Wall Street Journal (December 31)
“Global stock benchmarks have surged to multiyear highs or records this year, boosted by a rally in shares of technology companies, a synchronized pickup in growth around the world, and unexpectedly benign inflation readings that have kept central bank policy ultraloose.”
Tags: Central banks, Global benchmarks, Rally, Records, Stocks, Surged, Technology Inflation, Ultraloose
Barrons (December 30)
“Largely absent during the economy’s eight-year recovery from the financial crisis, inflation is on track to pick up in 2018—and it might just catch investors off-guard.” Even a return to modest inflation, e.g. 2.5%, would be a jolt that “could reshuffle the market.”
Institutional Investor (December 28)
“Every reader of Institutional Investor has suffered the indignities of La Guardia, JFK, or Newark airports — and most of them clicked on this feature by Leanna Orr explaining why U.S. airports are so very, very bad.” Not only was the article on the deplorable state of U.S. airports the magazine’s most-read article in 2017, it appears to be Institutional Investor’s most read article of all time.
Tags: Airports, Bad, Deplorable, Indignities, JFK, La Guardia, Most-read, Newark, U.S.
Website Magazine (December Issue)
Digital advertising has evolved greatly from the once ubiquitous pop-up ads, but advertisers still frequently lack a “reliable way” of judging the effectiveness of their ad spend. The reports rely on “trust me” technology whose inventors/providers have not been “audited, could not be audited frequently enough for it to be verifiable, or actually refused to be audited.”
Tags: Ad spend, Advertisers, Audit, Digital advertising, Effectiveness, Pop-up ads, Trust me technology, Verifiable
Newsweek (December 26)
“More than a third of Americans have listened to podcasts” while 15% loyally listen weekly. “Podcasts turned a corner in 2017, capturing the attention of more traditional platforms, like television, publishing and radio, who see podcasting as a way to grow audiences and to mine for stories.” Listeners respond at high rates to podcast advertising, which “is likely to expand in 2018, thanks to the proven effectiveness of the medium.”
Tags: Advertising, Audiences, Effectiveness, Listeners, Platforms, Podcasts, Publishing, Radio, Traditional, TV, U.S.
Fast Company (December 24)
Despite fears of a brick-and-mortar retail apocalypse, many retailers “are flourishing in the age of Amazon. After all, more than 90% of retail sales still happen in the real world, and as relentless as Bezos is, it’s not likely he’ll swallow up all of brick-and-mortar on his own. The truth is that the bigger Amazon gets, the more opportunity it creates for fresh, local alternatives. The more Amazon pushes robot-powered efficiency, the more space there is for warm and individualized service.”
Tags: Amazon, Bezos, Brick-and-mortar, Efficiency, Flourishing, Fresh, Local, Retailers, Service
Chicago Tribune (December 23)
“Japanese leaders are now under international pressure to pass a sweeping smoking ban in restaurants and many other public places before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics.” While many politicians are reluctant, “Japanese restaurateurs and entrepreneurs who seek to attract the widest possible international clientele during the Olympics—and after—will ban smoking. Wouldn’t it be terrific if the Tokyo Olympics sparked a Great Japanese Smokeout?”
Tags: 2020 Olympics, Clientele, International pressure, Japan, Politicians, Reluctant, Restaurants, Smoking ban, Tokyo
Fortune (December 22)
“Technology and globalization are leading to more and faster disruption than ever. To stay ahead, smart companies are turning to design to better connect with customers and find their competitive advantage.” In a “hyper-connected world, “design can help bring coherence to the chaos” and “Fortune 500 companies are hiring chief design officers and investing heavily in design centers and innovation centers. Professional services firms, too, have joined the fray.”
Tags: Chaos, Chief design officers, Coherence, Competitive advantage, Customers, Design, Disruption, Fortune 500, Globalization, Hyper-connected, Technology
New York Times (December 22)
“Many elements of President Trump’s first National Security Strategy report could have been endorsed by his predecessors… Where the exercise runs aground is in the disconnect between the strategy, as it appears on paper, and which in some respects reflects mainstream thinking, and Mr. Trump’s tweets, statements and actions that present the unpredictable public face of his policies.” Basically, the paper itself is “so at odds with the way Mr. Trump has been conducting national security policy that it is likely to confuse people even more than they already are, or more likely, to be ignored altogether.”
Institutional Investor (December 21)
“As we face the end of another year, reviewing performance and planning 2018’s asset allocations, perhaps it is wise to remember that our worst (and best) case scenarios rarely materialize.”
Tags: Asset allocations, Best case, Performance, Planning, Review, Scenarios, Worst, Year end