my midweek morning train WFH wrote:

• Economist Jim O’Neill on Russia: ‘The West will decide Putin’s bankruptcy’ Jim O’Neill once coined the term “BRIC” to refer to the fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. In an interview, he discussed why Vladimir Putin’s Russia failed to live up to expectations. (mirror)

• The hottest NFT markets are mostly users selling to themselves LooksRare’s incentives for users to transact through Looks token incentives effectively help mask the cooling demand for NFTs. (Bloomberg)

• Can Norway’s $1.3 trillion oil fund really give up on oil? It’s hard to underestimate what a shift this is. Since the first transfer in 1996, Norway has struggled to distance the fund from political aims. It was envisioned as a national savings account to hedge against fluctuations in oil prices. But from the outset, there were fears that it could be manipulated for political ends. They saw a continuous oligarchy in the Middle East enriched by oil at the expense of the people. Experts warn that Norway naively expects a democratic society to manage such a large cash flow in a sustainable manner. (corporate investor)

• Apple makes remote work easy (unless you work for Apple) The company’s relatively inflexible remote work policy is motivating some employees to look elsewhere. Work Week(Work Week)

• The predictive power of the yield curve: Even if the yield curve predicts a recession again, you can’t predict: when a recession will happen. If/when the stock market will start to fall. The magnitude of the recession and stock market correction. What the Fed will do during this period. (a wealth of common sense)

• Wealthy companies are using a quiet tactic to thwart lawsuits: bankruptcy A growing number of wealthy companies, organizations and individuals accused of serious wrongdoing are using similar bankruptcy tactics, hoping to delay or permanently block lawsuits. They have found vacancies in state and federal law that allow them to tap into the broad powers that bankruptcy judges have in closing deals. But they weren’t forced to endure the financial pain and risk of actually filing for bankruptcy. This often means creating a new subsidiary and pushing it into bankruptcy, as in the Johnson & Johnson case. (NPR)

• How long will the booster last?Here’s a deal on whether you need another. It’s been a few months since you got a booster drug for COVID, and you may be wondering if the vaccine is still protecting you. Here’s everything the experts do and don’t know. (buzzing)

• What we can learn from people who take the flat-Earth theory seriously “A flat Earth enables people to discard all previous information they didn’t want to believe and rebuild the world from scratch.” (grid)

• Controversial quest to create ‘infectious’ vaccine: A new technology aims to stop wild animals from spreading Ebola, rabies and other viruses. It could prevent the next pandemic by preventing the spread of pathogens from animals to people. (National Geographic)

• why people behave so strangely: Crime, “unruly passenger” incidents and other types of bizarre behavior have all been on the rise recently. Why? (atlantic organization)

Be sure to check out our Master of Business interview This weekend with Bill Gross, co-founder of PIMCO who manages the Total Return Fund, the largest mutual fund in the world at $293B. Gross advised the Treasury on the role of subprime mortgage bonds and was named Morningstar’s ten-year fund manager in 2010.

Largest quarterly industry return variance since Q4 2000 (49%)

resource: All star maps

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