Sunday links: a bit unsustainable
Tadas Viskanta
Abnormal Returns
2 days ago
4 MIN READ
Markets
- Is a meme stock moment ever possible again? (barrons.com)
- The boost in corporate margins is all coming from tech. (apolloacademy.com)
- Beware interest in brokerage stocks. (acadian-asset.com)
Strategy
- Everywhere you look you see signs of reflation. (downtownjoshbrown.com)
- How stocks can hedge against inflation. (tker.co)
Companies
- Intel’s ($INTC) Trump bump was short-lived. (wsj.com)
- USA Rare Earth ($USAR) scored an investment from the Trump administration. (cnbc.com)
- Why ASML ($ASML) is valued in excess of $500 billion. (ft.com)
- Coupang is the Amazon of South Korea. (fiscal.ai)
Sports gambling
- In the lead up to the Super Bowl, prediction markets are facing off against sports books. (wsj.com)
- Kalshi is on the offensive against Polymarket. (sportico.com)
ETFs
- Despite a surge in dodgy products, the ETF industry is still a net boon for investors. (morningstar.com)
- What’s behind the divergence between the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF ($IEMG) and the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF ($VWO)? (etf.com)
- A look at the active ETFs that closed in 2025. (morningstar.com)
- The Baron First Principles ETF ($RONB) is a big bet on Elon companies. (etf.com)
- Dogecoin ETFs are a disappointment. (theblock.co)
Data
- DOGE really did gain access to confidential Social Security data. (yahoo.com)
- The administration is amassing all sorts of lists in the name of ‘public safety.’ (thebulwark.com)
- DOGE accessed a lot more than SSA data. (npr.org)
ICE
- What ICE is doing isn’t a mistake, it’s systematic. (nytimes.com)
- ICE murdered another U.S. citizen in Minnesota. (wsj.com)
- Why Minnesota? (npr.org)
Adults in the room
- The sad state of things if Marco Rubio is the ‘adult in the room.’ (danieldrezner.substack.com)
- Scott Bessent has joined in on attacks on the Federal Reserve. (msn.com)
Fraud
- GOP officials are struggling to find widespread voter fraud. (independent.co.uk)
- Pam Bondi dropped a case against a Utah doctor who faked COVID vaccine cards. (propublica.org)
- How welfare fraud hurts the case for a more just society. (theatlantic.com)
Trump
- Francis Fukuyama, “Trump’s enduring legacy is not an institutional structure, but rather a highly toxic culture that has been adopted by many of the president’s followers and will live on after he is gone.” (persuasion.community)
- Odd Arne Westad, “The push to buy Greenland is part of that unworkable approach to the world. For people outside the US, it is the principle that countries and peoples can be bought and sold that rankles most.” (giftarticle.ft.com)
- Ashley Parker, “Trump Derangement Syndrome, in many ways, has been replaced by Trump Exhaustion Syndrome: The populace notes the latest indignity, and then returns to business as usual.” (theatlantic.com)
- Kyla Scanlon, “Nostalgia works as content but it certainly fails as governance.” (kyla.substack.com)
Policy
- Jerusalem Demsas, “There’s so much that policy can do to make the world a better place, many things it has yet to do. But policy cannot fill the void that duty has left.” (theargumentmag.com)
- DOGE accomplished one thing. It reduced federal employment. (apricitas.io)
- How much it costs to send Trump to a sporting event. (frontofficesports.com)
- Project 2025 is alive and well. (npr.org)
Economy
- Checking in on Q4 GDP. (econbrowser.com)
- The economic schedule for the coming week. (economicweekly.substack.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Top clicks this week on Abnormal Returns. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Saturday linkfst. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Is enshittification the driver of higher corporate profit margins? (abnormalreturns.com)
- The U.S. has become a riskier place to do business. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Don’t miss a thing! Sign up for our daily e-mail newsletter. (abnormalreturns.com)
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