1. U.S. Corporate Debt to Equity Very Low and the Ratio Just Hit New Lows.
Bank of America
2. Semiconductors Rule the World
@Charlie BilelloThe last 10 years belong to Semiconductors, who have outperformed all other S&P 500 industry groups with a 1,030% return.
Even the Nasdaq 100, which is on pace for its 13th consecutive positive year, doesn’t come close.
https://compoundadvisors.com/about
3. One Year…$180B in SPAC Green Energy Deals.
WSJ
By Ryan Dezember and
Amrith Ramkumar https://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-financier-goes-green-and-hopes-its-clean-energy-past-doesnt-repeat-11629970381?mod=itp_wsj&ru=yahoo
4. Healthcare is Largest Sector in Small Cap Index….Biotech has Increased from 3% to 10% of Index
Russell 2000 Small Cap Exposure Breakdown-Ishares
https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239710/ishares-russell-2000-etf
5. The number of U.S. pay TV bundle subscribers will fall dramatically.
Capital Group Blog
In a related theme, I expect almost all general entertainment television viewing to shift away from legacy pay TV bundles and toward on-demand streaming over the next decade. Live sports and news, which account for about 25% of viewing, will be the only viable reasons that some consumers pay $100 or more per month for a bundle of channels.
Only about half of the 125 million American households are avid sports fans, leaving a potential residual base of 60 to 70 million consumers in the bundle. However, it would only take one company buying a few key sports rights and making them available outside the bundle for the declines to accelerate even faster. NBCU is already making the Premier League and Olympics available on the Peacock streaming service. Meanwhile, the renewal of NFL Sunday Ticket in 2022 could spell the end of bundling as we know it. If it is made available on ESPN+, Amazon Prime Video or YouTube TV, that will be another reason for consumers to ditch the legacy bundle.
In another blow to the future of pay TV, young people in particular are turning away from conventional viewing in huge numbers. Since 2010, the time spent watching traditional TV by those ages 18 to 34 has declined by about 70%, according to ratings firm Nielsen. Traditional TV has also lost significant ground among people ages 35 to 49. Only the 65+ crowd has remained loyal over the past 10 years.
Sources: Capital Group, Nielsen. Traditional TV includes live TV and recordings of live TV (for example, using a DVR).
6. Homebuilder Profit Margins Surge Despite Higher Costs
Home builder profits have surged despite massive cost increases.
John Burns Real Estate Consulting tallied Q2 results this year vs. last.
Last year did have some challenges, but this is also the highest margins in years for most of them.
#jbrecdailyinsight
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnburns7/
Dallas–Fort Worth is becoming the de facto capital of America’s Heartland.
7. New Metro Hubs…Dallas Fort Worth Grew by 1.3m People in 10 Years.
https://www.city-journal.org/dallas-fort-worth
8. Shortage of Truck Drivers Leading to $20k Bonuses
Driver recruitment wars: Cowan to pay $20,000 sign-on bonus
More than 50% of bonus to be paid in first 6 months, August 23, 2021
Cowan ups ante to new drivers (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)
The ante for new drivers has been upped. Cowan Systems plans to pay sign-on bonuses as high as $20,000 to regional drivers willing to join the company.
The nearly 100-year-old Baltimore-based carrier said the incentive program is set up to guarantee at least a $15,000 bonus to all new driver hires. Cowan will pay $17,500 to drivers with either one year of experience with their current employer or a hazmat endorsement. Drivers with both will receive the $20,000 payout.
The enhanced pay is eligible to qualified CDL-A drivers who join Cowan by Oct. 1.
“New drivers to Cowan Systems will get more than half of their payout amount within the first six months. This isn’t a sign-on bonus that pays you tiny sums for years,” said Steve Wells, COO. “Professional truck drivers who join us now will get their full payout in less than 18 months.”
The industry’s battle for qualified drivers is often being described as once-in-a-career.
Freight demand remains at historic highs on the back of a strong consumer and as retailers continue to restock their shelves. Attractive employment opportunities in other industries and lasting concerns over COVID have resulted in drivers going elsewhere. While driver schools are ramping enrollment efforts following a year of limited activity, the fix seems like it is still a long way off“Once a driver is scheduled for an orientation, we provide the driver in writing the Regional Road Incentive amount, how they qualified for it and a clear payment schedule,” Heather Fenner, VP of human resources, stated.
Cowan is a full-service transportation and logistics company, specializing in dedicated TL, intermodal, warehousing and brokerage services, with a fleet of more than 2,000 tractors and 6,000 trailers.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/driver-recruitment-wars-cowan-to-pay-20000-sign-on-bonus
Bespoke https://www.bespokepremium.com/interactive/posts/think-big-blog/bespoke-brunch-reads-8-29-21
9. China population: workforce to drop by 35 million over next five years as demographic pressure grows
By FRANK TANG
China’s workforce will drop by 35 million over the next five years, according to the government, adding pressure on the state pension system and forcing Beijing to adopt new measures to meet the demographic challenge.
Experts have long warned Beijing must take action against a declining labour force and rapidly ageing society, which is expected to weigh on the country’s economic progress in the years ahead.
China’s working age population – or those aged between 16 and 59 – fell by 40 million in the 10 years to 2020 and now accounts for 62.3 per cent of the population, according to the latest census.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
“As ageing intensifies, there will be more than 40 million new retirees over the next five years and the number of Chinese workers will see a net fall of 35 million,” the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said in a five-year plan posted online on Wednesday.
The sustainable development of the social security system is under threat
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security
“The sustainable development of the social security system is under threat.”
An estimate by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019 projected that China’s state pension fund would run out of money by 2035.
China’s national social security fund – including pension assets, unemployment and work insurance – was running a deficit of 740 billion yuan (US$112.9 billion) last year, partly because authorities slashed company contributions to help coronavirus-hit businesses.
Beijing has acknowledged the country’s demographic challenges and announced in March it would gradually increase the mandatory retirement age from 60 for men and 50 for most women. It also introduced a three-child policy to prevent a long-term decline in annual births.
Why did Beijing opt for a three-child policy when it could scrap birth caps altogether?
On Wednesday, the labour ministry outlined several new measures to address China’s declining workforce.
It pledged to lift the size of private annuity plans to more than 4 trillion yuan from around 3 trillion yuan at the end of last year, as part of a push to boost personal investment in pension products.
Although the ministry stopped short of announcing a new retirement age, it reiterated it would be delayed in “small adjustments and be flexible in implementation”.
The minimum contribution period before receiving a pension would be gradually raised from 15 years, the labour ministry said.
If the retirement age was extended to 65, the country’s workforce would have 73.4 million more people, census figures showed.
The central government would also strive to create more jobs and stabilise the unemployment rate, which would help maintain social stability and raise more funds for the pension system, the five-year plan said.
The document showed that Beijing aims to create more than 50 million new urban jobs between 2021-2025, significantly lower than the 65.6 million it created over the previous five years.
China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, has set a target of creating 11 million new urban jobs this year, while keeping the surveyed unemployment rate below 5.5 per cent.
10. Six Imperative Rules of Management
Great Leadership Blog
Thursday, January 21, 2021
“It’s Not My Fault” – Six Imperative Rules of Management
Guest post from Ruth King:
How many times have you heard “It’s not my fault” from an employee when it really IS that employee’s fault? He is making excuses about why he didn’t do his job. If he really can’t do the job either training is necessary, or a career readjustment is necessary (my euphemism for firing someone). He has to do what he was hired for or you don’t need that employee.
Employees must be personally responsible for their work. This is one of the toughest things to teach employees because most of them have grown up not taking personal responsibility for anything…and the media promotes this!
In addition to employees not taking personal responsibility for their actions, managers being friends with employees also drives me nuts.
Welcome to the world of management. Here are six things managers MUST remember and manage by:
1. You can’t be friends with the employees who work with you.
This is probably the toughest lesson to learn. If you’ve promoted from within or a new manager is hired from outside the company, the manager must be friendly but he can’t be friends. If he goes to lunch with an employee, he has to go to lunch with all of the employees on his team. No favorites.
Managers must be objective and once fellow employees see that someone is promoted they will treat him differently. This former friend has hiring and firing authority over him. They won’t tell this person the mistakes they’ve made or complain to him anymore.
New managers, if they are working for the same company, often have to develop a whole new group of friends. And, it is very lonely at first.
2. Bad news doesn’t go away.
Many times, people do not like to deal with the difficult things. They think by ignoring it, the problem will go away. A new manager must learn that he has to deal with the problems immediately. If he ignores them, they usually get worse. So, he has to deal with the tough issues first.
When you give a person the responsibility, authority, and accountability, the accountability is the tough part…many times there are negative things to deal with in accountability. He has to learn to confront the issues quickly and resolve them!
3. You don’t have to be nice. You just have to be fair.
A manager has to do things that are fair for everyone. Some people will like the actions. Some will not. However, your decisions must be good for the group as a whole. A manager cannot make a decision that will favor one person over another. For example, if a good employee demands a raise and says that he will quit if he doesn’t get one, many times it is better to let that person quit. If he gets a raise, everyone will know that they can threaten to quit if they want a raise. This is not the environment you want.
4. You have to return telephone calls.
If you have an unhappy customer, you must deal with it and resolve the issue. Letting messages sit only makes an unhappy customer even more unhappy. An issue that was small could escalate into a major problem.
Make sure that the customers are taken care of and solve their problems. Try to return telephone calls immediately and resolve problems within 24 hours. After all, customers write your paychecks.
5. You have to make the hard decisions…which are sometimes unpopular.
Managers and owners get the privilege of seeing the whole picture. If things aren’t going well, then they get the privilege of dealing with them. So, it is important that managers and owners see the total picture so they can make informed decisions. If this means no overtime for a while, shorter hours, layoffs, etc. then they make and implement those choices. If it means firing someone who isn’t doing their job, then they have to do it.
6. Behaviors don’t change by wishing they would change.
If you need to change someone’s behavior (or a group’s behavior), then you have to clearly communicate the desired end result and the rewards for changing (or consequences if they don’t change). Often this is a slow, long term process. However, with patience and continuous follow up, changes in behavior can be made. If someone absolutely refuses to make the desired changes, maybe that person doesn’t need to be working for your company. This is one of those unpopular decisions that you have to make at times.
These are six things that all managers must manage by. If you don’t, the great employees won’t put up with poor management. They will leave and find other jobs. You will be stuck with bad employees who will stay.
Profitability Master Ruth King has been helping companies get and stay profitable for more than 40 years. She is the #1 best-selling author of The Courage to be Profitable and just released its #1 sequel, Profit or Wealth? You can reach Ruth at www.ruthking.info.