What caught my eye this week.
Pretty much straight into the links today, as I’ve been ill most of the week with a remorseless cold. I’ve kept up with my reading, but couldn’t manage much thinking.
Well, I did spend a few feverish moments wondering if getting Covid last year had somehow impaired my immune system.
Normally I shake colds off in a couple of days. I rarely get them in the first place. This one made itself at home, returning in waves from Monday to Friday.
Perhaps I’ve forgotten what a cold – let alone flu – is like? Lockdowns, masking, handwashing, indulging my reclusive tendencies with a global pandemic at my back… for whatever reason I can’t recall going toe-to-toe with mankind’s most implacable foe since at least 2019.
The Atlantic wrote recently that man flu-ism is rampant right now:
As far as experts can tell, the average severity of cold symptoms hasn’t changed.
“It’s about perception,” says Jasmine Marcelin, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
After skipping colds for several years, “experiencing them now feels worse than usual.”
It was also nostalgic to rip open one of my last lateral flow tests, and to wait for those lines. The pregnant pause. The relief. Misguided, almost, given how the cold I actually did have dragged on for longer than The Big One did for me, though without Covid’s awful tiredness.
Anyway, rambling. Enjoy the links, please discuss them in the comments! I’d probably have focused on inflation. It looks licked in the US.
Have a great weekend.
From Monevator
Are US Treasuries better than gilts for UK investors? – Monevator
Buying an investment trust on a discount versus a premium – Monevator
From the archive-ator: Great expectations: how much should you fear inflation? – Monevator
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view click through to read the article. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing to sites you visit a lot.
Some workers may have to wait until they are 74 to get state pension – This Is Money
Frozen food beats fresh as shoppers seek savings – BBC
Strikes weigh on a UK economy which stagnated in February – Reuters
House prices drop amid falling demand as rents keep increasing – Yahoo Finance
Interest rates likely to return to pre-pandemic levels after inflation is tamed – IMF
What is the Living Pension standard, and could it boost your retirement pot? – Which
Are Americans too pessimistic about their financial futures? – Morningstar
Products and services
More borrowers choosing two-year fixes in gamble mortgage rates will fall – This Is Money
Blackrock/iShares is getting into the ‘Buffer’ ETF game – Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance
Open a SIPP with Interactive Investor and pay no SIPP fee for six months. Terms apply – Interactive Investor
Plan now to afford typical care home costs [Search result] – FT
17 ways to save money on your bills and living costs in 2023 – Which
Open an account with low-cost platform InvestEngine via our link and get £25 when you invest at least £100 (T&Cs apply. Capital at risk) – InvestEngine
Restored homes with interiors that sing, in pictures – Guardian
Property mini-special
The highs and lows of starting a new life in a static caravan – Guardian
Curbs on second-home rentals risk hurting local economies [Search result] – FT
Folly – Indeedably
Seven tips on selling your home quickly in a slow market – Which
This is where people with staggering wealth end up – Guardian
Comment and opinion
Should we ban billionaires? – Prospect
Risky business – Humble Dollar
The ultimate level of wealth – A Wealth of Common Sense
James Choi: improving the way we make investment choices [Podcast] – Morningstar
Invest like Oprah Winfrey? – Contessa Capital
Play your own game [Podcast] – Morgan Housel
Why portfolio diversification helped in 2022 [US but relevant] – Morningstar
The alpha games: technology funds – Finominal
Harvesting tax losses – Fire V London
Never retire…what the ‘world’s oldest practicing doctor’ does for a long life – CNBC
Naughty corner: Active antics
RIT Capital Partners: a rare opportunity to buy a unique trust – Quoted Data
Ten lessons from three small-cap AGMs – Maynard Paton
100-baggers with Chris Mayer [Podcast] – We Study Billionaires via Apple
Finding companies with consistent dividends and profits – UK Dividend Stocks
US inflation is yesterday’s news – Calafia Beach Pundit
An annus horribilis for UK stockpickers [Search result] – FT
The end of the cycle is nigh [PDF] – Legal and General
Kindle book bargains
Cooking on a Bootstrap by Jack Monroe – £0.99 on Kindle
Money: A User’s Guide by Laura Whateley – £0.99 on Kindle
The Almighty Dollar by Dharshini David – £2.19 on Kindle
The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace by Julie Hobsbawm – £0.99 on Kindle
Environmental factors
Less cars, more money: visiting the city of the future – Mr Money Mustache
The illusion of saving the planet with a trillion trees [Search result] – FT
Have global combustion engine sales already peaked? – Visual Capitalist
“Bees are sentient”: inside the brains of nature’s hardest workers – Guardian
Full-year results from UK energy storage investment trust GRID – DIY Investor
Billionaire founder of Paul Mitchell invests in man-made coral reefs – CNBC
Robot overlord roundup
If we don’t shut down AI development we will all die – Time
First hands-free self-driving system approved for British motorways – Guardian
The Bloomberg terminal just got a ChatGPT-style upgrade – Institutional Investor
How to use A.I. to do practical stuff – One Useful Thing
Existential threats: Terminator scenario – Continuations
An example of LLM prompting for programming [Nerdy] – Martin Fowler
A BabyAGI mod is close to creating own executables [Nerdy, big if true] – via Twitter
Off our beat
What makes you happy – Morgan Housel
The gambler who beat roulette [Video] – Bloomberg via YouTube
Slowing down – Conor Mac
Dave Eggers: sketches from Ukraine – The Believer [h/t Abnormal Returns]
The Super Mario Bros. movie will be impossible to beat – Wired
Fame – Professor Scott Galloway
Stock therapy – Humble Dollar
“I am 70 and so full of regret about my husband and career” – Guardian
And finally…
“Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization – a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.”
– Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence
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The post Weekend reading: Cold comfort appeared first on Monevator.
