What we’re reading (3/4)
“How The Market Has Changed In The 20+ Years I’ve Covered It” (CNN Business). “If I’ve learned anything in my nearly three decades as a financial journalist (I started my career just out of college in 1995 at the long-defunct Financial World magazine) it’s that ‘this time is different’ is perhaps the biggest myth in investing. There are variations on that theme but, to quote Led Zeppelin, ‘the song remains the same.’”
“Stronger Economic Momentum Will Induce More Rate Hikes In 2023” (Morningstar). “With inflation already easing substantially without a recession, we’re very confident that the U.S. economy is capable of a soft landing, but achieving it is contingent on avoiding monetary policy error. Near-term growth in economic activity is proving more resilient to monetary policy tightening than we had anticipated, which is inducing the Federal Reserve to continue hike rates.”
“A 120-Year-Old Company Is Leaving Tesla In The Dust” (New York Times). “But the more I dealt with Tesla as a reporter — this was before Mr. Musk fired all the P.R. people who worked there — the more skeptical I became. Any time I spoke to anyone at Tesla, there was a sense that they were terrified to say the wrong thing, or anything at all. I wanted to know the horsepower of the Model 3 I was driving, and the result was like one of those oblique Mafia conversations where nothing’s stated explicitly, in case the Feds are listening. I ended up saying, ‘Well, I read that this car has 271 horsepower,’ and the Tesla person replied, ‘I wouldn’t disagree with that.’ This is not how healthy, functional companies answer simple factual questions.”
“Higher Education Is Shockingly Right-Wing” (Steve Waldman). “If "left" and "right" have any meaning at all, "right" describes a worldview under which civilized society depends upon legitimate hierarchy, and a key object of politics is properly defining and protecting that hierarchy…Whatever else colleges and universities do in the United States, they define and police our most consequential social hierarchy, the dividing line between a prosperous if precarious professional class and a larger, often immiserated, working class. The credentials universities provide are no guarantee of escape from paycheck-to-paycheck living, but statistically they are a near prerequisite.”
“One Way U.S. Students Can Save Money On College Tuition: Head To Europe” (Wall Street Journal). “College tuition in the European Union tends to be far less than in the U.S., not only for locals but for students who come from outside the EU as well. Indeed, both undergrad and graduate-school degrees in Europe often can be earned at a fraction of what it costs in the U.S.”
