What we’re reading (7/4)
“It Isn’t Just Boomers. Lots Of Older Americans Are Stock Obsessed.” (Wall Street Journal). “American retirees are investing more like 30-year-olds. Rather than follow the conventional wisdom to protect their nest eggs by shifting their investments from stocks to bonds as they age, many are rolling the dice. Nearly half of Vanguard 401(k) investors actively managing their money and over age 55 held more than 70% of their portfolios in stocks. In 2011, 38% did so. At Fidelity Investments, nearly four in 10 investors ages 65 to 69 hold about two-thirds or more of their portfolios in stocks.”
“Fireworks Have A New Competitor: Drones” (DealBook). “Increasingly, drones are lighting up skybound entertainment shows. Flocks of flying robots have created magical illusions everywhere from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to the coronation of King Charles III this spring. And the global drone light show market, which was virtually nonexistent a decade ago, was valued at about $1 billion in 2021, according to Allied Market Research.”
“Welcome to the big blimp boom” (MIT Technology Review). “In May, the somewhat secretive Sergey Brin–backed company LTA Research, which has been working on airships since 2016, announced that it’s ready to unveil its first, the Pathfinder 1. The French company Flying Whales is developing an airship that’s lifted by helium and can haul up to 60 tons of cargo. The vehicle is controlled with a hybrid-electric propulsion system, though the company plans to eventually transition to hydrogen fuel cells, which will make its aircraft fully electric. Flying Whales has already partnered with aerospace companies to determine whether it could eventuallytransport rocket parts.”
“How To Steal A Masterpiece: Advice From The World’s Greatest Art Thief” (Time). “[Stéphane] Breitwieser, a 52-year-old Frenchman, is one of the greatest art thieves of all time. He stole over 300 works from museums and cathedrals across Europe, worth an estimated two billion dollars. While I was preparing to write a book about him, Breitwieser granted me dozens of hours of interviews, during which he revealed in great detail his criminal mind.”
“The Value Of Not Commuting To Work” (Political Calculations). “If you're one of the Americans who are able to avoid commuting while working from home, how much value are you getting from the time you're saving? For a lot of white collar employees, the opportunity to work remotely has provided a huge personal windfall. But not many people have taken a serious stab at estimating how much that value might be, either individual or for society at large.”
