What we’re reading (7/25)
“Does A Raise Or Remote Work Sound Better?” (Wall Street Journal). “In a Stanford survey of 2,500 Americans in June and July, half of respondents said the ability to work from home two to three days a week in a post-Covid world was equal to getting a pay increase of 10% or more. Another 17% said it was like getting up to a 9% raise.” It’s worth noting, as we pointed out this week, the data do not suggest companies would need to slash pay in order to make working from a home a regular thing. By shedding unecessary leasing costs, companies could do both work-from-home and raises.
“The Models Were Wildly Wrong About Reopening Too” (American Institute for Economic Research). The famous May 2020 Imperial College London paper that reportedly predicted a “catastrophic rebound of COVID-19 fatalities” in its reopening scenarios has turned out to be pretty far off the mark in said fatality predictions, even if new infections are increasingly rapidly.
“Investing Should Be Like Gambling. Here’s how not to go wrong” (CNBC). This article throws a bunch of punches at “hyper-gamified” investing platforms (read: Robinhood) but entirely misses the more important point that the strategy the author ostensibly advocates—the traditional investment approach predicated on researching a few companies in depth and valuing them better than the whole market in all its wisdom—has resulted in most investors, “market pros” and amateurs alike, underperforming the market. If you really want investing to be less like gambling, using tested, bias-free stock selection tools might be a better approach.
“A Hedge Fund Bailout Highlights How Regulators Ignored Big Risks” (New York Times). “Tougher regulation in the formal banking sector has pushed risk-taking to the shadowy corners of Wall Street—areas that Dodd-Frank left largely untouched.”
“Ordinary People Invested In Hedge, Private Equity Funds Unsure That More Ordinary People Should Invest In Hedge, Private Equity Funds” (Dealbreaker). “Jay Clayton—in addition to letting as many hedge funds as possible keep as many of their investments as possible secret—is racing to give as many people access to alternative investments as possible, regardless of the wisdom of doing so. Simultaneously, the Labor Department has opened the doors even further, allowing 401(k) plans to include private equity funds.”
