My morning train WFH reads:
• The White House is killing one of our strongest exports: Higher Education: The president wants to balance U.S. trade deficits? He can’t do it without this industry he hates. (Washington Post)
• China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War: Enormous investments in factory equipment and artificial intelligence are giving China an edge in car manufacturing and other industries. (New York Times) see also Five-Minute EV Charging Is Here, but Not for U.S.-Made Cars: CATL’s and BYD’s rapid-charging technologies underscore China’s dominance in the EV sector, a technological priority for Xi Jinping (Wall Street Journal)
• The Things That Make You Money: Holding is the hardest part because it combines all the feelings and potential regrets that can arise from both buying and selling. Howard Marks once wrote, “It’s not the things you buy and sell that make you money; it’s the things you hold.” (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Why Florida’s Condo Owners Are So Desperate to Sell: Insurance increases, special assessments and limited financing options have elevated costs beyond what many can bear (Wall Street Journal)
• When Heirs Say ‘No Thanks’ to Art and Collectibles: Cerity Partners’ Natalia Tchetchoulina on the do’s and don’ts of passing those vintage cars, paintings, or jewelry to your heirs. (Barron’s)
• Swiss banks are back in style for rich Americans (Thank Trump): Americans worried about volatile U.S. markets and a weakening dollar are looking to diversify their portfolios abroad. (Quartz)
• For Greenland’s Minerals, the Harsh Reality Behind the Glittering Promise: There is excitement about the potentially lucrative resources scattered around the island, especially the rare earths. But extreme weather, fired-up environmentalists and other factors have tempered hopes of a bonanza. (New York Times)
• Scientists Are Mapping the Bizarre, Chaotic Spacetime Inside Black Holes: By understanding the churning region near singularities, physicists hope they might be able to reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. (Wired)
• Democrats Should Seize on the Tariff Flop: The economic chaos is giving the opposition party a prime opportunity to push back against autocracy. (Vanity Fair) see also James Carville: How to Turn Trump’s Economic Chaos Against Him: The problem is that smoke and mirrors only work until you screw up so hard that no act of lunacy can pull the American people’s attention elsewhere. And boy, did the president just screw up royally. (New York Times)
• Jeff Bridges Just Gave His Blessing To A ‘Big Lebowski’ Theory That Donnie Isn’t Real: It’s one thing to read a fan theory on Reddit. It’s another to hear Jeff Bridges unpack it live, like it’s just something he’s been casually chewing on for years, as The Big Lebowski keeps aging like White Russian-soaked folklore, somehow getting deeper, weirder, and more beloved by Little Achievers like myself every year. (BroBible)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Jeff Becker, Chairman and CEO of Jennison Associates (a division of PGIM).
The firm was founded in 1969. Prior to joining Jennison in 2016 as CEO, Becker was CEO of Voya Investment Management.
Poll: Americans sour on the economy
Source: Reuters
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