My morning train WFH reads:
• Why Are Stocks Up? Nobody Knows: A torrent of bad news hasn’t been enough to sink the market. (Wall Street Journal)
• How to Spot Bad Investing Advice and Build a Resilient Portfolio: Our investment success depends on how we respond to challenges and opportunities in the market, and you quote Marcus Aurelius to make the point that this is something we can control – at least somewhat. (Kiplinger)
• Elon’s Edsel: Tesla Cybertruck Is The Auto Industry’s Biggest Flop In Decades: Elon Musk’s polygonal pickup is a polarizing sales flop that’s missed the billionaire’s volume goal by a staggering 84%. And there’s no sign that things are improving. (Forbes)
• How YouTube Won the Battle for TV Viewers: A generation that grew up watching YouTubers on tablets and phones have migrated to TVs, and Hollywood is losing ground. (Wall Street Journal)
• Somebody’s paying the tariffs. Looks like it’s you. You may not have encountered a “tariff tax” situation in your life yet. Honestly, I haven’t, although I’ve seen a handful of examples from (rightfully) annoyed friends. Regardless, somebody’s paying for tariffs. You, the company selling you the item, or the manufacturer/importer of the item. We can see this through data from Treasury, (Optimistic Callie) see also The (Muted) Impact of Tariffs on Inflation. A 10-20% tariff/tax on these goods is ~$350B to $700B. Even a 30% tariff on every country in the world is less than a trillion dollars. The potnetial damage is large, but what we have seen so far is not recession-inducing by itself. The problem is that this pile of cash has to come from somewhere. . (Big Picture)
• Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think: Almost all studies of happiness over the life span show that, in wealthier countries, most people’s contentment starts to increase again in their 50s, until age 70 or so. That is where things get less predictable (The Atlantic)
• The Website at the End of the Internet: Reddit is one of the last thriving islands of the old web. Can it survive AI? (New York Magazine)
• The Big Polling Question Surrounding Trump and the Epstein Saga. The president’s job approval has been remarkably stable. That might be about to change. (Politico) see also Trump finds himself on the wrong side of a conspiracy theory: He has leveraged conspiracy theories for a decade — now one lumps him in with The Elites. (Washington Post)
• The single most amazing fact about the Universe: No matter what it is that we discover about reality, the fact that reality itself can be understood remains the most amazing fact of all. (Big Think)
• The Fascinating Evolution of Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits: Brutal, direct, and intimate, Rembrandt’s self-portraits offer a fascinating window into his private world, chronicling the many ups and downs of his long and complicated life. (The Collector)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Sonal Desai, Chief Investment Officer of Franklin Templeton Fixed Incomem, managing $215 billion in AUM in Multi-Sector, Global, Corporate Credit, Securitized Products, Municipal Bonds, Stable Value, and ST Liquid Markets Fixed Income. She has been named to Barron’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential Women each year since 2020.
Eventually, the younger generation will own the homes currently held by the older generation. We just don’t yet know what the price will be. 
Source: Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank
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