My mid-week morning train WFH reads:

• How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran: Maggie Haberman reconstructs the Situation Room deliberations that led to war. Trump overruled his vice president and ignored pessimistic intelligence assessments—a pattern that should surprise nobody. (New York Times) see also U.S. and Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire. And on TACO Tuesday no less! (NPR)

• The American Gas Exporter That Pulls In Billions During Energy Shocks: Venture Global is set to benefit from the tightening global natural-gas market. (Wall Street Journal)

• Misreading the tea leaves: It is said that “the market” no longer expects rate cuts in 2026 and increasingly views Fed hikes as a possibility. That seems odd. For the past two years, the Fed has been unwilling to slow demand growth to levels necessary to hit its inflation target. But now that same institution will hike rates into an exogenous supply shock, exacerbating its drag on economic activity? That’d mark quite an inversion of the adage that one should control the things you can and accept those you cannot. (Carlyle)

• The Ridiculously Nerdy Intel Bet That Could Rake in Billions: Advanced chip packaging is suddenly at the center of the AI boom. Intel is going all in. (Wired)

• Private equity buyouts slump as AI fears and war dent dealmaking Groups agreed acquisitions worth $172bn in three months to March, a 36% fall from previous quarter. (Financial Times)

• Salem’s Lot: Gulf War update; a US fossil fuel reliance fever dream: The US Air Force has flown over 13,000 missions in Iran, striking over 12,000 targets. Iranian drone and missile strikes have declined by 90%-95% since the war began, and interception rates by Gulf countries is reported at 90%+. Retired Air Force Brigadier General Cantwell: “The fact that there have not been more fighter jets lost in Iran is a testament to the capabilities of US forces. That this hasn’t happened until now is an absolute miracle.” (Eye on the Market)

• In Parks and on Rooftops, Urban Beekeeping Takes Flight: Raising honeybees in the city has emerged as a popular sustainability practice — and a big business. But hives can also leave native pollinators in a sticky fix. (CityLab)

• ‘This Was the Real Thing’: Meet the Woman Who Alerts the World When an Asteroid Could Hit: A profile of the UN official responsible for warning humanity about asteroid impacts. The most important job nobody’s heard of. (The Guardian)

• ‘An Operational Success and a Huge Strategic Failure’ Perhaps the most apt description of Trump’s policy toward Iran is an “incoherent maze” — a phrase Pete Hegseth applied in 2016 to Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Lost in his own labyrinth, Trump granted sanctions relief to Iran even as he bombed it, and careened from threatening war crimes unless Iran opened the strait to suggesting that the strait wasn’t our concern. (New York Times) see also The Mythology of Pete Hegseth: Garrett Graff dismantles the mythology Hegseth has built around himself as the Iran War’s cheerleader-in-chief. The alternate history he’s selling is dangerous. (Doomsday Scenario)

• Maga stands by Trump on Iran — for now: On the streets of small-town Georgia, the president’s base is backing the war as swing voters waver.  (Financial Times)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025 a member of the board of directors of HP.

These Cities and States Are Taking Aim at Data Centers

Source: Wall Street Journal

 

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The transcript from this week’s MiB: Songyee Yoon, Principal Venture Partners, is below.

You can stream and download our full conversation, including azny podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Bloomberg, YouTube (video), and YouTube (audio). All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.

 

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Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News. This is Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio.

[00:00:15]  Barry Ritholtz:  On the latest Masters in Business podcast, my conversation with Songyee Yoon. She is founder and managing partner at Principal Ventures, an AI-focused venture capital investment firm. She has a fascinating background — MIT Corporation Advisory Board, 50 Women to Watch in Business from the Wall Street Journal, named to the advisory board for the Center for Asia Pacific Policy, as well as the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. She has a fascinating background in gaming, telecom, and AI.

[00:00:56]  Barry Ritholtz:  I found this conversation to be fascinating and I think you will also. With no further ado, my discussion with Songyee Yoon. That is quite a CV I went through. Let’s roll back though to where it all began. You get a Bachelor’s in Science from Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and then a PhD in computational neuroscience from MIT. That’s such a fascinating area.

[00:01:27]  Barry Ritholtz:  What was the original career plan?

[00:01:31]  Songyee Yoon:  That’s a very good question. I mean, I think growing up in South Korea, I didn’t know what the career options were that I had. I just really enjoyed learning science and engineering subjects. So when I was young, I realized for some people, like singing is very natural. Some people dancing is natural. I cannot sing, I cannot dance, but speaking to computers and programming was very natural to me. So I started programming when I was nine, and that led me to major in electrical engineering as an undergrad at KAIST.

[00:02:18]  Songyee Yoon:  To be a better engineer, you need to understand how the human brain works. So for example, I was studying signal processing algorithms, and those algorithms look best to your eyes when it’s not necessarily mathematically the best, but takes into consideration what frequencies are most sensitive to human eyes. So understanding human brain and human perception will enable you to become a better engineer. That was kind of the exploration — what subject or major could I pursue to have a better understanding of both engineering and the human brain and perception.

[00:03:00]  Songyee Yoon:  That led me to study computational neuroscience at MIT.

[00:03:03]  Barry Ritholtz:  So computational neuroscience isn’t so much about using computers to understand people, as opposed to understanding neuroscience to create better software, better interfaces, better human interaction with technology. Is that fair?

[00:03:19]  Songyee Yoon:  That’s right. Exactly. Yeah, that’s right.

[00:03:21]  Barry Ritholtz:  Huh. So pretty fascinating — early in your career you’re at McKinsey for a few years, and then you eventually move into SK Telecom. Tell us your focus at both places.

[00:03:32]  Songyee Yoon:  Yeah, so I mean, I think after my PhD I wanted to go into the business world instead of staying in academia, and going to McKinsey was the best way to transition from being a PhD student to going into the real world. So it was a really fascinating experience — very fast-paced, able to work with big conglomerates and the leaders of businesses in the areas of strategy and corporate finance, et cetera. And SK was one of the firm’s clients, and I don’t want to date myself. It was a time that everyone was rushing into 3G rollout. If you remember —

[00:04:23]  Barry Ritholtz:  Oh, sure.

[00:04:24]  Songyee Yoon:  It was an interesting transition, just like we see today, because in 2G, telecommunication is all about voice communication, and 3G — what was promised — was data transmission, including videos and images and high-fidelity audio.

[00:04:41]  Barry Ritholtz:  If I’m remembering correctly, it was voice and text, and then it was image and some video. And then eventually, what was it — 4G or 5G — was full internet, right?

[00:04:52]  Songyee Yoon:  Right. Yeah, that’s right. So as telcos are one of the big CapEx investors in making that transition, we were thinking about how we could do content delivery in the most personalized way — because personalized content delivery was one of the challenges that requires artificial intelligence and a data-driven delivery system. So I thought that was an interesting challenge to take on. So I moved to SK Telecom to lead that effort.

[00:05:26]  Barry Ritholtz:  And then you end up at NCSoft where you’re president and chief strategy officer. I’m curious what those experiences taught you, not just about corporate governance and culture, but about these big institutions that tend to have legacy technology. There tends to be some group that really wants to move forward rapidly and adopt all the latest greatest tech, and then another group that says, hey, this is expensive — what’s the ROI? How did you find yourself navigating a big telecom like SK or a smaller, more nimble gaming company like NCSoft?

[00:06:09]  Songyee Yoon:  Yeah, I mean, that’s a really great question. I think it’s about learning to be persistent and resilient and patient in both places. I was criticized for suggesting something that was not the norm at the time. So for example, when I was at NCSoft, one of the things that was very obvious to me was that it was full of data. The gaming business was offered entirely in a digitized form — you have transaction data, you have behavior data of the gamers and everything. So it was possible to do a lot of things in a data-driven way, which — it’s a lot of companies doing it today, but back then it was not very common to have understanding in both gaming business and AI and data-driven business process modeling.

[00:06:41]  Songyee Yoon:  So when I suggested things like churn prediction — because you can see the customer player behavior within the game, see how much they’re engaged, and predict if that player is about to churn out or continue — and that some interventions could help them stay engaged. That was one application area I identified, which could be very straightforward, but I was told there was strong pushback from the developers and even the business people. They said, ‘Oh, you’re saying it because you don’t understand the gaming business.’ You’re not a heavy gamer enough, or whatever. But —

[00:07:48]  Barry Ritholtz:  But you understand: hey, it costs us this much to acquire a client or a gamer. And if we see this behavior, a high percentage of those folks are tapping out. What can we do to keep them in and paying monthly fees?

[00:08:01]  Songyee Yoon:  Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So even with very clear data and the case presented, it was not an easy task to get everyone’s buy-in. But I think it gradually — the reason I mentioned that tangible example: it was a small, very tangible area where we could apply technology. And once you show success, gradually, one by one, we were able to adopt and integrate that into our business process, ending up with a large AI lab that does all of those things in a more centralized way.

[00:08:36]  Barry Ritholtz:  So what I’m hearing from you is a very systems-oriented framework, both for gaming and telecom, right? I know the big mobile companies in the US are constantly fighting their own churn rate. So having a top-down systems approach sounds like you could be really proactive in terms of maintaining clients. You would think there’s buy-in from everybody, but it sounds like there’s a little salesmanship involved to get everybody behind that approach, right?

[00:09:09]  Songyee Yoon:  Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:09:11]  Barry Ritholtz:  So let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on in the world of AI. I’ve heard you discuss various things that are just short-term hype. How do you figure out, when you’re evaluating an AI system — either for an investment or just to use the technology in a company — how do you figure out what’s valuable and what’s just hype?

[00:09:39]  Songyee Yoon:  I mean, I think we talk a lot about the hype cycle and bubble being built up in this AI era, but I think it’s not unheard of in every platform shift. There was overcapacity built, not just in AI infrastructure, but it happened with the internet, with fiber optics — you remember the railroad?

[00:10:02]  Barry Ritholtz:  Yeah. Railroad, electrics, telegram — wherever you go.

[00:10:04]  Songyee Yoon:  So there is always excess capacity that gets built. But on the other hand, if you talk about application of the technology, if you find the application and real business problems that you can apply this technology to solve — to be more efficient or bring out insights that humans were not able to — I think there is a great area to apply the technology, and there are so many of them out there. So that’s why we are so excited about the development of this technology and the prospect of it going forward.

[00:10:47]  Barry Ritholtz:  So I’ve heard you discuss various priorities — durability, defensibility, real-world impact. Explain what those three things mean.

[00:11:10]  Songyee Yoon:  In making that adoption of the technology, there are two ways to think about it. One is adopting the technology without really changing the current work process — for example, there’s a lot of talk about copilot, or augmenting what we do, making it faster. That’s one way of applying it, and there will be some ROI realized from such approaches. The other is a complete redesign of the workflow. And I think that’s — we’re at a very early stage of witnessing that, but I think that will be the more interesting area to look out for, and could produce more tremendous transformation and value.

[00:12:15]  Barry Ritholtz:  So tell us what you did at NCSoft, because a lot of the work you put in there was about transforming them to use AI. Was it, hey, we’re just going to make all our developers and gamers a little more efficient? Or did this require a clean-sheet rethink of everything the company was doing?

[00:12:37]  Songyee Yoon:  Yeah, I mean, it was like 15 years ago, and back then the technology was not ready to fully redesign the game development workflow. It was more about augmenting the existing process — things like churn prediction, NLP specialized for gamer language, an animation tool that helped animators animate four-legged monsters as efficiently as bipedal creatures. So it was more focused on augmenting existing processes back then. But the technology has advanced today to the point where there are more opportunities to completely redesign and come up with new AI-native companies — AI-native entertainment firms rethinking what new types of entertainment and engagement look like.

[00:13:56]  Barry Ritholtz:  So I keep reading that Claude is writing its own code and updating its own code. If you were at a gaming shop today — do you replace coders? Do you have copilot work with coders? There was a Wall Street Journal article last week about coders in Silicon Valley just sitting around watching Claude rewrite their code. What is going on in the world of software development now that Claude is capable of updating itself?

[00:14:34]  Songyee Yoon:  Yeah, I think it’s really fascinating. A lot of the coding is done using tools like Claude, and it certainly makes things more efficient and productive, which means we need a lot less people in the loop in certain areas — such as reviewing code and detecting errors. But there are other areas that need more heavy involvement, like redesigning the schema and structure and how things are going to work and how it’s going to provide an engaging experience for gamers.

[00:15:26]  Barry Ritholtz:  So my bias is that humans are very creative and very innovative. I’m thinking in terms of the storylines we see on streaming shows and interesting novel gaming narratives. Is that what people are going to focus on, and just the blocking and tackling of putting code in place — we’re going to let AI do? Is that a today thing or is that going to change over the next couple of decades?

[00:16:05]  Songyee Yoon:  I think that’s a really good question. If you look at today, a lot of jobs — like YouTubers, podcasters — these are types of jobs that didn’t exist 10 years ago. I don’t know what other jobs are going to be created in a world where things that needed a hundred people’s attention can be done with a fraction of those people. There could be other types of jobs, other types of roles. But that’s an evolution we’ll have to see how it rolls out — I can’t predict exactly what types of jobs will exist 10 years from now.

[00:16:42]  Barry Ritholtz:  Huh. Really, really interesting. Coming up, we continue our conversation with Songyee Yoon, managing partner at Principal Ventures, discussing AI and the modern economy. I’m Barry Ritholtz, you’re listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.

[00:17:10]  Barry Ritholtz:  I am Barry Ritholtz, you’re listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. My extra special guest today is Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner at Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused venture capital firm. Previously she was president and chief strategy officer at gaming company NCSoft.

[00:17:30]  Barry Ritholtz:  So before we start talking about AI in more depth, I just have to mention your book, Push Play: Gaming for a Better World. I love the concept that — let’s not forget about play. It’s really significant in terms of innovation and being an engine of change. Tell us a little bit about what motivated Push Play.

[00:17:56]  Songyee Yoon:  Right. I mean, as you just mentioned, I think we have a tendency of not appreciating the role of play in our everyday life. My motto is: we don’t live to work, we live to play — we live to explore. When you have extra time, are you going to do one more line of work or are you going to play? I think play is our natural tendency — homo ludens as opposed to homo sapiens. Play is very important, not only for computer games, but in general play has played a very significant role in human evolution. Whenever there is a new artifact introduced in our culture, we start by playing with it.

[00:19:04]  Songyee Yoon:  And when we have a good understanding of the material and its utility, then we turn that into utility. I think gaming has been playing that role very diligently over the last couple of decades. Gaming has always been the platform brave enough to incorporate new technology and have players try it out. We had a VP of AI since the early 2000s. AI technology was not mature enough for driverless cars 20 years ago, but it was okay in gaming because gaming is a low-risk environment and gamers are inherently early adopters. Not just AI, but Kubernetes, cloud, even freemium business models — all tried out in gaming first before being adopted in other businesses.

[00:20:33]  Barry Ritholtz:  Let me throw you a little bit of a curveball about gaming. When I was growing up, play was totally unstructured — you’d go down to the schoolyard. Computer games like Pong and Space Invaders were very rudimentary. Now it seems kids’ lives are much more scheduled, their play is more structured. How does that affect the sort of experience you want to provide from a gaming company?

[00:21:02]  Songyee Yoon:  That’s a very good question, and there are many aspects to it. One is about what gaming is for today. The reason there’s so much opportunity to play games as a novelty is because computers happen to be the most sophisticated and advanced devices we have today. I think we’re still trying to figure out their limitations and what they can do, and we’re in awe of the experience they can provide. So there are a lot of online digital games out there, and the size of the catalog means kids end up choosing a game or two from that. And a game is not just one thing — there are sandbox games, building games, quiz games, story-based games. Depending on your preference, you can choose different games.

[00:22:18]  Barry Ritholtz:  So let’s stay with kids, with children, and in particular students. There’s been a lot of concern about the impact of AI on education, on learning, on training people to get jobs in the real world. There’s a quote of yours I was intrigued with: ‘Rather than competing with AI, students should be prepared to leverage uniquely human capabilities.’ Explain what that means in terms of the real world.

[00:22:46]  Songyee Yoon:  If you think about education — our education has been optimized over the last couple of hundred years for delivering knowledge. And I think we are witnessing that knowledge delivery and memorization is rapidly being commoditized. What our next generation needs is more creativity and problem-solving skills. We have to think about how we can redesign the classroom to really enhance those skills instead of helping them acquire one more piece of knowledge.

[00:23:31]  Barry Ritholtz:  So there’s a very different set of targets — acquiring skills versus just learning or memorizing things. I’m a big fan of teaching children how to problem solve. How should schools be using AI to teach children new skills — developing expertise, developing problem-solving? What’s the proper role of AI for educational institutions?

[00:24:05]  Songyee Yoon:  I think what I would like to say is that we have to educate and prepare our students to thrive in a world where AI is more prevalent. But the solution to that is not just AI — it could be redesigning the curriculum, redesigning the school system, thinking about how we evaluate their achievement and how we retrain our teachers. AI could be a tool for doing that, but it’s not the solution for everything. I think there is a huge difference there.

[00:24:48]  Barry Ritholtz:  Alright, so let’s bring this out to the world of the economy and business. Successful companies have wide moats and we’re starting to see AI compress those moats over time. Think about industries like lawyers, tax preparers, accountants. There’s a lot of stuff AI can do in a fraction of the time and with greater accuracy. Everybody knows about reading X-rays and MRIs. So if we know our moats are going to get compressed, how should companies be using AI either to protect and expand those moats, or use AI to expand their competitive advantages while they last?

[00:25:51]  Songyee Yoon:  I mean, I think there are some industries and professions that will become much more productive and need a lot fewer professionals to solve certain well-defined problems. But that doesn’t mean that as humanity we’re left with no problems to solve. We have so many other problems that AI cannot address — for example, politics, how we’re going to redistribute resources. What is our societal priority in enhancing the agency of everyone and helping them achieve their full potential? Those are things we don’t have good solutions for. While AI can take care of things in a well-defined workforce, we’ll have time to work on other problems to progress humanity forward.

[00:27:12]  Barry Ritholtz:  So I think we’re all in agreement it’s going to be a very disruptive technology. Am I hearing you say essentially: hey, it’s up to everybody to learn how to use these tools and adapt, but the change is coming — you have to be prepared?

[00:27:28]  Songyee Yoon:  Yes. Right. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:27:30]  Barry Ritholtz:  So you’ve operated at the intersection of artificial intelligence, gaming, telecommunication, and social platforms. That’s a great convergence of a lot of different technologies. How is that evolving, and how are both consumers and institutions really adapting to an AI-driven economy?

[00:27:56]  Songyee Yoon:  I mean, a lot of people recognize that this is one of the greatest platform shifts in our lifetime, and there’s a lot of excitement. But we are at the very early inning of how it’s going to fully pan out. We don’t even know what’s coming in the next three to five years. And I’m really excited to see all these use cases and applications of technology fully leveraging the creativity of the AI-native generation. The people who think with AI as part of their toolkit will come up with different ideas and apply their creativity.

[00:28:54]  Barry Ritholtz:  So you’ve founded Chameleon as a corporate venture arm, and now you run a fully independent early-stage venture fund. What are the differences between being part of a corporate venture fund versus being independent? What are the strengths and blind spots in each?

[00:29:18]  Songyee Yoon:  I think the objective is different depending on who is providing the capital and what the objective of the firm is. At PVP, I think we focus more on the type of investors who’d like to be at the forefront of innovation and capture the value being created — regardless of the area. It doesn’t have to be confined to entertainment and consumer space. I think we were able to look more broadly.

[00:29:59]  Barry Ritholtz:  So corporate is pure strategic and independent is strictly ROI. So let’s talk about some of the companies you’ve backed — Together AI, Cartia, Sesame. These all seem to be pretty core infrastructure plays. Tell us a little about those. What was it about each of those that made them so appealing?

[00:30:21]  Songyee Yoon:  I mean, it’s a really tricky time to make an investment because there is a lot of excitement about this technology and a kind of rushing mentality. So I try to invest in companies that are going to be durable in the coming decades. I really like companies that are building infrastructure technology that has multipurpose utility as this platform evolves. Together AI and Cartia both have great founders with a vision of building infrastructure and foundational technology. And Sesame was an interesting case because it’s building voice applications — and from my gaming experience I know the importance of focusing on certain features that provide certain experiences to users. The founders understood what was important, and their capabilities were singularly focused on making that technology push.

[00:31:36]  Songyee Yoon:  So I really liked what they were doing, and that’s one of the reasons I ended up investing in Sesame. But there are other types of companies as well that we’re excited about. Those are the companies that are in a position to build a data flywheel — because one of the undeniable characteristics of companies that will be durable in this environment are the ones who have appropriate access to data, understanding of customers and consumers and the business, and build unique technology on top of that. So we’re also investing in companies building this data flywheel that will over time build very defensible moats.

[00:32:27]  Barry Ritholtz:  Hmm, really, really interesting. Coming up, we continue our conversation with Songyee Yoon, co-founder and managing partner at Principal Ventures, discussing the state of venture investing into artificial intelligence today. I’m Barry Ritholtz, you’re listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.

[00:33:03]  Barry Ritholtz:  I am Barry Ritholtz. You are listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. My extra special guest today is Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner at Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused VC.

[00:33:21]  Barry Ritholtz:  What is the key problem Principal Venture Partners is trying to solve in the world of AI today?

[00:33:29]  Songyee Yoon:  So we started to back AI-native companies. When we first talked about AI-native companies, that was not a very common phrase — people asked me, ‘What do you mean by AI-native companies?’ I had to explain what it meant. And these days it’s a more widely used term. We’d like to back companies who are fully embracing the technology of today and tomorrow, led by founders who understand the technology and its limitations and are able to come up with an organizational design that reflects the importance of this. In terms of the size of departments, it will be very different from companies built upon last-generation technology stacks.

[00:34:21]  Songyee Yoon:  And I think the type of leaders and talents who are going to lead all these departments are going to be different in terms of the use of technology and their vision for solving problems that are relevant in the AI-native era. Those are the companies that really excite us, and those are the companies we’re focused on investing in.

[00:34:40]  Barry Ritholtz:  So every time there’s a new technology, everybody just kind of sprinkles a little bit on it to catch a little bit of the buzz. We had it with the dot-coms, we had it with the metaverse, we had it with crypto, and now everybody’s claiming they’re an AI company. How do you distinguish between what is truly AI-native and what is just ‘let’s put a little dash of AI salt on this’?

[00:35:06]  Songyee Yoon:  That’s a very good question. I think I have an unfair advantage from working in a gaming company. The gaming industry is like having a lens into the future, right? Because a lot of the technology and innovation happens in gaming first, and it gives us a sense of whether this type of technology is adoptable and whether consumers will accept it. So in terms of application and platform, that’s a really interesting guiding North Star for me. And companies that are fully AI-native are built around that tech stack, whereas if you’re trying to sprinkle AI, you ask: can you do the same thing without AI? Why do you need it? Why is it indispensable?

[00:36:05]  Songyee Yoon:  I think there are businesses using things like agent technology, but for a lot of applications you don’t need an agent — you just need good data analytics. So there are many ways we try to understand how businesses are operating and see their full potential and their strategy.

[00:36:30]  Barry Ritholtz:  So on the one hand, I know AI has been around a long time. When Deep Blue beat Kasparov, that was a big deal. And then the AI app that won Jeopardy — these are 10 and 20 years ago. So it’s not a brand-new technology. However, it feels like we took another level jump with ChatGPT, and — go down the list — Claude, Perplexity, whatever. How do you think about this moment in time? Is this similar to early broadband, early smartphones, early cloud use? For someone who’s a tech investor, they want to know: is it early, is it late? How do you think about where we are today?

[00:37:30]  Songyee Yoon:  That’s great. Actually, it’s older than that. Do you remember — in the sixties there was an application called Eliza? Eliza was a very early incarnation of a chatbot, and there was even a newspaper headline declaring the end of psychotherapists because it was doing so well rephrasing what people were asking. Since then there were a lot of AI winters and summers, ups and downs. And I think what’s surprising to many people about this time is that the AI shift is closer to the introduction of the railroad than the introduction of the PC or the internet. Because the biggest breakthrough that allowed us to get here was actually scale — not a new algorithm, not new software, but scale: let’s pour a lot of resources to make it really big. And that’s where we saw the tremendous jump in AI capability.

[00:39:34]  Songyee Yoon:  I think there will be interesting new businesses that emerge out of it. So yes, I think we are very early in terms of fully appreciating what’s possible on top of this.

[00:39:46]  Barry Ritholtz:  So I love the idea of interesting new businesses. I’m always fascinated with what the public markets know — they’re more or less eventually efficient, and very often when a new technology comes along, they very much underestimate where it can go. So what’s a use case that the public markets might be underestimating? Where might this go? You look at dozens and dozens of new companies — what direction is just mind-blowing that nobody is really anticipating?

[00:40:24]  Songyee Yoon:  I think there are a lot of things happening. One interesting thing is that while this technology has beaten many people’s expectations, there is a lot more innovation coming along in terms of architecture design and fundamental design of the framework. We are not done with what is the most efficient railroad design. I think there could be other types of railroads that come online that will allow faster and more comfortable ride experiences. And once there is a railroad, interesting businesses emerge — like mail order. It’s really hard to make that connection, but that type of new business was made possible because the railroad was in place.

[00:41:40]  Barry Ritholtz:  Well, broadband and fiber optic led to so many things — everything from YouTube to the build-out of Amazon Web Services and online games, online retail, all that stuff.

[00:41:53]  Songyee Yoon:  Exactly. Games, right? That’s why I am really excited about AI-native generations and creativity — what they’re going to build on top of this. I think there will be new types of businesses that we don’t comprehend today that will be enabled by this infrastructure.

[00:42:06]  Barry Ritholtz:  So when you’re sitting with a founder of a company that’s looking for financing, what sort of questions do you ask? What are you trying to figure out about their model, their direction, their team?

[00:42:24]  Songyee Yoon:  I mean, it depends on what they’re building. The set of questions I ask when they’re building infrastructure technology versus business applications are different. But especially when they’re building business applications or vertical applications, I always try to ask: what is the real value that’s going to be brought to end users? We’re not investing in companies building amazing tech demonstrations — we’re trying to find companies who are solving real-world business problems and doing it in a way that’s sustainable and more efficient than any other type of technology.

[00:43:11]  Barry Ritholtz:  So you’re looking at infrastructure-type companies. What other types of AI applications are you looking at?

[00:43:18]  Songyee Yoon:  We are looking at companies that are building vertical applications by developing data liabilities and data moats.

[00:43:27]  Barry Ritholtz:  So there’s been a little bit of a lightning rod from a regulatory standpoint — all the LLMs have copyright complaints and issues. When you look at a term sheet today, how do you think about the regulatory risks, the litigation risks? How do you think about the regulatory framework and geopolitics? It seems like there are a lot of novel moving parts.

[00:44:11]  Songyee Yoon:  Yeah, I think that’s a really great question. More than ever, understanding how regulatory bodies think and how policy is going to evolve over time is important in making these decisions — especially in the venture space. We’re making investments that should last over a decade. It comes from the belief and understanding that innovation and research are very precious for all of us as humanity. And the tradition of peer review and open forum has really propelled us to where we are today. It’s going to continue, and I think collaboration and openness will better serve our end customers. We don’t have a crystal ball to say what the policy framework or geopolitical tension will look like in the next one or two years, but we have the belief that humanity’s collective work will converge in a direction that serves humanity positively.

[00:46:15]  Barry Ritholtz:  Alright, so before we get to our speed round, let me ask you one last question: what do you think investors in the AI space are either not thinking about or not talking about, that is important and perhaps they really should be paying attention to?

[00:46:33]  Songyee Yoon:  I think the saying that ‘we are at the very early inning’ means a lot. I hear someone even saying we are still in the car getting to the stadium — we’re not even in the first inning yet. That means all the models and structures can change significantly and can evolve over time, and nothing can be seen as engraved in stone. So I think a lot of the investment decisions have to remain nimble and flexible because we should be able to adjust when those changes and new breakthroughs come around.

[00:47:26]  Barry Ritholtz:  Alright, so I only have you for a few minutes, so we’ll click through these really quickly — our speed round. Starting with: who are your early mentors who helped to shape your career?

[00:47:38]  Songyee Yoon:  I would say I was fortunate enough to have a lot of mentors, but one person that stands out is Dominic Barton, who was the global managing partner at McKinsey. When I first started out as an associate at McKinsey, his office was right next to mine, so he was literally my neighbor and I learned a lot from him as a leader and as a mentor. Still today I reach out to him if I have to make tough decisions, and he has always been very generous with his time. So I’m really appreciative.

[00:48:22]  Barry Ritholtz:  Let’s talk about books. What are some of your favorites? What are you reading right now?

[00:48:26]  Songyee Yoon:  Oh, so I read a lot of books, but I’m the type that reads many books simultaneously — one chapter here and then I jump to another book. But the books I recommend to everyone these days are two: one is The Empire of AI and the other is Power and Progress. And I think those books help us understand the dynamics of what’s happening and what we need to think about as a society.

[00:48:56]  Barry Ritholtz:  So let’s talk about streaming. What are you either listening to or watching these days?

[00:49:02]  Songyee Yoon:  So I listen to music through Spotify a lot. My son is a big fan of Taylor Swift, so I have to listen to Taylor Swift whenever I’m in the car. I also watch K-dramas on Netflix.

[00:49:23]  Barry Ritholtz:  Really, really interesting. Our final two questions. What sort of advice would you give to a recent college graduate interested in a career in either artificial intelligence, investing, or gaming?

[00:49:38]  Songyee Yoon:  I mean, I think for kids just graduating today — one thing that’s not going to change is that it’s going to be very bumpy and disruptive, and the world they’re going to be working in is not going to look like the world today — that’s the constant. And what I would like to remind them is: don’t try to follow the trend. You really have to stick to what you’re passionate about. You remember in the seventies the most popular major was material science, then chemical engineering, then electrical engineering, then computer science — just to see the popularity of those majors kind of plummeting. We’ve witnessed so many of those cases. So I don’t think it serves you well to follow that fashion or trend.

[00:50:46]  Barry Ritholtz:  So be a generalist and be flexible.

[00:50:50]  Songyee Yoon:  Could be. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:50:52]  Barry Ritholtz:  Alright. And our final question: what do you know about the world of venture investing and artificial intelligence today that might have been useful to know 20 years ago?

[00:51:03]  Songyee Yoon:  I mean, I think patience. The power of compounding is not just in finance, but also in human capital, our understanding of technology, and also in relationships. It seems very slow today, but if you are persistent for 20 years, what you can achieve is really tremendous.

[00:51:29]  Barry Ritholtz:  Well, thank you Songyee for being so generous with your time. We have been speaking with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner at Principal Venture Partners. If you enjoyed this conversation, check out any of the 600-plus interviews we’ve done over the past 12 years. You can find those at iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Bloomberg, wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

[00:51:58]  Barry Ritholtz:  I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the crack team that helps us put these conversations together each week. Alexis Noriega is my video producer, Anna Luke is my podcast producer, Sean Russo is my head of research. I’m Barry Ritholtz.

[00:52:14]  You’ve been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.

 

~~~

 

 

 

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My NCAA recovery (Go Blue!) Tuesday morning train reads:

• Sales of used EVs surge in US as petrol prices pass $4 a gallon: Americans are buying second-hand electric vehicles even as the market for new vehicles slumps. (Financial Times)

• The ‘magic number’ for a comfortable retirement just got bigger: A 2026 Northwestern Mutual survey raised the retirement “magic number” to $1.46 million, highlighting a growing gap between what Americans expect they need and the savings many actually have, with generational differences in retirement preparedness. (USA Today)

• Private Credit and the New World of Financial Risk: There’s a whiff of 2008 in the air (Paul Krugman)

• An Inside Look at OpenAI and Anthropic’s Finances Ahead of Their IPOs: Silicon Valley’s hottest startups have the same challenge: funding giant computing costs. (Wall Street Journal)

• How many products does Microsoft have named ‘Copilot’? I mapped every one: A few weeks ago, I tried to explain to someone what Microsoft Copilot is. I couldn’t… because the name ‘Copilot’ now refers to at least 75 different things. (Tey Bannerman)

• I broke up with my Kindle. My new e-reader treats me better. Was it the bibliophile Eden some Kobo fans described? Not quite. The reality was messier than expected — but still better. After Amazon’s Kindle removed my ability to download and back up my own e-books, I went in search of an alternative. (Washington Post)

• ‘Food security timebomb’: a visual guide to the Gulf fertiliser blockade: The Strait of Hormuz isn’t just about oil—it’s a chokepoint for global fertilizer supplies. The blockade is threatening food security from Asia to Africa. UN says record numbers of people could face acute hunger if conflict continues.  (The Guardian)

• When War Crimes Rhetoric Becomes Battlefield Reality: The Slippery Slope to Total War on Iran. Iranian power plants and other critical civilian infrastructure are protected from attacks by the law of war the United States helped craft after World War II. Such an object can lose its protection only if it is used for military purposes by the enemy and its destruction “offers a definite military advantage.” Even then, such an object can be attacked only if, after a case-by-case rigorous analysis, the “concrete and direct military advantage anticipated” outweighs the civilian suffering that is expected to result. (JustSecurity)

• We’re cancer doctors. These are the symptoms most people overlook: Oncologists lay out the subtle warning signs that most people dismiss. Early detection saves lives, and this is the kind of piece that could actually do it. (The Telegraph)

• The Trajectory of the Artemis II Moon Mission Is a Feat of Engineering: The astronauts will break all previous records for distance traveled from Earth. Here’s how they’ll get there—and back. (Wired) see also Artemis II crew saw a life-changing view. The story of a viral photo. An Artemis II astronaut captured Earth in striking detail, even showing green auroras lighting up the atmosphere. Here’s why the view inspires humans in a profound way. An Artemis II astronaut captured Earth in striking detail, even showing green auroras lighting up the atmosphere. Here’s why the view inspires humans in a profound way. (USA Today) see also The 4 ways science confirms the Moon landings were real: Even though no human has stepped foot on the Moon’s surface in 50 years, the evidence of our presence there remains unambiguous. (Big Think)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025 a member of the board of directors of HP.

 

Helium shortage has started impacting tech supply chains, execs say

Source: Reuters

 

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I am heading out to the West Coast with 9 of my colleagues to meet with clients of the firm in San Francisco on April 14-16! I’ll also be hosting a Masters in Business live at the Bloomberg HQ at Pier 3.

Reach out if you’re interested in learning how RWM solves problems involving:

-Capital gains tax management

-Working out of (or around) concentrated stock positions

-Planning the sale of a business

-Bespoke fixed income strategies

-Tax advantaged borrowing

–Employee Stock Option Plan Management

-Maximizing the benefit of philanthropic giving

-Efficient transfer of wealth to the next generation

As we prepare for our upcoming meetings with our Bay Area clients, I can’t help but reflect on how our firm’s value proposition has evolved to meet an ever-expanding set of complex client needs.

I detailed many of these last week in a post titled “The Evolution of Alpha.”

A generation ago, these solutions were viable only for the highest-net-worth households; they required a huge amount of time and effort, making them too expensive for all but the wealthiest families.

This is no longer the case.

Thanks to the innovative application of technology in wealth management, these same strategies are now available to far more households than ever before, and at an affordable price. Managing capital gains taxes, tax-advantaged lending, and orchestrating tax planning and investment management was made cost-effective through the intelligent use of software, data, and personalization.

In my experience, it has been leading to client outcomes that simply weren’t possible at scale just a few years ago. To learn more, send an email to info AT RitholtzWealth.com, subject line “RWM in San Francisco.”

~~~

Looking forward to seeing you in the Bay Area!

 

 

Previously:
The Evolution of Alpha (April 3, 2026)

RWM Coming to San Francisco April 14-16 (February 26, 2026)

 

The post Next Week! RWM Takes San Francisco! appeared first on The Big Picture.

My back-to-work morning train WFH reads:

• The Cascade: The war’s secondary effects have crossed a threshold. They are no longer consequences. They are independent crises with their own momentum, and most of them will not stop when the bombing stops. (The Omission) see also Why isn’t the stock market freaking out more over the Iran war? Here’s why: History tells us that geopolitical events like the launch of military actions tend to rattle the securities markets in the short term, investors eventually shift to the long view, assuming that these conflicts will eventually be resolved and the door reopened to bullish sentiment. (Los Angeles Times)

• The State of the (Bonkers) ETF Market: The ETF industry just had its wildest quarter ever—new launches, record flows, and a geopolitical backdrop that scrambled every playbook. Bonkers is the right word. (ETF.com)

• In Batteries We Trust: Krugman argues that oil futures are still too cheap given where energy markets are headed. The battery revolution is real, but the transition is messier than anyone wants to admit. (Paul Krugman)

• Microsoft closes worst quarter on Wall Street since 2008 on AI concerns: ‘Redmond is in a pickle’ Concerns about the company include the return on investment for artificial intelligence build-outs and the adoption of Copilot. Microsoft’s earnings multiple hasn’t been this low since the fourth quarter of 2022, when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT. (CNBC)

• Dispatch from the permanent underclass, April 3rd, 2029. Jack Raines takes a hard look at the Americans who’ve been left behind by every recovery. The permanent underclass isn’t a bug in the system—it’s a feature. Come with me on a journey… (Young Money)

• How the Midwest Became the Place to Move:  Flyover country is becoming move-to country. As the Sun Belt cools off and housing costs surge on the coasts, the Midwest is having its moment. It’s (mostly) about affordability. (The Atlantic) see also Private equity house views 2026. Uncertainty surrounding inflation, economic growth, and interest rates remains high. (Stepstone)

• America Now Has an EV Rust Belt. High Gas Prices Won’t Rescue It. GM supplier Magna is stuck with a plant built to churn out parts for battery-powered pickups; the $575 million EV parts factory in Michigan sits mostly empty. The auto industry’s pullback on EV investment has created a new kind of industrial wasteland; ‘the magnitude of uncertainty is unparalleled.’ (Wall Street Journal)

• I broke up with my Kindle. My new e-reader treats me better. After Amazon’s Kindle removed my ability to download and back up my own e-books, I went in search of an alternative. (Washington Post free)

• How A.I. Helped One Man (and His Brother) Build a $1.8 Billion Company: Who needs more than two employees when artificial intelligence can do so many corporate tasks? It’s super efficient — and a little bit lonely. (New York Times)

• Iran War Showcases Strength of South Korean Defense Sector: Missile interceptors made by the South Korean firm LIG Nex1 are said to be performing well, at a small fraction of the cost of U.S. interceptors. The Iran war is turning Seoul into the world’s defense industry darling. (New York Times)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025 a member of the board of directors of HP.

 

Energy’s share in consumer spending was just 4% as of Jan 2026

Source: Aditya Bhave, BofA Research

 

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We are all looking to make it. And we employ signifiers, status markers, to indicate that we’ve crossed the threshold, that we are no longer trapped amongst the great unwashed, that finally we are SOMEBODY!

And one of the main ways you felt settled, that you were not only on your way, but part of the firmament, was seeing your name in the news.

It’s a thrill when it first happens. You mean you want MY opinion, you want to write about ME? But as time goes by, you find out it’s meaningless, because everybody is expressing their opinion or promoting their wares all day long online, and your triumph gets lost in the shuffle.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with publicity, and sometimes it even gooses projects and careers, all I am saying is it won’t sustain a career. And longevity is everything today.

Used to be, very few people could make it. Could get a record deal, never mind get on the radio and become a star who can sell tickets. Whatever your innate talent, the work of a whole team enabled you to climb the ladder, which is why you see award winners constantly thanking their handlers.

But awards don’t mean much either. I hope you’re thrilled you won, but in a matter of months, seemingly no one remembers your victory. Furthermore, there are a lot of Grammy winners who make their money elsewhere, not in music, or have given up completely. That’s what an award is worth. So if that’s your goal…

I was reading the “Wall Street Journal” yesterday and saw that a friend was quoted. He’s not a public figure; I don’t think his inclusion resonated with a broad swath of the public. For a second there, I thought how they didn’t call me, but that’s just a step on the ladder, a momentary feel-good experience. Most people, after they’ve had that brush with publicity, feel good for a moment and have seen the return was relatively minimal, go back to doing the work.

And it’s all about the work.

Ah, that’s a cliché. Let me try to restate it in other words.

If you want to last a long time in today’s world, you’ve got to keep on creating, because there’s so much news and so much of it reaches so few people that most have already forgotten about you, if they knew about you in the first place.

There’s nothing wrong with a feature in the “Times” or the “Wall Street Journal”… But be wary, these outlets are never completely positive. That David Geffen documentary? The one on Jimmy Iovine and Dre? They were love letters, because THEY PAID FOR THEM! They know it’s all about control, kudos.

But if you give up control, beware.

However, let’s return to basics. Most people are looking to get noticed. They want to get out of the hole that they’re in. They want to throw the long ball; they want to believe there is some grand poohbah out there who can reach out and anoint them, and their career will be made. Today, this is patently untrue.

Let’s start with the number of news outlets.

I know, I know, I’ve lauded Apple News+, but if you read the general feed, your eyes will glaze over; it’s all clickbait headlines…and when you click through, there’s very little there.

You even get the same thing in Google News!

All these outlets fighting for attention have caused people to look elsewhere for information, first and foremost, their friends and family, real or those they’ve met online. It’s like we’re living in the 1800s, prior to modern communication methods. The mainstream has worn out its welcome, been excoriated by those who don’t agree with it, on both the left and the right, and has never meant less.

But we’re not talking about general news here, we’re talking about you.

You’re looking for a leg up; you’re looking for it to be made easier. IT’S NEVER GOING TO BE MADE EASIER! The major label can’t break you, if it will even sign you. Terrestrial radio can’t break you; it takes its clues from Spotify and other streaming media. And Spotify is a great democracy influenced by word of mouth, both online and offline. Social media can drive a hit more than terrestrial radio. But there’s no direct pipeline, no one you can pay to get millions of views.

So…

Paying for streams, for views on YouTube…unless your plan is to leverage these to make a deal with a larger entity, save your money. Your fans don’t care, and it’s only about your fans.

Now I’m not saying fans are irrelevant; it’s just that now there’s a direct conduit from you to them, and you must feed the beast, constantly. Your only hope of growing is via your fans, and if you’re not top of mind, they’re not going to do the work for you. And some fans spread the word, and some do not, and you don’t know who is who, so you have to keep spraying bullets and…

Sounds hard, doesn’t it?

It’s VERY hard.

Anybody can get noticed for a minute or two. Every week in the “Times” Sunday Style section, they hype a book or previously unknown person, and it’s almost like the kiss of death; they’re never heard from again.

TV entertainment news? If you think active consumers are even watching broadcast/cable TV, you’re dreaming. That’s not the bleeding edge, and those who make a difference, who change the world, are always harvesting information on the fringe.

So, you’ve got to keep on working, or you’re going to be forgotten. Most of the public does not know you’re a one-hit wonder, and there’s a tsunami of product, and you’re not going to get many streams in the future.

Now wait just a minute, you say… I won, I triumphed, I SUCCEEDED!

Maybe by old school metrics.

There’s no overlord with fairy dust spraying it on the lucky few.

No, you’re not only the creator, but you’re also the fairy too.

And be wary of getting away from your mission. That brand extension might be a mistake if it takes your focus from the core work, if it undercuts your credibility.

In other words, unless you’ve got a plan to get in quick and get out nearly as fast, the world has completely changed. It’s not about momentary vertical success; it’s about continuing to be in the landscape. For year after year after year.

If you’re doing this for an annum or two, before you go to graduate school, don’t even bother; go enroll at the academy. Because it takes longer than ever to gain a following, and you never quite know when you’ve made it, if you’ve made it at all.

Read the news. The trades. Look at who is featured, who is promoted, but don’t feel left out. That’s a moment in time. Used to be it was a rarefied world, only a few could get ink, now EVERYBODY can get ink.

That’s true. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember what a thrill it was to be on TV. You told your friends to look for you at the baseball game. Now you don’t even mention it, because it’s no big deal. The barrier to entry is so low that it’s not hard to get on TV, and so many of the people who cross that threshold are nincompoops. Why is it that the “Housewives” are always getting into legal trouble and getting divorced? If they were that rich, this wouldn’t happen. No, they believe if they are on these shows, they are stars, whereas truly they are laughingstocks, fodder for the machine. You know the number one rule of reality television…DON’T BE ON IT!

So it’s just you. In the wilderness. Trying to grow a fan base. Even a hit isn’t going to mean you’ve got a career. No, you must do foundational work, one-on-one. You must nurture your image, not do anything out of character. People need to be able to trust you. And what the press says or doesn’t say about you is essentially irrelevant. Certainly here today and gone tomorrow.

Of course, there are people who make it a full-time job to appear in the press, but that does not mean they’re rich, that they’ve even got a career, or even fans, just that some people see their names on a regular basis.

But so many still want to believe. That if they hire publicity and promotion people, if they get their name out in the news, they will be winning.

Today, winning is something you feel inside. No one else can claim victory for you. No one else can anoint you with pixie dust. There are social media influencers making more money than most of the people in the Spotify Top 50, even though very few know their names. Young people acknowledge this change; old people pooh-pooh it because they don’t like having their cheese moved, they don’t like the evisceration of rules. There must be rules, right?

There are no rules; you make it up as you go. And chances are those jumping the track, doing the out of the ordinary, never mind extraordinary, are going to win.

So if you’re railing against the system…

You’re the system. Only you. It all comes down to you.

Keep producing. Doesn’t matter what the general public thinks, just what your fans do. And if you’re good enough, you’ll grow a fan base and sustain it. But that’s too heavy a lift for newbies; they want someone exterior, in the firmament, to say they’ve made it, that they’re a star.

But that paradigm went out with the internet. And the internet’s been around for thirty years.

So it’s time to acknowledge where we are. A Tower of Babel world where you’re the act, the bus driver, the social media maven…one in which you wear all the hats, and if you want to have a conference, you look in the mirror.

But never forget, people are still looking for great, and there’s very little great out there. So if you are truly great, people will find and promote you…just don’t expect it to happen overnight.

 

~~~

Visit the archive:   http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

@Lefsetz  http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
–
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter

~~~

Originally published by Bob Lefsetz at the Leftsetz Letter

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Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• How Artist Imposters and Fake Songs Sneak Onto Streaming Services: Fake artists and counterfeit songs are flooding Spotify and Apple Music, siphoning real royalties. The streaming platforms either can’t or won’t stop it. When songs leak on Spotify and Apple Music, illegal uploads can generate substantial royalty payments—but for whom? (Pitchfork)

• Who Needs Las Vegas When You Have a Casino in Your Pocket? Mobile gambling is eating Las Vegas’s lunch, and the city is pivoting to tech and logistics to survive. The house always wins—unless the house is on your phone. Las Vegas is hoping that rapid growth in high-tech businesses and logistics will offset its stagnant gaming industry. (Barron’s) see also Prediction markets: the hunt for the new ‘dumb money’ As new bettors flock to platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, some make easy prey for trading firms and professional gamblers. The FT follows retail bettors migrating from Kalshi to Polymarket, chasing the same dopamine hit. Prediction markets are supposed to aggregate wisdom—instead they’re attracting gamblers. (Financial Times)

• America’s booming annoyance economy: Companies have figured out that bad customer service is more profitable than good customer service. The annoyance economy is booming—and you’re paying for it. (Business Insider)

• AI has the worst sales pitch I’ve ever seen: AI has the worst sales pitch I’ve ever seen “Our product will make you economically useless, and possibly kill you” is not a value proposition. Noah Smith argues that AI’s pitch is the worst marketing in tech history. He’s not wrong about the messaging problem. (Noahpinion)

• ‘This feels fragile’: how a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control: Today, the space around Earth can no longer be considered empty. More than 30,000 objects are in orbit, and that figure is rising exponentially. The Kessler syndrome isn’t science fiction anymore. One bad collision could trigger a chain reaction that makes space unusable for generations. (The Guardian)

• A Detailed Timeline of Jeffrey Epstein’s Death: One of Epstein’s prison guards has been called to speak before the House Oversight Committee this week. Ahead of her expected testimony, here’s a detailed look at what we know about the convicted sex offender’s conspiracy-theory-shrouded death. (Vanity Fair)

• Pam Bondi’s Legacy of Flattery and Destruction: No Attorney General has done more damage to the Justice Department. Ruth Marcus argues that no Attorney General has done more damage to the Justice Department than Bondi—and her successor could be even worse. (The New Yorker)

• The great care home cash grab: how private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs: When did care homes come to be seen as recession-proof investments? And who pays the price? (The Guardian) see also An Insurer Canceled a Woman’s Coverage Over a Nickel: A teacher’s aide lost her health insurance because of a five-cent billing discrepancy. The American healthcare system’s cruelty is matched only by its absurdity. (Washington Post)

• The Beginning of The End of Donald Trump’s Presidency? Jay Powell was always the one man in the world who could stand up to Donald Trump, and Trump knew it, which is why, despite his false bravado, he feared the Reserve Board Chairman. Trump forced the latest confrontation with Jay Powell in one last desperate attempt to force Powell from office so that he could finally seize control over the independent Federal Reserve Bank in the eleventh hour and manipulate the interest rates to disguise the crippling economic impact of his sweeping, unconstitutional global tariffs and his unconstitutional war in Iran. It turned out to be the worst miscalculation of his life. (Judge J. Michael Luttig)

• Hegseth’s War on America’s Military: Tom Nichols on how Pete Hegseth is firing top generals mid-war. Dismissing your best military leadership during an active conflict isn’t bold—it’s reckless. Someone needs to explain the Pentagon purges to the American people. (The Atlantic) see also First Draft: The Thug of War. Pete Hegseth’s colleagues at the Pentagon are calling him ‘Dumb McNamara,’ and Biden’s secretary of state almost, sort of feels bad about enabling a genocide. (Zeteo)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025 a member of the board of directors of HP.

 

US Housing Outlook: Higher Mortgage Rates Not Helpful

Source: Apollo

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~~~

To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.

 

The post 10 Sunday Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

 

This week, I speak with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners. Her AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025, she has beem a member of the board of directors of HP.

We discuss her venture firm’s focus on AI-native companies, and understanding technological innovation. We also cover the tech investment landscape and how she determines which companies are native to AI and which are just “chasing the boom.”

A list of her favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.

You can stream and download our full conversation, including azny podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Bloomberg, YouTube (video), and YouTube (audio). All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Philippe Bouchaud, co‑founder, chair & head of research/chief scientist at Capital Fund Management (CFM) The $20 billion dollar fiorm specializes in managed futures). He beghan his career in theoretical physics, was awarded the IBM young scientist prize (1990) + C.N.R.S. Silver Medal (1996), and has published over 300 scientific papers and several books in physics & finance.

 

 

 

Current Reading/Favorite Books

 

 

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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:

• Maybe you should have bought an electric car: We run the numbers on EVs versus gas cars in an era of skyrocketing oil prices. The Iran war has turned the EV skeptics’ math upside down. The Iran War is illustrating the cost of anti-EV nonsense. (Noahpinion)

• How Apple became Apple: The definitive oral history of the company’s earliest days: As Apple turns 50, the founders and early employees tell the story in their own words. The true story of how Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and other bright young tech hobbyists of the 1970s joined forces to ignite a revolution. The mythology gets a reality check—and the reality is more interesting. (Fast Company) see also From the Pages of PC Magazine: How We Covered Apple’s Greatest Hits and Misses: As Apple turns 50, we look back at the boldest (and most questionable) hardware to ever pass through the PC Labs. (PC Magazine)

• Vanguard Investors Cleaned Up: Morningstar’s data shows Vanguard fund holders outperformed nearly everyone else, again. Low costs and discipline beat cleverness every time. (Morningstar)

• Private capital: what are the risks? The FT takes a hard look at private capital’s growing footprint and the systemic risks hiding behind the illiquidity premium. Blackstone’s scale makes this everyone’s problem. As investors seek to retrieve their money, the $22tn industry rejects comparisons with 2008. Regulators aren’t so sure. (Financial Times)

• How American Camouflage Conquered the World: The story of how MultiCam went from a military contract to a global fashion statement. America’s soft power now comes in woodland pattern. The world-famous MultiCam pattern was designed for the military by two Brooklyn hipsters. Now everyone—from babies to ICE agents—is suited up for battle. (Wired)

• Is the Smartphone Theory of Everything Wrong?: Derek Thompson challenges the popular idea that smartphones explain every social ill among young people. The data is more nuanced than the narrative. A Comprehensive Investigation. Many people believe that the nexus of smartphones, Internet, and social media is to blame for every modern catastrophe. Here’s 5,000 words on who’s right and who’s wrong. (Derek Thompson)

• When are bones no longer a person? A strange tale of King Cnut’s femur, ancient DNA, religious belief on bodies and souls, and a debate over what constitutes a person after death. A haunting philosophical essay on the ethics of human remains, identity, and when the dead stop being people. The kind of piece that stays with you. (The Garden of Forking Paths)

• Iran’s Wealth Is Parked on London’s Billionaires’ Row: Years of Western sanctions haven’t prevented money flows out of Tehran: ‘They probably learned from the Russian oligarchs’ (Wall Street Journal)

• Everything With Trump’s Name, Likeness and Signature: As anyone who has ever seen his buildings knows, Donald Trump has always liked to see his name displayed prominently. It’s become a hallmark of his presidency, to the point that the Treasury Department announced on Thursday that President Trump’s signature will appear on U.S. dollars later this year, a first for a sitting U.S. president. (New York Times)

• The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch: The greatest April Fools’ prank in sports journalism history—George Plimpton’s story of a Mets pitcher who could throw 168 mph. A perfect read for the day.He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd’s deciding about yoga—and his future in baseball. (Sports Illustrated)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025 a member of the board of directors of HP Inc.

 

When final Gulf oil shipments will arrive around the world, as diesel and petrol prices surge 27% since Iran’s blockade began

Source: Mirror

 

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The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

 

 

The world of investing has changed over the first 30 years of my career. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the gradual shift from traditional alpha chasing to what is best described as “Organizational Alpha.”

Today, I want to share some examples  how this evolution has manifested itself at our firm, Ritholtz Wealth Management.

From Portfolio Management to Full-Service Wealth Planning

In the early days, the core offering was portfolio management — globally diversified, low-cost, disciplined. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is everything we built around it.

Investors need more than just a good portfolio. They need someone to coordinate their entire financial landscape — investments, taxes, estate plans, insurance, equity compensation, retirement plans, and charitable giving.

This comprehensive approach has resulted from a deep understanding of client goals. We focus on achieving desired client outcomes.  Maximizing investment returns is only one part of that journey.

Orchestrating Tax Planning and Wealth Management

Many advisors treat tax planning as an afterthought. We witness so many errors, oversights, and missed opportunities from CPAs who fail to orchestrate investments and tax planning.  after reviewing thousands of client tax filings, we realized we needed to make this a central function, and Ritholtz Tax was born.

Tax planning and preparation are now critical parts of our service model and among the most meaningful ways we can improve client outcomes.

It’s not just about preparing taxes. It’s understanding the entirety of a client’s tax situation which informs how we deploy tax loss harvesting, estate planning, and gifting strategies. Every Ritholtz Tax client gets a pro-forma tax analysis completed during the tax year so our tax focused investment strategies have the time they need to deliver results to manage tax bills. Waiting until the tax year is over is simply too late.

Behavioral Management

I stumbled down the behavioral finance rabbit hole in the 1990s on a trading desk. It has been the single most important insight I have learned regarding investors’ success in markets. We became known as one of the earliest adopters of combining BeFi with a data-based approach to managing client wealth.

Avoiding mistakes is so much more important than stock-picking or market-timing for your long-term success. Whether it’s “Liberation day” market jitters or volatility caused by spiking oil prices, our clients depend on us to help process current events and understand the impact they may have on a long-term financial plan.

Corporate Retirement Plans

Our dedicated 401(k) team works with business owners and executives on plan development, design, and deployment. A well-structured retirement plan is one of the most powerful tools a company has — for recruiting, retention, and the long-term financial health of its employees.

Reach out to the team to learn about the impact of  the “mega backdoor Roth” on your long-term savings.

Concentrated Positions

When clients come to us with large, concentrated stock positions, they need more than just advice to “Diversify!” They need a thoughtful, long-term, tax-aware plan to reduce risk without causing an unnecessary tax event. Our team of advisors and tax pros work together to develop a custom strategy that balances diversification with the real-world tax consequences of unwinding those positions.

Diversifying concentrated positions without subjecting clients to substantial tax hits has become significantly easier with the introduction of long/short equity strategies.

Custom Indexing Through Canvas (Equity)

We were among the first adopters of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management’s direct indexing platform, Canvas (now part of Franklin Templeton). Today, we have over a billion dollars on the platform. Why? Because the results speak for themselves — clients on Canvas have experienced an average after-tax boost of ~80 basis points since inception, driven primarily by systematic tax-loss harvesting. We have a meaningful level of client assets in direct indexing strategies, and we expect that number to grow significantly in the years ahead.

Bespoke Fixed Income Strategies

The investment management industry has historically allocated to fixed income categories without much regard to the clients’ individual situations.

The relative attractiveness of municipal bonds, treasuries, and corporate bonds varies dramatically based on your specific circumstances. One investor’s optimal max after tax yield will be different than another’s.

We leverage portfolio management software through Canopy Capital to maintain a consistent exposure to a client’s individually optimized bond allocation, with the additional benefit of tax loss harvesting. It is a custom solution driven by your income, federal tax bracket, and state and city tax levels.

Long/Short Portfolios 

For clients looking to offset substantial capital gains taxes, we manage leveraged long-short equity portfolios through AQR and OSAM. These are systematic, tax‑aware strategies designed to harvest ongoing, usable tax losses while deferring taxable gains. These maintain moderate net market exposure, allowing the investor to compound more pre‑tax gains and pay less tax along the way — especially after a taxable liquidity event (selling a business, building, a highly appreciated home, or concentrated stock holding).

Employee Stock Option Plan Management

We work with many clients whose wealth has come from company stock: not only founders’ shares and employee stock options, but RSAs, RSUs, NSOs, and ISOs. The key to successfully navigating this alphabet soup of equity is to approach it from both a diversification and tax planning perspective.1

Trust & Estate Planning

Estate planning is one of those things we all know we need, but nobody wants to do. Our in-house estate planning attorney and team work to make sure your documents reflect your intent, your family is protected, and nothing gets overlooked.

Whether it’s straightforward succession planning or complex multi-generational wealth transfer, we view it as a vital part of the ongoing advisory relationship — not just a one-time discussion.

Private Investments

More and more people come to us with private investments – that’s why we added a full-time dedicated analyst to cover alts, including private debt, credit, hedge funds, and venture capital.

As our client base has grown in both size and sophistication, so did the demand for access to private markets. But as I noted earlier this month in Ill-Liquidity Premium, the median alternative fund is not worth the fees, illiquidity, and complexity.

We approach privates the same way we approach everything else — with a well-founded focus on what actually adds value after fees.

Non-Profit and Institutional Management

We partner with nonprofit organizations to navigate the unique complexities of institutional management. Our team serves as both a governing and managing fiduciary, handling investment policy development, design, and deployment. We also assist with major giving strategies, leveraging our in-house tax and estate planning professionals to help organizations facilitate planned giving and complex charitable contributions.

Financial Literacy — It’s in Our DNA

Education has been part of this firm’s identity since before the firm existed. Between The Big Picture, A Wealth of Common Sense, The Compound, Animal Spirits, Masters in Business, At the Money, and the dozens of other media channels our team contributes to, we reach millions of people every week. We believe that informed clients make better decisions, and better decisions lead to better outcomes. Financial literacy isn’t a marketing strategy for us — it’s a core value.

The Evolution of Ritholtz Wealth Management

When we started Ritholtz Wealth Management in 2013, the vision was straightforward: build a firm grounded in evidence-based investing, behavioral finance, and radical transparency. Two partners, $60 million in assets, and a shared conviction that Wall Street’s traditional model was broken.

Thirteen years later, we manage over $7.6 billion in client assets for 1000s of families. But growth in AUM only tells part of the story. The real evolution has been in what we do for the people who trust us with their finances.

What Comes Next          

The evolution of RWM has always been driven by one question: What else do our clients need? Every capability we’ve added — tax, estate, privates, direct indexing, retirement plans, non-profit services — started with that question. We expect the next decade to bring just as much change as the last, and we plan to keep building.

~~~

Speak With Us

Do you need a financial QB to manage all aspects of your financial life? If so, reach out. To learn about how RWM works with clients, reach out to us at Info AT RitholtzWealth.com, with the subject line “QB.”

If you live anywhere near the Bay Area, come speak to us at our upcoming event in San Francisco during the week 0of April 14-17th. Email us: Info AT RitholtzWealth.com, with the subject line “San Francisco.”

 

 

Previously:
Announcing: Ritholtz Wealth Management (September 16, 2013)

Introducing RWM’s Educator / 403(b) Division (December 4, 2015)

Inverting Wall Street’s Research Business Model (March 14, 2016)

What is Organizational Alpha? (February 7, 2017)

What is Your Value Proposition? (May 30, 2017)

Our Exorbitant Privilege (June 19, 2018)

What Should You Be Paying for Investment Advice? (April 9, 2019)

10 Things I Have Learned Launching RWM (September 16, 2019)

Accessing Losses via Direct Indexing (April 14, 2021)

Tax Alpha (April 14, 2022)

Lessons from Our Origin Story (September 17, 2021)

RWM Makes Barron’s Top 100 RIA Firms! (September 15, 2025)

 

 

__________

1.  We also eat our own cooking when it comes to Employee stock ownership: From day one, we built our firm as a partnership. Every year, new partners are offered the opportunity to purchase equity. Today, 29 employee-owners sit on the cap table — co-founders, financial advisors, and key personnel. Nobody was handed free stock options; everyone invested. This structure is the backbone of our succession plan and our commitment to remaining 100% independent.

The advisory firms that last are the ones where employees who do the work have real skin in the game.

 

The post The Evolution of Alpha appeared first on The Big Picture.

My end-of-week morning reads:

• Public Anger Is Rising: Congress briefly showed signs of productivity before reverting to form. The public’s frustration with dysfunction is reaching a boiling point. Even TMZ is channeling the national discontent. (The Atlantic)

• Have Trump’s tariffs worked? This is where things stand a year after ‘Liberation Day’ US foreign direct investment is lower; US factories employ 89,000 fewer people; US goods trade deficit is UP 2%; The government collected a lot of money but has to give it back; Inflation remains elevated. (NPR) see also Happy Liberation Day 1-Year Anniversary! On the one-year anniversary of Liberation Day and its cascading effects on markets, trade, and investor behavior.  Depending on where you look, the impact of the tariffs varies from modest to somewhat embarrassing to completely disastrous. Let’s examine the data to understand this better. What a difference a year makes. (The Big Picture)

• How Working in America Became So Joyless: The loss of small perks and rise of AI have conspired to strip work of all fun; ‘It feels like a funeral in the office right now.’ (Wall Street Journal)

• Who’s Ready to Invade Cuba?!: Russian oil tankers are docking in Cuban ports while the Iran war heats up. Jonathan V. Last asks whether anyone in Washington is paying attention to what’s happening 90 miles offshore. (The Bulwark)

• Hitler’s Edifice Complex: He was obsessed with adding an expensive new wing to the Reich Chancellery, part of his grandiose architectural ambitions for the nation’s capital. Timothy Ryback on Hitler’s obsession with grandiose architecture as an expression of power. The parallels to modern strongmen building monuments to themselves are hard to miss. (The Atlantic)

• A Detailed Timeline of Jeffrey Epstein’s Final Hours: With Epstein’s prison guards called before the House Oversight Committee, Vanity Fair reconstructs the final hours in meticulous detail. One of Epstein’s prison guards has been called to speak before the House Oversight Committee this week. Ahead of her expected testimony, here’s a detailed look at what we know about the convicted sex offender’s conspiracy-theory-shrouded death.  (Vanity Fair)

• What Is the Magic Number When It Comes to Close Friends? The science of friendship has a number, and it changes as you age. Quality over quantity isn’t just a cliché—it’s backed by research. The number varies from person to person and changes as we move through different phases of life. (Wall Street Journal)

• The right’s embrace of Adam Carolla cost him friends and gigs — but not his edge: Carolla traded the comedy mainstream for conservative media and lost friends along the way. The podcaster says he isn’t interested in climbing the late-night ladder or striking big deals as much as being able to say — often vulgarly — whatever he wants. A portrait of what happens when a comedian picks a political lane. (Washington Post)

• NASA’s Historic Lunar Mission Launch, in Photos: Stunning images from the Artemis II launch—the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. The photos capture the scale, the fire, and the emotion. (Time) see also Inside NASA’s Artemis II Mission to the Moon and Back: NASA’s Artemis II mission is sending astronauts on a lunar mission with big stakes in the program’s future plans. On April 1, NASA is set to send astronauts on a journey around the moon, part of a historic mission called Artemis II. The trip will mark humanity’s return to the lunar vicinity for the first time since the last Apollo mission sent astronauts to the moon in 1972. (Bloomberg)

• Colman Domingo Almost Quit Acting. Now His 50s Are the Best Years of His Career. The actor has become one of the most talked-about stars in Hollywood with an Emmy win and Oscar nods. But he’s always hedged his bets. (Wall Street Journal)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025 a member of the board of directors of HP Inc.

 

Waymo’s now serving more than 500,000 paid robotaxi rides every week

Source: Sherwood

 

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It’s been exactly one year since the Liberation Day Tariffs were announced, implemented, challenged, and ultimately overturned at every level. They served as the foundation of the administration’s main economic policy. What has been the overall impact – economically, geopolitically, and on the markets?

Don’t rely on the mass media for answers – they are afraid of the President and avoid the facts. My job today is to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Depending on where you look, the impact of the tariffs varies from modest to somewhat embarrassing to completely disastrous. Let’s examine the data to understand this better:

-Policy whipsaw: Perhaps the most damaging economic effect was uncertainty itself. The actual tariffs have changed more than 50 times since Liberation Day: 90-day suspensions up, down, reversals, threats. It made us look silly to our trading partners, but the biggest impact might be on Sentiment. The most striking data point is CFO confidence: it collapsed from 37% to 5% in a single month, in April 2025. This led to a huge impact on CapEx spending and hiring.

-Trade deficit: Trump declared the trade deficit a “job-killing national emergency.” It was nothing of the sort; rich countries buy more from poor countries than poor countries buy from rich countries (it’s obvious if you think about this for a moment). According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. goods deficit increased to an all-time high in 2025.

-Manufacturing Jobs: The promised industrial renaissance failed to arrive. The U.S. manufacturing sector shed 100,000 jobs over the past ~year; the ratio of manufacturing workers to total nonfarm employment fell to its lowest point since 1939. U.S. manufacturers hired 388,000 fewer workers in 2025 than in 2024

-Inflation: Fed Chair Jerome Powell attributed elevated readings to “inflation in the goods sector, which has been boosted by the effects of tariffs.” Prices did not fall — by August 2025, 9 in 10 goods firms had raised prices, yet 75% of goods firms still reported margin declines. Consumers paid more for goods even as corporate margins shrank.

-Revenue: The Supreme Court ruling makes the tariff revenue figures almost tragicomic: $151B collected, then a $166B refund ordered — meaning the government is effectively net negative on the IEEPA tariff strategy.

“Sell America” trade: In the 12 months since Liberation Day, global investors have been rethinking American exceptionalism. In 2025, U.S. equities underperformed global bourses; Treasuries took a hit; The dollar fell 9%. These trades became known as the “Sell America” trade.

-Geopolitical Impact: This is where I fear structural and maybe even permanent effects. Countries forged new trade pacts while trying to avoid U.S. trade agreements. The global trading system has been turned upside down in ways that may be irreversible.

The main beneficiary of this is China. They found new buyers to re-route its exports and ended 2025 with a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus. The tariffs were explicitly designed to pressure Beijing, and yet China ended 2025 with its largest trade surplus EVER, mostly achieved by simply rerouting exports.

 

The bottom line:  None of the Trump administration’s stated goals — shrinking the trade deficit, reviving manufacturing, lowering prices, paying down the debt — were met. Many of the targets, such as lowering prices and reducing the deficit, worsened.

The one-off deals and commitments to invest billions in the U.S.? Good luck trying to enforce those, based upon a policy that the highest court in the land declared as blatantly unconstitutional…

 

 

Previously:
Winners  of SCOTUS Decision Striking Down Tariffs (February 20, 2026)

Part II: IEEPA Tariff Ruling’s Losers (February 23, 2026)

IEEPA Tariffs Update (January 27, 2026)

It’s Tariff Week! * (January 12, 2026)

Tariffs Likely To Be Overturned (November 5, 2025)

Might Tariffs Get “Overturned”? (July 31, 2025)

The Muted Impact of Tariffs on Inflation So Far (July 17, 2025)

Are Tariffs a New US VAT Tax? (March 31, 2025)

MiB: Special Edition: Neal Katyal on Challenging Trump’s Global Tariffs (September 3, 2025)

Neal Katyal on Challenging Trump’s Global Tariffs (September 8, 2025)

Which States Could Suffer the Most From Trade War Tariffs? (September 16, 2019)

 

The post Happy Liberation Day 1-Year Anniversary! appeared first on The Big Picture.

My Passover WFH reads:

• FDA approves Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 pill, opening the next phase of the weight loss drug market: The FDA approved a GLP-1 pill from Eli Lilly called Foundayo. Foundayo isn’t as effective as Lilly’s weekly shot Zepbound, but the once-daily pill could be attractive for people looking for convenience, and it can be scaled around the world, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said. Lilly is also awaiting data from a more potent weight loss shot called retatrutide. (CNBC)

• Bitcoin gets new expiration date thanks to Google researchers:  Google’s quantum computing research just set a new date for when Bitcoin’s cryptography could be broken: 2029. The crypto community should be paying closer attention. (Mashable) see also Quantum frontiers may be closer than they appear: Google is introducing a 2029 timeline for post-quantum cryptography migration. If they’re right, every encryption standard we rely on has an expiration date. (Google Blog)

• See How Hollywood’s Job Market Is Collapsing: Studios are making fewer movies and shows than they did just a few years ago. The ones they do make are increasingly being shot outside the U.S. (Wall Street Journal)

• The Epstein Class Had a Signature Weakness: Jacob Weisberg and Emiliano Ponzi argue that the Epstein saga exposed a fundamental flaw in elite culture—the belief that wealth and connections make you untouchable. (New York Times)

• This new open-source office suite wants to replace Google Docs and Microsoft Office: Euro-Office is a new open-source project supported by Nextcloud, EuroStack, Wiki, Proton, Soverin, Abilian, and other companies based in Europe. The goal is to build an online office suite that can open and edit standard Microsoft Office documents (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX) and the OpenDocument format (ODS, ODT, ODP) used by LibreOffice and OpenOffice. The current design is remarkably close to Microsoft Office and its tabbed toolbars, so there shouldn’t be much of a learning curve for anyone used to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. (How To Geek)

• The Difference Between California-Produced Gas And The Other 49 States: California gas prices have been noticeably higher than those of every other member of the contiguous 48 for several decades. This is not only due to geography, but also the state’s special, more environmentally friendly fuel formula, as well as the added taxes on top of the standard gasoline prices. (Jalopnik)

• Against Introspection: What Marc Andreessen Got Right (and Wrong) (The Ruffian)

• American Aviation Is Near Collapse: Fatal crashes, overstressed controllers, and endless security lines reveal a system teetering on the brink of failure. An Atlantic Daily edition on how TSA cuts, DHS dysfunction, and aging infrastructure are converging into a crisis. (The Atlantic)

• How hacked surveillance cameras are fueling assassinations in Iran: Security feeds and traffic cameras have helped guide some of the most audacious targeted killings in modern history. Security researchers say the underlying vulnerabilities cover the planet and are easy to exploit (Scientific American)

• ‘Full Send’—NASA Launches Astronauts on Historic Moon Flight: Artemis II mission seeks to accomplish a lunar return with an astronaut flyby. (Wall Street Journal)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of Principal Venture Partners, an AI-focused investment firm established in 2024, and since 2025 a member of the board of directors of HP Inc.

 

Buyer Panic as Memory Price Records Smashed

Source: Paul Kedrosky

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