My end of week morning train WFH reads:

• Millions of Americans are fixated on stock prices. They shouldn’t pay such close attention The narrative built to explain the stock market boom of 2000 brought together the advent of the World Wide Web, baby boomers entering retirement, the decline in inflation and optimism about business — “seemingly unrelated narratives that all happened to be going viral at around the same time.” That narrative held only temporarily, however, because the bubble burst in 2001. (Los Angeles Times) see also Some Things I Remind Myself During Market Corrections It’s stimulating to work through these reasons if you like talking about the markets (like I do). But the reasons for the correction doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes stocks go down. It happens. You don’ t know when and you don’t know why but you know it’s going to happen. Plan accordingly. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• Adele’s Worst Selling-Album is Still the Year’s Biggest Record Adele’s new album “30” was the best-selling record of 2021, and its success is a testament to her enduring popularity. The British singer finished December at the top of Bloomberg’s Pop Star Power Rankings and was one of the 10 biggest artists on both Spotify and YouTube. But “30” is also a modest hit by Adele’s standards. It’s on pace to be her worst-selling album since her debut (and maybe ever). (Bloomberg)

• Crypto Kings Are the Real-Estate Industry’s Newest Whales People who have made fortunes investing in digital currency, or who helped build the vast crypto industry, are the new darlings of the high-end residential property market (Wall Street Journal)

• Underestimating the Red Queen Organisms allocate energy between growth and maintenance and repair. They stop growing when maintenance requires all of the energy. Substitute capital for energy and companies appear to follow a similar trajectory. This is important because you can anticipate a company’s growth only if you understand how much capital it spends on growth versus maintenance. (Morgan Stanley)

• Biden’s offshore wind plan is also a jobs plan Europe has already invested in offshore wind power. Now the US is getting onboard. (Vox) see also Green Jobs Have a Nice Future … But Fossil Fuel Work Will Persist While oil and gas workforces are projected to shrink, they aren’t expected to vanish for some time. (Chief Investment Officer)

• It’s all relative: Research from the BIS suggests that much of the recent increase in inflation is really a result of changing relative prices rather than a generalised rise. That has important implications for policy. (Value Added)

• Why more Americans than ever are starting their own businesses Workers are quitting their jobs to become their own bosses. (Vox)

• Fake vaccine cards are everywhere. It’s a public health nightmare. Thousands of fake vaccine card vendors threaten to gut the effectiveness of US vaccine mandates, a Grid investigation reveals. Major platforms and app stores aren’t stopping them, law enforcement isn’t catching them, and political leaders are AWOL. (Grid)

• Why does Britain have such bizarre place names? Bishop’s Itchington, Westley Waterless: there is plenty to smile or snigger at on a map of the UK. But in fact, these names reveal a hidden – and fascinating – history. (BBC)

• The Most Epic Adventures in America’s 50 States From roaming the pine forests of Alabama to conquering the rivers of Wyoming on a SUP, every state in the union has a unique adventure to offer. (Men’s Journal)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with David Conrod, Co-Founder CEO at FocusPoint Private Capital Group. Previously, he was at Guggenheim Partners, where he established the Private Fund Group, with more than $7 billion of fund allocations for general partnerships external to the firm.

The accommodation and food services sectors experienced the most quits in 2021

Source: Chamber of Commerce

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