My Yom Kippur morning reads:
• Weeks Before the Midterms, Almost Everything Is Getting More Expensive: David Uberti and Justin Lahart on mortgage rates near 7%, gas at its highest since 2022, and the Fed’s first hike in three years. The price of eating out and buying a house keeps rising, while higher interest rates add to borrowing costs (Wall Street Journal)
• Jonathan Swift v. AI: Dónal Gill on Gulliver’s Travels and the Engine at the Grand Academy of Lagado, which let “the most ignorant person write books… without the least assistance from genius or study” — in 1726. Three hundred years ago, the satirist warned of a world in which reading and writing are replaced by the flashy simulation of human knowledge. Can he help us fix it? (The Dial) see also Zombie iPocalypse The New Dark Ages: Anthony Gottlieb reviews The New Dark Ages — noting that the rumored demise of books has produced plenty of books, from Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death onward. The End of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society (Literary Review)
• The Market Has a Rule of Its Own: Before the Fed reads the long end as a message, it should identify who is speaking. The latest from Yes, I Give a Fig. (Yes, I Give a Fig)
• Fight intensifies over the fate of homes falling into the sea: California homeowners are building a costly rock wall to hold back the ocean, escalating a battle over private property and what to do about years-long beach erosion amid storm damage and higher tides. Hannah Knowles from Dana Point’s Beach Road, where some houses have already collapsed and neighbors are scrambling to keep theirs from going next. (Washington Post)
• How to Tell Whether a Plunging Stock Will Keep Plunging: One of the oldest pieces of Wall Street wisdom is not to try catching a falling knife—a stock that’s plunging. They can keep going longer and more violently than investors expect. But what if you already own it? The oldest Wall Street wisdom says don’t catch a falling knife — but what if you already own it? (Wall Street Journal)
• A Stealth Startup Thinks It Just Hacked the Memory Shortage: Lauren Goode on Kepler Computing, the San Jose chip startup that spent seven-plus years quietly redesigning computer memory architecture — and just came out of stealth into a global shortage. It’s new approach to chip design—and a proprietary material—can help end the supply bottlenecks that have sent memory prices surging. (Wired)
• Flock cameras are riddled with security vulnerabilities and hard-coded credentials: (Micah Lee) see also Boston dumps Flock, says it shared data nationwide in violation of contract. City: Flock enabled “nationwide lookup” despite contract requiring it to be disabled. (Ars Technica)
• NYC deploys robotoilets. The public bathrooms have a strict 10-minute time limit. A suite of high-tech public restrooms has started to land in New York City as part of a push by the mayor’s office to make it easier for people to find a place to go while they’re on the go. (Gothamist)
• The Three Dreaded Words No One Wants to Hear: What’s for Dinner? Americans spend more time cooking than they have in two decades, but hectic schedules and rising costs make it a key pain point. Mayor Mamdani unveils the first two of 17 modular Throne Labs restrooms. (Gothamist)
• He Interviewed Tom Cruise for GQ. We Interviewed Him About How It Went.: Geoff Edgers on Cruise’s first deep chat in years — “It was… really something.” Cruise’s on-camera interview was pitched as his first deep chat in years. It was … really something. (Washington Post)
Video of the day: Jimmy Kimmel’s Interview with James Talarico That the FCC Doesn’t Want You To See
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business with Glen Kacher, founder and CIO of Light Street Capital. He launched the firm in Palo Alto after stints working with Julian Roberts at Tiger and Roger McNamee at Integral. His Mercury funds returned 45.7% in 2023, 59.4% in 2024, and 37.3% in 2025 — the best three-year stretch of any of the “Tiger Cubs.” He describes the firm as “the Silicon Valley Home Team, 100% focused on tech opportunities.”
From a Savings Glut to a Savings Shortage
Source: Apollo