My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• Moody’s Sounds Alarm on Private Funds for Individuals: Chasing retail money could pose risks to investors, private funds and financial system, Moody’s says. (Wall Street Journal)
• Bitcoin Goes All In on MAGA, Shedding Its Antigovernment Slant: Despite wins under Trump, some crypto factions are wary of politicizing industry; Las Vegas extravaganza becomes ‘a right-wing rally’. (Wall Street Journal) see also What World Does Bitcoin Want To Build For Itself? This year’s Bitcoin Conference takes place amid a boom, the same month the price of a single coin stabilized above $100,000 for the first time. More than 35,000 people have descended on Las Vegas in the final week of May for the conference: bitcoin miners, bitcoin dealers, several retired athletes, three U.S. senators, two Trump children, one U.S. vice president, people who describe themselves as “content creators,” people who describe themselves as “founders,” venture capitalists, ex-IDF bodyguards, tax-dodging experts, crypto heretics, evangelists… (Defector)
• Lawmakers Traded Stocks Heavily as Trump Rolled Out ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Buying and selling of stocks spur new push to further restrict lawmakers’ market activities. (Wall Street Journal)
• Senators Demand Meta Answer For Facebook AI Chatbots Posing as Licensed Therapists: Samantha Cole Samantha Cole: Following 404 Media’s investigation into Meta’s AI Studio chatbots that pose as therapists and provided license numbers and credentials, four senators urged Meta to limit “blatant deception” from its chatbots. (404 Media)
• Trump’s $12 Billion Tourism Wipeout: Four months into the president’s second term, his policies are upending tourism worldwide. Nine charts show the toll on global travel. (Bloomberg)
• How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Bioterrorists: For years, a powerful ‘Big Ag’ trade group served up information on activists to the FBI. Records reveal a decade-long effort to see the animal rights movement labeled a “bioterrorism” threat. (Wired)
• Airlines Don’t Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS: A contract obtained by 404 Media shows that an airline-owned data broker forbids the feds from revealing it sold them detailed passenger data. (404 Media) see also In 23andMe case, a fight brews over who can sell your genetic code: More than two dozen states seek a ruling in the 23andMe bankruptcy case that customers own the rights to their DNA. (Washington Post)
• The Silence of the Generals: As the President crossed a dangerous line at Fort Bragg, the brass failed to speak out in the Army’s defense. (The Atlantic)
• Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator’s Iconic Opening Battle, Part I. Arguably the most famous and recognizable Roman battle sequence in film: the iconic opening battle from Gladiator (2000).1 Despite being a relatively short sequence (about ten minutes), there’s actually enough to talk about here that we’re going to split it over two weeks, talking about the setup – the battlefield, army composition, equipment and battle plan – this week and then the actual conduct of the battle next week. (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry)
• Brian Wilson Found a Sound Only He Could Hear: The Beach Boys bandleader suffered for his art and left an incomparable musical legacy. (The Ringer)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with William J. Bernstein, Ph.D., M.D. He is a retired neurologist, principal in the money management firm Efficient Frontier Advisors, and author of several best-selling books on finance and history. He was the winner of the 2017 James R. Vertin Award from CFA Institute. His latest book is The Delusions Of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups.
Lawmakers Traded Stocks Heavily as Trump Rolled Out ‘Liberation Day’
Source: Wall Street Journal
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