06 Mar The Weekend Starts Here...
Photo SoCo, Austin
Well, I didn’t make it to the match on Tuesday. The gods conspired against me and 100kph winds at Lourdes led to my flight being diverted to Biarritz and then delayed until well after kick off. Still, it could have been worse. We might have won 🥴
I guess we’d better start with some links about COVID-19 given how much it’s been dominating the news this week.
Our World in Data has set up a very useful page aimed at keeping the situation globally as up to date as possible. [4 min read]
“Our reaction towards the coronavirus outbreak is an excellent example of our predilection to focus on a near term negative payoff (even if the potential negative consequences are highly uncertain), whilst at the same time neglecting to attend to a large negative payoff in the future (even if grave consequences are certain).“ Why Are We More Worried About Coronavirus than Climate Change? [Joe Wiggins 3 min read]
This is the first pandemic to take place in a world dominated by social media and that means governments are under greater scrutiny and open to criticism of their actions (or perceived lack of action) more than ever before. [4 min read]
“It’s OK to not have an opinion on topics you don’t know anything about. And I don’t know anything about coronaviruses. But I have a few thoughts about how people think about risk.” [Morgan Housel 2 min read]
World stock markets have obviously been having a bumpy ride of late – after such low volatility for such a long time, something at some point was going to trigger this recent sell-off.
“Heightened volatility in the stock market tends to translate into increased emotional volatility. And taking extreme positions in your portfolio is the equivalent to adding Red Bull to all of your drinks at the bar.” The Art of Not Panicking [Ben Carlson 2 min read]
“…the bonds in your portfolio were always serving a purpose. You just didn’t realize it until now.” 3 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Bonds ( Nick Magiulli US-centric but main tenet of piece applies everywhere) [3 min read]
Even fund managers aren’t immune from emotion. Perspective [Drew Dickson 2 min read]
There were a lot of non-coronavirus, non-market meltdown good reads this week too (thank goodness!)
All of us are on borrowed time. [Seth Godin 20-second read]
Why we need to disagree. [ Tim Harford 3 min read]
The boss who put everyone on 70K. [ BBC 4 min read]
If you’re a dog person, you’ll absolutely get this. What makes dogs so special? Science says love [3 min read]
Over a period of four years, Davis Vilums cycled every street in central London. [2 min read + 1:02 video]
“Van Allen hadn’t seen Breaking Bad. He was more of a BBC Parliament man, believing, with some justification, that life was weird enough without bringing in fiction, but he got the idea.” Long, but worth your time, I think. Fascinating story. The invisible city: how a homeless man built a life underground. [The Guardian 12 min read]
And finally. Had a stressful week and need something to help you unwind? Try this [5:07 video]
Whatever you’re up to this weekend, I hope it’s a good one.
Carolyn