1. Homebuilders -17.5% Correction
2. Profit Margins by Decade
This next chart shows the prift margins of the S&P going up and to the right. It seems implausible in 2017 that this would continue to increase. But that’s just what happened.
3. $500B Out of Active Funds Last Year
4. Goldman Equal Weight vs. Cap Weight History…10 Year Rotations
Goldman Sachs
5. Rule of 20 Highs But Not as High as Past Bubbles
6. Indian Rupee Spiked Higher Hurting Stock Market
7. Taiwan Semi Sideways Since October…Up 5% Pre-Market
8. Least Affordable Cities in America
9. Luxury Train Trips Booming
Travel advisers agree. Some of the most sought-after journeys are already sold out for the entirety of 2025 and booking well into 2026. “Think about how River Cruises blossomed in the past decade,” says Jack Ezon, founder and managing partner of luxury travel consultancy Embark Beyond. “Train travel, which is super niche and limited, will go prime time in the same way by 2030.” “Requests for train trips have grown 158% in the past five years, especially among a younger generation,” he adds, as part of a zeitgeisty obsession with throwback luxuries. “It’s the millennial and Gen Zer obsessed with vintage record players and Polaroid cameras, buying the $1,000 cashmere Ritz Paris Frame hoodie and clamoring for a room in an uber-traditional hotel.”
10. Building a Process Culture
From Seth Godin: Process is the investment we make in inefficiency now to prevent errors from costing us later.
Jet airlines are the safest form of travel ever created, largely because of the inefficient process that we put in place. They’re over tested and over staffed, with checklists and feedback loops in place to ensure that errors don’t occur. It would be way less costly if one person simply jumped onto the plane with you and took off–less costly, but less reliable as well.
If you want to see this taken to a higher level, consider a typical hospital emergency room. If you’ve ever sat waiting, you’ve noticed that it seems inefficient and very process focused. But as a result, the system doesn’t rely on good luck or heroics to save the day. Instead, they’ve invested in process.
An institution that is 100% contemptuous of process may create vividly creative outputs, but it won’t last long. And one that’s 100% process focused will rarely create a breakthrough. We can take a hard look at our culture and decide if we need more (or less) process.
What does it cost to be wrong?
What does it cost to avoid being wrong?