Nuggies - Love Letter to the Fed and Yoga Guru Corporate Bonds
Thursday, August 27th, 2020
Welcome to the sixteenth 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 investor Howard Marks, “To be a disciplined investor you have to be willing to stand by and watch other people make money on things that you passed on”
This Week’s Articles:
Black Venture Capitalists Confront Silicon Valley’s Quiet Racism, Bloomberg
Black venture capitalists account for about 4% of all venture capitalists. For myriad reasons it is harder for black people to succeed in VC and get funding. This article takes a look at how black VCs are working to increase equity in an industry that has historically been dominated by white men. It discusses some common and recent attempts to increase representation in VC, from minority-focused funds to intentional cultural shifts.
Read it here
Lidar startup Luminar to go public via $3.4 billion SPAC merger, TechCrunch
We know this sounds super boring, but it’s not! Luminar is the most recent of a slew of private startups to go public through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), avoiding the IPO process. Luminar creates LIDAR (light detection and ranging radar) technology, which is essentially spacial recognition for self driving cars. They just secured a deal with Volvo to install Luminar technology on their vehicles starting in 2022. Another interesting bit about Luminar (perhaps the most interesting) is that it was founded by Austin Russell with support from PayPal founder and VC-extraordinaire Peter Thiel. Thiel gave Russell $100,000 over two years for him to drop out of college and build his business. Now, that business, Luminar, is worth $3.4 Billion.
Read it here
India’s Bond Market Is So Hot Even a Yoga Guru Is Selling Debt, Bloomberg
Borrowing costs in India are at their lowest since 2005. Party time! That’s what yoga guru Baba Ramdev thinks, at least. Much like in the United States, COVID-19 related stimulus packages are juicing the markets and creating favorable financial conditions. In response, India is seeing huge amounts of bond issuances recently, even from a prominent yoga guru—who is selling debt for his herb/mineral brand.
Read it here
A Love Letter to the Fed From the Adoring Stock Market, Bloomberg
Bonus “article” for this week. Just read it here, no description needed.
This Week’s Tweets:
This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):
Here is Amazon’s first job posting ever
This Week’s Question:
The S&P 500 is at its highest forward PE ratio since the mid 2000’s. Are the Fed’s stimulus and/or vaccine hopes enough to justify these huge valuations? If not, what will make them come down?
What are we listening to this week?:
Things are looking better at Notre Dame, but we’re not out of the woods yet. This week put some Jack Johnson on repeat. Catch us barefoot on God Quad eating banana pancakes and pretending we know how to surf.
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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