What we’re reading (1/27)
“Trump Has Four Finalists To Run The Fed. None Of Them Are Exactly What He Wants.” (Wall Street Journal). “The difficulty: Trump wants something that may not exist—a new chair who will pursue his demands for lower interest rates while still commanding enough credibility on Wall Street and from his colleagues to deliver them.”
“Weekly Market Pulse: Maybe We Need Our Golden Fetters” (Alhambra Investments). “This is, in my opinion, the most interesting chart in all of finance. This shows the return from gold versus the total return of the S&P 500 since 1/1/2000. As you can see, gold’s return has exceeded that of stocks by almost 3 to 1; it isn’t even close. If you had bought gold at the turn of the century, at no point over the next 25 years would you have been better off having bought the S&P 500 instead. There were periods of outperformance by stocks so you could have done better if you were able to trade those inflection points, but for buy and hold investors, the 21st century has, so far, been the Golden Century. Is gold trying to tell us something or is it just the latest object of speculation in a society increasingly addicted to gambling?”
“Trading Robinhood On Robinhood And Other Circularities” (Owen Lamont). “There’s been much discussion about circular deals in AI; I myself am skeptical that these deals are cause for alarm. But there’s another circularity that’s flying under the radar: Robinhood (the stock) is one of the top holdings of the customers of Robinhood (the company). As of December 2025, Robinhood is the 26th most popular holding of Robinhood customers. Another example is Moomoo, a retail broker similar to Robinhood. On the list of U.S. stocks most popular with Moomoo customers, you’ll usually find the ADR of Moomoo’s parent company.”
“Why Nike Is Cutting Hundreds Of Jobs, Starting At Its Warehouses” (MarketWatch). “In a statement Monday, the sneaker maker said it was ‘taking steps to strengthen and streamline our operations so we can move faster, operate with greater discipline and better serve athletes and consumers.’”
“Inside The Savannah Bananas: $80M+ In Ticket Sales, $50M+ In Merch, And A $1B Valuation Debate” (Huddle Up). “The Bananas played 113 games last year across college, minor league, MLB, and NFL stadiums. At 2.2 million tickets sold, the Bananas would have ranked 20th in MLB ticket sales, ahead of the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, Minnesota Twins, and 2x more than the Miami Marlins (1.1M).”
