What we’re reading (8/19)
“The Pandemic Home-Building Boom Is Over” (Reason). “Kevin Erdmann, a senior affiliated scholar at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, cautions against reading the fall in housing starts as a sign of a housing recession or more general economic contraction. Rather, he says it's a product of temporarily inflated housing starts falling to reflect the actual capacity of builders to construct new housing.”
“Private Equity Wants To Wash Your Car” (Wall Street Journal). “The strategy of buyout firms, flush with cash and facing stiff competition to invest it, is to bundle these modest businesses—a move known in the private-equity industry as a ‘roll up’—and find new ways for them to make money. The goal is to create bigger, more valuable companies that can be sold down the line for multiples of what they paid.”
“For Allocators Evaluating Hedge Fund Performance, Context Matters.” (Pivotal). “After a challenging fist half and especially June, financial markets and hedge funds recovered in July. The PivotalPath Hedge Fund Composite Index gained 0.9% in July, compared to a decline of 1.8% in June. Year-to-date the PivotalPath Composite is down 2.2% compared to the S&P 500 which has lost 12.6% and the Nasdaq index which has declined 20.8%.”
“What Does Brian Stelter’s Exit Mean For The Future Of CNN?” (Vanity Fair). “What to make of Brian Stelter’s sudden departure from CNN after almost a decade with the network? As one well-placed source suggested to me when the news began leaking out on Thursday afternoon, “John Malone, John Malone, John Malone.” That would be the billionaire media mogul and Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder who is a close confidant of CEO David Zaslav. There’s been some underlying anxiety at the network ever since Malone went on CNBC last year and said he ‘would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.’”
“Iowa State Fair’s Big Board Contest Has Only 2 Entries Amid Soaring Inflation, Heat” (Successful Farming). “It’s possible that the cost to feed giant pigs was too much. Or maybe the summer’s unrelenting heat made those 1,000-plus-pound bruisers lose their appetites. Either way, there were just two entries in the Iowa State Fair’s Big Boar Contest this year — the smallest number in at least two decades, according to Ernie Barnes, who oversees the fairgrounds’ Swine Barn and emcees the contest. Usually there are between five and 10 entries. ‘Those boars are going to eat 25 to 30 pounds of feed a day, and feed cost is higher than we’ve ever seen in the history of pork production or livestock production,’ Barnes said. ‘So, if a boar is eating that much feed and a guy is doing it as a hobby or as a fun deal, do you really want to feed a boar for a year with high-priced feed?’”
