What we’re reading (3/29)
“How To Beat The Market With Boring Stocks” (Forbes). “For a depressingly protracted period the value-conscious portfolio managers at AQR, which Asness, 56, cofounded in 1998, lost ground to competitors chasing hot growth stocks. Then came last year’s stock market rout. As the air exited inflated tech stocks, AQR funds became winners. This is how Asness describes what bubbles do to value players: ‘It starts out ugly and then it turns wonderful.’ Wonderful, that is, if you hang in there. Which some clients didn’t.”
“What’s Troubling Private Equity Executives, According To Their Personal Coaches” (Institutional Investor). “Fundraising is definitely a concern, according to Peter Feer, an executive coach to more than 25 clients who he meets weekly or monthly. About 80 percent of his clients are senior-level workers at private-equity firms ranging from $2 billion to almost $40 billion. ‘They are stressed that they are not going to be able to raise that successful next fund that’s larger than the prior fund. That definitely seeps into our conversations,’ Feer said.”
“A Rapid-Finance World Must Ready For A Slow-Motion Banking Crisis” (Wall Street Journal). “In recent decades financial crises have tended to be fast-moving and violent. They usually revolve around a handful of companies or countries, and often climax over a weekend, before Asian markets open…But another template is also possible: the corrosive, slow-motion crisis. SVB collapsed because of a confluence of structural factors that to a lesser extent afflict many institutions. That could force many banks in coming years to shrink or be acquired, a process that also hampers the supply of credit.”
“Is The Era Of Remote Work Over?” (The Week). “In terms of hybrid arrangements, under which employees spend part of the week at home and part of the week in the office, such plans ‘decreased in all measured industries in 2022 from 2021, declining 13.4 percentage points across the private sector.’ This change was ‘particularly stark’ in the finance sector, wherein the share of ‘establishments operating hybrid dropped by half, to 22 percent in 2022 from 44.9 percent in 2021.’ Where work-from-home did manage to remain relatively common was in ‘jobs that were traditionally done in an office,’ like tech and media positions or law and accounting roles.”
“The Search For Earth Look-Alikes Is Getting Serious” (The Atlantic). “Several years ago, astronomers pointed a telescope at another star and discovered something remarkable: seven planets, each one about the same size as Earth. The planets were quite close to their small star—all seven of their orbits would fit inside Mercury’s. And yet, because this star is smaller, cooler, and dimmer than our own, at least three of those rocky worlds are in the habitable zone, at the right temperature for liquid, flowing water. Earthlike size and sunniness don’t guarantee that you’ll find ET, but if you were looking for signs of alien life beyond this solar system, this corner of the universe would be a promising place to start.”
