October 9, 2017

Perspective

NYT – Nothing Divides Voters Like Owning a Gun – Nate Cohn and Kevin Quealy 10/5

Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice

NYT – For Many on Puerto Rico, the Most Coveted Item is a Plane Ticket Out – Jack Healy and Luis Ferre-Sadurni 10/5

A Wealth of Common Sense – Good Advice vs. Effective Advice – Ben Carlson 10/5

WP – The troubling case of the young Japanese reporter who worked herself to death – Eli Rosenberg 10/5

WSJ – Income Investors: It’s OK to Be Sad, But Don’t Get Desperate – Jason Zweig 10/6

“Old bull markets don’t produce new ideas. They just produce new ways for investors to hurt themselves with old ideas.”
“With stocks at record highs and the income on bonds not far from record lows, circumstantial evidence suggests investors are getting restless — if not desperate.”
“Chasing ‘yield,’ or trying to get higher investment income, is one form of desperation. Last month, $1.6 billion in new money poured into exchange-traded funds holding high-yield corporate bonds, according to FactSet.”
“A recent survey of 750 individual investors by Natixis Global Asset Management found that they ‘need’ returns of 8.9%, after inflation, to reach their financial goals. In the same survey last year, investors said they needed a mere 8.5%. Since 1926, the return on U.S. stocks after inflation has averaged about 7% annually, according to Morningstar.”
“Such hankering for unrealistic returns can prompt investors to take imprudent risks. Just about any get-rich-quick story can look tempting.”
“This past week, an obscure Nasdaq-listed company called Bioptix, which had been licensing fertility hormones for cows, horses and pigs, announced that it was getting into the cryptocurrency business and changing its name to Riot Blockchain. The stock nearly doubled over its levels a week earlier.”
“This reminds market veterans of the dozens of companies that changed their names to include ‘Internet’ or ‘.com’ in 1998 and 1999. They outperformed comparable firms by an average of 53 percentage points in the five days surrounding the announcement of a name change, a study found in 2001.”
“Consider, too, Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc., a firm in Ladera Ranch, Calif., looking to raise $1.1 billion to buy properties that serve college students and the elderly around the U.S.”
“Strategic’s prospectus for the offering, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 26, says the firm will seek to ‘provide regular cash distributions to our investors’ and to sell out, merge with another company or go public within three to five years.”
“In the meantime, public investors are being asked to pay up to $10.33 for shares that the company has been selling to a select group of private investors for $8.50. Commissions and fees can exceed 10%, depending on the class of shares.”
“Strategic, which commenced operations only on June 28, is a ‘blind pool,’ meaning that the firm hasn’t yet determined what it will invest the proceeds of the offering in. Investors thus can’t ascertain the quality of the assets their money will buy. Strategic’s prospectus also says: ‘There is currently no public market for our shares and there may never be one’.”
“At times like these, reaching for yield and taking bigger risks might pay off for a few speculators in the short run. Investors, however, should hoard their cash and remember that in the long run it doesn’t pay to chase returns greater than the markets can realistically provide.”

Bloomberg View – A Volatility Trap Is Inflating Market Bubbles – Alberto Gallo 10/5

FT – Puerto Rico’s recovery depends on debt forgiveness – Gillian Tett 10/5

“Either way, the saga should be a wake-up call to investors. Yes, hurricanes may be rare. But Puerto Rico is not the only arena in which asset managers have chased after high yields with scant regard for risk. Just look at emerging markets and the high yield corporate bond world. If the tragedy in Puerto Rico shakes investors out of their complacency, that would be a thoroughly good thing — and long overdue.”

Markets / Economy

Yahoo Finance – U.S. economy loses jobs in September for first time 2010 – Myles Udland 10/6

Bloomberg Businessweek – Warren Buffett and Truck Stops Are a Perfect Match – Tara Lachapelle 10/3

Energy

Bloomberg – Solar Grew Faster Than All Other Forms of Power for the First Time – Anna Hirtenstein 10/4

“Solar power grew faster than any other source of fuel for the first time in 2016, the International Energy Agency said in a report suggesting the technology will dominate renewables in the years ahead.”
“The institution established after the first major oil crisis in 1973 said 165 gigawatts of renewables were completed last year, which was two-thirds of the net expansion in electricity supply. Solar powered by photovoltaics, or PVs, grew by 50%, with almost half of new plants built in China.”
“The IEA expects about 1,000 gigawatts of renewables will be installed in the next five years, a milestone that coal only accomplished after 80 years. That quantity of electricity surpasses what’s consumed in China, India and Germany combined.”
“The surge of photovoltaics in China is largely due to government support for renewables, which are being demanded by a population concerned about air pollution and environmental degradation that has led to deadly smogs. The country is seeking to reduce its reliance on coal and has become the world’s largest market for renewables, particularly solar.”
“’The solar PV story is a Chinese story,’ said Paolo Frankl, head of the IEA’s renewable energy division. ‘China has been for a long time the leader in manufacturing. What’s new is the share in the market. This year, it was equivalent to the total installed capacity of PV in Germany.’”
“The U.S. and India are among other nations pushing renewables. They along with China are projected to make up two-thirds of the clean-energy expansion worldwide. Despite President Donald Trump’s vow to bolster coal’s position in the power market, the U.S. is expected to be the second-largest market for renewables.”