Articles of the week
The Art of Short Selling: Among all the activities in finance, short-selling remains one of the most misunderstood. To many, the practice of selling something you don’t own with the intention of buying it back later at a cheaper price appears…abstract. Few baulk at the idea of buying low and selling high, but reverse the chronology and it sows confusion. (Net Interest)
A Bull or a Bear Market? It Doesn’t Matter. Stocks still haven’t returned to their last peak, and our columnist is in the camp that says this isn’t a bull market yet. But he’s buying stock anyway. (New York Times)
Is Crypto Dead? Or can the industry recover? Even before the SEC announcements, crypto was in trouble. Dozens of firms had failed, millions of individual investors had plunged into the red or cashed out, and billions of dollars of institutional investment had moved on. Beset by long-standing problems of its own invention, the industry now faces not just a regulatory crisis but an existential one too: Is crypto down, or is it dead? (The Atlantic)
Crypto collapse? Get in loser, we’re pivoting to AI: “Current AI feels like something out of a Philip K Dick story because it answers a question very few people were asking: What if a computer was stupid?.” (Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain)
The Next Crisis Will Start With Empty Office Buildings: Commercial real estate is losing value fast. (The Atlantic)
The Horse Isn’t Real. People Are Betting on It Anyway. In virtual sports betting, the house edge is insane, there’s even more stigma and the racing never stops. (Vice)
Plagiarism Engine: Google’s Content-Swiping AI Could Break the Internet: The Search Generative Experience seems more like a text-copying experience. (Tom’s Hardware)
The Great Grift: How billions in COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wasted: All of it led to the greatest grift in U.S. history, with thieves plundering billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid intended to combat the worst pandemic in a century and to stabilize an economy in free fall. (AP)
When a Huawei Bid Turned Into a Hunt for a Corporate Mole: At TDC in Copenhagen, senior managers were potential suspects. The company’s offices were compromised, people were getting tailed. And then there were the drones… (Businessweek)
Power companies quietly pushed $215m into US politics via dark money groups: Donations have helped utilities increase electricity prices, hinder solar schemes and helped elect sympathetic legislators. (The Guardian)
Taiwan sees MeToo wave of allegations after Netflix show: Taiwan is being rocked by a wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations – sparked by a Netflix show which many say has ignited a local MeToo movement. (BBC)
Counting Russia’s dead in Ukraine – and what it says about the changing face of the war: Russia has a history of extraordinary secrecy over its wartime losses. So when it invaded Ukraine, the BBC and its partners began painstakingly verifying and counting as many deaths as possible, identifying more than 25,000 named individuals, setting a bare minimum for Russia’s total losses. The count provides hard evidence of the war’s impact on Russian forces. But it has also given answers to grieving families and relatives who did not know what had happened to their loved ones until the BBC traced them. (BBC)
Trump’s post-indictment speech was a master class in alternative facts and false victim narratives: Though it seemed like his camp was initially reticent to address the specifics of the indictment, Trump went into a detailed defense before a crowd at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. He presented alternate histories, legal disinformation, and false claims of political victimization to craft a narrative that he seemed to believe his followers will accept as fact. Overall, the speech previewed a strategy to neutralize the impact of a case that could stretch well into the 2024 election and beyond. (Vox)
U.S. Allocators Grapple With the Risks of Investing in China: “While a tail event is remote, it’s more likely than it was five years ago,” says Scott Taylor, CIO of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. (Institutional Investor)
Don’t Forget Who Loses in Fed’s Quest to Soften Labor Market: Lower-income workers are the ones who have come off the sidelines to fill many recent openings, and will likely be the first to suffer when jobs disappear. (Bloomberg)
Beyond Meat Wannabes Are Failing as Hype and Money Fade: A shakeout in once-hot sector is widening as funding dries up; Consolidation could help winners emerge if growth rebounds (Bloomberg)
When Doctors Use a Chatbot to Improve Their Bedside Manner: Despite the drawbacks of turning to artificial intelligence in medicine, some physicians find that ChatGPT improves their ability to communicate empathetically with patients. (New York Times)
American Companies Are Hostage to the Whims of TikTok: The social-media giant has become ‘a billion-person focus group,’ disrupting business cycles and upending corporate R&D. (Wall Street Journal)
How a dose of MDMA transformed a white supremacist: Brendan was once a leader in the US white nationalist movement. But when he took the drug MDMA in a scientific study, it would radically change his extremist beliefs – to the surprise of everyone involved. Rachel Nuwer investigates what happened. (BBC)
Jack Johnson’s Oahu: The Hawaii-born singer-songwriter and activist recommends some places he loves on the island he still calls home. And yes, surfing and music are involved. (New York Times)
In an Age of Power, Luis Arraez Is Hitting Singles—and Batting .400: Baseball’s analytics movement has often downplayed the simple act of hitting a single to get on base. The Marlins’ Arraez is challenging the new thinking in an old-fashioned way. (Wall Street Journal)
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Secret to Lasting Influence: He’s outmuscled and outsmarted his way to the tippity-top of bodybuilding, Hollywood, and politics. But can he master the art of online influence? (Men’s Health)
The Real Lesson of The Truman Show: Twenty-five years later, the film’s most powerful insight isn’t about reality TV so much as the complicities of modern life. (The Atlantic)
The Beatles Come Together Using AI for ‘Last Record,’ Paul McCartney Says: The record features AI-assisted vocals from the late Beatle John Lennon. (Wall Street Journal)