What we’re reading (10/21)
“Lessons From Oil On The New Crypto Futures Fund” (Fisher Investments). “Every investment decision is a tradeoff. When you buy stocks, you accept the risk of short-term volatility in exchange for the likelihood of high long-term returns. With a bitcoin futures ETF, we surmise you are accepting the risk of tracking error in exchange for the transparency and investor protections that come with owning a regulated fund. Some investors might think the tradeoff is worthwhile. Some might not. Some might want to avoid bitcoin entirely, concluding that speculating conflicts with their long-term goals.”
“The Great Resignation Is Accelerating” (The Atlantic). “Before the pandemic, the office served for many as the last physical community left, especially as church attendance and association membership declined. But now even our office relationships are being dispersed. The Great Resignation is speeding up, and it’s created a centrifugal moment in American economic history.”
“The Revenge Of The Essential Worker” (The New Republic). “Of all the images coming out of the current strike wave…the apparent chaos at the John Deere plants is among the most viscerally satisfying. Last week, more than 10,000 workers across 14 plants went on strike after rejecting the tractor maker’s contract offer, an offer that included a 4 percent increase in pay the year after its CEO made $15.6 million himself. To keep its business running, the company told The Washington Post, it ‘activated a continuity plan,’ which sounded reasonable until it became clear that the plan took salaried office workers, gave them punchy new titles like ‘tractor driver’ and ‘general repair,’ and put them on the shop floor.”
“PayPal Is In Late-Stage Talks To Acquire Pinterest” (CNBC). “PayPal has discussed acquiring the company for a potential price of around $70 a share, which would value Pinterest at about $39 billion, according to Bloomberg. Pinterest stock closed at $55.58 per share on Tuesday. PayPal and Pinterest declined to comment.”
“The S.E.C. Weighs In On Meme-Stock Mania” (DealBook). “ [A] long-awaited S.E.C. report about those events, released yesterday, concluded that the markets operated largely as intended, debunking conspiracy theories. The report proposed no policy changes…[t]he 45-page report was simply meant to describe events, a senior S.E.C. official told reporters. But many observers anticipated much more, considering that the S.E.C. chairman, Gary Gensler, has hinted at big changes to the way markets work.”
