10 Sunday Reads
Avert your eyes! My
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Secrecy and spin: How Florida’s governor misled the public on the COVID-19 pandemic Throughout the COVID-19 crisis in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration engaged in a pattern of spin and concealment that misled the public on the gravest health threat the state has ever faced. The administration suppressed unfavorable facts, dispensed dangerous misinformation, dismissed public health professionals, and promoted the views of scientific dissenters who supported the governor’s approach to the disease. The DeSantis administration’s approach to managing COVID-19 information carries costs. It supports a climate in which people proudly disdain masks, engage in dangerous group activities that could spread the disease, and brush aside information that conflicts with their political views. (Sun Sentinel)
10 Weekend Reads
The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of
Tucson Coffee Roasters Monsoon coffee, grab a seat by the fire, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads:
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The Essex Boys: How Nine Traders Hit a Gusher With Negative Oil “
They had balls of steel. It was quite unbelievable to see.” Among the many previously unthinkable moments of 2020, one of the strangest occurred on April 20, when the price of crude oil fell below zero. Over the course of a few hours, a guy called Cuddles and eight of his pals from the freewheeling world of London’s commodities markets rode oil’s crash to a $660 million profit. (Businessweek)
10 Friday AM Reads
My end of week morning
train WFH reads:
Asset Destruction: “
I am so sorry.” These are the only four words that come to mind. I don’t know what else to say to an investor who’s been sold a load of garbage by a life insurance agent. I can no longer keep quiet as I witness this silent epidemic of bad incentives, high pressure sales tactics, and the destruction of investor’s hard earned money. These expensive life insurance products are asset destruction. (Belle Curve)
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Home Equity Reaches Record Highs: Homeowners Gained Over $1 Trillion in Equity in Q3 2020 U.S. homeowners with mortgages (which account for roughly 63% of all properties) have seen equity increase by 10.8% year over year, representing a collective equity gain of $1 trillion, and an average gain of $17,000 per homeowner, since the third quarter of 2019. This marks the largest average equity gain since the first quarter of 2014. (CoreLogic)
10 Thursday AM Reads
My morning
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Pandemic Villains: Robinhood. Have a pair of gangly Stanford grads built the perfect mousetrap? As the world went into lockdown and the global economy into a spiral last spring, one company struck gold. A phone-based trading app called Robinhood began wiping the floor with more celebrated online brokerage rivals. The moment the pandemic began, the world started trading stocks on Robinhood.(Taibbi)
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Custom Direct Indexing: The Next Evolution of Index Investing Co-mingled funds and ETFs sit in between investors and the stocks they own. Funds and ETFs have been good to investors and were wonderful technologies in their own rights. But Custom Indexing software, zero commission trading, and fractional share trading mean that in the future, more investors will own their shares directly rather than through mutual funds and ETFs. (Canvas)