What we’re reading (10/13)

  • “The Rules Of Investing Are Being Loosened. Could It Lead To The Next 1929?” (New York Times). “A group of financiers is trying to convince the public to invest heavily in private equity and crypto — a risky gambit with some real 1920s vibes.”

  • “A Historic Crypto Selloff Erased Over $19 Billion, But Two Accounts Made $160 Million” (Wall Street Journal). “President Trump’s surprise announcement of 100% tariffs against China on Friday triggered a cryptocurrency selloff that wiped out more than $19 billion in leveraged positions. Two accounts that placed bets against the market minutes before the news broke scored a $160 million windfall.”

  • “Grindr Explores Take-Private After Lender Calls Insiders’ Loans” (Semafor). “Raymond Zage and James Lu, who control a majority of the dating app, are in talks to secure debt financing from Fortress Investment Group to acquire Grindr, which has a market value of $2.4 billion, the people said. The fast-moving talks come after a unit of Temasek, which had made personal loans to at least one of the men secured by their holdings, seized some of the underlying shares last week and sold them, the people said. Zage and Lu have discussed a buyout price of around $15 a share, some of the people said, cautioning that number could change. A deal at that price would value the company at around $3 billion.”

  • “Silver Hits All-Time High As London Squeeze Sparks Market Havoc” (Bloomberg). “Spot prices rose as much as 1% to $52.8983 an ounce in London, surpassing a peak set in January 1980 on a now-defunct contract overseen by the Chicago Board of Trade — when the billionaire Hunt brothers attempted to corner the market. Gold also climbed to another record high, building on eight straight weeks of gains.”

  • “Nobel Prize In Economics Goes To Philippe Aghion And Peter Howitt And Joel Mokyr” (Marginal Revolution). “This is a prize for economic growth, and for the ideas of creative destruction.  Those are some of the most important ideas in economics, so I could not be happier with this pick. Joel Mokyr in particular has been a long-time associate of GMU and Mercatus, so I would like to congratulate him in particular. Aghion is at INSEAD in France, Howitt at Brown, and Mokyr at Northwestern.  It is also nice to see some people outside of “the usual schools” winning the prize.  Aghion and Howitt, of course, worked together to produce a model of creative destruction and economic growth.”

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What we’re reading (10/12)