My end-of-week morning reads:
• Power Bill Divide: Soaring prices at some of America’s Biggest Utilities are fueling new scrutiny of the investor-owned model. (Bloomberg)
• What the Midterms Mean for Your Stock Portfolio: Midterm elections can move headlines. History says they shouldn’t move your portfolio. (Kiplinger) see also How governments spend money Charting the outline of civilisation: Toby Nangle compares how countries split their budgets between education, defence and everything else, now that government finances have moved to centre stage. (Financial Times)
• The Fierce Battle to Control How Americans Buy and Sell Their Homes: Social-media fights, a cease and desist, lawsuits: the real-estate industry is tearing itself apart over whether buyers searching online are actually seeing every home for sale. Mega-brokerage Compass is taking more listings offline, sparking backlash from rivals who say the practice is upending decades of market transparency (Wall Street Journal)
• Songs of Experience: Reminiscences of a Strategist: It’s been 40 years since I began my career on Wall Street and the lessons I learned along the way from some all-time investment greats always hold true. (Schwab)
• How Climate Change Is Causing ‘the Gentrification of Seafood’: Julia O’Malley: the oysters and clams that once covered Hood Canal’s beaches are scarce now, and shellfish is becoming a luxury.As environmental forces make fishing and harvesting more costly, the price of once-everyday fish has ballooned. (New York Times)
• The Tao of Tao In a faculty brimming with brilliant people, Terence Tao — the “Mozart of Math” — remains one of the sharpest minds at UCLA. A conversation. In a faculty brimming with brilliant people, Terence Tao — the “Mozart of Math” — remains one of the sharpest minds at UCLA. A conversation. (UCLA Magazine)
• What a Group of A.I. Agents Talked About as Their Humans Had a Dinner Party: While 22 tech founders and investors ate hummus at Motek in the Flatiron, 14 of their AI agents held a parallel dinner party in a chat room. Erin Griffith eavesdrops. As artificial intelligence bots spread, we are increasingly glimpsing how these digital entities interact and what they talk about with one another. (New York Times)
• Forgive the Bad Texters: Julie Beck on the pleasure and the annoyance of every incoming text, and the obligation to answer that comes with it. A case for going easier on the slow repliers.We are truly sorry for our delayed response. (The Atlantic)
• Russia Was Losing. Enter President Trump. David French: It’s horrible to have to type these words, but the president of the United States is throwing Vladimir Putin a lifeline. He is turning the American government against Ukraine, funding Russia and — perhaps worst of all — playing directly into Putin’s theory of victory. (New York Times) see also Ukraine hits Russian refinery as Zelenskiy says ‘we’re done’ with Trump’s energy truce. Since Trump’s surprise announcement on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt attacks on energy, Kyiv had suspended attacks on Russian refineries, which Trump blames for raising diesel prices on global markets. But in the days that followed, Russia rained down missile and drone strikes, including on energy targets such as power stations, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people. (Yahoo/Reuters)
• The True Story of Charlie Sheen’s Two and a Half Men–Tanking Meltdown Is Even Wilder Than You Think: In an excerpt from his memoir, Sitcom, serial TV creator Chuck Lorre breaks down the tiger-blood-soaked disaster—and how he and Sheen eventually patched things up. (Vanity Fair)
Video of the day: Why GM’s CEO Mary Barra is Still Bullish on Electric Vehicles
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Bob Michele, J.P.Morgan Asset Management’s Chief Investment Officer and Head of the Global Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities group (GFICC). JPMAM runs about $4.3 trillion (as of March 31, 2026).
AI May Force 11 Million Workers Into New Jobs, McKinsey Says
Source: Bloomberg
Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.
