My morning train WFH reads:
• For Years, Powell Avoided Fighting Trump. That’s Over. After receiving grand jury subpoenas Friday, Powell spent the weekend deciding how to respond. By Sunday, he had his answer. (Wall Street Journal)
• The golden handcuffs are slipping in the U.S. housing market: For the first time since 2020, the share of U.S. homeowners with mortgages set at 6% and higher, exceeds those with mortgages below 3%. (Axi0s) but see also Why almost none of the homes burned in LA have been rebuilt since last year’s fires: The wildfires destroyed 13,000 homes. In Los AngelesCounty, just seven have been rebuilt; of the 22,500 homes lost in the most destructive fires between 2017 and 2020, only 38% have been rebuilt to date. (Grist)
• U.S workers just took home their smallest share of capital since 1947, at least: Decades of Tax Cuts and Oligopoly rule have undone all of the post World War Two MiddleClass economic gains. (Fortune)
• How have prices changed in a year? NPR checked 114 items at Walmart: The past year also brought a global trade war, as President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports. And the world continued to grapple with extreme weather, from droughts to downpours. (NPR)
• The Curious Cult of Aldi: How an 80-year-old German discount chain became America’s hottest grocer. (Businessweek)
• Florida Explores Ditching Property Tax as Home Prices Soar: State lawmakers have filed a raft of bills aimed at reducing property taxes—or gutting them altogether (Wall Street Journal)
• Crispr Pioneer Launches Startup to Make Tailored Gene-Editing Treatments: Aurora Therapeutics, cofounded by Nobel Prize–winning scientist Jennifer Doudna, plans to use gene editing and a new FDA regulatory pathway to commercialize treatments for rare diseases. (Wired)
• The Biggest Myth About Trump’s Base (And Why Many Believe It): The MAGA faithful aren’t deserting their leader. (The Atlantic)
• Here’s Why the Iranian Regime Seems Invincible: And why it shouldn’t stop the citizens currently fighting for freedom. (Persuasion)
• Peter Gabriel Lines Up a New Year of Lunar Releases: With o\i The singer will drop a new single every month in 2026. (Pitchfork)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Nobel laureate Richard Thaler and his University of Chicago Booth School colleague Alex Imas on the update and reissue of his classic book The Winner’s Curse.
My Favorite Performance Chart For 2025
Source: A Wealth of Common Sense
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