10 Friday AM Reads

My back in NY morning reads: • Why Are Valuations Falling in a Bull Market?: Ben Carlson runs the year’s tape — mortgages from 6% to 7%, the 10-year from 4% to 5%, inflation from 2.4% to 3.4%, oil from under $60 to over $100. (A Wealth of Common Sense) • Muni Bonds Are Yielding 5%. They Rival Stocks Now.: With yields comparable to long-term Treasuries and strong credit quality across the $4 trillion tax-exempt market, a tax-advantaged 5% could stack up well versus equities in the coming years. (Barron’s) see also T-Bills and Chill? Try Munis & Chill Instead. Land an A-round and a real salary? Great! Start putting some of your newfound cash flow aside as a good savings habit in an all-equity 401(k). It is a hedge against your start-up failing to beat the odds and eventually finding an exit. (The Big Picture) • The Next Great AI Trade Is Everything That Isn’t AI: Market Sentiment on the hard half of investing — finding the trend early is easy compared to knowing when the thesis has become consensus. (Market Sentiment) • The iShares Graveyard: David Snowball’s archaeological dig through BlackRock’s full list of liquidated ETFs, prompted by eight more closures. “You think I went down a rabbit hole. I prefer to consider it an archaeological dig.” (Mutual Fund Observer) • Trump Has Made More Trades Than All of Congress Combined: Bloomberg finds the president has traded more securities than every member of Congress combined since returning to office — while backing a lawmaker stock-trading ban that doesn’t apply to him. Most Americans support a ban on lawmaker stock trading. Trump is in favor of a prohibition that doesn’t apply to him. (Bloomberg free) • The World Economy Is Becoming Wary of the U.S.: Global investors balking at Treasuries, louder talk of the dollar’s dwindling power, foreign governments hauling their gold out of American vaults. America’s position of global economic stability is starting to look shakier as the Trump administration piles on debt and doubles down on sanctions. (New York Times) see also The American Age Is Over: The Atlantic on the post-WWII order — bound to end eventually, shocking in how suddenly the moment arrived. A period of global dominance has ended in plain sight. (The Atlantic) • We Bought a $500 Counterfeit Luxury Watch. Nobody Could Spot the Difference: Alistair Charlton inside the Reddit QC-post subculture of superfake Rolexes — so good even Rolex didn’t spot it. The replica watch industry is in its “super clone” era. Following tips from murky internet forums, we bought three budget fakes that were good enough to pass as real—but ultimately disposable. (Wired) • ‘Flock City PD:’ The Fake Flock-Owned ‘Police Department’ That Searched Real Cameras for Real People: Jason Koebler Jason Koebler · Sep 17, 2026 at 2:07 PM Flock ran searches for “coexist bumper sticker,” “white truck with a trump sticker,” and “Star of David,” apparently to demonstrate what cops shouldn’t search for. (404) • Can We Be Certain That Time Really Exists?: Ethan Siegel on what counts as real — the measurable, observable, and quantifiable — and the questions that hand back pathological nonsense, like dividing by zero. We experience time as real. But what if it’s only an illusion: an illusion that’s inherently relative? Does time fundamentally even exist? (Starts With A Bang) • “Where Am I Going? And What’s Next?”: Nicole Kidman Is Keeping Her Heart Open: The long-awaited sequel to a fan-favourite movie; a newly single life to ponder; the Euro Summer to end them all: has Nicole Kidman ever been more spellbinding? Giles Hattersley meets the legend in London to talk power moves, mega fashion and the art of a fresh start. Photographs by Venetia Scott. Styling by Poppy Kain. (British Vogue) Video of the day: The Greatest Scam of Our Childhood 8 CDs for a Penny! Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Glen Kacher, founder and CIO of Light Street Capital. He launched the firm in Palo Alto after stints working with Julian Roberts at Tiger and Roger McNamee at Integral. His Mercury funds returned 45.7% in 2023, 59.4% in 2024, and 37.3% in 2025 — the best three-year stretch of any of the “Tiger Cubs.” He describes the firm as “the Silicon Valley Home Team, 100% focused on tech opportunities.” Home price growth has already begun to cool again Source: Calculated Risk Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.