My morning train WFH reads:
• Renewable energy just broke a 100-year-old streak Coal’s century at the top of the world’s power mix is over. (Vox)
• I Just Drove a $10,000 Chinese EV and It Didn’t Suck: Geely’s EX2 is the hottest car in the Chinese market, and for good reason from what we could tell. (Motor Trend) see also The U.S. Wants to Ban China’s High-Tech Cars, but They’re Already Here in El Paso: Mexican dealers are selling cutting-edge Chinese cars that U.S. consumers can’t buy. Americans are warming to the idea of them. (Wall Street Journal)
• 8 Secrets for a Happy Retirement: People save for decades to fund a comfortable retirement, but a high net worth isn’t the only key to enjoying your golden years. There are other factors that determine if you will be happy when you walk away from your career. Here are eight ways your lifestyle can help lead to happiness in retirement. The usual advice — but the data on what actually correlates with retirement happiness (purpose, friendships, walking) keeps running away from the spreadsheet stuff. (Money)
• The Financial Crisis That Didn’t Happen: One of the hard parts of understanding market cycles is the fact that there are no counterfactuals. You don’t get to test the real world in a Monte Carlo simulation with thousands of potential paths. There’s only one path and that’s what actually happens. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• I’ve Covered Robots for Years. This One Is Different: From sorting chicken nuggets to screwing in lightbulbs, Eka’s robotic claw feels like we’re approaching a ChatGPT moment for the physical world. A veteran robotics reporter argues we’re at robotics’ ChatGPT moment. If the cost curve cooperates, the labor implications are an order of magnitude bigger than chatbots. (Wired)
• How Iran Accumulated 11 Tons of Enriched Uranium: Since eight years ago when President Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal with Tehran, Iran has accumulated 22,000 pounds, or 11 tons, of enriched uranium. But the fate of Iran’s stockpile remains a mystery, two months after the United States began a war meant to prevent Iran from ever building an atomic bomb. (New York Times)
• King Charles praises Nato and urges defence of Ukraine in key speech: Remarks marking 250th anniversary of American independence tell US lawmakers: ‘The actions of this great nation matter’. The monarch said the quiet parts about NATO and Ukraine out loud while the President sat there. Diplomatic theater with a sharp edge. (The Guardian) see also The King’s Address to the Joint Meeting of Congress in Washington. King Charles’s full address to Congress, in his own voice — straight from the source rather than filtered through wire copy. Worth reading before the takes pile up. “The Alliance that our two Nations have built over the centuries – and for which we are profoundly grateful to the American people – is truly unique.” (Royal UK)
• The Secretary Of Health & Human Services Doesn’t Believe In The Foundation Of Modern Medicine: During RFK Jr.’s recent appearance before Congress, he bravely declared that the current measles outbreak in America has absolutely nothing to do with him, despite that definitely not being true. But, unsurprisingly, that wasn’t the only craziness that Kennedy put on display in the hearing. (Techdirt)
• How Netanyahu Hurt America’s Jews: The Israeli prime minister’s focus is, as always, on himself and his near-term political needs. The plight of American Jews is simply not his concern. A pointed look at how Bibi’s choices have reshaped the diaspora’s relationship with Israel — and made American Jewish life materially harder. The Atlantic on the collateral damage to the American Jewish community from Israel’s rightward lurch and the political choices that followed. The diaspora pays for decisions it didn’t make. (The Atlantic)
• The $50 Movie Ticket Has Arrived: Theaters raising prices for most avid moviegoers despite complaints from Hollywood studios. (Wall Street Journal)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Lawrence Calcano, CEO and Chairman of iCapital, The firm is a fintech platform built to be the OS for alternative investments and complex products for financial advisors, wealth managers, and banks. The firm has over $1.2 trillion in active global assets on platform, across 2,455 funds used by 123,ooo financial professionals.
The AI space continues to dominate, with semis now leading the charge. The hyper-scaler plays hardly budged during the Iran volatility and are now rocketing higher.
Source: Jurrien Timmer Fidelity Investments
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