• I Say Forbidden Things About Sports: What’s happening in athletics is tragic—but don’t expect to hear about on ESPN. I was shocked when I learned that private equity firms plan to take over college football. How is that even possible? (The Honest Broker)
• He Was Going to Save Intel. He Destroyed $150 Billion of Value Instead. Pat Gelsinger was one of the chip pioneer’s true believers. After his rescue strategy failed, the board lost confidence in him. How does this iconic American company survive? (Wall Street Journal) see also MicroStrategy’s secret sauce is volatility, not bitcoin: Self-reinforcing market forces are creating demand for Michael Saylor’s ‘lottery ticket’ convertible bonds (FT)
• Revealed: the Operators Behind Four Major Neo-Nazi X (Twitter) Accounts: Anonymity has long been a tactic used by extremists to spread their ideology while avoiding social consequences, from Klansmen hoods to online pseudonyms. (Texas Observer)
• How One of the World’s Richest Men Is Avoiding $8 Billion in Taxes: The chief executive of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has taken advantage of popular loopholes in the federal estate and gift taxes, which have quietly been eviscerated. (New York Times)
• The $60 Billion Potential Hiding in Your Discarded Gadgets: Rich nations mine just a fraction of e-waste, leaving $60 billion a year in critical metals wasting away in boxes and drawers. But in West Africa, a dangerous recycling work is thriving. (Wired)
• Torrent of Hate for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing: The shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare executive in Manhattan has unleashed Americans’ frustrations with an industry that often denies coverage and reimbursement for medical claims. “Thoughts and deductibles to the family,” read one comment underneath a video of the shooting posted online by CNN. “Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network.” (New York Times) see also The deep roots of Americans’ hatred of their health care system: The industry’s blame game will not end the US national health care nightmare. (Vox)
• South Korea’s Warning for Washington: Democracy survives when brave people care more about ideals than power. But such people aren’t always in plentiful supply. (The Garden of Forking Paths)
• RFK Jr. Is a Bellwether: Kennedy embodies several trends across politics, science, and society, which require careful attention to understand how America is changing. (The Atlantic)
• Did the Opioid Epidemic Fuel Donald Trump’s Return to the White House? New research suggests that the Democrats’ struggles in communities battling fentanyl addiction had little to do with economic theory or messaging—it was, more simply, a failure of political attention. (New Yorker)
• The End of the NFL’s Concussion Crisis: The case of Tua Tagovailoa marks the acceptance stage of widespread brain trauma in the sport. (New York Magazine)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with David Roux, Executive Chairman of BayPine, a private equity firm focused on digital transformation. Previously he co-founded Silver Lake Partners and served as the chairman and co-CEO. David has also held leadership positions at Oracle, Central Point and Lotus Development
U.S. Markets Are Swallowing the Rest of the World
Source: A Wealth of Common Sense
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