June 1, 2021 Sign Up

By Overheard on Wall Street

"What we achieve, how we think, and how we act, can be influenced by the expectations of those around us."

Good morning! We hope y'all had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. Congratulations to Chelsea on upsetting heavy favorites, Man City and winning the Champions League. In other news Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, citing concerns for her mental health.

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1. Story of the Day: Three's a Charm

On Monday, China announced that it will allow married couples to have a maximum of three children, as it battles with a worsening demographic aka too many boomers. The 2020 consensus data showed a sharp increase in the old population (60 years and older) which went from 13.3% in 2010 to 18.7% in 2020.

China has slightly unusual family planning policies compared to other countries that focus on providing contraceptive options, and instead sets a limit on the number of births parents can have. From 1979 – 2015, China had a 1-child policy. In 2015, China allowed couples to have up to 2 children, and now in 6 years has made the move to allow 3 children.

China also announced that it would gradually raise the national retirement age and invest in its senior population (whatever the hell that means). China has a really low retirement age: 60 for men and 50 for women. (Kamala Harris would have been retired 6 years ago) Increasing the retirement age could have a negative impact on child-bearing though. Many parents today only had children because they could rely on their retired parents to take care of their grandchildren.

Short Squeez Takeaway: Data from other countries shows that once birthrate is on a downward trend, it's hard to reverse. Most people in China are not having more children because they are restricted but actually because it's expensive af to have children. Unless China incentivizes people (maybe something like the million dollar vaccine lottery?) to have more than two children, it probably ain't gonna happen.

2. Markets Rundown

• US stocks remained steady on Friday and the market was closed on Monday for Memorial Day
• After the cryptogeddon last week, prices somewhat stabilized as Bitcoin bounced between $34k and $37k over the weekend

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Yest ($YEXT) +12% on outperforming earnings estimates.
• (+) Welbilt ($WBT) +24% after announcing its acquisition by Middleby.
• (–) HP Inc. ($HPQ) -9% as inflation is expected to raise unit prices and hurt demand.

3. Top Reads

4. Book of the Day: The Compound Effect

Small, unsexy but smart decisions made consistently, lead to incredible results. Darren Hardy calls this the compound effect. Darren is a multimillionaire. He’s interviewed 6 successful entrepreneurs per month for his magazine called Success and he’s found out that almost all self-made success uses the compound effect.

Investing just $50 per week in the stock market doesn’t seem like a lot but doing it consistently over a 45 year period while getting an average market return of 10% gets you to over 2 million dollars. Consistency equals massive results. The Compound Effect is for anyone who wants to learn a proven system for achieving big goals.

5. Daily Visual: Frequency with Which Adults in Western Europe Watch Soccer Matches on TV

Source: Insider Intelligence

6.  Tip of the Day: Persuasion Tricks

Do you want your friend to see your point of view or your boss to give you the raise you really want? Persuasion is a useful skill that can come in handy in many different circumstances. Convincing others, especially if they have strongly opposing views, can be difficult. Here’s a few tricks you can use to your advantage.

Explain the reason for your request: Instead of just saying “Can I cut in line?”, say “Can I cut in line because I’m about to miss my 10-hour flight?” The bigger your request, the more compelling your reason should be.

Use polite expressions: “Please” and “Thank you” are magical words when trying to persuade people. We’ve been generally raised and conditioned to react well to the usage of these words and we’re more open to requests than instructions.

Offer a drink: Yes, for real! Offer the person a warm beverage such as a cup of coffee or tea. A warm drink put in someone’s hands can project feelings of warmth from you toward them making them feel that you’re a welcoming person. Be careful though, giving them a cold drink can have the opposite effect.

7. Memes of the Day

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