin, admitted an effort to “circumvent the banking system by providing fake sales invoices and contracts for each deposit and withdrawal” per emails review by the WSJ. [Link; paywall]
ETFs
Are you short Jim or long Jim? by Alexandra Scaggs (FTAV)
Want to bet on or against the stocks that are mentioned by CNBC personality Jim Cramer? Luckily there are now ETFs for each. [Link; soft paywall]
Time Marches On
US senators reintroduce bill to make daylight saving time permanent by David Shepardson (Reuters)
A bipartisan group of 12 Senators wants to do away with twice-per-year clock changes in favor of a year-round constant time. [Link; registration required]
Guns
74,000 & growing: Some NC police departments stockpile guns rather than release them by Virginia Bridges (The Charlotte Observer)
Police departments in the 10 largest cities across North Carolina number 74,000 and counting as firearms seized during police actions sit in storage. State law bans cops from destroying guns for any reason. [Link; soft paywall]
Social Media
I Gave Into The New Twitter Algorithm And I Went Way Too Viral by Ryan Broderick (Garbage Day)
An anecdotal but convincing analysis of what is making Twitter’s algorithm tick these days, and a depressing accounting of how much the site has deteriorated. [Link]
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Have a great weekend!
