The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• The Iran War’s Most Precious Commodity Isn’t Oil: Forget crude—the real strategic resource at stake in the Middle East is water, and nobody’s talking about it. (Bloomberg free)
• Capital Group’s Weird Passive Bravado: The giant active manager is trash-talking index funds while quietly borrowing from their playbook. (Financial Times) see also The attention economy is coming for investment research: FT Alphaville on how the same forces that destroyed journalism and music are now eating Wall Street research — virality over rigor, engagement over accuracy. (FT Alphaville / Substack)
• How Do We Deal with the Catastrophe of Uninsurability?: Whole regions of the world are becoming uninsurable, bringing radical uncertainty to the economy. As climate risk makes more and more properties uninsurable, the financial system faces a reckoning it hasn’t priced in. (Aeon)
• The US Had a Big Battery Boom Last Year: Despite Donald Trump’s unrelenting attacks on renewable energy, there’s a quiet revolution happening on US grids. (Wired)
• GLP-1 Drugs May Fight Addiction Across Every Major Substance: A massive study of 600,000 people suggests Ozempic and its cousins might be the most important addiction treatment breakthrough in decades. (The Conversation)
• The New Miami Gold Rush: The ultrawealthy are vying for a limited number of exclusive properties on the islands and shorelines of South Florida. (New York Times) see also What Is a City When Its Wealthiest Leave? The stickiness that once anchored people and capital to great cities is gone. It is not coming back. (Wall Street Journal)
• 6 Takeaways From Citrini’s Viral AI Doomer Article (and a Bunch of Rebuttals): The Citrini AI doomsday report went mega-viral. Read Trung breaks down the key claims, the strongest counterarguments, and what investors should actually take away from the noise. (Read Trung)
• Apocalypse No: How Almost Everything We Thought We Knew About the Maya Is Wrong: The collapse narrative is a myth, and the real story is far more interesting than the doomsday version. (The Guardian)
• Pentagon Eyes Ukrainian Interceptor Drones to Counter Iran: Kyiv pioneered cheap, mass-produced machines to battle Russian Shaheds—now the U.S. military wants in on the action. (Financial Times) see also Iran’s Underground ‘Missile Cities’ Have Become One of Its Biggest Vulnerabilities: U.S. and Israeli aircraft are circling over the subterranean bases, destroying missile launchers as they emerge to fire (Wall Street Journal)
• Scrubbing Back In: The Scrubs reboot is happening. The Ringer goes inside what Zach Braff, Bill Lawrence, and the original cast are planning — and whether lightning can strike twice. (The Ringer)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Ed Perks, president of Franklin Advisers and chief investment officer of Franklin Income Investors. He serves as lead portfolio manager of Franklin Income Fund, as well as Franklin Managed Income Fund. He is a member of the Franklin Templeton executive committee, a small group of the company’s top leaders responsible for shaping the firm’s overall strategy.
Korea’s Kospi: From cheap to world beating to expensive…
Source: Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank
Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.
~~~
To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.
~~~~
