Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• Escape From the Box: New technology and old tactics have made buying a car a death march of deception. Jase Patrick, who spent 15 years in the business, reveals the dealer secrets. The result is an experience that most people view as a grinding, tortuous journey, being upsold and pitched and bombarded with numbers until they resign themselves to the egregious overcharges as the price one must pay to get behind the wheel. A March survey found that 86% of auto customers expressed concern about hidden fees, and 76% lacked trust in dealership pricing. (American Prospect)
• The Flattening Machine: The chaotic aftermath of the assassination attempt shows a toxic information system working as designed. (The Atlantic) see also “The Fourth Estate is failing America”: RNC showcases how Trump exploits an “incompetent” media. (Salon)
• Howard Marks: The Folly of Certainty: An article in The New York Times caught my eye: “She doesn’t have any doubt.” The speaker was Ron Klain, former Biden chief of staff, opiningon whether President Biden should continue to run for reelection. And, with that, I had the subject of this memo: not whether Biden will continue campaigning or drop out – or whether he’ll win if he continues – but rather how anyone can be without doubt. (Oaktree Capital)
• Trump allies at Heritage declare 2024 election illegitimate in advance: A “war game” presented at the right-wing foundation imagined far-fetched scenarios for election interference to justify preemptive measures. (Washington Post)
• The New Pornographers: It’s a TikTok world, creative and sprawling and strange and anarchic and tedious and gross and you can’t stop scrolling and you can’t stop looking and you just want more. So what’s the problem? (The Bitter Southerner)
• How public universities hooked America on meat: University scientists helped build factory farming. Now, some want to protect its “social license to operate.” (Vox)
• How a Network of Tech Billionaires Helped J.D. Vance Leap Into Power: Mr. Vance spent less than five years in Silicon Valley’s tech industry, but the connections he made with Peter Thiel and others became crucial to his political ascent. (New York Times)
• Real-Estate Meltdown Strains Even the Safest Office Bonds: Defaults in a corner of the commercial real-estate debt market are surging, triggering losses. (Wall Street Journal)
• Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia: She came to the US with a dream. Using platforms like Uber, Instacart, and DoorDash, she built a business empire up from nothing. There was just one problem. (Wired)
• The Wild Story of What Happened to Pablo Escobar’s Hungry, Hungry Hippos: Ever since the demise of infamous drug kingpin, his pet hippos have flourished, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem and terrorizing local communities. (Washington Post)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Greg Peters, Co-Chief Investment Officer of PGIM Fixed Income. He is also co-head on the Multi-Sector Team at PGIM Fixed Income. Mr. Peters is a member of the Fixed Income Analyst Society and the Bond Market Association. Mr. Peters was named a 2019 winner of the Pension and Investment Provider Award for Global Multi-Asset Credit.
The biggest outperformance of small-cap stocks over large-cap stocks, over a 5-day period, in history.
Source: @biancoresearch
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