| Plus: The dystopia of ‘meh’ AI | |
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| Welcome to the weekend! Just because a company isn’t publicly traded doesn’t mean it can’t send waves through the stock market. Which private company recently announced partnerships with AMD, Shopify and Etsy, causing a spike in their stock prices? Find out with this week’s Pointed quiz. While we’re playing around: Think of a 12-letter, two-word synonym for “This isn’t working!” Once you’ve got it, test your guess with Alphadots, Bloomberg’s new word puzzle with a twist. Don’t miss Sunday’s Forecast, on bubble economics. For unlimited access to Bloomberg.com, please subscribe. | |
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| To hear the AI enthusiasts tell it, profound productivity breakthroughs will emerge as companies start embracing artificial intelligence, which will boost living standards and the broader economy. AI doomers warn the endgame of such advancement is superintelligence, followed by human extinction. But economist Daron Acemoglu is worried about a more mundane middle ground: a future of “so-so automation” that does allow companies to cut jobs but doesn’t deliver productivity gains. Like self-checkout kiosks or automated customer service phone menus, the tools in this dystopia are OK at best, Jo Constantz writes, but never truly great. | |
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| Sometimes you bet on AI and find it’s not quite ready for primetime. And sometimes you bet on the legalization of the rhinoceros horn trade and end up with 2,000 homeless rhinos. That’s what happened in South Africa after John Hume spent $150 million over 30 years to amass a herd of rhinos — only to run out of money and lose his ranch. The government asked a nonprofit to step in, which is how Donovan Jooste found himself tasked with rehoming a seventh of the world’s white rhinos. Hume “was speculating in a market where, had it changed, his financial situation would’ve been one for the record books,” Jooste tells Antony Sguazzin. “But the reality is it didn’t.” | |
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| Relocating a white rhino by truck costs about $1,500 — the same amount an American family with a child athlete spends on youth sports each year. Nearly a quarter of parents believe their kids can play at a high-level college, and 11% think they’ll go pro. That mix of ambition and delusion has fueled a $40 billion youth sports industry, powered by parents who find themselves swept from casual preschool kickarounds into meltdowns over matches between 10-year-olds. It’s a level of commitment that Dick’s Sporting Goods has turned into big business, Ira Boudway writes, with a growth strategy built on families spending heavily for kids’ dreams of future glory. | |
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| Japan
Nguyen Dinh Viet moved from Vietnam to Japan nearly two decades ago, built a career with a Toyota supplier, and raised a family in a quiet suburb. But this summer, the rise of Japan’s far-right Sanseito party has shaken his sense of security. The upstart group campaigned on a nationalist agenda, vowing to address the “foreigner problem” and winning the second-largest share of votes among opposition parties. Now Nguyen and other immigrants are worried their adopted home may no longer want them. “I pay taxes and make my pension contributions,” he says. “I haven’t received anything more than the Japanese people, not even a single yen.”  Photographer: Ko Sasaki for Bloomberg Markets United States
What do Severance, director Ryan Coogler and pop star Ariana Grande have in common? All three have drawn inspiration from Rod Serling, the screenwriting legend behind The Twilight Zone. So have the hundreds of fans who flocked to SerlingFest, an annual celebration of Serling’s legacy. The show gave us gremlins on planes, bookworms surviving the apocalypse, and aliens galore — but fans are just as keen to remember the man behind them. Serling’s prescient stories spark a nagging question: How did a show so steeped in the anxieties of its own era end up feeling like prophecy for ours?  Photographer: CBS/Getty Images | |
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| “Cars ruin everything.” That’s the claim made in one of three new books that blame the automobile for ills such as pollution and war. The authors offer a vision for societies that work better without them, and argue EVs are no easy fix. Silicon Valley went MAGA for the money. In Gilded Rage, journalist Jacob Silverman argues that after a decade of easy money, CEOs facing a crypto crash and a potential tech slowdown turned to Republicans to protect their fortunes — and to keep the good times rolling. Japan’s economy is colder than it seems. Inflation is up, markets are soaring and a new political star — Sanae Takaichi — has emerged, stoking hopes of a true thaw. But weak wages, a fragile currency and deep structural problems hint at a hypothermic illusion. Margaret Thatcher is the mother of conservatism’s crisis. She upended the postwar consensus between labor and capital, and crushed her enemies at home and abroad. Her “there is no alternative” radicalism reshaped Anglo-Saxon conservatism — and may have doomed it. | |
Star Banker to Star Witness | | “I’d never thought this would transpire. That the police would knock on the door. From that point onwards, it feels like it’s happening to somebody else.” | | Andrew Pearse | | Once a high-flying Credit Suisse dealmaker, Andrew Pearse became a central figure in the $2 billion “Tuna Bond Scandal” that helped cripple the Mozambican economy and foreshadowed Credit Suisse’s 2023 collapse. After agreeing to cooperate with US prosecutors, his life unraveled and his fortune vanished. His story is one of hubris, collapse — and possible redemption. | | |
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| Cristiano Ronaldo. Sure, if “it” is $1 billion. The footballer may be in the twilight of his playing career, but a new contract propelled him into a select group of the very wealthiest athletes. Fitness by… OnlyFans? Proceed with caution. The NSFW creator platform has become one of Britain’s biggest tech success stories, but now it’s trying to prove it’s more than a porn site. $120 “recovery shoes”: Only if you actually hit the gym! Companies are targeting consumers with slides, clogs and slippers that promise relief after a run or other athletic activity. Buldak’s spicy ramen: Honestly, yes. At less than $8 for a five-pack, the South Korean company’s ridiculously spicy instant noodles deserve every bit of their TikTok-fueled fame. Michelin stars for hotels: Eh. It depends on whether you trust the company to award stars impartially while also taking money from the tourism bodies promoting those destinations. A $400 Barbour jacket: Yup. The brass zippers never seem to snag, the tartan lining is rarely too hot, the collar is perfectly rakish — and with a little TLC, a good one will last you decades.  A well-worn Barbour coat with the right half re-waxed. Source: Barbour | |
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