Happy New Year! Kick it off right with our first day of the year reads:
• Everything Wall Street Got Wrong in 2023: Stocks were supposed to slump and bonds rally as the Fed drove the US into a recession. It didn’t play out as strategists expected. (Bloomberg)
• Crypto Animal Spirits Are Back. What’s Ahead for 2024. Bitcoin backers are looking forward to an ETF and other catalysts that could lift prices in 2024. (Barron’s) see also Stocks Beat the Odds This Year. Why They Can Do It Again in 2024. They might have a bumpy start to the new year, but stocks should finish stronger as interest rates fall. Stay invested. (Barron’s)
• Ten Economic Questions for 2024: The purpose of these questions is to provide a framework of how the U.S. economy will likely perform in 2024, and if there are surprises – like in 2020 with the pandemic – to adjust my thinking. (Calculated Risk) see also It’s okay to be optimistic about the economy next year: A recession didn’t come in 2023 and it might not in 2024, either. (Vox)
• More Than Words: 10 Charts That Defined 2023: Some years are defined by a single event or person — a pandemic, a recession, an insurrection — while others are buffeted by a series of disparate forces. Such was 2023. (New York Times)
• The Last Exercise Column You Ever Need to Read: This past year at Slate, we explored exercise. Here’s what we learned. (Slate)
• Do These 8 Things Now for the Best 2024 Vacation: Why the waiting game on booking travel for next year could backfire. (Wall Street Journal)
• Thirteen Discoveries Made About Human Evolution in 2023: Smithsonian paleoanthropologists reveal some of the year’s most fascinating findings about human origins. (Smithsonian Magazine) see also The Nine Breakthroughs of the Year: CRISPR, GLP1s, and other advancements that astonished me. (The Atlantic)
• 20 Things That Happened for the First Time in 2023: A series of surprising and serious events and trends that were unprecedented until now. (New York Times)
• 52 things I learned in 2023: Here are some of the most interesting things I learned this year: (Ken Thendricks) see also 81 Things That Blew Our Minds in 2023: Where The Atlantic’s Science, Technology, and Health reporters found wonder this year. (The Atlantic) see also The 84 Sentences That Explain 2023 In a year as weird as this one, the only way to recap it is to break it down to its molecular level. (The Ringer)
• Six N.F.L. Players Show Football’s Grind on Their Feet and Hands: Over the course of the long and brutal N.F.L. season, players’ feet and hands take a beating on nearly every snap. Fingers are jammed, toes are stepped on, ankles are twisted, nails are broken. (New York Times)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson, which manages $1.5 trillion dollar in client assets. She has worked at FT since 1988, and held leadership roles in investment management, distribution, technology, operations, and high-net-worth clients. Franklin Templeton oversees more than 9000 employees and 1300 investment professionals. Johnson is on the list of most powerful women (Barron’s, Forbes, American Banker, and more). She has been CEO February 2020.
The world’s richest countries (2023)
Source: Reddit
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Light posting over the next few weeks as I am still on vacation/book leave — back January 15!
