Rain, rain, go away
We’ve been spared much of the rain up here in Sendai. Just a gloomy, cool, rainy few days. A bit like being back in the UK, really.
I’ve been watching the news on TV a lot, and I am flabbergasted by the fact that I haven’t heard anyone talk about climate change when discussing the rain (even when people are asking the question ‘why is this happening?’ directly), or the Olympics when discussing the current Covid outbreak (if you look at the graph, it is pretty much flat until the Olympics start, then… boom).
The forum
Forum is looking good this week too. We should hit 15,000 posts sometime soon. Remember you don’t need to register to read the forum, just to post.
This week’s books
I just started the third book in the Bill Hodges trilogy by Stephen King. The first one was good, the middle one dragged a bit, and this third one is very much back on form.
Finished Breathe, by Rickson Gracie the other day. It’s a fairly short book, and well written. I flew through it in a few hours. I really enjoyed it, but if you don’t practice jiu-jitsu and you don’t know who Rickson Gracie is you probably won’t get much out of it.
I’m also reading Can You Hear Me? by Jake Jones, about being a paramedic in the UK. It’s good so far. A world I know very little about.
This week’s links
- Great Twitter thread about Jim Simons and Rennaissance Tech.
- This guy is doing great work recently: Everything You Need to Know about Capital Gains Tax in Japan
- All movie posters are the same
- Some interesting context: How Overvalued is the Stock Market Right Now?
- Enjoyed this Twitter thread: The Japanese millionaire investor who lives like a rat
- This is not about pets: How many pets do you have?
- This was disappointing (Vitaliy is normally a much better writer) but the core concept is sound: Socially Irresponsible Investing
What do you think? Not much this week, blame the holiday and me spending too much time away from the computer 😉
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Great set of links as usual!
Definitely agree with the comment about climate change, but not really sure that the olympics can really be blamed for the spike in COVID cases considering the athletes were confined to the olympic village and so few cases were reported within the village.
The ending the state of emergency 1 month ago when cases were still fairly prevalent was always going to lead to a sudden spike a few weeks later when the delta strain is dominant.
Oh, I don’t think the Olympics directly caused the current wave (although the safety protocols were neither as comprehensive nor as well-planned as the organisers claimed). Rather I think the impact of the government holding the Olympics in spite of public opinion and expert advice has made government policy and messaging much less effective for the last 18 months. Even now, the nonsensical contrast between ‘please only leave your home every three days’ and ‘the Paralympics will be held next week and school children will attend the events’ is straight out of 1984.
Totally agree. Completely baffling that events like Fuji Rock Festival are allowed to go ahead without any requirement for attendees to take a COVID test or show proof of vaccination.
Unfortunately it feels like this might be the wave that cannot be overcome by some loose restrictions and politely requesting that people stay indoors.
#7 — Apart from what might be in one or another index fund, I have separate shares of MO, BTI, and PM. (apart from the mistake MO made, no shares in any pot company)
Nice links as usual! #2 about Capital Gains tax was an interesting read. Is that true about Capital Gains losses being offset against gains on a transaction by transaction basis in a Tokutei account though? I thought the adjustment was made at the end of the year, not every time you sold something at a loss.
I’m not entirely sure (never sold enough to notice!), But I believe the account keeps a running total.