Thursday 5, May 2022

SPX sinks

The SP 500 sank over three percent today. Bonds sank. The 50bp hike from the Fed seems to be weighing on sentiment.

The Fed might yet have cracked risk asset markets. 10Y yield is now back up, now at 3.07%.

Tweet

In 2014, I was the Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp.

And I helped negotiate the $22 billion sale to Facebook.

Today, I regret it.

Here’s where things went wrong:

— neeraj arora (@neerajarora) May 4, 2022

You have to read the responses to this tweet. The consensus is “You received $22bn from Facebook and now you are pretended you didn’t know they were going to monetize the app? Do you think we’ll believe this for a nanosecond?”

Image

Forage ~ © Abstract Aerial Art 𝘝𝘪𝘢 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 pic.twitter.com/6cBA0Q1whr

— Bebu (@BebuCesco) April 27, 2022

Thought for the day

Phatic language is the technical name for small talk. Not the computer language (probably called Smalltalk-80), but the communication between people which conveys information unrelated to the semantics of the words used. For example, asking “How do you do?” as a way of saying “I hope that you are well, but please don’t take this as an actual invitation to tell me what’s wrong with you.”

I think that smalltalk under threat, from Zoom, Twitter, computers, telphones and a lot of modern communications. Probably, even in letters. I get emails which start with a line such as “I hope you are well.” This is phatic, but it’s so blatantly formulaic that it does not engender any emotion in me apart from irritation. OK, I’m a grumpy old guy, but seriously, on a business communication copied to a half a dozen recipients?

Phatic language is difficult for kids. They say “yes” or “no”, when they are offered things. They start by saying “please” and “thank you” somewhat mechanically. Eventually, hopefully, that they learn that tis is pure community building.