🍋 Inflation Nation

Author

Short Squeez
July 14, 2022

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"No man is more entitled to buy at the bottom than Buffet, and yet no man is more aware of the foolishness in trying." — Frank Martin

Good Morning! If you're ballin' on a budget in this economy, you may still be able to afford Netflix. The streaming trailblazer is partnering with Microsoft for an ad-backed plan. If only the option was available sooner, Celsius may have been able to save some money. The crypto lender has filed for bankruptcy a month after preventing withdrawals. Another hot inflation report yesterday, and traders in futures market are now betting that the Fed could raise interest rates by as much as 1% later this month.

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1. Story of the Day: Inflation Nation

The much anticipated June CPI report came out today. The 9.1% figure beat estimates of an 8.8% increase, which were already higher than what was previously measured at 8.6% last month.

If you take food and energy out of the mix, the core CPI measure was up 5.9%, which also beat the estimate of 5.7%. Who said the US was falling behind relative to the rest of the world? Our inflation numbers are stellar! Let's hope they don't blast off into space though.

This change has printed the fastest pace of inflation since November 1981. That definitely thwarts optimists who say that inflation might be peaking. Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said, "Though CPI's spike is led by energy and food prices, which are largely global problems, prices continue to mount for domestic goods and services, from shelter to autos to apparel."

Rental costs were up 0.8% in June, which was the largest monthly increase since April 1986, so inflation is hitting home both literally and figuratively. This puts the everyday man in between a rock and a hard place, as the cost of everything is going up, but wages have yet to similarly appreciate.

Short Squeez Takeaway: For anyone that reads the news and stays up to date on markets, this should come as little shock to you. Sure, it's a bit surprising that the real figure was higher than the estimate. When you exist in the crazy, perfect storm of geopolitical issues, pandemic issues, supply chain issues, etc. though, it fits right into the whole mess.

2. Markets Rundown

Equities ended slightly lower after the inflation report came in slightly higher than expected. Crypto rallied after dipping overnight.

Movers & Shakers

  • (+) Stitch Fix ($SFIX) +14% after Benchmark Capital's Bill Gurley, who sits on SFIX's board, announced he'd bought 1 million shares of the stock.

  • (+) Twitter ($TWTR) +8% after filing suit against Elon Musk for terminating the acquisition deal.

  • (–) Unity Software ($U) -17% because it announced a merger agreement with ironSource in an all-stock transaction.

Private Dealmaking

  • Unity Software, a video game development company, to buy app monetization company IronSource for $4 billion

  • Turkey state gas company received a $929 million loan from Deutsche Bank to buy natural gas

  • Thai Life Insurance raised $1 billion through its IPO

  • Apollo invested $175 million in Summit Ridge Energy, a community solar operator

  • Golden Gate Capital invested $200 million in Pico, a provider of tech services for financial markets

  • Areteia Therapeutics, a developer of asthma drugs, raised $350 million in funding

  • AI21 Labs, an ‘AI-as-a-service’ platform, raised $64 million

3. Top Reads

  • Thirteen ‘perfect-storms’ that are sweeping the world right now (BB)

  • 5 signs workers still have power in this job market (WSJ)

  • The Fed risks looking backwards on inflation (Axios)

  • Copper prices are signaling that investors are bearish on the economy (CNBC)

  • U.S. emissions have cost $1.8 trillion in global economic losses (CNBC)

  • Europe’s economies show resilience as fresh energy threat looms (WSJ)

  • T-bill and chill may be the best investment in 2022 (Axios)

  • Venture capitalists face a reckoning as funding and deals slow (BB)

  • This is what’s really fueling inflation (CNBC)

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4. Book of the Day: Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

Now in its fourth edition, Jay Heinrichs’s Thank You for Arguing is your master class in the art of persuasion, taught by history’s greatest professors, ranging from Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill to Homer Simpson and Barack Obama.

Filled with time-tested secrets for emerging victorious from any dispute, including Cicero’s three-step strategy for inspiring action and Honest Abe’s Shameless Trick for lowering an audience’s expectations, this fascinating book also includes an assortment of persuasion tips, such as:

• The Chandler Bing Adjustment: Match your argument to your audience (that is, persuasion is not about you).

• The Belushi Paradigm: Before people will follow you, they have to consider you worth following.

• The Yoda Technique: Transform a banal idiom by switching the words around.

Additionally, Heinrichs considers the dark arts of persuasion, such as politicians’ use of coded language to appeal to specific groups. His sage guide has been fully updated to address our culture of “fake news” and political polarization.

Whether you’re a lover of language books or just want to win more anger-free arguments on the page, at the podium, or over a beer, Thank You for Arguing is for you. Warm, witty, and truly enlightening, it not only teaches you how to identify a paraleipsis when you hear it but also how to wield such persuasive weapons the next time you really, really need to get your way.

"When you want to change someone’s mood, tell a story."

5. Short Squeez Picks

  • Tired of having to use 5 different apps and 10 spreadsheets to monitor your investment portfolio? With Delta Investment Tracker, you can get a clear overview of everything that you own in one app. Check it out today!

  • Former airline worker: “it would be like going back to an ex”

  • How a new Supreme Court case could help you save for retirement

  • People are ditching shampoo and washing hair with pantry items

  • The 15 richest counties in the United States

6. Daily Visual: Market Cap of Select Automakers

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: How To Be Productive Working From Home

Effectively working from home involves these five habits:

1. SET THE STAGE

If you must utilize more than one workspace in your home, establish the same environment, such as a pad of paper, photo, or inspirational quote, in each location every day.

2. GET RID OF LOW-VALUE ACTIVITIES

Address the “garbage work” that fills our day, like emails, meetings, protocols, and paperwork that drain the critical capacity of work-from-home teams.

3. ADD WHITESPACE

When you feel like you’re drowning in calls, when you tingle from adrenaline, or when your body is craving sugar or email or caffeine or any of the compensatory techniques for rest, take a break.

4. KEEP EMAIL TO INTERVALS

You can check at the top of every hour, for instance, or at the top and bottom of every hour.

5. CREATE A CLOCKING-OUT RITUAL

End your day visually by opening a literal compartment, such as a drawer or a cabinet, and placing all of your work-related items inside. Tuck them in and clock out.

Source: Fast Company

8. Crypto Corner by Bonkalytics.com

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

9. Memes of the Day

 

 

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