My mid-week morning reads:
• ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ self-help author Robert Kiyosaki is $1.2 billion in debt: report. The self-help guru who has made a fortune preaching the secrets of financial success — has amassed a staggering $1.2 billion in debt tied to his sprawling real-estate investments, according to a report. Ariel Zilber on the 79-year-old guru who preaches the secrets of financial success while touting his own ten-figure real-estate debt as strategy. (New York Post)
• 10 Brutally Honest Predictions on the Future of AI: Ted Gioia on why you could get more reliable information from tarot cards — 95% of AI pilot programs failed, and 86% of the public now distrusts AI. (The Honest Broker)
• The Sudden Unraveling of Wall Street’s Momentum Trade: The S&P 500 Momentum Index is down more than 9% since July 1 against the S&P 500’s 2.8% gain — the “self-fulfilling prophecy” of betting on rising winners has turned into a losing game for investors who banked on its success. (Wall Street Journal)
• Happy birthday to the First Index Investment Trust Witness the FIITnes. Fifty years ago today, the Vanguard Group of Investment Companies launched its first passive index-tracking fund. It was an infamously terrible, horrible, no good, very bad launch. Today, it manages an astonishing $1.7tn — more than most sovereign wealth funds. Robin Wigglesworth on Vanguard’s first passive index fund, now an astonishing $1.7 trillion — more than most sovereign wealth funds. (Financial Times)
• Data Centers Are Driving an Alarming Gas Power Expansion in the US: There’s no clearer sign of the data center boom than rampant gas projects that have been proposed or that are already under construction. Molly Taft on new Global Energy Monitor research showing gas-fired power in development for data centers has nearly doubled in less than a year. (Wired)
• Florida May Be Showing Us the Great Senior Short-Sale Before It Arrives Everywhere: Mike Hathorne on a housing market that can be short of homes and still have too many of the wrong homes for the households coming next. (Mike Hathorne)
• A War That Won’t End Is Complicating the Fed’s Next Move: A Fed governor says the central bank should act if inflation doesn’t improve soon, while Bessent says Fed should look past high energy prices. (Wall Street Journal)
• Hegseth’s Pentagon Lurches off the Rails: Tom Nichols on the price of nominating a TV host who topped out as a National Guard major to run the Defense Department. (The Atlantic) see also Dan Driscoll’s Parting Shot: The Army secretary told Trump about problems in the Army and his friction with Hegseth, then resigned. (The Atlantic) see also The Generals Are Worried: A leak of a recent report suggests that even Hegseth loyalists can’t keep ignoring how depleted American reserves are. (Slate)
• Forbidden Planet: Was Pluto’s 2006 Demotion a Big Mistake?: Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate. Tim Dowling revisits the vote that cost the ninth planet its title. (The Guardian)
• Keep Chasing That Bird: The Oral History of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’: The Looney Tunes movie finally hits theaters after its controversial shelving three years ago — the story of how it got out from under the anvil. (The Ringer)
Video of the day: OnlyFans: How an $8B Cash Machine Got Stripped Bare
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business with David Booth, Founder, Chairman, and former CEO of Dimensional Funds Advisors. DFA just crossed $1 trillion dollars, and has become the largest active equity ETF manager. Booth’s new book is “Stay Calm: Learn to Embrace Uncertainty in Investing and Life.”
America is still missing the Electric Revolution
Source: Noahpinion
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Facts Only
* Robert Kiyosaki has $1.2 billion in debt tied to real-estate investments.
* Ted Gioia presented predictions on AI, noting 95% of AI pilot programs failed and 86% of the public distrusts AI.
* The S\&P 500 Momentum Index is down more than 9% since July 1 against the S\&P 500’s 2.8% gain.
* Vanguard Group launched its first passive index-tracking fund fifty years ago.
* Vanguard's first passive index fund manages $1.7 trillion, exceeding most sovereign wealth funds.
* Gas-fired power development for data centers in the US has nearly doubled in less than a year.
* A housing market in Florida can still have too many of the wrong homes for incoming households.
* Federal reserve governors disagree on whether to act based on inflation versus energy prices.
* Tom Nichols discussed the pricing of nominating a TV host to run the Defense Department.
* Pluto was stripped of planetary status in 2006.
* The Looney Tunes movie 'Coyote vs. Acme' was shelved three years prior to its theatrical release.
Executive Summary
The provided text presents a collection of disparate news and commentary spanning finance, technology, economics, geopolitics, and pop culture. Key themes include financial risks associated with high-profile figures and markets (Kiyosaki's debt, the S\&P 500 momentum trade), the uncertainty surrounding Artificial Intelligence adoption and reliability, large-scale infrastructure shifts driven by data centers and energy demands (gas expansion), evolving housing market dynamics, and broader geopolitical tensions affecting defense spending. Furthermore, the text touches on historical financial innovations (Vanguard's passive index funds), long-term market narratives regarding assets like Pluto, and commentary on the state of public trust in technology and institutions.
A central thread weaving through these topics is the tension between perceived success and underlying instability. There are indicators pointing to significant structural shifts—such as the dominance of data centers driving energy needs, or the failure of predictive financial models—juxtaposed with persistent ideological battles over established facts (e.g., AI trust, planetary status). The content juxtaposes high-level financial narratives with specific, often contradictory, expert commentary regarding future trends, suggesting an environment where complex systems are undergoing rapid, sometimes chaotic, transformation.
Full Take
The juxtaposition of high-stakes financial narratives with technological and geopolitical uncertainty reveals a pattern centered on the struggle to establish reliable frameworks in an accelerating, information-saturated environment. The narrative structure frequently employs stark, quantifiable claims—such as debt figures or failed AI pilots—to establish immediate gravity, which then leads into broader, less immediately concrete predictions about systemic risk (e.g., Wall Street momentum failure, energy infrastructure shifts). This creates a dynamic where established structures (financial markets, governmental policy, scientific consensus on AI) are being rapidly destabilized by emergent forces, leading to an anxiety-driven response from the public.
The underlying tension involves the fragility of perceived certainty. Whether examining the historical failure of passive investing, the distrust in emerging technology like AI, or the geopolitical strain indicated by defense spending leaks, the common denominator is the gap between expert forecasting and lived reality. The pattern suggests that when major shifts occur—be they technological, economic, or political—the narrative often defaults to focusing on quantifiable losses or failed experiments rather than exploring alternative systemic responses or distributing accountability among the forces creating the instability. This emphasis risks locking analysis into reactive diagnosis rather than proactive construction of new operating principles.
Bridge Questions: If predictions about AI reliability are consistently disproven by pilot failures, how should investment and policy frameworks adjust their reliance on future-gazing methodologies? What is the cost-benefit calculation for building infrastructure based on short-term energy demands versus long-term climate stability? How can the public build cognitive sovereignty when information streams simultaneously highlight systemic failure and promise rapid evolution?