April showers bring May flowers they say, but April also brings a chance to reset and reassess after a rollicking first quarter that brought a big rally in stocks and, apparently, a jump in economic growth. Here’s a look at some of the stories and trends that caught our eye this month. (And for a bit of fun, a look at some incredible libraries in private homes, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.)
- “The Decade of Deleveraging” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, according to Bloomberg’s John Authers and Lauren Leatherby. Their story examines how the crushing debt load that resulted in the epic 2008 crash didn’t exactly disappear.
- Here Come The Unicorns. After years of waiting, the likes of Lyft, Pinterest, Slack, Uber and more are finally making their debuts. As the Wall Street Journal’s Corrie Driebusch reports, the battle to win listings for their IPOs is fierce.
- Be Careful What You Wish For? The race to the bottom on investment fees has had benefits for investors, but Brian J. O’Connor writes in the New York Times that “[t]he explosion of cheap funds has created some dangerous temptations for investors.”
- A fictional financier sits down for lunch with the FT: Damian Lewis, these days best known as Bobby Axelrod on Billions.
- That aforementioned article on private libraries from the WSJ has a look at where some wealthy homeowners pour a sizable portion of the residential budget: the design, construction and upkeep of impressive libraries.
