Sunday links: a quiet crackup

Markets

• Does it matter if the stock market actually falls 20%? (tker.co)
• American households own a lot of stock. (thesandboxdaily.com)
• FOMO is real. How to sidestep it. (humbledollar.com)

Crypto

• A growing number of companies hold a substantial percentage of Bitcoin outstanding. (on.ft.com)
• Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve. (theblock.co)
• How Circle ($CRCL) makes money. (gizmodo.com)

Finance

• SPACs are back! (ft.com)
• When VCs have a lot of capital to put to work, they can make some questionable decisions. (investing101.substack.com)

Manufacturing

• China has a manufacturing (profitability) problem. (noahpinion.blog)
• Would you want Uncle Sam on your company’s board. U.S. Steel does now. (riskgaming.com)

Housing

• Jess Remington, “The housing crisis in America isn’t just about building more — it’s about building in the right places.” (agglomerations.substack.com)
• What happens if sprawl in the Sun Belt dries up? (slate.com)

Warfare

• Why the U.S. is uniquely at-risk of attacks from within using drones and other technologies. (theatlantic.com)
• Why Western democracies are pretty good at war-making. (noahpinion.blog)
• Hardware, including defense, is getting a boost from VCs. (wsj.com)
• Totaling up the damage war has caused in Ukraine. (visualcapitalist.com)

Iran

• Why Israel attacked Iran when it did. (unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com)
• Conflicts can have all sorts of unintended consequences. (programmablemutter.com)
• Prior to yesterday, Americans were opposed to war with Iran. (gelliottmorris.com)
• What is Israel’s next move? (unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com)

Social Security

• What did DOGE accomplish and/or break at Social Security? (nytimes.com)
• Social Security’s finances are worsening. (axios.com)
• SSA has stopped reporting call wait times. (msn.com)

Conflicts

• The many ways Trump is cashing in on his name. (axios.com)
• The second Trump administration has thrown aside any notion of ethical obligations. (theguardian.com)
• American Bitcoin represents a conflict for the Trump family. (msn.com)
• Side with Trump, get a federal judgeship. (politico.com)

Health policy

• Checking in on areas where Medicaid cuts could hit hardest. (npr.org)
• The new vaccine regime at HHS is likely to see fewer shots and more disease. (arstechnica.com)
• How cuts to USAID are playing out in Africa. (nytimes.com)

Economy

• Would a recession put a dent into the spending of the top 1%? (awealthofcommonsense.com)
• Economic expansions most often die due to exogenous shocks. (bonddad.blogspot.com)
• The Fed is behind the curve. (disciplinefunds.com)
• CPI data quality is in decline. (apolloacademy.com)
• The economic schedule for the coming week. (calculatedriskblog.com)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

• Top clicks last week on the site. (abnormalreturns.com)
• What you missed in our Saturday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
• Don’t miss a thing! Sign up for our daily e-mail newsletter. (abnormalreturns.com)

Mixed media

• Free speech takes a hit in Texas. (wapo.st)
• Gen Z on TikTok see a lot of MAGA-adjacent material. (axios.com)
• A bully with money and a lack of shame can get into a lot of trouble – the case of Stockton Rush. (lefsetz.com)