What we’re reading (6/16)
“Vaccines Will Be The ‘Most Important’ Economic Policy This Year, IMF Chief Says” (CNBC). “Vaccine policy will trump all other economic polices this year as the world tries to recover from the coronavirus crisis, Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund said at CNBC’s Global Evolve Summit on Wednesday.”
“Odds Favor The Dow Being Higher At The End Of 2021 And 125 Years Of History Supports This” (MarketWatch). “It’s because of the market’s efficiency that a buy-and-hold strategy is so hard to beat over the long term. When you deviate from that buy-and-hold approach, you’re in effect betting that you know more and have greater insight than the collective wisdom of millions of other stock market investors. It’s not out of the question that you do, but — as history has shown numerous times — it’s a low probability bet.”
“Hard Truths About SoftBank” (The Economist). “The bull case for SoftBank is simple. It is an unabashed wager on tech-fuelled firms continuing their meteoric rise. It can thrive as long as investors are on hand to fund loss-making companies in the hope of future riches. For now, they are. But the recent IPO boom is petering out. Much of SoftBank’s record profit came with an asterisk: the share prices that helped generate it had already started falling back to Earth…[t]he next stress test for SoftBank may not be far off.”
“Amazon Tracks Warehouse Workers’ Every Move Because Jeff Bezos Thinks People Are Inherently Lazy, Report Says” (Business Insider). “Many of Amazon's policies were designed to prevent workers from becoming lazy, a former vice president told The New York Times. David Niekerk, who helped design the company's warehouse-management system, told the publication that founder Jeff Bezos' belief that people are inherently lazy helped shape the company's policies. Bezos believed that workers' desire to perform well decreased over time and that an entrenched workforce was a ‘march to mediocrity,’ Niekerk told The Times.”
“Poultry Prices Soar To Record Amid U.S. Chicken-Sandwich Wars” (FarmProgress). “U.S. producer prices for processed poultry jumped to an all-time high in May, climbing 2.1% in the eighth straight monthly increase, U.S. government data showed Tuesday. Gains in poultry outpaced the 0.8% increase in the broader producer price index. The surge comes after several large fast-food restaurant chains recently launched fried-chicken sandwiches in a bid to match Popeyes’ 2019 viral success.”
