Friday Night Links

• I know that Trump wants to be seen as the bull market president, but MAGA is not a bull market set of policies. Sure, he’ll be great for some industries, but those are the industries that are beaten down and unloved. He’ll create bull markets where there have been epic bear markets. Meanwhile, accelerating nominal growth, along with high interest rates, are terrible for the sorts of businesses that are dominating the markets today. What if 2022 was a dress rehearsal for what the rest of the decade looks like?? Think back to what worked then, and what didn’t work. I think we’re about to have an inflection back to the strategy book of 2022. If so, we’re going to catch a whole lot of investors offsides, because no one is ready for a world with accelerating nominal GDP growth. I keep asking myself, what if we simply run the world hot for a change... [Kuppy] 
  
• [A] large 18th-century crucifix, finely carved in wood and painted, which once stood on the refectory wall of a Spanish convent of nuns. It was looted in the Spanish Civil War and found its way to England, and I bought it some years ago for a modest price in London. It is immensely realistic as to Christ’s sufferings: some would say gruesome. But that is the Spanish manner and I think it right to be reminded forcibly of the sufferings Christ underwent for our sakes. So I was very pleased to buy it and originally intended to hang it in the hall of our London house, to gratify Catholic visitors, and administer a salutary shock to Protestant ones and agnostics. But this my wife Marigold would not allow, for all kinds of reasons, including the conclusive one that “it would frighten the grandchildren.” So now it hangs in my study instead, and I see that my wife was perfectly correct. This is the right place for it. I kiss Our Lord’s poor feet, nailed to the cross and bleeding, before I begin my work each day, thus acknowledging the debt we owe him, and I can do so in the privacy of my study without arousing derision or scandal. As for die grandchildren, they are occasionally allowed in to glimpse it, and find the experience enjoyable, if not exactly elevating. [Paul Johnson]
• Loss of two provinces & resultant territorial division into three parts (all road connections between SK & BC go through AB) will end last pretenses of Canadian sovereignty, allowing United States to impose terms on the broken rump. Any areas which will likely vote Republican should be annexed as new states (certainly Alberta, possibly Saskatchewan) to give us two or four new senators, places like far north & Atlantic provinces which would vote Democrat can be added to existing states (NB/NS/PE to ME, NL to MA, YK/NT/NU to AK). New security arrangement would dissolve Canadian military & security forces beyond level of local police, & also end Canada's diplomatic service (to be handled by US State Department in the future). The undemocratic (it is appointed, rather than elected) Canadian senate should be dissolved, as should any vestigial ties to Britain & the House of Windsor such as governor-general. Canadian dollar should be phased out, & replaced with US dollar. Quebec's ports should be administered by the United States, & should have a unified tariff system, but otherwise should be free from US administration. Despite an initial difficult period of transition, Canada will be better off as a set of US protectorates, states, & territories than as an independent state. [Peter Nimitz]
• More broadly, Guinness is a sociable brew. It is far more popular on draught than in cans, despite Diageo making a special device that reproduces the Guinness pour for home use. It was easy to mistake the popularity of spirits in the pandemic for permanent change, but Guinness has come back into its own as young drinkers spend more time in bars with friends. Emotion and identity are weightier than portfolio strategy and it pays to keep faith in brands with long histories and consistent values, even if one sometimes has to be patient. Ivan Menezes, the former Diageo chief executive who led the push into premium spirits, often wore a Guinness harp pin. His heart was telling him something. [FT]
• Monoclonal antibodies, for example, are Y-shaped proteins that tightly bind to specific molecules. Each of these antibodies is made from two proteins, called the light chain and heavy chain, which interlock to form the complete antibody. Many of the most widely prescribed pharmaceutical drugs, including the immunosuppressant adalimumab (sold as Humira, and generating over $21 billion in sales in 2021) and cancer therapy pembrolizumab (sold as Keytruda, generating over $17 billion in the same year) are monoclonal antibodies. But only a few different organisms, mainly mammalian cells and yeasts, can make them because antibodies are glycosylated, or tagged with sugar molecules, and bacteria cannot naturally perform this reaction. Most monoclonal antibodies are generated using Chinese hamster ovary, or CHO, cells, which initially descended from cells taken from a hamster’s ovary and were later immortalized. [Works in Progress]