What we’re reading (12/26)
“America’s Biggest Oil Field Is Turning Into A Pressure Cooker” (Wall Street Journal). “Shale drillers have turned the biggest oil field in the U.S. into a pressure cooker that is literally bursting at the seams. Producers in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico extract roughly half of the U.S.’s crude. They also produce copious amounts of toxic, salty water, which they pump back into the ground. Now, some of the reservoirs that collect the fluids are overflowing—and the producers keep injecting more.”
“Gold, Silver Bulls Taunt Bitcoin Investors Amid Parabolic Rally: ‘Time Has Come’ To Switch” (Yahoo! Finance). “On Friday, gold futures rose above $4,550 to hover at or near record highs, capping a year marked by more than 50 such records. Meanwhile, silver also jumped over $75 per ounce, extending its year-to-date gains to 150% in a parabolic rally driven by concerns about physical shortages during a time of robust industrial demand. Platinum and copper have also soared to records this year.”
“AI Made Tech Billionaires Even Richer This Year. Here’s How Much.” (MarketWatch). “This has been a great year for artificial-intelligence companies, which launched model after model and ramped up spending. AI has also made a lot of rich people much richer. More than 50 individuals involved in the AI sector became billionaires this year, Forbes reported on Thursday. Many of those people are entrepreneurs involved in startups, such as the seven co-founders of Anthropic, which nearly tripled its valuation in less than a year.”
“Why Private-Equity Millionaires Love South Dakota” (Wall Street Journal). “South Dakota is one of a handful of states, including Nevada, Wyoming and Alaska, that have no income tax and allow people who set up trusts to also be a beneficiary of them. Proponents say the state offers a host of other benefits for trusts—including protection of assets from creditors and the ability to last forever—that tip the scales in its favor.”
“Which Published Results Can You Trust?” (Marginal Revolution). “[T]rust literatures, not individual research studies. By a ‘literature,’ I mean the collective work conducted by many researchers, acting in decentralized fashion, to publish and circulate the results that will best persuade other researchers. Second, treat research articles, or their popular media coverage, as possibilities to put in your mental toolbox rather than settled truths.”
