Since the early 1990s, the very concept of inflation has ceased to be a driving force in politics or the economy.
That’s over. Whichever way you look at it, official U.S. data suggest inflation is the highest in 30 years, and rising trib.al/cgjfeym
June’s consumer price index is 5.4%, the highest in 30 years barring one month in 2008.
🚫🍲⛽️ Excluding food and fuel: 4.5% — its highest in three decades
🚫🏡🚗 Excluding shelter and used cars: 3.6% — still far higher than it’s been since 1993 trib.al/cgjfeym
Yet while it’s obvious the U.S. is currently battling inflation, it isn’t clear that it’ll last, and the market seems unconcerned.
The bond market’s best estimate of the average inflation rate for the next decade remains as low as 2.38% trib.al/cgjfeym
There are two explanations for this:
1⃣Confidence that the Fed can keep this under control
2⃣Fear that there won’t be enough growth to push inflation higher
As someone who has spent decades thinking about money – saving it, investing it and spending it – @ritholtz has come to recognize several fundamental financial truths.
Luckily for you, he’s willing to share them: trib.al/cbCJdBt
Investing is both simple and hard: The basic premise behind successful investing is easily understood: “Invest for the long term, be diversified, watch your costs and let compounding work its magic.”
Not least, the value of fresh air. Better ventilation in workplaces, gathering spaces and other public buildings should be a post-Covid priority trib.al/r3TTvqC
Schools, offices and other indoor spaces need better ventilation in order to minimize the harm from:
🦠New coronaviruses
🦠Cold and flu viruses
🦠Every other sort of airborne pathogen trib.al/r3TTvqC
Covid calls for rethinking the way indoor air is controlled.
✅New guidance on safer ventilation in schools is urgent
✅State and local building codes should also be revised
✅Effective ventilation, which often requires more energy, can't be ignored twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…
You don’t need to drive far from home to see lawn signs calling to “Unmask Our Kids."
This fall, schools will be open across the country. Some districts are requiring masks, some aren’t. Which side of the debate is right? trib.al/bRGAPoW
Although we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the harm done by Covid-19, we’ve done little to assess the harm that masks can do.
A recent letter in JAMA raised awareness about a crucial issue: Our kids are breathing air that’s full of carbon dioxide trib.al/bRGAPoW
Initially, the argument for masks was that they kept the wearer from infecting others. Nowadays evidence of the benefits is plentiful.
What the JAMA letter argues is that in considering whether to mask schoolchildren, we must weigh the benefits and risks trib.al/bRGAPoW
Credit Suisse's new vision for its employees’ work-life balance is the latest example of what’s becoming an all-too-common theme: large employers virtue signaling that they’re now all hip and flexible when it comes to how and where their people work trib.al/cXVlbF3
It’s clear that very few companies have actually committed to new ways of working that can be easily implemented or measured.
Many have pledged to offer more flexibility without specifying who can actually take advantage of it and how frequently trib.al/xrJOC5G
The danger is that the new flexible working rules might not be practical for many employees, and companies will have to backtrack on what has been interpreted as a commitment to lots of remote work.
That’s a breeding ground for intra-office dissent trib.al/xrJOC5G
Would you spend $1.3 million on a dilapidated, crumbling house?
Someone already has. In New Zealand, one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world, quality and price are not obstacles to the property boom trib.al/lFnLdGd
Property markets around the world are running hot in similar ways to New Zealand’s.
128 out of 150 cities saw prices rise year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, with 43 growing at double-digit rates — more than twice the amount in the previous year trib.al/Bc1xtoH
A genuine economic recovery is underway, driven by $5.4 trillion of extra savings worldwide.
Aspiring “upsizers” are searching for space and long-term financial investments, especially among aging millennials who see a shot at outpacing rich boomers trib.al/Bc1xtoH