What we’re reading (2/19)
“The Man Who Abandoned Value” (Institutional Investor). “When Arne Alsin wrote about investing in disruptive companies two years ago, one commentator called it ‘one of the dumbest articles ever written.’ After a 274 percent year, Alsin isn’t the one who looks dumb.”
“Hedge Fund Bridgewater Reshuffles Leadership Ranks After Bruising Year” (Wall Street Journal). “Bridgewater Associates is shuffling its management ranks after one of the most challenging years in the hedge-fund giant’s history…the changes are the latest leadership moves meant to help transition the world’s largest hedge fund away from Mr. Dalio’s day-to-day leadership.”
“Disney Took A Hit During The Pandemic. You Wouldn’t Know It From Its Stock Price.” (Washington Post). “Since late October, Disney has been forced to temporarily close its Paris theme park, moved Pixar’s high-profile Christmas release ‘Soul’ out of battered theaters to less lucrative streaming platforms and watched as profit over the holidays dwindled from $2.1 billion the previous year to just $29 million in 2020. The company also opened Disneyland as a vaccination site. In the same period, Disney’s share price has jumped 58 percent, hitting an all-time high of $191 last week.”
“U.S. Factory Activity Cools; Cost Pressures Mounting” (Reuters). “U.S. factory activity slowed in early February likely as a global semiconductor chip shortage hurt production at automobile plants, while prices of inputs and manufactured goods soared, which could heighten fears of strong inflation growth this year.”
“Wealth Americans Have Gotten So Rich They Pay One-Sixth The Rate Of Taxes As Their 1953 Counterparts, Study Says” (Business Insider). “According to the paper from the Institute for Policy Studies, from 1953 to 2018 the rate of taxation on the richest Americans — as a percentage of wealth — fell by 83%. From 1979 to 2018, tax payments from the group, as a percentage of its wealth, decreased by more than 75%.”
