🍋 Bed Bath & Beyond Blowing Up

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Good Morning! Hope you had a great weekend! If you were buying light beer and weak cigs this weekend, you were part of a trend in purchasing cheaper luxuries as inflation rocks the country. That inflation is making a recession more likely, and the Fed will likely enact another outsized 75 bps rate hike.

Another concern on peoples' minds is monkeypox, which the WHO has declared an international public health emergency. Clearly history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. Another rhyme is Elon Musk having an affair. This time it was with Google co-founder, Sergey Brin's, wife. The drama led to a fall out between the two tech billionaires.

1. Story of the Day: Bed Bath & Beyond Blowing Up

Bed Bath & Beyond has been no stranger to change and turbulence in the past few years. Mark Tritton joined in 2019 with two things: a plan to sell what competitors don't have, and bad timing.

The switch to private-label products has paid off for a lot of retailers, but at BB&B that backfired, with customers not recognizing the brands and sales plummeting. This caused Tritton to step down as CEO in June, leaving the company with about $100 million in cash at the end of May. The company has burned through $300 million of reserves, and borrowed $200 million from its credit line as well.

Bed Bath & Beyond's stock is down to $5 a share, or more than 90% off its high of roughly $80 in 2014. Simpler times. In these tougher times, interim CEO, Sue Gove, said, "We think that the customer wants to see more of an optimal balance of national brands, direct-to-consumer brands and company-owned brands."

Reverting back to their old ways may not be the solution to the problems either. Eric Mangan, spokesman for Bed Bath & Beyond, said that the company's supply chains wasn't prepared for disruptions caused by the pandemic. On the bright side though, he said that Tritton's efforts helped modernize the company's infrastructure and technology.

Short Squeez Takeaway: You have to feel for the soap seller. A bed decision compounded by poor timing is usually what's led to most predicaments that I've founded myself in. Those, and tequila. Barring any other setbacks, it seems as though the company understands the hole they are in, and will be diligent about climbing its way out. Hopefully some luck, and consumers looking to take advantage of those 20% off coupons will help them along the way.

2. Markets Rundown

Although equities are still down roughly 17% YTD, stocks rose last week giving some confidence and the slightest hint of a rally helping avoid a full on bear market.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Schlumberger ($SLB) +4% after reporting quarterly results that beat expectations.

• (+) HCA Healthcare ($HCA) +11% on posting adjusted EPS of $4.21 beating analyst expectations of $3.70.

• (–) Snap ($SNAP) -39% because of disappointing Q2 results and news that the company plans to slow hiring.

Private Dealmaking

• Orange and MasMovil sign a $19 billion merger deal in Spain

• Whatnot, an e-commerce platform, raised $260 million

• Rockland Capital seeks $500 million for new fund to buy power plants

• European-based IQM Quantum Computers raises $130 million

• Resolve Medical Bills, a medical billing startup, raises $3.3 million in seed funding

• TomoCredit, a consumer credit-card company, raised $122 million

3. Top Reads

• IPO market in a ‘wait-and-see period’ (YF)

• A weird economy that may or may not become a recession (Axios)

• US economy is slowing, but recession not inevitable (Reuters)

• Tech workers long got what they wanted. That’s over now (WSJ)

• Why diversification isn’t enough to hold down market risk (Forbes)

• Americans with criminal records are in demand in the job market (CNBC)

• U.S., global business activity slid in July (WSJ)

• How Apple’s new car software could be trojan horse into automobile industry (CNBC)

• The US housing market has gone cold (YF)

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4. Book of the Day: The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Prosperous

Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar.

Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles.

How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries?

In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more.

He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology.

Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church.

It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world.

Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history.

“A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• What Harry Potter gets right - and wrong - about economics

• How to deal with product shortages: build your own supply chain

• How Germany is kicking its meat habit

• The power of second-order thinking

• The one-percenters’ new obsession

A Message from International Intrigue

“Intrigue is the juice concentrate of The Economist and Foreign Affairs magazine, without all the pulp people just don’t have the patience for.” - Jennifer, US Pentagon official.

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6. Daily Visual: Consumer Spending

Q2'21 to Q2'22; Percentage change in travel and entertainment spending by American Express Customers

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: Money Can't Buy

A loving marriage

Good health

Mastery of a foreign language

Additional time in your own life

Genuine interest, engagement, and affection from your significant other

Patience

The courage to deliver a speech to a crowd of 1,000 people

The courage to initiate a difficult conversation that you know will hurt someone you care about

The courage to prioritize your ambitions over society's expectations

A sense of fulfillment in your work

A loving relationship with your children

Enough confidence to laugh at yourself

Creativity

Athletic ability

A decent sense of humor

Respect

Additional time in your own life

The fortitude to take ownership of your life's direction

A six-pack (unless we're talking about beer)

A bias towards action

Enough

Source: Young Money

8. Crypto Corner by Bonkalytics.com

• Bitcoin is knocking on 10 Downing Street

• Why crypto investors turn to BitBoy for advice

• Customers of bankrupt crypto lenders may get money back soon

• NFTs are coming for the loyalty perks at brands like Budweiser

• Coinbase is ready to fight the SEC

• DeFi elites: The industry will rebound and where it goes from here

For more crypto-focused content, sign-up here.

9. Memes of the Day

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