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.
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Renewables
Contingent Supply: Why Spodumene Reserves May Be the Key to a More Secure Lithium Supply Chain by Arnab Datta & Alex Turnbull (Employ America)
One possible approach to insuring price volatility in key EV inputs doesn’t get carried away is establishing strategic reserves of an important input. [Link]
A Football Field-Sized Boat Will Service US Offshore Wind Farms by Josh Saul (BNN Bloomberg)
In Louisiana, a shipyard is busy turning out the first wind farm service vessel designed to operate in US waters, part of a fledgling offshore industry in this country. [Link]
EVs
2025 Ram REV Just a Regular 1500 Truck With Electric Underpants by Alexander Stoklosa (MotorTrend)
Stellantis’ entry into the EV pickup market offers a massive 168kWh battery pack in its base model with a gigantic 229kWh pack in the longer-range version. That larger pack is a full 100 kWh larger than the F-150 Lightning, for a total size more than 4x that of a sedan like a Tesla Model 3. [Link]
Special Report: Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars by Steve Stecklow, Waylon Cunningham and Hyunjoo Jin (Reuters)
Tesla employees reportedly had access to and shared details from recordings from the company’s internal car cameras. [Link]
Taxes
Internal Revenue Service Inflation Reduction Act Strategic Operating Plan (IRS)
Last year the Inflation Reduction Act granted significant new resources to the IRS, with this report serving to update the Treasury Secretary on what it’s doing with those resources. [Link; 150 page PDF]
Sports
‘It’s about the damn money’ by Kent Babb (MSN/WaPo)
North Carolinian golfer and LIV Tour participant Harold William Varner III on why he’s joining the upstart Saudi golf tour; one part discussion of the golf business and one part biography for one of the most interesting characters in the game. [Link]
Babe Ruth bat sells for record $1.85M after ‘photographic corroboration’ by Dan Hajducky (ESPN)
A bat used by the Babe in 1921 has been photographically corroborated to establish he actually did swing the stick personally. [Link]
Interest Rates
Latest Fed Increase Came Down to the Wire. ‘That Was a Rough Weekend.’ by Nick Timiraos (WSJ)
FOMC voters only decided on their rate plans in the days immediately preceding the March meeting, a highly unusual outcome driven by the bank collapses of March. [Link; paywall]
The pain and SOFRing are almost over by Alexandra Scaggs (FTAlphaville)
After much sturm und drang, regulators have required that even though it will continue to be published, LIBOR will become synonymous with the reference rate that it’s being replaced by. [Link; soft paywall]
Real Estate
Moody’s: Multifamily Demand “Softened notably over the past few quarters” by Bill McBride (Calculated Risk)
Apartment landlords are reporting an uptick in vacancy rates and declining rents in just the latest sign that national rent tightness is over. [Link]
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Have a great weekend!
