Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetence, corruption and policy failures:
• Mind the Gap 2025? The more investors traded, the less they made: We estimate the average dollar invested in US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds earned 7.0% per year over the 10 years ended Dec. 31, 2024 (“investor return”). That’s about 1.2 percentage points per year less than these funds’ 8.2% aggregate annual total return (“total return”) over that span. This “investor return gap” is explained by the timing and magnitude of investors’ purchases and sales of fund shares during the 10-year period, equivalent to around 15% of the funds’ aggregate total return. (Morningstar).
• ‘The whole thing is screwed up’: Farmers in deep-red Pennsylvania struggle to find workers: They’re pushing lawmakers to move faster on a farm labor solution, even as the president cracks down on immigration. (Politico) but see also American Farmers Are Feeling the Pain of Trump’s Policies: US agricultural communities that had expected Trump to have their backs have found themselves flung into a second trade war. If the situation continues, it could put loyalties at risk. (BusinessWeek)
• Why private equity needs you more than you need them: President Trump says he wants ordinary Americans to be able to invest in private equity. But in reality, the industry needs your cash. (Washington Post)
• Behind closed doors, a majority of CEOs admit they won’t boost U.S. investment as tariffs hurt their businesses. Uncertainty is proving to be a major obstacle to President Donald Trump’s plans to revive the industrial sector as CEOs balk at making U.S. investments, according to a recent survey. (Fortune)
• The Spectacular Comeback Tour of a Crypto Convict: Ross Ulbricht, who created the Silk Road dark web marketplace and was serving a life sentence for drug distribution, has embarked on a strange and unexpected comeback after President Trump pardoned him in January. (New York Times)
• Data investigation: Childhood vaccination rates are backsliding across the U.S. A monthslong NBC News data investigation finds that much of the U.S. doesn’t have the protection needed to stop the spread of deadly diseases. St. Louis is a window into the problem communities face nationwide. (NBC News) see also Why 1 in 6 U.S. parents are rejecting vaccine recommendations: A wide-ranging Washington Post-KFF poll details who tends to reject vaccine recommendations and their reasoning. (Washington Post)
• Police cameras tracked one driver 526 times in four months, lawsuit says: Flock Safety says it has become “the largest public-private safety network” in the country. (NBC News)
• Does Anybody Care This Is The Worst Bribery Scandal Since Teapot Dome? The UAE put $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, then got export restrictions lifted on AI chips. Nothing to see here, move along. (New Republic)
• Trump Tried to Kill the Infrastructure Law. Now He’s Taking Credit for Its Projects. Signs bearing President Trump’s name have gone up at major construction projects financed by the 2021 law, which he strenuously opposed ahead of its passage. (New York Times) see also Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer: America’s cancer research system, which has helped save millions of lives, is under threat in one of its most productive moments. (New York Times)
• The Chess Cheating Epidemic: The Chief Chess Officer of Chess.com describes the crisis he confronted when Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen lost a tournament match to a suspected cheater. (Quillette)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Jaime Magyera, Head of U.S. Wealth & Retirement Business at BlackRock. She has driven the firms adoption of alternatives as a fast growing part of the Blackrock platform for advisors and RIAs. The firm manages over $11 trillion in client assets, and Magyera’s Wealth and Retirement divisions are a substantial portion of that.
New FOX NEWS poll. Issue #1 is cost of living
Source: @JesseFFerguson
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