The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Colombia Tolima Los Brasiles Peaberry Organic coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• Trump’s Astonishing 100 Days, in 8 Charts: Compared with other modern presidents, he has signed the most executive orders in this period, collected the most tariffs and had the most lawsuits filed against him. Markets have slumped, as have his approval ratings. (Upshot)
• The Stealthy Lab Cooking Up Amazon’s Secret Sauce: The online giant bought a mysterious chip startup 10 years ago. It now looks like one of the smartest deals in tech history. (Wall Street Journal)
• Nadig: I found the worst product in the world: ETF Market Update: Chaos Edition: A Bit of a Reshuffle, Active Crushes, and a new Black Hat Stinker. (Nadig.com)
• The $200 Billion Gamble: Bill Gates’s Plan to Wind Down His Foundation In a wide-ranging interview, he explains his decision — amid the Trump administration’s assault on foreign aid — to accelerate the end of his giving. (New York Times Magazine)
• Tesla’s ‘Headwinds’ Are Coming From Its C-Suite: Elon Musk is a key figure in the economic environment that’s punishing sales. Plus: India’s car tariffs are under pressure. (Bloomberg)
• An 80,000-year history of the tomato: None of this would be possible, however, without thousands of years of plant breeding and genetic engineering. The wild ancestors of today’s tomatoes were much smaller than their modern-day counterparts and grew in sprawling patterns, making them ill-suited to large-scale agriculture. (The Works In Progress Newsletter)
• Thoughts on Sinofuturism: What does it mean for China to be “the future”? And what does that future look like? (Noahpinion
• Why Do More Police Officers Die by Suicide Than in the Line of Duty? His friend and fellow cop killed himself. Then he nearly became a statistic as well. Why do more police officers die by suicide than in the line of duty? (New York Times)
• The Ecstatic Swoon: Every year, a few dozen tourists to Florence are rushed to the local hospitals, literally overcome by the city’s array of paintings, sculptures, frescoes and architecture. Some lose their bearings, others lose their consciousness, yet others still, on rare occasions, nearly lose their lives. https://aeon.co/essays/what-stendhal-says-about-the-purpose-and-promise-of-art As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead. (Aeon)
• He’s the Knicks’ Playoff Superstar—and He Can Barely Hit a Shot: During the season, Mikal Bridges failed to live up to the massive trade that brought him to New York. In the playoffs, his defense has them on the verge of their biggest win this century. (Wall Street Journal)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Karin Risi, former Managing Director at the Vanguard Group, the world’s 2nd largest asset manager. She helped to create and lead the firm’s Personal Advisor business from 2015 to 2020, which now manages $350 billion in client assets; she also headed comms, strategy and other divisions over the years, reporting directly to each of the past three Vanguard CEOs. Risi has been named to every Top 100 Women in finance list, and in May joined the Board of HarbourVest.
Typical Post-Election Year May performance impressive vs recent trend
Source: Almanac Trader
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