My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:
• Why the Time Has Finally Come for Geothermal Energy: It used to be that drawing heat from deep in the Earth was practical only in geyser-filled places such as Iceland. But new approaches may have us on the cusp of an energy revolution. (New Yorker)
• The Offshoring of America’s Retirement Savings: As Apollo reinvents how Wall Street handles insurance and pension funds, firms are shepherding hundreds of billions of dollars to Bermuda entities that lose US protections while making opaque, complex bets. (Bloomberg) see also Americans’ Nest Eggs Built a Private Equity Loan Revolution: Private equity managers are desperate for cash. Insurers are lending it out for higher returns, and exposing themselves to potentially hard-to-sell assets. (Bloomberg)
• Max Out Your 401k: The good news is there has never been a better time to be a saver-turned-investor. Technology makes it easy to automate your savings into any number of different investment accounts and platforms. Just turn on automatic contributions to your 401k, IRA, brokerage account, HSA, 529 or high yield savings account. (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• Are the Benefits of AI Worth the Risk of ‘White-Collar Bloodbath’? If AI is powerful enough to produce abundance and reduce scarcity, will worrying about unemployment make sense at all? (The Daily Economy)
• The Business of Beauty: How an $11 Billion Beauty Company Built a Suburban Empire: Ulta found success by acting more like Home Depot than like Sephora. (Businessweek)
• A Climate ‘Shock’ Is Eroding Some Home Values. New Data Shows: How Much. Since 2018, a financial shock in the home insurance market has meant that homes in the ZIP codes most exposed to hurricanes and wildfires would sell for an average of $43,900 less than they would otherwise, the research found. They include coastal towns in Louisiana and low-lying areas in Florida. (New York Times) but see Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air. Ridership jumped, people cut back on driving and, over the summer, the city extended the program another year. (New York Times)
• Homicides have fallen sharply in these five cities — and across the U.S. The rate of homicides has plummeted nationwide and, in 2025, is trending toward its lowest level in decades. The steady decline has reversed the surge of slayings seen during the peak of the covid-19 pandemic. (Washington Post)
• 7 signs Trump is losing his groove: The president has faced a series of brush-offs and brushbacks that threaten his aura of invincibility. (Politico)
• The View From Ninety by Charles Handy — final words from management’s social philosopher: The late thinker who championed the ‘portfolio life’ offers wit, wisdom and gratitude from a lifetime’s lessons on leadership. (Financial Times)
• Timothée Chalamet’s best role yet is your weirdly intense coworker on Zoom: A24 is promoting its new film ‘Marty Supreme’ with an awkward video call. Here’s why it’s genius. (Fast Company)
Be sure to check out our special live episode of Masters in Business Live from the Economic Club of New York, with Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, and his colleague from the Booth School of Business, Alex Imas, Professor of Behavioral Science, Economics and Applied AI; we discuss the new edition of their book “The Winner’s Curse.”
Payroll growth rose to 119K in September, exceeding expectations
Source: @SteveRattner
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