What we’re reading (6/16)
“A Bull Or A Bear Market? It Doesn’t Matter.” (New York Times). “Instead of focusing on where stocks may be heading over the summer, consider that over periods of 20 years or longer, the stock market has always risen. But remember that it’s frequently fallen sharply from time to time within those periods.”
“Why Value Investing Works” (Morningstar). “Per the academic research, buying stocks on the cheap has flourished for as long as the data has existed. Why? The common explanation is sentiment. What is now unloved will later receive its due. True enough. Value investing certainly does benefit when the unpopular becomes popular. But that is the icing rather than the cake. The happy secret of value investing is that it can succeed even if sentiment remains unchanged.”
“Disney Finance Chief Clashed With Top Executives Before Stepping Down” (Wall Street Journal). “[Disney CFO Christine] McCarthy has clashed with Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger and other top executives over strategy, including the amount of money Disney spends on content and a recent restructuring that she felt didn’t go far enough to streamline the company, a person familiar with the matter said.”
“The Housing Market Has About 40% Fewer Homes For Sale Than Before The Pandemic, And Listings Keep Falling” (Insider). “The issue is unlikely to ease anytime soon, as the total number of homes for sale dropped 6% year over year in the four weeks leading up to June 11, the report said, marking the largest drop in 13 months. And new home listings fell 23%, the 10th consecutive month of double-digit declines, amid a slump in homebuilding.”
“The Trust Crisis” (Commentary). “We have no shortage of conflicts and challenges in 2023. But is life in the United States worse than in 1973? Item by item, no. Not even close. American troops aren’t fighting in a foreign war; Ukrainians are. (And even in 1973, a total of 68 Americans were killed in Vietnam.) The 1973 oil shock was the largest in history. In 2023, oil prices are down almost 11 percent from a year earlier. Whatever unsavory business dealings may be swirling around the Biden family, the president is not facing resignation or removal because of them. And while the crime rate has risen significantly in the past few years, the crime spike of the immediate postwar decades makes our age look paradisiacal.”
