10 Weekend Reads – The Big Picture

• 100 Most Powerful People in Business: Leaders from 40 industries, ranging in age from their 30s to their 90s. You’ll come across very recognizable founders, chief executives of great businesses, disrupters, and innovators. What you won’t find: fossilized billionaires who are no longer active in business; nor will you find politicians, regulators, or seconds-in-command. In the end, the people who earned places on the Most Powerful People list share a vital trait: Their words, deeds, and wealth shape what others around them think and do. (Fortune)

• How Jensen Huang Built Nvidia Into the $3 Trillion King of AI: Nvidia’s CEO turned a struggling upstart into the world’s most valuable company. It took 30 years. (Barron’s) see also The Great American Microchip Mobilization: Under Donald Trump and Joe Biden alike, the US has been determined to “reshore” chipmaking. Now money and colossal infrastructure are flowing to a vast Intel site in Ohio—just as the company may be falling apart. (Wired)

• Ozempic Could Crush the Junk Food Industry. But It Is Fighting Back. As revolutionary new weight-loss drugs turn consumers off ultraprocessed foods, the industry is on the hunt for new products. (New York Times Magazine)

• Wall Street Math Wizards Are Decoding Private-Market Returns: A small band of quants is shining a light into the shadowy world of unlisted assets. (Bloomberg)

• The real story of inflation: Pandemic-era stimulus isn’t the culprit. Peter R. Orszagm, former director of OMB and director of the CBO argues it wasn’t the fiscal stimulus, it was the supply chains. (Washington Post) but see Who Is to Blame for Inflation, 1-15: The world is complex, and it is rarely (if ever) one causal factor driving economic events. Try these 15 factors instead. (TBP)

• Assessing the Impact of Passive Investing over Time: Higher Volatility, Reduced Liquidity, and Increased Concentration: The rise of passive investing has had a significant impact on financial markets in the last three decades, especially on its contribution to higher asset-price volatility, reduced liquidity, and possible contribution to heightened market concentration. By analyzing the substantial shift of assets from active to passive strategies—particularly through the growth of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and retirement-savings plans, such as 401(k)—this paper illustrates how passive investors, who primarily track major indices, have contributed to reduced price elasticity and market responsiveness, which, in turn, have led to amplified price movements, decreased liquidity, potential macroeconomic inefficiencies, and a disproportionate concentration of market influence in a few dominant stocks, such as the so-called “Magnificent Seven.” (Apollo)

• The Race to Create the Perfect EV: Tire With billions sold each year, the battle is on to make the ideal electric car tire—one that offers the holy trinity of increased range, eco credentials, and less noise. The results could benefit every vehicle on the planet. (Wired)

• The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over: There’s comfort in being surrounded by like-minded people, but challenge is important, and we may have to look for it elsewhere. (The Guardian) see also How Bluesky, Alternative to X and Facebook, Is Handling Explosive Growth: The fledgling social media site has been flooded with new users since the election. It hasn’t all been easy. (New York Times)

• Your Data’s Strange Undersea Voyage: The internet is a series of tubes. In the ocean. (Nautilus)

• Introducing the Taylor Sheridan Equinox: ‘Landman’ will be one of four (!) Taylor Sheridan shows airing this Sunday—a feat for the prolific creator that deserves its own name. (The Ringer)