Also Murdoch voting rights, OpenAI financing, index inclusion and ESG-based pay.

Books An excerpt from Tim Harford’s book, “The Undercover Economist Strikes Back.” (on.ft.com) A Q&A with Alison Fragle author of “Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve.” (annieduke.substack.com) AI Why AI really...

In my piece this Sunday ‘The new AI ‘Table Stakes’, this AI Tech Wave, I highlighted the escalating race on so many AI metrics for tech companies big and small : “As we go into the Fall of 2024, just two months shy of the second anniversary of...

Good evening. Welcome to Trends with No Friends. FOR THOSE JUST JOINING US, HERE’S AN OVERVIEW Stocks reversed with authority. Every major index finished higher. The Nasdaq Composite carried +2.17% after trading down as much as -1.40%. The S&P 500...

Couldn’t join the crew this week, but Phil Pearlman, JC Parets, Michael Parekh, and Larry Thompson took over and dug into: A look at semiconductors and their market impact Why financials may have their day in the sun Apple’s AI strategy and its role...

Make-wholes, Goldman credit cards, SEC phone pings, an off-and-on merger, Jeff Bezos’s house and a Vulfpeck album.

Strategy Sometimes things really are different this time. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Few investors are able to outperform a passive portfolio. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) Companies Alphabet ($GOOGL) has never been this cheap relative to the...

THIS WEEK ON TRENDS WITH FRIENDS  In our latest Trends with Friends episode, Phil Pearlman, JC Parets, Michael Parekh, and Larry Thompson tackle everything from semiconductor trends to the future of AI in consumer tech. WE COVER The potential top...

Podcasts Barry Ritholtz talks with Samuel Miller about the housing market. (ritholtz.com) Christine Benz talks about her new book “How to Retire.” (morningstar.com) Peter Lazaroff on what to do with your maturing CD. (peterlazaroff.com)...

Sign up to receive Surface Area or follow me on Linkedin or Twitter. Book a meeting here to talk about ghostwriting from my agency, Principals Media. Twenty three years ago Dan Nicholls, a London based trader, printed out a page of headlines from...