Plus: As Meme Stocks Make A Comeback, Beware This Tax Trap |
Good morning,
In a retail landscape defined by abundant choice and near-instant gratification, YoungLA is an activewear brand finding success with the opposite strategy: scarcity.Brothers Gurmer and Dashmeet Chopra make their fitness-inspired streetwear available in limited drops, and the collections sell out every two weeks online. In 2024, YoungLA cleared $176 million in revenue. The scarcity model is tricky to pull off—there has to be enough stock to bring in revenue, while purposefully understocking to ensure things will sell out. “You could call it artificial scarcity, but it encourages people to pay full price,” says Morningstar analyst David Swartz.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| President Donald Trump signed his long-awaited executive order paving the way for 401(k) providers to offer access to private equity investments last week, potentially opening the floodgates to what the private equity industry has long salivated over. With $12.2 trillion in defined contribution workplace accounts and another $16.8 trillion in individual retirement accounts, according to the Investment Company Institute, individuals’ retirement savings could prove spectacularly fruitful for Wall Street if even a small amount of them are allocated to private equity and credit. Less than two months after he was sworn in, Billy Long is out as IRS Commissioner, the White House confirmed. Long was the sixth person to run the IRS since the beginning of the year and will be replaced by Scott Bessent, who will serve as Acting Commissioner at the same time he serves as the Secretary of the Treasury. |
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 | | ILLUSTRATION BY SAMANTHA LEE FOR FORBES; IMAGES BY TETRA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES; W6/GETTY IMAGES |
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| At the height of the pandemic meme stock boom in 2021, a 50-something investor tried his hand as a day-trader, rapidly buying and selling stocks such as AMC Entertainment. In the end, he racked up more than $7 million in gains and just a hair over that in losses, resulting in what he thought was, more or less, a wash, tax wise. But it wasn’t, thanks to the too-often neglected “wash sale” rule, which holds that you can’t claim tax losses on a stock that you sell at a loss, if you purchase the same security (or a similar one) in the 30 days before or after the sale date. To the trader’s surprise, the IRS flagged over a half million dollars of his losses as “wash sales”—resulting in a six-figure tax bill for 2021 that he’s still paying off, even though he had lost money on his trading that year. His experience provides a timely cautionary tale given that meme stocks have made something of a comeback this summer. One example is Opendoor Technologies, the real estate fintech whose stock hit nearly $40 a share in February 2021, during the last meme stock boom. It traded as low as 51 cents this past June, putting it at risk of delisting by Nasdaq. But in July, it surged more than fivefold to $3.21, driven higher by buzz on X and Reddit touting the company as the next big thing. (It’s now back down to below $2.) The latest World Economic Forum (WEF) survey of investors across the globe found that 57% of Gen Z and Millennial respondents ranked recommendations from social media or online communities as important vs. 37% of Gen X and just 20% of Baby Boomers. The WEF report, done in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group and Robinhood, estimated that since 2016, users of app-based stock trading apps have been growing at a compound annual rate of 20%. If you’re one of those new users, you too could fall into this wash sale tax trap. Here’s our complete primer to keep you safe. |
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| Since the value of some stocks—especially meme stocks—could rise sharply, investors may be quick to hit the buy button. Investors might also rely on margin trading. You can think of a margin like a line of credit, since it’s typically money borrowed from the broker—investors post a sum as a deposit, but less than the full cost of a trade, to cover a large trade. The result is sort of a perfect storm for the at-home investor. The access to quick cash (or leverage) means that you can buy and trade without worrying about funding, so long as you “make” as much as you “lose.” With some stocks, such as meme stocks, that may all happen very quickly. As shares start trending down, you may be tempted to offload them immediately and then buy them back again as the stock rebounds. That level of furious trading could land you back or close to your original position, even if you experienced significant losses along the way, which feels like a win. That is, until Uncle Sam steps in. |
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| Despite announcing revenue and profit that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, digital bank Chime saw its stock slide more than 14% the day following its inaugural earnings call as a public company. The big issue for Chime is future growth: The bank added just 100,000 new active customers from the prior quarter. Given Chime’s heavy spending on marketing and continued efforts to bring more customers in the door, “We were hoping for a little more upside,” Deutsche Bank analyst Nate Svensson wrote in a research note. The value of U.S. gold futures rose to a record high of just over $3,534 per troy ounce early Friday following reports the Trump Administration would implement “surprise” tariffs that some economists warned could disrupt global bullion trade. However, a White House official told Bloomberg that the reports were misinformation, adding that the Trump Administration plans to post an executive order clarifying that imports of gold bars will not face tariffs. |
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| When OpenAI released its new flagship GPT-5 language model last week, rather than applaud the advancement, some devoted ChatGPT users were devastated after the company said it was shutting down the older 4o model—popular for its warm writing style. OpenAI quickly reversed course, but the dustup underscores the perils of releasing new models as AI becomes more intertwined with people’s lives. |
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| Private-equity billionaire Robert Smith was involved in one of the biggest tax-evasion schemes in American history, and leading up to his non-prosecution deal with the Justice Department in 2020, he and his family rented a 10,500-square-foot property in Palm Beach owned by President Donald Trump. Smith had spent millions buying and renovating homes in locales including Colorado, California and France, but still ended up renting that particular property—directly next-door to Mar-a-Lago—from that particular person. The Trump Administration is pushing for a $1 billion settlement from UCLA over antisemitism allegations, about a week after the administration suspended $584 million in UCLA funding, according to UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk. UC President James Milliken said Friday that the proposed settlement “would completely devastate” the UC system, suggesting it would hinder medical therapies that “save lives, grow the U.S. economy, and protect our national security.” The Justice Department submitted court filings asking to release evidence shown to the grand juries that indicted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, expanding on a previous request to include specific pieces of evidence that were shown before the grand juries. Grand jury materials are typically only released under very limited circumstances, though the Trump Administration has argued an exception should be made in this case given the widespread public interest. |
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| Nearly twice as many viewers tuned in to the latest South Park episode on Comedy Central last week compared to the season premiere in July, as the satirical cartoon continues to skewer the Trump Administration. The broadcast of the new episode—which lambasted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the agency’s ICE raids—drew 838,000 viewers on Wednesday night, according to The Hollywood Reporter. |
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| A flesh-eating bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus has led to at least nine deaths in the Southeast, and dozens of cases have been confirmed across 11 states. The bacteria thrives in warm water, and cases tend to increase after hurricanes hit the coast, but one expert told NBC News the number of deaths is abnormally high for this point in the year. |
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| Horror-mystery film Weapons blew past projections and dominated the domestic box office in its opening weekend, marking another blockbuster for Warner Bros., which has put out several of 2025’s biggest films so far: |
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$42.5 million | The estimated domestic box office gross for Weapons, which earned the top spot this past weekend | |
| A- | The Cinemascore for Weapons so far, putting it on par with Get Out and Silence of the Lambs | |
| $48 million | Another surprise horror hit for Warner Bros., Sinners had a better opening weekend performance when it released in April |
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| Freakier Friday released in theaters over the weekend, and Hollywood’s latest rendition of the mother-daughter body-swap comedy has lessons for all leaders on the importance of shifting perspectives. Real transformation happens when we challenge our assumptions and choose to see situations from another vantage point. For family businesses especially, the transition from family roles to business partners will be most successful if all |
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