What we’re reading (10/7)
“Billionaire Tech Investor Orlando Bravo Says ‘Valuations In AI Are At A Bubble’” (CNBC). “Thoma Bravo co-founder Orlando Bravo said that valuations for artificial intelligence companies are “at a bubble,” comparing it to the dotcom era. But one key difference in the market now, he said, is that large companies with ‘healthy balance sheets’ are financing AI businesses. Bravo’s private equity firm boasts more than $181 billion in assets under management as of June, and focuses on buying and selling enterprise tech companies, with a significant chunk of its portfolio invested in cybersecurity.”
“Gold Prices Top $4,000 For First Time” (Wall Street Journal). “Gold surpassed $4,000 a troy ounce for the first time, signaling an investor rush into alternative assets at a time of concern about the outlook for the U.S. economy and its place in the world. The price of the precious metal has surged this year more than it did during some of America’s biggest crises. Rising more than 50%, futures’ run-up in 2025 has outpaced rallies during the pandemic and 2007-09 recession. Not since the inflationary shock of 1979 has gold catapulted so much higher in a year.”
“Evaluating The Impact Of AI On The Labor Market: Current State of Affairs” (Yale Budget Lab). “Overall, our metrics indicate that the broader labor market has not experienced a discernible disruption since ChatGPT’s release 33 months ago, undercutting fears that AI automation is currently eroding the demand for cognitive labor across the economy.”
“They Got To Live A Life Of Luxury. Then Came The Fine Print.” (New York Times Magazine). “An estimated half of Americans have used B.N.P.L. at least once. Promising instant gratification to an economically eager audience — half of users are early-career individuals under the age of 33 — B.N.P.L. has scaled quickly as an industry, with the total value of purchases ballooning to around $120 billion in 2023 in the United States alone, up from just $2 billion in 2019.”
“America Saw ‘Essentially No Job Growth’ Last Month, Moody’s Warns” (The Hill). “With official data on hold due to the government shutdown, economists are turning to private reports, and the early signs, according to Moody’s, aren’t good. ‘This data shows that the job market is weak and getting weaker,’ Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi wrote Sunday on social platform X. Zandi pointed to two separate private reports — from ADP and Revelio Labs — which, when averaged together, suggest there was ‘essentially no job growth’ last month.”
