My morning train reads:
• Bill Pulte: Agent of Chaos: In an administration hardly known for competence, coherence and subtlety, Pulte stands out. When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly threatened to punch Pulte “in your fucking face” and to “fucking beat your ass”, it was mostly notable for how many people both inside and outside the administration were seemingly #TeamBessent. (Financial Times)
• Is the Iranian Regime About to Collapse? Five conditions determine whether revolutions succeed. For the first time since 1979, Iran meets nearly all of them. (The Atlantic) see also Weakened by War, Iran’s Regime Faces Its Toughest Challenge Yet: Iranian leaders’ last claim to legitimacy was shattered in the war with Israel (Wall Street Journal) see also Death Toll in Iran May Already Be in the Thousands: To account for what it called a “significant” death toll, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Sunday raised the specter of ISIS, claiming in a statement that slain protesters were terrorists hired by Israel and the U.S. (Time)
• How Google Got Its Groove Back and Edged Ahead of OpenAI: After ChatGPT dominated early chatbot market, Google staged comeback with powerful AI model; biggest search-engine overhaul in years. (Wall Street Journal)
• GE’s CEO Has Saved the House That Jack Welch Built: Shares of General Electric Co. have jumped out of the gate this year faster than the gains of the S&P 500 Index. That doesn’t sound like a stellar achievement unless you consider that the stock has already surged sixfold in the last three years. The fact that GE’s turnaround still has legs is testament to the talent of Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp, who took over a legendary company that was in deep trouble in 2018 and rescued it. (Bloomberg)
• Big Oil Knows That Trump’s Venezuela Plans Are Delusional: The president’s thinking is stuck in the 1980s. (The Atlantic)
• Americans Predict Challenging 2026 Across 13 Dimensions: Only the stock market evokes optimism from a majority in the U.S. (Gallup)
• Why Trump wants Greenland and what’s standing in his way: Denmark’s leader warned that any use of force by Washington to seize Greenland, as Trump officials have suggested, would render the postwar NATO alliance defunct. (Washington Post)
• My Playdate With the Watch Nerds: 48 Hours at the Watch Convention: A Casio man in a Rolex world crashes the convention where guys trade six-figure grails for fun. (The Cut)
• Grok Is Generating Sexual Content Far More Graphic Than What’s on X: A review of outputs hosted on Grok’s official website shows it’s being used to create violent sexual images and videos, as well as content that includes apparent minors. (Wired)
• How Amy Poehler’s ‘Good Hang’ broke through celebrity podcast fatigue: The market was saturated with stars chatting with other stars. But the ‘SNL’ veteran channeled the old magic of late-night TV talk shows. Now she’s a favorite in a new Golden Globe category. (Washington Post)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Ben Hunt, founder of Perscient, a firm that studies how narratives and stories shape markets, investing, and social behavior through the lens of information theory, game theory, and unstructured data analysis. His work analyzes the language, story arcs, and viral spread of explanations in media.
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