Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice

A Wealth of Common Sense: Urgent vs. Important & the Power of Small Wins – Ben Carlson 4/20

Real Estate

LAT – When car ownership fades, this parking garage will be ready for its next life – Roger Vincent 4/16

Finance

WSJ – Grab Your Pitchforks, America, Your 401(k) May Need Defending from Congress – Jason Zweig 4/21

FT – US banks gain from rate rises as savers suffer – Alistair Gray 4/20

• “Figures released by the biggest US banks in recent days show the industry is finally starting to profit from higher rates. Lending margins, which last year reached their lowest level in six decades, rose in the first quarter by the most in seven years.”
• “If the eight basis point margin increase were to hold up across the sector, Autonomous analyst Brian Foran estimates the US banking industry would net an additional $11bn of interest income per year.”

Environment / Science

WP – Thousands of tiny satellites are about to go into space and possibly ruin it forever – Avi Selk 4/21

• “Hundreds of thousands of bits of space junk are orbiting Earth, according to NASA. These include tiny paint flecks that can take out a space shuttle window, and some 2,000 satellite shards left by a collision of Russian and American satellites several years ago.”
• Further, “as satellites get smaller and cheaper, more and more of them are going into orbit to potentially smash into each other.”
• “In February, the New York Times reported, India launched 104 tiny satellites into space from a single rocket.”
• “In all of human history… about 7,000 spacecraft have left the Earth…[and] 12,000 new satellites are set to go up soon…”
• What’s new is that “many of these – like the batch India sent into space – are nano-satellites: tiny, motorless machines that promise to revolutionize communications.”
• Great, except that they are not maneuverable and dramatically increase the odds of collision…

China

FT – China bond party attracts few takers – Gabriel Wildau 4/20