My busy-all-day-and-night morning reads:
• Are retail traders the captains now? It’s often easy to laugh at retail traders as they post loss porn on Reddit, insist Strategy’s strategy is sound, buy Bonk ETFs, argue that Bed Bath & Beyond’s cancelled shares are worth something, and pump up fried chicken, quantum computing and small modular reactor stocks. However, they are undeniably a rising power in markets, able to exert immense force on even the largest companies and turn smaller and midsized ones into financial playthings. (Financial Times)
• A Startup Says It Has Found a Hidden Source of Geothermal Energy: Zanskar uses AI to identify hidden geothermal systems—and claims it has found one that could fuel a power plant, the first such discovery by industry in decades. (Wired) see also Nuclear and Fossil Fuels Join Forces to Undermine Renewables: The once unlikely alliance took root in Texas and now reaches right into the White House, where President Trump wants to ban wind energy projects. (Businessweek)
• Why Costco is the only big retailer to challenge Trump on tariff refunds: Buffered by its strong customer loyalty, Costco has a track record of not yielding to the administration. (Washington Post)
• California’s ‘Teacher Village’ Model Spreads as Housing Costs Soar: More schools are offering company housing to prevent educators from fleeing to cheaper locales. ‘They go to Idaho, they go to Texas.’ (Wall Street Journal)
• Giving Money Directly to Children Is an Idea the Right and Left Could Love: Michael and Susan Dell’s $6.25 billion donation to child savings accounts fits a trend: giving with no strings attached. In some ways, it’s a bipartisan philosophy. (New York Times)
• A 6-year research project found a surprisingly simple route to happiness: Results of a study out of Cornell suggest a happiness hack that can lead you toward a life of purpose. (Washington Post) see also Our Idea of Happiness Has Gotten Shallow. Here’s How to Deepen It. We used to have a very different understanding of what it means to live well. (New York Times)
• Here’s What Ozempic Does To Your Brain, According To Doctors Who Prescribe It: Doctors Say Ozempic Alters Your Brain Chemistry In This Surprising Way: It’s a major part of why the drug works so well. (Women’s Health)
• Cheap and powerful AI campaigns target voters in India: The Bihar state election was awash with voice clones and synthetic videos that reached voters easily and spread misinformation. (Rest of World)
• America has identified its greatest enemy: Western Europe: Trump’s new National Security Strategy: what if groypers cosplayed George Kennan? (Programmable Mutter)
• A Painter of Landscapes: Nationalism and the sublime in the work of José María Velasco. (The Baffler)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Stephen Cohen, BlackRock Chief Product Officer and Head of Global Product Solutions. He is a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee. Previously, he was Global Head of Fixed Income Indexing (iShares); and Chief Investment Strategist for International Fixed Income and iShares. Blackrock manages $13.5 trillion in AUM; its iShares division is over $5 trillion.
Where homes are losing value most
Source: Axios
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