Nuggies - Parking Lot Farms and Wake Up Call for Tesla
Thursday, September 10th, 2020
Welcome to the 18th 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 Socrates, “Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.”
This Week’s Articles:
This Vertical Farm Was Born in the Pandemic. Sales Are Up., New York Times
This article walks through the story of two entrepreneurs in Malaysia who started their vertical farm business in a shipping container in a parking lot right before the pandemic hit. When strict lockdowns were enforced and people stopped going to grocery stores, however, they had a unique opportunity. They began selling the produce they grew right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and delivering it directly to the customers. Soon, their shipping container was operating at near capacity because demand was so high. This article is a great story about resilience and quick pivots during the most uncertain time in memory.
Read it here
Why Do Poor People Stay Poor?, Of Dollars and Data
This is a blog post from the COO of a well known wealth management firm. He looks at some new studies that come out about the poverty cycle and how ultimately, people stay in poverty because of the lack of access to capital, which in turns prevents them from getting better opportunities. While this is largely commentary, it does offer an interesting take on how wealth and access to money is the true differentiator. The author leaves it up to us to decide what implications that poses for our lives and policy decisions.
Read it here
Tesla Sinks in Worst 1-Day Loss on GM-Nikola Deal, S&P Snub, Bloomberg
It’s been quite the year for Tesla. Despite myriad detractors, their stock is up 300%, fueled by 4 quarters of consecutive profits and optimism about upcoming technologies. Many bought up their shares coming up on this week in anticipation of them being added to the S&P 500 index, but when they were not ultimately admitted, their stock dropped 21% in a single day. A simultaneous announcement from rival electric car maker Nikola that GM would take a $2 billion stake and produce electric trucks together also added to Tesla’s plunge.
Read the article here for a great overview of what happened and what it means
This Week’s Tweets:
^This tweet illustrates the goal of venture capital very well. These sort of gigantic returns are what the entire industry is built and relies on.
This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):
History repeats itself… As shown by this political cartoon from 1928.
This Week’s Question:
How long will it take the market to recover from this weeks pullback?
What are we listening to this week?:
Big Sean is back! His new album, Detroit 2, isn’t bad at all. While the jury is still out on how good it is, it has no shortage of great songs, with solid production, and next-level flows. If you don’t believe us, listen to the whopping, 9-minute, love letter to Detroit, Friday Night Cypher, or Harder Than My Demons.
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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