My morning train WFH reads:
• Behind every influencer is an army of the influenced, many adrift in debt and mass-produced clutter. The platforms need influencers and influencers need audiences — but what the influenced need is not so simple. (The Verge)
• Was Venezuela an Inside Job? All the questions and conspiracy theories you have about America’s hottest new invasion. (The Bulwark) see also Months in planning, over in two and a half hours: how the US snatched Maduro: The operation to capture the Venezuelan president and his wife involved at least 150 aircraft, months of surveillance – and reportedly a spy in the government. (The Guardian)
• New Car Sales Are Rising Thanks to Purchases by the Well-Off: A larger proportion of new cars are being bought by affluent Americans as prices and interest rates for auto loans climb, analysts said. Families with a household income of $150,000 a year or more now buy 43 percent of the new cars sold in the country, up from one-third of all cars sold in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic. (New York Times)
• Why the ‘starter home’ feels so out of reach in today’s housing market: Concepts about starter homes seem inconsistent with today’s prices and expansive floor plans, leaving many first-time homebuyers with few options. (Washington Post)
• Everything Elon Musk promised in 2025, but didn’t deliver: Musk is now infamous for his false promises, but even this is excessive.
(Mashable)• One Generic Cancer Drug Costs $35. Or $134. Or $13,000. Hundreds of hospitals across the US are marking up old cancer treatments — in some cases hundreds of times what Medicare pays. (Bloomberg)
• Supreme Court Increasingly Favors the Rich, Economists Say: A new study found that the court’s Republican appointees voted for the wealthier side in cases 70 percent of the time in 2022, up from 45 percent in 1953. (New York Times) see also Ruling for the Rich: the Supreme Court over Time (NBER)
• The Genius Whose Simple Invention Saved Us From Shame at the Gas Station: On a rainy day in Detroit, a Ford engineer got confused, then soaked—and inspired. It took decades before he got any credit. (Wall Street Journal)
• After Watergate, the Presidency Was Tamed. Trump Is Unleashing It. In the 1970s, Congress passed a raft of laws to hold the White House accountable. President Trump has decided they don’t apply to him. (New York Times)
• Finnish children learn media literacy at 3 years old. It’s protection against Russian propaganda. The battle against fake news in Finland starts in preschool classrooms. (AP News)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Stephanie Drescher, Apollo’s Chief Client and Product Development Officer. She oversees everything from the global wealth business to portfolio management, product development, and client marketing. She is a member of the firm’s leadership team. Since 2020, Barron’s has named her annually to its list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance.
Dollar’s steepest annual drop for almost a decade
Source: Financial Times
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