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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Hedge Funds
Big Hedge Funds Face New 72-Hour Deadline to Report Losses by Lydia Beyoud (Bloomberg)
A new SEC rule requires large hedge funds to share news of major losses and margin calls with regulators within 72 hours of realizing declines. That would significantly speed disclosure . [Link; soft paywall]
So You Want to Launch a Hedge Fund? by Marc Rubinstein (Net Interest)
A review of the history of the hedge fund industry as well as an outlook on the performance of the industry going forward given a very poor run of performance for leveraged private stock pickers. [Link]
Baseball
Why Did the Umpire Quit Little League? Nasty Parents by Jason Gay (WSJ)
When a small town New Jersey baseball league got tired of poor behavior from parents during games, organizers developed an interesting punishment system for hecklers: time behind the diamond. [Link; paywall]
Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon fired after link to suspicious bets, sources say by David Purdum (ESPN)
Video evidence from a sportsbook in Ohio showed a person placing bets against Alabama’s baseball team at the direction of that team’s coach. An independent monitoring firm identified the bets before further investigation. [Link]
Sports Business
FC Barcelona to Pay €94 Million a Year for Debt to Renew Stadium by Irene Garcia Perez (Bloomberg)
A remarkable debt deal will see the iconic Spanish football club pass enormous risk to private investors, who have loaned almost €1.5bn with no recourse to team general revenues. [Link; soft paywall]
The Audience for Women’s Sports Is Surging. Richer Media Deals Could Follow. by Rachel Bachman (WSJ)
From basketball to soccer, women’s sports from college to the pros to international competition have broadcast rights up for sale in coming years, and with viewership surging those contracts could be lucrative indeed. [Link; paywall]
Social Media
Social Media as a Bank Run Catalyst by J. Anthony Cookson, Corbin Fox, Javier Gil-Bazo, Juan Felipe Imbet, and Christoph Schiller (SSRN)
The authors find social media amplifies the risk of bank runs, with banks under deposit stress leading to larger losses when they’re discussed on Twitter, and especially so when discussed by key communities. [Link]
Bluesky’s best shot at success is to embrace shitposting by Amada Silberling (TechCrunch)
The latest social media site aiming to take advantage of challenges at Twitter made a key decision early that has driven lots of activity: inviting users who are ready to stir the pot and post like they’re not going to be able to post for long. [Link]
Tweet Tweet
SEC Issues Largest-Ever Whistleblower Award (SEC)
An anonymous whistleblower received a massive $279mm payout after coming forward with accurate information about potential securities law violations. [Link]
Commercial Real Estate
European commercial real estate dealmaking falls to 11-year low by Joshua Oliver (FT)
Commercial real estate transactions were down 62% YoY in Q1, with high rates stifling both supply and demand of properties; it may take some time before distressed sales start to pick up. [Link; paywall]
After demolishing swaths of San Jose, Google puts campus project on hold by Ron Amadeo (Ars Technica)
Google had planned to build an 80-acre campus in downtown San Jose. But cost cutting imperatives intervened and put the project on ice after demolition had already started. [Link]
Apple
Apple reportedly attracted $1 billion in deposits into its new high-yield savings account in just 4 days by Matthew Fox (Business Insider)
Apple credit card customers are eligible for a 4.15% high yield savings account from Goldman Sachs offered with Apple branding. Results have been good so far with 240k new customers in the first four days of launch. [Link]
Apple CEO Sees India at ‘Tipping Point’ as China Pivot Quickens by Mark Gurman (Bloomberg)
With Chinese supply chains threatened by geopolitics and saturation, India has become a major focus for the $2trn company. [Link; auto-playing video, soft paywall]
Environmentalism
FAA sued over SpaceX Starship launch program following April explosion by Lora Kolodny (CNBC)
A series of nonprofits have sued SpaceX after its Starship launch sent tons of concrete from the inadequately designed launch pad flying into sensitive and protected habitat surrounding the launch site. [Link]
The Politics of Carbon Capture Are Getting Weird by Emily Pontecorvo (Heatmap)
Before the Supreme Court ruled that EPA regulation of carbon had to take place at the emission site, carbon capture was viewed by environmentalists as something of a snake oil pitch. But that’s all changed as the EPA’s clean power plan rulemaking due next week is likely to show. [Link]
Libations
Where Has All the Chartreuse Gone? by Jason Wilson (Everyday Drinking)
Carthusian monks have made the decision to maintain production volumes of famed green and yellow liqueur Chartreuse, meaning availability may start to decline as demand outpaces the willingness of its silent producers to make millions of cases. [Link]
Technology
Can China’s booming EV industry help it avoid the middle-income trap? By Anthony W.D. Anastasi (South China Morning Post)
Emerging market economies often fail to make the leap from rapid growth to developed market income levels; EVs may be one of the keys to continuing China’s growth out of the middle income trap. [Link]
Labor Markets
Low earners in the US enjoy fastest wage growth (FT)
Real incomes have soared for the bottom 10% of earners over the decade, while those at the median have seen more modest growth largely thanks to post-COVID inflation. Real earnings take home the same per hour that they did from 2016-2020. [Link; paywall]
White-Collar Layoffs are Starting to Show Up in the Household Survey by Preston Mui (Employ America)
A detailed look at the details of several government reports on the labor market shows that layoffs announced over the past year are starting to show up, albeit only modestly so far. [Link]
Policing
More people are getting away with murder. Unsolved killings reach a record high by Eric Westervelt (NPR)
The national murder clearance rate fell below 50% in 2020, a record low dating back as far as records are kept. The number is as low as one-third of murders in some cities. [Link]
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Have a great weekend!
