The transcript from this week’s, MiB: John Hope Bryant, Operation Hope, is below. You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here. ~~~ ANNOUNCER: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio. BARRY RITHOLTZ, HOST, MASTERS IN BUSINESS: This week on the podcast, I have an extra special guest. John Hope Bryant is a fascinating entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder of Operatio ..read more

My back-to-work morning train reads: •  Why Are Markets So Calm? It’s Revenge of the Quant Funds: Firms that use computers to determine buy and sell signals have been loading up while other investors sit back. (Wall Street Journal) • Crypto Is Staging a Major Rebound. How It Survived a $3 Trillion Crash. Bitcoin and other tokens have rebounded while big companies and funds continue to plow capital into cryptocurrencies. (Barron’s) • Five Things That Could Knock Nvidia Down: Which is why now is a perfect time for us all to remind ourselves that stocks trading 170x earnings don’t normally ..read more

My Memorial Day morning reads: • Memorial Day—for All Americans: We may disagree with one another about our vision for our country, but so did the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines we honor today. (The Bulwark) • China’s hypersonic missiles threaten US power in the Pacific: An aerospace engineer explains how the weapons work and the unique threats they pose: Chinese researchers claimed in a May 2023 research journal report that the country’s hypersonic missiles could destroy a U.S. carrier group “with certainty.” This capability threatens to sideline U.S. aircraft carrier groups in the P ..read more

Another spectacular day for top-down motoring. May I suggest a depression-era roadster, the Imperial? It was Chrysler’s attempt to compete with luxury rivals such as al Cadillac, Lincoln, Duesenberg, and  Pierce Arrow. The 1932 Chrysler CG Imperial below is a unique model, continually improved by its original owner. Mods are looked at differently today than century ago. The Custom Roadster below is the highest-ever selling Chrysler, going at auction earlier this year for $1.6 million.       Source: Classic Driver The post 1932 Chrysler CG Imperial Custom Roadster ..read more

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures: • We Want Them Infected: These ‘experts’ sold the U.S. on a disastrous COVID plan, and never paid a professional price. A painstakingly documented new book by Jonathan Howard, a neurologist at New York University and a veteran debunker of the pseudoscience contaminating our efforts to fight the pandemic. In 2019 you would have been considered a quack if you suggested that the best way to get rid of a virus is to spread the virus. But that became mainstream and influenced politicians at the highest le ..read more

   This week, we speak with entrepreneur John Hope Bryant, the founder and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, which is the US’s largest not-for-profit provider of financial literacy and economic empowerment tools. Described as the “Conscience of Capitalism,” Bryant is also chairman and chief executive officer of John Hope Bryant Holdings, Bryant Group Ventures and The Promise Homes Company. Bryant’s founded organizations have provided more than $3.5 billion in capital for the underserved over the past 30 years. He discusses how he became interested in entrepreneurship when a ..read more

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of  coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads: • The King’s Dominion (The real Succession): His sons are at war. He’s divorced his fourth wife and broken an engagement to a would-be fifth. The jewel in what’s left of his crown faces a billion-dollar lawsuit. Will the division Rupert Murdoch spent his life fostering undo his empire? (Vanity Fair) • The death of ownership: Companies are taking away your ability to actually own the stuff you buy. (Business Insider) • When digital nomads come to town: Meet the d ..read more

    I joined Pete Dominick to discuss the Debt Ceiling, Inflation, markets, and more. I pop into the pod around the 30-minute mark. (Before that, Pete discusses how his teenage daughter got scammed out of $5k by a fake border police grift, and why there is a sort of happy ending). We also discuss my thesis of the “Disloyal Opposition” as it applies to Debt Ceilings, fiscal stimulus, and even vaccines. Politics used to stop at the water’s edge, and while we may have disagreed about how we were going to achieve those goals, everybody wanted what was best for the country. That is no lo ..read more

My 3-day weekend morning reads: • Adidas After Yeezy: The partnership with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was the stuff of sneakerhead legend—and its demise has the shoe company scrambling to replace nearly half of its profits. (Businessweek) • What US Cities Pay the Most (and Least) for Everyday Jobs: From accountants to nurses to data scientists, the same job can deliver about 50% more pay if you’re willing and able to relocate. (Bloomberg) see also How some people get away with doing nothing at work All hail the jobless employed. (Vox) • The Biggest Hedge Funds Take the Lead—and Pocket ..read more

  Of all the cognitive errors in behavioral finance and human psychology, the one that creates the most confusion is the Dunning-Kruger effect. (Perhaps its rise in pop culture is to blame). Regardless, I find DKE to be an incredibly useful tool that helps explain many of the individual errors we see in investing. It’s useful to think of Dunning Kruger in terms of metacognition: One’s ability to self-evaluate a particular skill set. Metacognition appears to be a discrete skill unto itself, one that unsurprisingly increases along with the underlying skill. As you improve at a thing, your ..read more