Week InReview
Friday | Dec 31, 2021
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New Year's Eve cocktails worth staying up for. |
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IT'S A TRADITION to count down to New Year's with a drink in your hand. Whether you're a champagne, tequila, vodka, whiskey, or wine drinker, there's something here for for you. And for the non-drinkers, and designated drivers, there are some mocktails, too.
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Illustration: FT montage/AFP/Eyepix Group/Barcroft Media/Getty/Bloomberg/EPA-EFE |
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The pandemic could end in 2022 — or we may suffer fresh setbacks. Operating with that huge global uncertainty, companies will record new triumphs and failures. This is what to look for next year across the corporate world in industries from pharma to technology. (Financial Times | Dec 30)
Some hedge funds are betting that pricing in the bond market that reflects pessimism about the U.S. economy will not last, remaining in a trade that has cost some of the biggest players billions of dollars this year. The Federal Reserve’s recent pivot towards a more aggressive strategy to fight elevated inflation has flattened the so-called yield curve, a signal that some investors anticipate that the U.S. central bank’s policy tightening could eventually crimp longer-term economic growth. (Financial Times | Dec 29)
Investors have poured more money into municipal bond funds so far this year than they have in decades, providing the fuel for borrowing by states and cities to fund new bridges, sewers and other state and local projects to a second-straight 10-year high. (The Wall Street Journal | Dec 29)
Investors are increasingly turning to a tool to protect them if the U.S. stock market careens lower in the coming weeks. Traders are buying put option contracts in ever greater numbers, hoping the derivatives will provide a hedge if stocks fall from record territory. The rising use of put contracts, including by the swell of new retail day traders who entered markets this year, has accompanied a surge of volatility in the $53tn U.S. equity market. (Financial Times | Dec 28)
Amid all the celebration of a rousing year-end in stocks, Doug Ramsey has a sobering observation about a situation below the market’s surface. Last week, when the S&P 500 closed at a 52-week high, 334 companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange hit a 52-week low, more than double the amount that marked new one-year highs. That’s happened only three other times in history — all of them in December 1999, according to Ramsey, who is chief investment officer for Leuthold Group. And it’s not just a one-week phenomenon. (Bloomberg Markets | Dec 27)
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6 things in cybersecurity we didn't know last year
The past 12 months in cybersecurity have been a rough ride. In cybersecurity, everything is broken – it’s just a matter of finding it – and this year felt like everything broke at once, especially toward the end of the year. But for better or worse, we end the year knowing more than we did before. Here we look back at the year that’s been, and what we learned along the way.
5 cybersecurity trends to watch in 2022
Here’s what cybersecurity watchers want infosec pros to know heading into 2022. No one could have predicted the sheer chaos the cybersecurity industry would experience over the course of 2021. Record-annihilating numbers of ransomware attacks, SolarWinds’ supply-chain havoc and most recently, the discovery of Log4j by… Minecraft gamers. All of it would have sounded too wild for real life a short year ago.
CISA and other third parties publish Log4j scanners to detect Log4Shell vulnerabilities but most fail to identify all instances
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency release a Log4j scanner to assist organizations to identify potentially vulnerable systems. Additionally, CISA published a list of other third-party scanning solutions from members of the open-source community, including FullHunt’s scan tool that the agency modified with assistance from open-source community members.
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Illustration: Inkee Wang for Bloomberg Businessweek |
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What happens when workers are given a flexible hybrid schedule?
While employees crave face time and prioritize productivity, they also lean toward looser options than the somewhat structured hybrid schedules on offer. Preferences vary: Extroverted teammates, gnarly commutes, and child-care duties can easily tip hybrid schedules toward home or office. Humans have work rhythms, however, and the patterns of the herd are telling — and surprisingly consistent.
A year in reading: Our favorite books of 2021
For better sleep, borrow the bedtime routine of a toddler
Three easy steps that should help you get some much-needed rest. First, set a bedtime. Then
- Take a bath
- Apply lotion
- Enjoy a relaxing activity
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