Nuggies: A Tale of Two Corporate Citizens

Apr 8, 2021

Thursday, April 8th, 2021

Welcome to the 42nd edition of Nuggies, an email newsletter that aggregates articles and commentary on business, economics, startups, and more, in bite-sized nuggets sent right to your email weekly. Created by and for college students.

Our quote of the week comes from economist John Maynard Keynes, “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”

This Week’s Articles:

2020 Letter to Shareholders, Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon had a lot to say this year. This week, he published a 66 page letter to shareholders. For context, his 2020 letter, which was published possibly during the high point of uncertainty of the pandemic, was only 22 pages long.

Also surprising is the letter’s subject matter: covering the role of a modern corporate citizen, recognizing “enormous” competitive threats, and suggesting public policy. It’s a fascinating read that sees Dimon advocate for expanded social programs, recognize taxes will increase, and mention “carbon” 14 times.

Read it here (Or summaries from Quartz and WSJ)

The Paradoxes of Coinbase, The Generalist

This week, Coinbase announced earnings including, year over revenue growth of 842% to a total of $1.8B with a 61% EBITDA margin. The startup is expected to go public via a direct listing next week at an expected valuation north of $100B.

The piece by The Generalist’s S-1 Club unpacks Coinbase, from its origins, to its products and business model, and its enigmatic-no-politics-allowed culture.

Read it here

This Week’s Tweets:

ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood dropping hot takes (thread):

Cathie Wood @CathieDWood

GDP statistics evolved during the Industrial Age and do not seem to be keeping up with the digital age. Thanks to productivity, real GDP growth probably is higher and inflation lower than reported, suggesting that the quality of earnings has increased significantly.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

@CathieDWood @wintonARK @ARKInvest What do you think of the unusually high ratio of S&P market cap to GDP?

Mike Bird @Birdyword

Brutal IMF chart. The US economy is expected to be larger by the end of 2024 than the forecast before the pandemic suggested. Chinese economy expected to be smaller, despite all the fanfare. EM Asia ex-China losing in the order of 18 months of growth.

Zachary Bouck @zacharybouck

In 13 years as a financial advisor, I've never seen anyone actually turn their life around with a budget. They either earn their way out of their spending habits, or they are in debt forever.

Web Smith @web

Deep generalists are thriving and specialists are working to understand why art, science, media, finance, economic theory, commerce, religion, and software engineering are suddenly converging.

Awesome thread about DMX 🙏:

jen fraser @jenniferfraser

🧵My step daughter, Mia, graduated from college and I offered her a long weekend wherever she wanted to go. She picked San Diego, which was a short flight to maximize the time on the ground adventuring. I researched hotels, sites and restaurants for our trip.

Chris Bakke @ChrisJBakke

In kindergarten, I refused to call a "triangle" anything other than an "upside down sales funnel." My teacher got mad. She failed me. Today? I'm a trillionaire. To all the 4-6 year olds out there reading this: never, ever let a teacher stifle your corporate dreams.

Catharine Dockery @vice_ventures

Pitch me : info@viceventures.com

Jai Kumar Dewani @jai_dewani

I am thrilled to join @Spotify as a premium member

Shane Phillips @ShaneDPhillips

This is easily one of my favorite charts ever.

Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. 💸 @ParikPatelCFA

I literally saved the world. You're welcome.

This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):

This week’s Wildcard is Uber (then UberCab’s) market sizing slide from their first pitch deck. They claimed a market size of $4.2B but did $58B in bookings in 2020. Finding adjacent markets and expanding your TAM can be incredibly powerful. (Credit: @tanayj + check out the full pitch deck)

This Week’s Question:

Is it better to be a generalist or a specialist? What skills/jobs are worth specializing in?

What are we listening to this week?:

This week, we’re listening to Lil Baby’s 2017 mixtape Harder Than Hard. The first in Baby’s Hard series, which features subsequent projects Too Hard and Harder Than Ever, Harder Than Hard showcases Lil Baby’s classic auto-tuned croons and melodic range. It’s an early project that shows Baby defining and growing into his sound.

Thank you for reading! Nuggies is created by Thomas Pero and Spencer Koehl, two undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame.

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If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us at tpero@nd.edu and skoehl@nd.edu, or on twitter, @tpero_ and @spencerkoehl

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