My morning WFB (work from beach) reads:
• US dollar suffers worst start to year since 1973: Donald Trump’s trade policies and rising debt levels have sparked decline of more than 10% in first half of 2025, US dollar suffers worst start to year since 1973 (Financial Times)
• The Jobs Market Is Starting to Fall Apart: Even if Thursday’s jobs report comes in strong, a look behind the headline number tells a different story. (Wall Street Journal) see also Amazon Is on the Cusp of Using More Robots Than Humans in Its Warehouses: The e-commerce giant now counts more than one million of the machines at its facilities. (Wall Street Journal)
• E.T.F.s Are Booming. Mutual Funds Want In on the Action. Asset managers are eagerly awaiting an S.E.C. decision that would allow mutual funds to also trade as E.T.F.s — potentially changing how trillions of dollars are invested. (New York Times)
• Surveillance pricing lets corporations decide what your dollar is worth: What if you show up at the hotel at 9pm and the hotelier can ask a credit bureau how much you can afford to pay for the room? What if they can find out that you’re in chemotherapy, so you don’t have the stamina to shop around for a cheaper room? What if they can tell that you have a 5AM flight and need to get to bed right now? (Pluralistic)
• They’re in the Top 10% of Earners. They Still Don’t Feel Rich. By many measures, the most affluent Americans are thriving. But $250,000 doesn’t mean what they thought it would. (Wall Street Journal)
• How Trump’s Tariffs Could Upend the Auto Industry—and Raise the Price of Your Next Car: President Trump wants an all-American car. U.S. vehicle sales could plunge by as much as 20% if he uses massive levies to get one. (Barron’s)
• Call Center Workers Are Tired of Being Mistaken for AI: As more workers are asked by strangers if they’re bots, surreal conversations are prompting introspection in the industry about what it means to be human. (Bloomberg) see also Disrupted or displaced? How AI is shaking up jobs: New technology is starting to have a profound effect on work and employment. (Financial Times)
• Inside Operation Gold Rush, largest health care fraud bust in U.S. history: Officials say they were able to stop Medicare from paying out $10 billion, but perpetrators still collected about $1 billion from other insurers. (Washington Post)
• The seven things that make ADHD much worse: Experts point to a range of lifestyle and environmental triggers that can worsen this neurodevelopmental disorder. Here’s how to fix them (Telegraph)
• LeBron James’ contract decision marks major Lakers shift — toward Luka Dončić: The Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Dončić era has officially begun; LeBron James’ decision to pick up his $52.6 million player option for next season. His leverage isn’t what it once was these days, and that has everything to do with Dončić. (New York Times)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Kate Moore, Chief Investment Officer of Citi Wealth; responsible for overseeing investments, portfolio strategy and asset allocation for the trillion dollars Citi Wealth manages. Previously, she was Head of Thematic Strategy and PM for the Global Allocation Fund at BlackRock.
Processing Cycles: Computing will soon consume more energy air conditioning globally
Source: Tedium
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