🍋 No One Wants to Work

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Good Morning! Hope you had a nice weekend. British pound plunged to a record low against the dollar after the govt announced tax cuts (it's called soccer now). Holiday season will be here before you know it, but 2 in 5 Americans say that inflation will change their holiday shopping habits this szn. Pain could be felt all the way up at the top, as a new 15% minimum tax could affect Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon the most.

Even jolly comedians are getting hit, as Netflix has started licensing specials for $100k, rather than an upfront lumpsum that used to reach $1 million. Finally, despite it all looking like doom and gloom, Instacart and Porsche are still planning IPOs this year.

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1. Story of the Day: No One Wants to Work

Society, pop culture, personal finance books, and pretty much everything else we've learned from has influenced our generation to work into their 60s, and then finally retire after that. There will be plenty of time to golf, grill, and wear Hawaiian shirts from there on out. Well, younger demographics don't want to wait that long, and we're starting to see the changes now.

Devangi Patel, 33, has been working as a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist for two years, and only wants to do another 17. Her goal is to retire at 50. "That, to me is the American dream," she said. "I want to get to a point where I don't have to work for money anymore, and I can work for pleasure."

She is one of many millennials that may be wishfully thinking. The FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) has enamored young folks everywhere, as the advent of social media opens up the world to dreams of travel, indulgence, and most importantly, not working. The FIRE movement (sounds like somebody describing good chicken wings more so than financial planning), influences people to spend VERY little money, and save to the max.

Willis Towers Watson conducted a survey, which showed 36% of millennial workers were saving 5% or less of their income. More shocking is that 26% had taken a loan from their 401(k)s and 25% have withdrawn from them. Simultaneously though, 52% expect to retire before 65. Sounds like you'll need to put your money where your mouth is since get-rich-quick crypto hasn't worked out yet.

Short Squeez Takeaway: It'll be tough when reality hits and people realize they're not doing enough now, to enjoy retirement eventually. Also, spending no money now to retire early? Sounds like you're missing out on some prime years, to have all that money for discounted senior movie tickets.

Even though Dr. Patel is checking off the boxes by contributing to a 401(k), a Roth IRA, investing in stocks through a brokerage account, and maxing out her health savings account, she is strapped with $250k in student loans for med school, and has a wedding to pay for in December. She is one of many millennials that may be wishfully thinking.

2. Markets Rundown

A surge in bond yields routed the stock market, and crypto continues to feel the effects of a risk off world.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) fuboTV ($FUBO) +8% after Wedbush upgraded it to outperform from neutral.

• (+) Domino's Pizza ($DPZ) +3% after also being upgraded to outperform, this time a la BMO.

• (–) CalAmp ($CAMP) -17% after an early rally, despite record setting revenues and smaller than expected losses in Q2.

Private Dealmaking

• Rivius, a biotech firm focused on metabolic disorders, raised $132 million

• MicroTransponder, a maker of neurological medical devices, raised $73 million

• DataGuard, a data protection SaaS startup, raised $61 million

• AccessFitness, a trading dat platform for banks, raised $60 million 

• Theorycraft Games, a gaming startup, raised $50 million

• Bicycle Health, an opioid addiction treatment startup, raised $5 million

3. Top Reads

• NYC now the busiest port in the United States (CNBC)

• RIP British pound (CNBC)

• Britain's pivot to ‘Reaganomics’ gets thumbs down from markets (CNBC)

• U.S. housing recession could send prices tumbling (Fox)

• Biden Administration may try to oust World Bank head (Axios)

• Tech stocks had worst two-week stretch since start of pandemic (CNBC)

• Global investors lick wounds, brace for more chaos (Reuters)

• Newly redacted Goldman documents allege dozens of assault and harassment allegations (CNN)

• Bosses think workers do less from home, says Microsoft (BBC)

• Gas prices rise after declining for nearly 100 days (Fox)

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4. Book of the Day: More Money Than God

Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge fund moguls have become the It Boys of twenty-first-century capitalism. Beating the market was long thought to be impossible, but hedge funds cracked its mysteries and made fortunes in the process.

Drawing on his unprecedented access to the industry, esteemed financial writer Sebastian Mallaby tells the inside story of the hedge funds, from their origins in the 1960s to their role in the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009—and explains why understanding the history of hedge funds is key to predicting the future of finance.

“Capitalism works only when institutions are forced to absorb the consequences of the risks that they take on.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• 100 ways to slightly improve your life without even trying

• Top 10 global cities for pizza - see where NYC ranks

• The number one trait that keeps you younger and more attractive

• 13 tips to combat procrastination

• The hidden meanings of yin and yang

6. Daily Visual: Free Fallin

Pound sterling to United States Dollar

Source: Google Finance

7. Daily Acumen: Principles For a Better Life

You are perfect just as you are…but you can always be better.

There is an inherent tension between self-acceptance and self-improvement. There is no perfection, only progress. At the same time, you are still a worthy and valuable human being.

Self-acceptance and self-improvement need each other – having one without the other inevitably leads to dysfunction.

Most people aren’t evil, they’re just stupid. This includes ourselves.

As the world becomes highly polarized and angrier and disinformation spreads in every direction, the ability to reserve moral judgement and be slow to draw conclusions will be the next critical kill.

A little bit of truth exists in everything; but the whole truth in nothing.

Ken Wilbur used to quip: “No one is smart enough to be wrong about everything.”

The ability to seek the pieces of truth in a larger, erroneous whole is an important skill to develop.

It makes you learn much faster. It makes you more sympathetic to people who believe differently than you and it helps develop the ability to change your mind.

Source: Mark Manson

8. Crypto Corner

• Is crypto a house of cards?

• Fired crypto workers weigh life after the boom

• Pentagon launches effort to assess crypto’s threat to national security

• Crypto investors got burned by Celsius - and then battled back

• How ‘wash trading’ is perpetuating crypto fraud

• How crypto bankruptcies could put some customers at ‘bottom of totem pole’

9. Memes of the Day

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