There are two things we cannot ignore in this month’s recap. One, the historically dreadful January we have seen in stocks. Second, though, is the tremendous run the Cincinnati Bengals have made. Given that today (February 1) marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year and begins the Year of the Tiger, perhaps a fortuitous portent for the orange and black.
We are done with memes as a theme. The market, however, seemingly is not. Look no further than December 23, when a giant ape was delivered to oppose the famous Wall Street bull. A little too on the nose, as far as symbols go.
For those unfamiliar, this is Gene Wilder playing the title character in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Over Thanksgiving, we watched the movie again, and it seems appropriate to use it as inspiration for our newsletter this month, given the market’s current state is as confusing as any we have seen, leaving us to pure imagination to try to decipher what might be next.
Puns: They are seldom funny. Neither are memes. However, we combine the two this quarter and hope, as we see in math, that two negatives make a positive. Our title pun combines reversion to the mean, a concept wherein a statistic unmoored from its historical average, i.e., its mean, tends to revert toward that level, with meme. For those who may not know, a meme is defined by Oxford as “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by internet users.”
It was almost 20 years ago when the gang at South Park titled an episode “Simpsons Already Did It,” a quasi-homage to The Simpsons’ longevity and off-the-wall shenanigans. Given The Simpsons are still creating new episodes (some derivative of prior episodes), it is unsurprising we have reached the point where life is imitating art enough to inspire enough content for one of our newsletters. Our aim here is to educate and hopefully avoid the ire of Jeff Alberston (pictured below) by writing our worst newsletter ever:
After spending the last few months mired in pop culture, seems we should diversify this month and look to one of our favorite books, an underappreciated tome on an underappreciated topic: World War I. Generationally, many of us have a connection to World War II, and there has been much more ink and media committed to the sequel than to the Great War. Having said that, the seeds of WWII were planted on the fields of Verdun and the conference tables at Versailles.
One of our colleagues was kind enough of send us footage of his recent family trip to Washington, D.C., which included a Clark Griswold-like stop at a Dukes of Hazzard-themed museum/restaurant in Virginia.
Meme-Stocks: Hotter than Hansel Just when you thought you had heard the last of AMC and GameStop, they return, and are hotter than Hansel.
It came to light last week that I pick up pennies; usually on the sidewalk, sometimes on the soccer pitch, occasionally in the TSA bins at the airport. However, I am not the only one. The revelation took on a life of its own, leading to some friendly wagering on how much one might find over the course of a year.
Aside from his inexplicable disdain for tea, we love Ted Lasso. For those unfamiliar, the eponymous series focuses on an American football coach inexplicably hired to manage an English football, i.e., soccer team, despite the obvious hindrance of having never coached or played soccer, or even having a basic understanding of its rules.
