KochBank Weekend Reading






KochBank Weekend Reading





Elno and Donaldo dancing at the Inauguration on Monday (click) . The Inauguration fund has raised USD 170mio. Bezos, Zuckerberg, Altman also featuring prominently. Coca Cola presenting the first ever "Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke Bottle". The "Inaugural Crypto Ball" will be featuring Snoop Dog. Corporate America sucking up to a man likely responsible for the Jan 6th Capitol Attack is very sad. Remember that when the "quid pro quo" comes due (i.e. Musk being allowed to buy TikTok, government orders for SpaceX, huge corporate tax cuts, erosion of truth with unchecked social media and unhinged A.I. experiments). Joe Biden in his farewell speech last week: "Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy". Also interesting, here´s who is invited: Nigel Farage, Giorgia Meloni, Viktor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro, Najib Bukele, Javier Mileil. Who´s not invited: Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Pedro Sanchez.







Dry January everywhere. Headlines about Alcohol increasing cancer risk. "Is alcohol consumption in terminal decline?" Are booze stocks the tobacco stocks of the future? Can they thrive, despite lower consumption? Best Anchor Stocks has been checking out the segment for you (see article below).







Eagle Point Capital is looking at the S&P500 as if it was a single stock (see article below)

















Asmodee is coming to the stock market as a spin-off from Swedish Embracer. The boardgame specialist makes EUR 1.3bn in sales with EUR 185mio in EBIT. Catan is one of their key assets. Looks like a nice, nichy business. Robin´s Substack is looking at the deal (see above).









Institutional Investor is portraying Michael Green as the "Casandra of Passive Investing". He calls a "Passive Bubble". “We know what happens when everybody does the same thing in markets.” (see article below).






Pershing Square has an impressive track record. Now Bill Ackman plans to turn Howard Hughes into a Berkshire Hathaway 2.0 (see article below)










Tim Price of the "State of the Markets" podcast has an interesting interview with Edelweiss Holding´s Anthony Deden







A Long Time in Finance podcast discusses Wolfgang Münchau´s book "Kaput". Next to the usual arguments for the decline of Germany (dependence on Chinese exports, dependence on Russian gas, dependence on American military), I find one thesis very compelling and definately worth exploring further: the impact of an under-developed capital market on the development of new businesses in new technologies (or better the lack therof).








At Home and/or Alone. Derek Thompson: "Self-imposed solitude might just be the most important social fact of the 21st century in America". Americans socialize 30% less than 2 decades ago. Keep this defining societal trend in mind when looking at businesses and forming opinions.(click)








Podcasts & Videos

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ZDF has a cool 5-part series on "FC Hollywood" - Bayern Munich in their troubled 90ties. Says everything about "modern football" that people are still more touched, interested and fascinated by the few "troubled years", when Bayern Munich was not the "super-power" winning 12 league titles in a row. Nobody will remember the 7th, 9th or 11th title in a row, but everyone will remember Trappatoni´s speech (click)








Robert De Niro in a new Mafia movie. "The Alto Knights" (click)







Enjoy the Weekend !