>>> Barron’s Weekend Summary

Cover:
-President Donald Trump's executive order has opened up a $12T market for retirement savings, benefiting private-asset firms like Apollo Global Management, KKR, Carlyle Group, and Blackstone. These firms are preparing new products for retirement accounts, as traditional endowment and pension-fund clients have slowed their commitments. Access to private markets could be one of the biggest changes since the invention of the target-date fund three decades ago. When private funds appear on 401(k) menus, savers will be told about their diversification from stocks and bonds and their higher average returns than the S&P 500 index. However, the performance of individual funds varies widely around the category average, making investors need to choose managers wisely. Shares of KKR have remained flat, while shares of Carlyle have risen 8% and Blackstone is up 3%. Private-asset managers can be expected to accelerate after Washington's green light, as they have been eager to break into the 401(k) market for years.

Interview:
-Tom Gayner, a seasoned CEO, runs a diversified holding company, Markel Group, which has an insurance operation and an investment portfolio. Gayner, a long-time disciple of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, has modeled Markel Group to a degree after that company. Gayner joined Markel in 1990, became co-CEO in 2016, and was named sole CEO in 2023. Markel Group has been around since 1930, insuring jitney transportation devices and taxi cabs. The company has been investors in public equity securities for about 20 years and has a collection of insurance, investment- and non-insurance businesses. Gayner's name may sound a bit like Berkshire Hathaway, but it is intentional. The Markel Group's origin story, holdings, and Berkshire's succession plan are discussed in an interview with Barron's.

Tech Trader:
-Intel's stock has experienced a one-day move of plus or minus 3% due to various market issues, including geopolitics, trade, artificial intelligence, U.S. industrial policy, and a micromanaging executive branch. The company's problems are rooted in manufacturing and have led to turnover in its executive suite, undermining a well-respected engineer, Pat Gelsinger. The new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has limited options and time to fix the situation. President Donald Trump initially criticized Intel's CEO, stating that there is no other solution to the problem. However, after Tan visited the White House to gain Trump's favor, Intel stock rose more than 3% that day. Intel agreed to a deal with the US government, which would grant the latter a 9.9% stake in the company in return for fulfilling its full payout under the US Chips Act, totaling $11.1B. The law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 never called for equity stakes for that funding, but political dynamics have shifted.

The Trader:
-Defense spending is expected to rise globally, but selecting defense-stock winners is challenging due to complex threats, changing global alliances, and the proliferation of artificial-intelligence-trained unmanned systems. Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics may be interesting contrarian plays. The Global X Defense Tech exchange-traded fund has seen a 63% increase in 2025, largely due to Palantir Technologies, its largest holding. The US defense budget is set to top $1T in fiscal year 2026, with European nations spending roughly half that. Defense spending commitments provide a policy floor, while geopolitical uncertainty supplies the premium, defining the transatlantic defense sector backdrop. Of the 50-plus stocks 22V Research looked at, 12 look technically strong, nine in the US and three in Europe. These stocks include GE Aerospace, RTX, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Taser maker Axon Enterprise, L3Harris Technologies, component supplier Curtiss-Wright, nuclear technology supplier BWX Technologies, jet engine makers Safran and Rolls-Royce Holdings, and Italian defense aerospace and defense company Leonardo.
-Railroads are now gaining interest again due to a sudden merger between Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, and CSX. The merger could create a transcontinental railroad, a rare occurrence in the industry. The industry is relatively concentrated, and regulators are generally against additional consolidation. However, if the merger is allowed, CSX could be the next target for either a Canadian railroad or Berkshire Hathaway's BNSF, which Warren Buffett's company bought in 2010. The stock has already benefited from the speculation, with shares up about 8% since Semafor reported that Union Pacific was looking for a merger partner in mid-July. The merger could lead to further acquisitions in the railroad sector.

Features:
-US shoppers have been resilient against economic headwinds for years, but the true test of consumer strength and retail stocks is just beginning. Major retailers like Target, Lowe's, Walmart, Amazon.com, and TJMaxx’s parent company TJX have posted better sales than expected in the past quarter, indicating that Americans still have money and are willing to spend it. This resilience is partly due to a strong labor market, a historically low unemployment rate, consistent wage gains, and a record-breaking bull run on equities. Another reason for the persistence of consumer strength is that many retailers imported products ahead of spring and summer tariff implementations, allowing them to keep most of their prices unchanged and have been willing to eat some of the higher costs. However, the reaction to earnings suggests that doubts are seeping in, with Walmart stock dropping 4.5% on the day of its release, while BJ's Wholesale Club lost 6%, and Target, 6.3%, though the last had more to do with its choice of a new CEO than its business. These doubts largely stem from new tariffs as retailers restock inventories for the holiday season and companies are forced to pass on higher import costs to consumers to protect margins.
-The Covid-19 pandemic has ended, but the virus continues to kill up to 56,000 people in the US and sicken up to 18 million. Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax plan to launch new versions of their Covid-19 vaccines this fall, updated to target JN.1 viruses. The eligibility of patients to receive these shots remains a significant question mark. The federal government's approach to vaccines has been skewed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s skepticism of vaccines, particularly the messenger RNA-based shots. The Food and Drug Administration is likely to approve the updated shots in the coming days, with approvals likely to be narrower this year than in previous years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will convene outside vaccine experts in August or September to issue recommendations for insurers covering the shots. Despite low Covid-19 cases, the CDC estimates that infections are growing or likely to grow in 34 states and are stable in 14. Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology at Brown University, believes that the chaos will make it harder for high-risk people to get vaccines.

Europe:
-The US and the European Union have announced a new trade deal, which includes 15% import tariffs on many European goods, including cars. The four-page framework expands on the previous agreement, which was struck last month. The US will apply a 15% tariff to nearly all other European goods, excluding aircraft and aircraft parts, generic pharmaceuticals, and some natural resources like cork that aren't available in the US. The US will maintain its 27.5% tariffs on automobiles from the European Union until the trading bloc eliminates its own levies on US goods, including industrials, seafood, and pork. Once the EU removes its tariffs, the US will cut its auto tariff to 15%. The EU is also planning to increase its purchases of American liquefied natural gas, oil, and nuclear energy products and spend at least $40B on US artificial-intelligence chips for its data centers. The EU's flagship Stoxx 600 index was down 0.3% in morning trading on Thursday.

Emerging Markets:
-Kyivstar Group, Ukraine's largest mobile operator, has gone public on the NASDAQ through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The SPAC has been in the works since the beginning of the year, when VEON, Kyivstar's Dubai-based parent company, signed a letter of intent with Cohen Circle Acquisition to list the company indirectly. The company provides mobile services to nearly 23M customers and also has internet, healthcare, entertainment, ride-hailing, and enterprise-technology operations. In late 2018, it signed an agreement to offer direct-to-cell connectivity through Elon Musk's Starlink, with service expected to launch by the end of 2025. The stock, which trades under the ticker KYIV, is climbing 20% on Monday. However, talk of Ukraine's reconstruction might be premature, as Ukraine remains mired in war more than three-and-a-half years after Russia invaded it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a delegation of European leaders arrived at the White House to discuss the conflict.

Commodities:
-Copper prices have been volatile this year due to uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's trade policies. Prices for US-based Comex copper surged over 25% in the first half of the year due to President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs, prompting traders to stockpile the metal in the US. However, the actual policy was unveiled last month, and the imperative to build up stateside copper inventories vanished. On July 30, copper fell 20%, its worst single-day decline on record, and hasn't recovered. The most active Comex copper contract settled at $4.44/lbs, up 0.1%. In the short term, copper may have further to fall as the market works through the hoard that U.S. traders imported during the first months of the year.

Streetwise:
-The stock charts of Verizon and AT&T reveal a Trading Places pattern, similar to the 1983 movie where Dan Aykroyd plays a commodities trader and Eddie Murphy is a street hustler. Verizon has fallen out of favor, and longtime competitor AT&T has suddenly shot ahead. The next outcome could involve a gorilla suit, a prostitute with a heart of gold, and orange-juice futures. AT&T, which was a streamlined company paying down debt and rolling out fiber for broadband, has led the group, returning 87%, compared to 62% for T-Mobile US and 26% for Verizon. The S&P 500 has returned 27%. If dividends are stripped out, Verizon looks worse, lagged behind the stock market by 10 points and is the only one of the big three telecoms to fall in price by 24% over the past five years.

>>> WeekEnd Papaers Summary

FINANCIAL TIMES
-Jay Powell has suggested a Federal Reserve rate cut in September due to a softening US labor market, which could offset risks of Donald Trump's tariffs worsening inflation. Powell's remarks put him in the camp of doves on the Federal Open Market Committee and signaled he could support a quarter-point cut at the central bank's next meeting in September. US government debt rallied after his speech, with the yield on the two-year Treasury note dropping 0.1 percentage points to 3.69%. The speech comes amid a pivotal time for the Fed, as the US president and his allies have launched a campaign against Powell and other top Fed officials, insisting the central bank should drastically cut rates. The Fed has held its main rate at a 4.25-4.5% range this year, following 1 percentage point of cuts in 2024, as some officials worry Trump's tariffs on US trading partners will ignite a fresh surge in inflation.
-The Trump administration is threatening to fire Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Powell, and other top Fed officials to curb central banking independence, which has underpinned America's economic foundations for over half a century. This comes amid a White House putsch at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has shaken confidence in the sanctity of economic data. The meetings in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, have become synonymous with central bankers' power and prestige, but economists are aware that the ascendancy of technocrats is in danger of being thrown dramatically into reverse. Glenn Hubbard, a chair of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers under George W. Bush, cites the broad discontent among Americans with experts and fears that if they don't pick up the thread, the populist frenzy will only get worse. Powell stated that he and his colleagues would make their decisions "solely" on the basis of economic evidence, as he teed up the possibility of further interest rate cuts.
-US President Donald Trump's administration is planning to take a 10% stake in struggling chipmaker Intel, as part of a corporate intervention to strengthen America's semiconductor industry. The US government will make an $8.9B equity investment, funded by federal grants under the 2022 Chips Act. This will give Washington a roughly 9.9% stake in the group. The deal is part of Trump's move towards a more interventionist approach to corporate America, edging closer to 1960s European state capitalism than US free-market orthodoxy. The US will also receive a five-year warrant, allowing it to purchase an additional 5% of the group at $20 a share, provided Intel divests majority ownership of its foundry business.
-Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has faced backlash and disappointment within its Middle Eastern business after revelations that the firm helped set up an Israeli-backed aid scheme for Gaza and modeled plans to relocate Palestinians from the enclave. The revelations have widened fissures within the firm, which has been triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack and Israel's military campaign in Gaza. A US BCG team worked for seven months to establish the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an aid distribution scheme condemned by humanitarian groups. The team also produced a financial model of postwar Gaza for Israeli businessmen backing GHF, including the economic impact of incentives for Palestinians to relocate abroad.
-Revolution Wind, a US offshore wind project developed by Orsted and Skyborn Renewables, is 80% complete, with foundations and 45 of 65 planned turbines installed. The project, which was set to start operations next year, was due to supply power for 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut under 20-year contracts. The Trump administration intervened in the project for the second time, after paused Equinor's Empire Wind project. Ørsted has obtained necessary permits and is evaluating its options, including legal action. The potential delay or loss of revenues puts pressure on the company, which launched a $9.4B emergency rights issue.
-The Congressional Budget Office has reported that Donald Trump's tariff drive will reduce US deficits by $4T over the next decade, addressing concerns that the president's tax bill will worsen public finances. The tariffs announced so far this year will reduce primary deficits by $3.3T over the period to 2035, while interest payments will fall by an additional $700B. The overall effect of the levies on debt levels is about a third higher than the $3T estimated by the CBO based on measures announced between January and mid-May. The impact of tariff revenue is expected to dull the fiscal hit from Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to increase debt levels by $4.1T over the period.
-Canada has lifted billions of dollars' worth of retaliatory tariffs on US goods to reduce economic tensions with the US. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Ottawa would remove the 25% tariff it has imposed on many US goods since March, but reciprocal steel and aluminum duties would remain in place. The measures will come into effect on September 1, marking the latest episode in a months-long trade battle between the US and Canada, which was strained in March when Trump imposed duties as steep as 25% on Canadian exports.
-California Governor Gavin Newsom has taken his criticism of US President Donald Trump to a new level by using his all-caps, idiosyncratic style to troll him on social media. Newsom's aggressive campaign, including posts declaring "DONALD IS FINISHED — HE IS NO LONGER 'HOT'" and artificially-generated images of himself carrying an American flag, is generating buzz and drawing critical commentary from Fox News presenters and conservatives. This aggressive campaign is energizing some Democrats concerned about the party's failure to mount an effective pushback against Trump. Veteran Democratic strategist Bob Shrum believes Newsom's approach is born out of frustration with the president and a determination to find new ways to fight back.
-Meta, a social media company, is set to license technology from artificial intelligence start-up Midjourney to improve its products and services. The move follows Meta's shift towards third-party collaborations to stay competitive. The technology will be used in the development of multimedia AI generation features for its apps, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects AI-generated content to become more prominent on the platform. The collaboration will involve world-class talent and collaboration with industry leaders.
-China has refused to disclose details of its plans for a "mega" embassy in London after the UK demanded more information about greyed-out areas in its drawings. The Chinese government argued that the request was not appropriate and that the level of detail provided was sufficient for understanding what was permitted. The Chinese government also opposed a request for a wall around a paved area in front of the building to ensure safe access. The UK's deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has demanded unredacted drawings or a comprehensive identification of withheld parts.
-The FBI has conducted a raid on John Bolton's home in Bethesda, Maryland, following his criticism of Donald Trump. Bolton, who served as Trump's national security adviser during his first term, has become a vocal critic of the US president. The search was related to "classified documents" and the FBI had a "broad concern" about Bolton. Vice-president JD Vance stated that the raid was related to "classified documents." Trump, who had previously expressed his disapproval of Bolton, said he did not know about the raid. The raid follows Trump's repeated vows during his 2024 campaign to seek retribution against his political opponents. The relationship between Trump and Bolton, who served as US ambassador to the UN under George W Bush, fell out after Bolton left his post in September 2019. Trump has also been criticizing Bolton for criticizing Trump's approach to brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

NEW YORK TIMES
-Corporate America has developed defenses against corporate raiders like Carl Icahn and Nelson Peltz, but now faces a new investor: the US president. President Trump has inserted the government into US companies, taking stakes in US Steel and pushing for a cut of Nvidia's and Advanced Micro Devices' revenue from China. The Pentagon has also taken a 15% stake in MP Materials and Intel agreed to allow the US government to take a 10% stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion.
-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet with Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office. Vance warned Zelensky to "behave" and not to say anything, which the Ukrainian leader chuckled at. This is not the first time Vance has addressed Zelensky during a diplomatic summit. In February, Vance criticized Zelensky for disrespecting the US and not thanking Ukraine for military assistance. The jovial tone of the meeting highlights the importance of Zelensky's actions in influencing Trump's approval.
-California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed two redistricting bills, a response to the Republican-led map passed by Texas at the request of President Trump. The move will put California in a national campaign as Democrats and Republicans vie for control of the House of Representatives. Newsom, a potential presidential candidate, will be at the forefront of a partisan fight against President Trump. He emphasized neutralizing the situation in Texas and giving the American people a fair chance.
-A federal judge has ordered the removal of immigrant detainees from a Florida Everglades facility, Alligator Alcatraz, and the dismantling of much of the facility. The ruling rebuked the state and federal governments for not considering environmental harms before building the facility. The judge gave both branches 60 days to move out detainees and remove fencing, lighting, and power generators. The decision is a major legal setback for the facility, the nation's first state-run facility for federal immigration detainees, which has faced numerous lawsuits and complaints.
-Lisa Cook, a former Federal Reserve chair, has consistently voted with Jerome H. Powell, the chair, on interest rate cuts last year and this year. However, she is often viewed as a "dove" by some observers. In a November speech, Cook suggested that the Fed should continue to lower interest rates, but the pace of cuts would depend on economic data. In June, she warned that high inflation after the pandemic could make firms more willing to raise prices and consumers more likely to expect high inflation to persist. Cook, a daughter of a hospital chaplain and nursing professor, grew up in Georgia and earned an undergraduate degree from Spelman College and another at Oxford University.
-President Trump has been aggressively expanding his power since taking office, asserting the right to override spending decisions by Congress, dismiss leaders of independent agencies, and push through legal and constitutional barriers on issues like immigration and birthright citizenship. He has also used the government to pursue his campaign of retribution against political and personal foes, instigating criminal investigations, demanding large payments, revoking security clearances, and dismissing federal employees. However, when Trump called for the resignation of a Federal Reserve governor, it marked the merging of these two defining features of his second term. The move came after Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, found that Cook appeared to have falsified bank documents to obtain favorable mortgage loan terms.
- Thailand's former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has won a significant legal victory after a court dismissed a case accusing him of insulting the nation's monarchy. The case, which was indicted last year, was the most high-profile to be charged with violating the royal defamation law, which is one of the world's harshest and has long been used to quash dissent. Thaksin faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The charges were seen as politicized and the latest salvo in a decades-long clash between Thaksin and Thailand's royalist-military establishment. The Criminal Court in Bangkok ruled that Thaksin's interview could have been edited in a way that did not fully represent his remarks and that he did not specifically mention the monarch at the time.

NEW YORK POST
-Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and now federal prisoner, has shared her relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in an interview with President Trump's Department of Justice. Maxwell, 63, described her connection to Epstein as romantically strung-along while serving as "general manager" of the late millionaire pedophile's real estate portfolio. In her two-day interviews last month with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, Fla., she revealed that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks were when she realized they would never have a romantic future.
-The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, was fired after a classified assessment of US strikes on Iran was leaked to the media. The assessment suggested that US strikes on Iran only set back the rogue nation's nuclear program by a few months. The DIA's classified, "low confidence" estimation of the effectiveness of the June 21 airstrikes on Iran's Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz nuclear facilities was leaked to CNN three days after American B-2 stealth bombers and cruise missiles bombarded the sites. The document, based on limited intelligence gathered the day after the strike, reportedly indicated that the Iranian regime could bring its nuclear program back online as quickly as one to two months. The preliminary assessment also suggested that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed by the airstrikes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly fired Kruse over a "loss of confidence" in the lieutenant general.

>>> Hedge fund redemption requests edge higher in August

Hedge fund redemption requests edge higher in August

Hedge fund redemptions ticked up in August, according to the latest SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator, which rose to 2.03% from 1.56% in July. The figure, however, remains below the 2.59% recorded in August 2024 and is in line with longer-term averages.

Bill Stone, Chairman and CEO of SS&C Technologies, said the data reflected seasonal patterns but noted that “weakening consumer sentiment, rising fiscal deficits, and higher tariff rates” are continuing to fuel volatility. He added that hedge funds’ “strong risk-adjusted returns” are helping investors navigate the uncertain environment.

The Forward Redemption Indicator measures the total redemption notices received from investors in hedge funds administered by SS&C GlobeOp, expressed as a percentage of assets under administration at the start of the month. Redemption requests have trended significantly lower since peaking at 19.27% in November 2008, SS&C said.

The next update will be published on 22 September 2025.

The New Yorker : Will the MAHA Moms Turn on Trump? “Make Our Children Healthy Ag

Quick Resume and Thoughts :
  • The new “Make Our Children Healthy Again” plan has almost no concrete nutrition policy—so little federal push to curb ultra-processed foods; prevention stays on individuals, not the food environment.
  • Cuts to NIH nutrition/chronic-disease research and ending USDA farm-to-school/local-procurement programs weaken upstream obesity prevention (less evidence, fewer healthy options in schools).
  • Small “wins” (removing some food dyes; state SNAP limits on soda/candy) are marginal and unlikely to dent obesity rates without broader food-system reforms.
  • Deregulatory moves on pesticides/“forever chemicals” prioritize industry and don’t improve diet quality or marketing—no relief to the obesogenic environment.
  • The movement’s pharma-skeptic tilt implies limited enthusiasm for expanding access/coverage to evidence-based obesity treatments (medications, clinical programs), with rhetoric favoring “clean eating” over medical care.


Full Artilce below :

Will the MAHA Moms Turn on Trump?
A leaked draft of a White House report on how to “Make Our Children Healthy Again” suggests that the Administration will do little to address food safety or nutrition.

Earlier this month, the wellness entrepreneur Calley Means delivered opening remarks at a symposium called “The Future of Farming: Exploring a Pro-Health, Pro-Farmer Agenda,” held in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank. Means is prominent in Make America Healthy Again, the clean-eating, vaccine-skeptical movement that opposes corruption in the food, pharmaceutical, and agricultural industries. He is also a top adviser to MAHA’s patron saint, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Means gave a brief, somewhat flustered speech that barely touched on farming. Instead, he rehashed various MAHA talking points: that the United States is “the sickest country in the world,” that we spend more money on worse health outcomes than any other developed nation, and that most of the diseases plaguing Americans are caused by the terrible ultra-processed food we eat.

Means also noted some “initial wins” on the food front during Kennedy’s first six months of leading H.H.S. A growing number of Big Food corporations are voluntarily removing artificial dyes from their products, for example. And a dozen states and counting have placed various restrictions on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to prohibit the purchase of soda, other sweetened beverages, and candy.

What Means didn’t address is how these relatively minor changes balance out against other, far more sweeping and consequential anti-MAHA measures taken by the ostensibly pro-MAHA Trump Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, is seeking reapproval for banned pesticides and has lowered standards on forever chemicals in air, water, and soil. The Department of Agriculture ended two programs, totalling almost a billion dollars in funding, that helped schools and food banks make purchases from local and organic farms. And although Means—who has no medical, nutrition, or public-health credentials—has said that he’d like to “fire every single nutrition scientist in the government,” some of the more moderate MAHA rank and file may also blanch at the DOGE-driven purging of U.S.D.A. scientists and food-safety inspectors, or at the National Institutes of Health cancelling hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants related to MAHA priorities such as nutrition, chronic disease, and mental health.

Means acknowledged that some MAHA adherents may be dismayed by the “pace of political change” thus far under the second Trump Administration. “I would suggest, as we’re frustrated, we don’t attack Secretary Kennedy and President Trump,” he advised. “They are fighting against a deep state that is unimaginable and entrenched economic interests and entrenched dysfunction that is impossible to comprehend, and they are our warriors here.” And yet, despite the shadowy forces aligned against the nation’s top health official and the President of the United States, the underdogs, he insisted, are winning: “We have achieved—the Trump Administration—I believe, the most significant food-policy reform in America.”

Critics of the MAHA movement, and of wellness culture writ large, often compare it to a cult, and this kind of rhetoric suggests why. The leader should not be criticized; a vast conspiracy threatens the movement; triumph is ongoing, even if the movement’s crusade against dangerous pesticides and heavy metals in the soil and drinking water has culminated in the election of a President who apparently loves all that stuff. The “MAHA moms,” who helped return Trump to the White House and lifted Kennedy into a Cabinet position, see a kind of messianic power in the Secretary—for some of them, he is, quite literally, their faith healer. “If Kennedy is able to do what he wants to do as the head of the H.H.S., we won’t even need health care,” Zen Honeycutt, the founder of the nonprofit Moms Across America, said in December. “I’m saying we won’t be going to the doctor’s because we won’t be sick.”

In recent weeks, however, the MAHA flock has experienced rapidly intensifying cognitive dissonance. On a recent episode of the podcast “Why Should I Trust You?,” Honeycutt, discussing the rollbacks on regulations concerning pesticides and heavy metals, said, “I’m horrified as a mother who is working constantly to try to reduce the toxic exposure to my children and to the children all across the country.” On another podcast, “Culture Apothecary,” its host, Alex Clark, an influencer who is affiliated with the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, asked, “Did President Trump just hand legal immunity to pesticide companies?” She was referring to Republican-backed legislation, currently pending in the House, that would shield pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits; Clark’s guest, the clean-farming advocate Kelly Ryerson, called the bill “the most enormous slap in the face to MAHA.”

It was probably not the last. On August 15th, the Times obtained a draft of a forthcoming White House report on children’s health, “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,” later published in full by Politico. The paper—a follow-up to a MAHA “assessment,” released in May, that was later found to have numerous made-up or garbled citations—mentions the scourge of ultra-processed foods only once, specifies virtually no concrete action on improving food safety and nutrition, and calls the E.P.A.’s existing regulatory process “robust.” The draft reads like a castration-by-bureaucracy of the MAHA revolution—multiple instances of “task force,” “initiative,” “framework,” “collaboration,” and, best of all, “harmonizing authorization processes.” Again and again, it proposes that more research is needed—just not the research that was under way before Kennedy came to H.H.S. (The new MAHA report repeats Kennedy’s vow that he will soon find the “root causes of autism”; according to ProPublica, the N.I.H. has terminated some forty million dollars in grants for autism-related research, including studies on the possible links between autism and exposure to pollution and forever chemicals.)

But the appeal of Kennedy was that he’d already done his own research, and that his conclusions were beyond doubt. “Pesticides, food additives, pharmaceutical drugs, and toxic waste permeate every cell of our bodies,” he said last year. “This assault on our children’s cells and hormones is unrelenting.” He promised a counter-assault, and the MAHA strategy report resembles an instrument of surrender.

During the 2024 election cycle, the top five PACs affiliated with agribusiness companies made more than seventy-one million dollars in campaign donations, almost all of which went to Republican candidates and groups. Trump’s 2024 reëlection PAC received ten million dollars from the multinational conglomerate British American Tobacco, which farms an especially polluting, soil-depleting, and pesticide-intensive crop, and which has been sued for profiting from child labor. (The case is pending trial.)

The simple political fact is that these corporate donors are more important to Trump than MAHA moms are. “If the Trump Administration went after agriculture and food companies, the ripple effects throughout Republican House districts, in particular, will be pretty major,” Christopher Bosso, a professor of public policy and political science at Northeastern University, told me. Republicans, he added, will likely have to wage their midterm campaigns without the support of a newly irate and activated MAHA coalition. “I doubt that MAHA has staying power within the Trump ecosystem,” Bosso said. “Unless Trump wants to expend serious political capital against one of his most loyal constituencies, I can’t see reforming the food system getting very far beyond the on-the-margins, performative kind of stuff.”

The most prominent of these marginal reforms has been the removal of some dyes from mass-produced foods, a development that Honeycutt, Ryerson, and other MAHA influencers have loudly celebrated. But “even if a Nutri-Grain bar doesn’t have food dyes, it’s still a Nutri-Grain bar,” Juliana Cohen, a professor of nutrition and director of the Center for Health Innovation, Research, and Policy at Merrimack College, told me. “It’s not like it’s no longer ultra-processed because they took out the Red 40.” (And, in any case, no self-respecting MAHA mom would let her kid anywhere near a Nutri-Grain bar in the first place.)

Swapping out one dye for another, Cohen went on, “is akin to placing a filter on a cigarette, when we should be thinking about policies that prevent kids from smoking in the first place. We have to think strategically about how to reduce ultra-processed foods and make nutritious foods more accessible and affordable for everyone.” One way not to do that—to take yet another example from this Administration—would be to end the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program, which started during President Barack Obama’s second term and came to a close in March, when the U.S.D.A. abolished it.

On “Culture Apothecary,” Ryerson speculated that Republican indifference to MAHA will hurt them in the 2026 midterm elections. “They are completely underestimating what this bloc of young conservatives want and expect out of our elected officials,” she said. But it may be more accurate to say that MAHA grossly overestimated the potential transformative power of Kennedy’s appointment to H.H.S.

If MAHA influencers are finally waking up to elected Republicans’ contempt for much of their project, they are also emphatic that they do not see Kennedy as complicit or culpable in how Congress, Trump, or other Cabinet officials have betrayed their promises to the movement. It’s as if Kennedy alone had been vaccinated against the corrupting virus that infects everyone around him. (Kennedy has undeniably delivered on behalf of MAHA’s anti-vaccine constituency, through acts such as dismissing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s entire vaccine-safety panel and scrapping half a billion dollars in funding for mRNA vaccine development.)

The moral firewall around Kennedy is illustrated by the case of glyphosate, an herbicide so singularly reviled by MAHA that, on social media, Ryerson goes by the Glyphosate Girl. Glyphosate is often categorized as carcinogenic and as an endocrine-disrupting chemical; for years, Kennedy contended that it causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and, in 2018, he was part of the legal team that won a two-hundred-and-eighty-nine-million-dollar settlement from Monsanto on behalf of a terminally ill man who was exposed to glyphosate in one of its products. Yet, in May, Kennedy indicated that the Administration would not move to restrict glyphosate in the U.S. “One hundred per cent of corn in this country relies on glyphosate,” he said. “We are not going to do anything to jeopardize that business model.” Few in MAHA appeared to raise any strong objections.

Of course, it’s the E.P.A. that decides how pesticides are regulated; it’s the U.S.D.A., now overseen by the self-proclaimed MAHA mom Brooke Rollins, that administers farm-to-school grants, soil-health initiatives, and other MAHA-friendly programs that have been pulverized during her brief tenure at the agency. These distinctions did not seem to matter much at the time Kennedy was nominated to lead H.H.S.—back when leading supporters, such as Vani Hari, a.k.a. the Food Babe, were suggesting that Kennedy could single-handedly reform and purify America’s food systems—but they appear to matter now. On “Why Should I Trust You?,” when Honeycutt expressed horror at MAHA’s fate under Trump, she took pains not to project that horror at Kennedy. Her belief in what she calls “the magic of Bobby Kennedy” is undimmed: “He is compassionate, he’s brilliant, he’s humble, and he’s collaborative.”

He is also, within the current MAHA narrative, surprisingly powerless on many issues. On August 16th, the nonprofit MAHA Action posted an upbeat news roundup to Instagram with the caption “Maha had some huge wins this week and we’re here to break it all down.” One of these supposed victories—that the government is “no longer bribing hospitals” to vaccinate their staff—appeared to be misstated; in fact, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services simply revoked a rule requiring hospitals to track COVID-19 vaccination rates among their workers. Among the other “wins,” according to MAHA Action: U.S. Customs officials seized three tons of suspicious meat from China, and Secretary Kennedy went to the gym.

Fortune : Can AI ‘sorcery’ solve the ‘productivity paradox’ that has gripped the

Can AI ‘sorcery’ solve the ‘productivity paradox’ that has gripped the economy for 25 years? A Shakespearean sea change is underfoot


  • What is a “sea change” and what does it have to do with worker productivity, the computer age, and the “productivity paradox?” The first phrase comes to us from Shakespeare, and it means a sort of mystical transformation, after which something is fundamentally different from before. The second phase comes from Nobel laureate Robert Solow, about how you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics. Bank of America Research thinks it sees a way that workers really are getting more productive—and AI is only one part of the puzzle.

The late plays by William Shakespeare are alternately called his “romances” or his “problem plays,” because of their ambiguity in tone, as they alternate from passages of magical realism to stark scenes that grapple with complex social issues. At times, they point the way toward the prestige TV of the early 21st century where, for instance, The Sopranos could range from broad comedy to intense violence to avant-garde dream sequences, all in one episode. It’s from the romances that we get phrases that stick with us today, like the description from The Tempest of a “sea change into something rich and strange.”

Full disclosure: The author’s brother is an eminent Shakespearean scholar, often quoted in The New York Times, although never previously in Fortune, and so I asked him to explain what this particular term means. “Toward the end of his career,” Drew Lichtenberg of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, said in a statement to Fortune, “Shakespeare started writing genre-defying plays with sudden and miraculous changes of fortune.” Shakespeare used the phrase “sea change” to describe a “magical storm at sea that has the power to snuff out life or restore it in less than a second.”

What do Shakespeare’s plays of miraculous changes of fortune have to do with, well, Fortune? Bank of America Institute has projected a “sea change” in the economy. It sees a pivotal transformation in worker productivity at America’s largest companies, driven by lessons from post-pandemic inflation and supercharged by a wave of artificial intelligence and automation. The institute worked hand in hand with projections from Bank of America Research to project a rewiring of the fundamental valuation landscape of the S&P 500, with profound implications for investors and the “quality premium” that U.S. stocks traditionally command.

Fortune talked to BofA Research’s Head of US Equity & Quantitative Strategy, Savita Subramanian, to dig into this change, potentially to something rich and strange. It’s not quite that mystical, she said, but she still thinks it’s a big deal.

Finally, a productivity surge?
Subramanian explained that what her team has projected isn’t as exciting or dramatic as having actual wizards working at the gears of the economy. The more prosaic insight, she says, is that the combination of AI technology and lessons learned from the inflation wave of the 2020s mean that worker productivity is finally showing signs of increasing. That’s the sea change taking place.

At its heart, her work is all about the famous “productivity paradox” identified by Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Solow. “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics,” he said in 1987, long before the productivity crisis of the 21st century set in. As Fortune‘s Jeremy Kahn has discussed, workers still don’t seem to be getting more productive despite the bevy of new technologies at their disposal. In fact, McKinsey’s Chris White and Olivia White argued in 2024 that productivity has been dismal for nearly a generation, hovering around 1% a year, with a dip after the Great Financial Crisis. Subramanian agrees, telling Fortune that if you look at productivity measures, “they haven’t really improved all that much since 2001.”

Subramanian wrote on Aug. 8 that the end goal of the massive AI spending that’s rippling through the economy is a “sea-change” in the scale and scope of efficiency gains—and this productivity cycle is already under way. Post-pandemic wage inflation forced companies “to do more with fewer people,” she added, and now AI tools are due to kick that up a notch.

But the official stats don’t show a complete understanding of how productivity really functions, Subramanian explained. So BofA took sales, adjusted for inflation, and then divided sales by the number of people working at S&P 500 companies, showing real sales growth versus number of people, what she called a “decent proxy” for productivity, “because if you’re productive, you are doing things more efficiently, you need less labor. And this is more labor efficiency than anything else.”
Look at what she found.
This means companies are learning to do more with less, and that is kind of magical. Companies have had to do harder work to generate earnings and keep margins healthy, often by replacing their people with processes. “A process is almost free and it’s replicable for eternity,” she said, adding that she thinks this is why the companies exercising efficiency gains have tended to outperform. It’s not only about AI displacing workers, but a fundamental shift in how business is being done.

FT : Is it time to sell your AI stocks?



From: Laurent Chekroun (MAKOR CAPITAL MARKET) At: 08/23/25 08:24:49 UTC+2:00
Subject: FT : Is it time to sell your AI stocks?oscapital.com;jm@invus.c
Is it time to sell your AI stocks?
Avoid the hype — most companies are seeing no return on generative AI spending

Managing investments has three principal parts: deciding which to own, which to ditch and — crucially — implementing those decisions.

Over the years I have heard too many tales of woe from investors who had decided what to do but had not got around to doing it until it was too late. 

Many global equity investors will be sitting on decent gains from the rise of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. In dollar terms the MSCI All World Index is up over 15 per cent annually over three years. A former colleague used to say that when investors get rich they often think they have become more intelligent. 

If they are intelligent, they will be looking nervously at those gains and asking if now is one of those moments to act. For me the best herald of danger is valuation.

Those megacap Mag 7 companies that have driven so much of this growth now make up more than 20 per cent of global equity indices. It’s worth examining which are flashing red on valuations. 


The ratio of price to earnings is a crude measure that shows how many years’ earnings it would take to pay for one share. By this measure, it would take nearly two centuries to pay for your Tesla shares.

Earnings — or profits — can be understated if a company is investing heavily for growth, building AI data centres, for example. Looking at the ratio of a company’s share price to its sales gives you a sense of how much these revenues must grow to generate the earnings the share price merits when that capex is done. Few shares trade at more than five times sales for long. Nvidia shares would either have to fall a lot or their sales grow at this speed for many years to come to sustain this valuation. 

Revenues are growing strongly in most, but this growth appears to be slowing. AI might improve profitability for a company such as Microsoft — but only if its customers value it sufficiently to merit paying more.

That is a gamble. I am not surprised by recent research showing that 95 per cent of organisations get zero return from their investments in generative AI. On the other hand, the application of AI to diagnostics and factory automation looks like it is raising productivity.

​I would not own Nvidia, Tesla or Alphabet now. If I held Apple, I probably would hang on to it as it is not an AI stock and it’s the AI hype I’m trying to avoid.

Beyond these megacap stocks, not everything related to AI is expensive. Taiwan Semiconductor still looks reasonable value, and we bought cyber security specialist Fortinet on its recent stumble.  

There are still attractive places to have your money. Take Thermo Fisher. This is the world leader in scientific equipment for medical research and diagnostics. It is priced at 21x earnings and 4x sales. Yaskawa makes the blue robots that have the largest share in semiconductor manufacturing and many other areas of factory automation. It is priced at 18x earnings and just 1.5x sales.

Both businesses have seen their growth hampered in recent years by the slowdown in Chinese demand, but this now seems to be moderating and even turning. These are the sorts of companies active fund managers tend to favour. 

Those most exposed to the hot stocks are investors in low-cost global equity trackers. These have outperformed most active funds, including my own. They may continue to rise. I have no fear of missing out.

Over the years I have built a record of selling too early. It means my portfolio will underperform the index when it gets frothy, as now. However, my priority is to ensure every investment I have is underpinned by value for money.

I have no idea when a correction might come. I also had no idea in 2000, but we sold most of our tech stocks anyway because the valuations told us to. It was the same selling British banks in 2007, when they were trading on a stretched multiple of book value. You didn’t need to know that a financial crisis was coming, you could avoid the worst of it by being disciplined on valuation, and we did.  

No great flare went up at the top to tell you to sell. You just had to follow your investment disciplines and not let timing questions get in the way.

CrunchBase : The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: AI Still Rules, But SF Bay Ar

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: AI Still Rules, But SF Bay Area Steps Back

The San Francisco Bay Area, long the dominant region for startup investment, took a step back in this week’s tally of the largest funding rounds. The biggest investments went to companies based in the Seattle area, Southern California, New York and Austin, Texas, while only two of this week’s top 10 are Silicon Valley startups.

But while the geography may look different this week, investors’ appetite for AI remained a dominant theme. One exception, however, was the week’s largest round, for Group14 Technologies, a developer of advanced silicon battery materials.

1. Group14 Technologies, $463M, batteries: Group14 Technologies, a developer of advanced silicon battery materials, raised $463 million in a Series D round led by SK and included a long list of existing investors. The Woodinville, Washington-based company also obtained full ownership of a South Korean factory launched as a joint venture with SK.

2. Field AI, $405M, robotics and AI: Field AI, developer of a “single software brain” used to power robots in a variety of environments, announced that it secured $405 million in two consecutive rounds of $314 million and $91 million. Temasek Holdings, Bezos Expeditions and Prysm Capital co-led the financing for the Irvine, California-based company.

3. EliseAI, $250M, AI: New York-based EliseAI, a provider of AI automation tools for the housing and healthcare sectors, landed $250 million in a Series E backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures and Navitas Capital. The company also said it plans to triple the size of its team.

4. Ontic, $230M, security: Ontic, a provider of intelligence tools for corporate security, raised $230 million in a Series C round led by funds managed by KKR. The Austin, Texas-based company will use the money to invest in AI technology for threat detection and automation for security teams.

5. Overhaul, $105M, supply chain: Austin, Texas-based Overhaul, provider of an in-transit supply chain risk management platform, locked up $105 million in Series C funding led by Springcoast Capital Partners. The round brings total funding to date for the 9-year-old company to more than $304 million, per Crunchbase data.

6. (tied) Aalo Atomics, $100M, nuclear energy: Aalo, an Austin, Texas, startup planning to build nuclear power facilities with an initial focus on supplying energy to data centers, closed a $100 million Series B financing led by Valor Equity Partners.

6. (tied) Eight Sleep, $100M, sleep tech: Eight Sleep, a startup developing “sleep fitness” products, announced that it has raised $100 million in a Series D led by HSG. The round brings funding to date for the 11-year-old, New York-based startup to more than $260 million, per Crunchbase data.

8. Nuro, $97M, autonomous vehicles: Mountain View, California-based Nuro, a developer of autonomous driving technology and software, announced that it picked up $97 million in a Series E extension at a $6 billion valuation.

9. Bonus Homes, $65.5M, real estate finance: Phoenix-based Bonus Homes, a provider of financing for homeowners in lieu of selling their homes, raised $65.5 million in early-stage funding from backers including Solyco Capital, Alpaca VC, Redwood Trust and NextView Ventures.

10. TinyFish, $47M, AI agents: TinyFish, a developer of enterprise web agents, or AI infrastructure systems that carry out workflows on the web, launched publicly with $47 million in committed funding. Iconiq Growth led the financing for the Palo Alto, California-based startup.

The Information : Struggling Snap Considers Outside Funding for AR Glasses

Struggling Snap Considers Outside Funding for AR Glasses
The social media company finds itself outspent by bigger rivals—and needing to beckon a new generation of young people.

The Takeaway
• Snap has been outspent and outpaced lately by bigger rivals like Meta, YouTube and TikTok
• The company is weighing outside investment in its AR glasses, which CEO Evan Spiegel see as a key to future growth
• Internal discussions have also considered whether Snap can maintain its appeal for Generation Alpha

For nearly as long as Evan Spiegel has run Snap Inc., his big bet has been on Spectacles, the company’s augmented reality glasses. All together, he has poured $3 billion into the effort—a fraction of what Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Platforms has invested in wearable technology, but a major expense for a company of Snap’s modest size. Spiegel still hasn’t seen a blockbuster hit.

Spiegel may be ready to ask for some help. Snap has begun to discuss ways to raise outside money for its Spectacles project so it can compete with deeper-pocketed rivals like Meta, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations. The company has considered possibilities such as raising money from outside investors to fund the development of Spectacles, much as Alphabet has done for its Waymo robotaxi subsidiary. It has also discussed a nuclear option: spinning off Spectacles—something that would greatly pain Snap, since its core Snapchat app shares augmented reality technology with Spectacles.

The discussions reflect a broad reality for Spiegel: Snap is in an unsteady position and competing with far more powerful social media rivals like Meta and TikTok. Snapchat does remain a popular messaging platform for many young people, and the company has carved out a place for itself within the creator economy through features like Spotlight, a TikTok competitor. Its subscription service, Snapchat+, has doubled to nearly 16 million subscribers over the past year, contributing to an annual revenue run rate from the offering of $700 million.

But another worrisome problem could be on the horizon. Senior leaders are concerned that Generation Alpha—those currently between the ages of one and 15—so far aren’t adopting the app the same way their Gen Z and Millennial predecessors did, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions, which haven’t been previously reported.

Meanwhile, a slew of departures over the past year or so has thinned out Snap’s leadership team. Patrick Harris, who ran the company’s North American business, bowed out in March. In June, Colleen DeCourcy, chief creative officer, left, and so did David Levenson, the company’s director of growth. July and August brought two more exits: Darshan Kantak, revenue product chief, and Eric Young, engineering chief. To fill Young’s spot, Snap’s other co-founder, Bobby Murphy, will assume oversight over the engineering team, along with chief business officer Ajit Mohan.

And as for the AR effort, Snap hasn’t yet progressed to doing a formal fundraising process to line up investors, but it has existing relationships with sovereign wealth funds that could fund such a deal, according to the person with knowledge of the situation. (When asked about the possibility of raising outside capital for the AR glasses, a Snap spokesperson said the company sees its free cash flow as its “most capital efficient option” for funding such a project.)

All the turbulence surrounding Snap has hit its stock, which has fallen sharply over the past few years from a high of more than $83 in 2021. Earlier this week, it traded at a little over $7.

Earlier this month, Snap reported lackluster second-quarter results. The company’s ad revenue increased just 4%, in stark contrast to double-digit growth from its much larger rivals including Meta Platforms and YouTube.

“It’s very hard to reconcile the trajectory of Snap’s ads business,” said Mark Shmulik, a senior analyst at Bernstein. “Everyone else’s numbers show acceleration.”


Lately, Snap has worked to keep influencers using its app with new ways to make money through its lucrative ad-revenue sharing program, and other initiatives like Snap School, where it invites creators to its Santa Monica, Calif., headquarters and offers them tips and pointers for growing their audience and creating content.

Snap has done over 300 Snap School sessions. Alyssa McKay, a 25-year-old creator who lives in New Jersey, has attended some of them, and they have helped her think of new approaches to chronicling her life for 2 million Snapchat followers.

McKay posts more than 100 disappearing Stories a day to Snapchat, sharing virtually every part of her day—from her breakfast to a step-by-step skin care routine. She’s made more than $2.5 million from Snapchat over the past three years, according to her manager.

“With Snapchat, it’s fairly raw, unedited and filmed in the moment. It definitely gives the audience a more personal look into your life,” McKay said. She was comparing it to Instagram and TikTok, where creators spend more time editing and curating their photos or videos.

The company’s pitch to creators like McKay and advertisers alike is that it’s a key place to reach young people. Snapchat often touts that it reaches more than 75% of 13- to 34-year-olds in many parts of the world, including the U.S. While it has maintained a hold over Gen Z for now, failing to capture the next generation of younger users could spell serious trouble for Snapchat. Users have typically been aging out of the app, while they generally stick with rival apps like Instagram and TikTok as they get older.

Within Snap, there’s concern among some employees that Generation Alpha, generally considered to be born between 2010 and 2024, may be using smartphones less than prior generations, one potential reason for slower adoption of Snapchat, according to people involved in these internal discussions. Unlike previous generations, Gen Alpha also faces stricter school restrictions on phone and social media usage, which eats into their overall screen time.

At the same time, some of the features that made Snap different, such as disappearing messages or Stories, are now widely available on other services. While Gen Alpha is still using Snapchat, many of its members aren’t using it every day as previous generations did, leading to a drop in the crucial daily active user metric, the two people said.

To boost growth in North America, where Snapchat lost daily users in the second quarter, Spiegel told Wall Street investors earlier this month that the company is thinking about how to encourage users to share more content with each other on the app, but he didn’t offer any specifics. He said people are moving from posting their own disappearing Stories for their friends to sharing other types of content with friends, such as sending them videos or Stories to start a conversation.

Snapchat’s TikTok competitor, Spotlight, has shown signs of life. It now makes up 40% of the time people spend watching content on the app. It averaged 550 million monthly users at the end of June.

Even so, the feature lags behind competitors like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok in terms of viewership and showing users a feed of relevant and hyperpersonalized videos. For example, 2.5 billion people a month watch YouTube Shorts, while TikTok has more than 1 billion global users.

And the company hasn’t successfully been able to turn large numbers of average users into influencers with their own wide following in the same way platforms like Instagram and TikTok have. Doing so could boost its advertising business. Snapchat’s core usage is still private messaging, but encouraging more of its users to spend more time watching content could bolster its ad business. (Snapchat has also started earning money from private messaging by inserting ads in a user’s chat inbox, which the company sees as a significant revenue opportunity.)

Right now, Snapchat may just not have enough content to effectively personalize Spotlight. On TikTok, for example, users react to other videos and make their own videos that piggyback off trends on the app. The volume of content they generate makes it easier for TikTok to serve people personalized videos. Over at Meta, Instagram is seeing a boost in engagement from friends directly messaging each other short-form videos.

Snapchat has faced some bumps in its content efforts. In April it abandoned a redesign effort, known as “Simple Snapchat,” after working on it for nearly a year. That redesign would have put Spotlight videos and other content more front and center by simplifying the app down to three tabs from five, including one with a TikTok-like feed of videos from creators and publishers. (When asked about abandoning the redesign, a spokesperson defended the decision by saying Snapchat’s users are “very passionate” about its current look.)

Jack Settleman, a sports-focused creator who has been posting on Snapchat since 2017, offered a stark assessment of Snap’s standing. “Culturally, it has no impact,” he said. “It’s almost siloed into its own little world.”

With its core business under significant pressure, Snap has a lot riding on Spectacles.

Bigger rivals like Meta, which has a monster ads business, can stomach spending billions on experiments in artificial intelligence and virtual reality goggles. “You have to earn that right,” said Shmulik, the Bernstein analyst.

A major reason why Snap has been able to sink as much money into Spectacles as it has is because co-founders Spiegel and Murphy have supervoting shares that give them control of most matters presented to shareholders. And they are unapologetic about using that control.

“If investors aren’t aligned with our long-term vision, then they can sell our stock and go buy another stock where they see more long-term opportunity,” Spiegel said at an event hosted by The Information in June.

None of the previous three iterations released to the broader public has taken off with customers, causing some to wonder if any ever will. Versions of the fifth generation released to developers still look large and clunky, though Spiegel has teased that the sixth iteration made public next year will be more lightweight, with see-through lenses that will allow users to browse and stream on the go.

The actual experience of using AR glasses like Snap’s still feels odd to many consumers, argues one former senior Snap employee. “It’s been 10-plus years that a lot of people have been working on it, and it’s still not natural,” this person said, describing the complicated hand gestures you need to learn—and master—to use the gadget.

Snap, for its part, says it has a headstart on the complicated technology and the recent rush of interest from other tech players is confirmation that it made the right gamble. “I think today if you look at this investment area…people’s realization [is] that this is the future form factor for computing,” Spiegel said in June. “That’s given us a lot of conviction to double down even though it is expensive.”

Despite all the risks, Snap has already “bet the farm” on Spectacles, said one former employee: It’s the device that could give the company a real boost of growth.

“It’s a big bet, right—with huge competitors—but if it wasn’t for that, I don’t know what investors would see in this platform or what the future would be,” this person said.“It just becomes another midsize media company.”

WWD : Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Saks Global, Moots Potential Reappraisal

Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Saks Global, Moots Potential Reappraisal
The rating agency's move was expected and follows Saks Global's completing a debt restructuring involving an exchange of notes providing the luxury retailer with much-needed increased liquidity.

Standard & Poor’s, in a move that was largely expected, on Friday downgraded Saks Global.

The ratings agency downgraded Saks Global to “selective default” from “CC” and its issue-level rating on notes issued in December 2024 to ‘D’ (default) from ‘CC.’ S&P has been concerned about Saks’ liquidity, revenue declines, overdue payments to vendors, and inventory shortages.

While being downgraded is not a good look for Saks, S&P’s anticipated move is viewed as more of a technicality that shouldn’t have any tangible impact on the retailer’s operations or near future financing ability.

The downgrade comes in the aftermath of Saks Global completing its debt restructuring on Aug. 20, which included the exchange of notes issued in December 2024 used to finance Saks’ $2.7 billion acquisition of the Neiman Marcus Group.

Referring to the debt restructuring, S&P stated, “We view the transaction as tantamount to a default because it included a debt exchange at a discount and the re-tiering of its outstanding senior secured notes issued in December 2024,” which means certain creditors were deprioritized. “Therefore, we lowered our issuer credit rating on Saks Global to ‘SD’ (selective default) from ‘CC’ and our issue-level rating on its notes issued in December 2024 to ‘D’ (default) from ‘CC’,” which is already a very low rating suggesting a company’s vulnerability.

“As part of the exchange transaction, the company has received new money totaling approximately $600 million from participating lenders, improving its liquidity position,” S&P stated. “We view the transaction as tantamount to default because of the company’s weakening liquidity position leading up to the transaction and free operating cash flow deficit. Furthermore, initial senior secured note lenders are getting less than originally promised due to the below par debt exchange, which resulted in an overall discount of about $115 million compared with pre-transaction amounts and the re-tiering of its position in the capital structure…We expect incremental annual interest expenses will represent an additional hurdle to the company’s ability to generate free operating cash flow.”

Still, S&P also indicated that it will evaluate the company’s revised capital structure and its recent strategic initiatives “when we have sufficient information on the go-forward capital structure and expect to raise the issuer credit rating to the ‘CCC’ category at that time.” That should happen very soon.

S&P expects that Saks Global will use the $600 million to rebuild its inventory position, which has been depleted due to certain vendors either discontinuing or reducing shipments. S&P also expects the money will be used to pay the retailer’s vendors and invest in synergies from the Neiman’s acquisition.

Responding to the downgrade, a Saks Global spokesperson said, “This update was anticipated following the close of our recent transaction, in which we secured $600 million in financing from existing bondholders. It is important to note that these rating actions apply to the notes issued in December 2024, and not to the new notes issued in August 2025, which are currently unrated.

“S&P expects to upgrade its rating as it learns more about our new capital structure and go-forward strategic initiatives,” the spokesperson added. “There is no default under Saks Global’s existing agreements, and the rating has no impact on our operations. We remain confident in our ability to deliver for our stakeholders.”

In addition to the debt restructuring, Saks Global’s liquidity position should improve because the company is working hard to capture synergies through the addition of NMG into its portfolio, involving consolidating various functions and layoffs to reduce costs. Saks Global expects to reduce annual costs by $600 million within the next few years.

WWD : Natalie Massenet Files for ‘Fraud and Intentional Deceit’ Against Erik Tor

Natalie Massenet Files for ‘Fraud and Intentional Deceit’ Against Erik Torstensson
The Net-a-porter founder claims that she has spent more than $95 million during their relationship on “expensive properties, lifestyle expenses, vacations” and introduced Torstensson to the likes of Anna Wintour and the Beckhams.

LONDON — Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-porter has filed a civil case against her former partner, Erik Torstensson, the cofounder and creative director of the denim brand Frame.

According to the paper filed, Massenet is suing for breach of contract; fraud and intentional deceit; promissory estoppel, and intentional/negligent infliction of emotional distress.

The case was submitted on Wednesday at the Superior Court of California County of Los Angeles.

Massenet and Torstensson first met in 2009, when Torstensson approached Massenet about launching a menswear arm of Net-a-porter, which is now Mr Porter.

The pair started a relationship in late 2010, after Massenet had sold her portion of the business for “tens of millions of dollars,” according to the court filing.

Massenet and Torstensson were in a 14-year relationship and welcomed a son together in 2017.

In the filing, Massenet claims to be “not only heartbroken, but also cash strapped with his child” in the paper. The paper adds that Torstensson is demanding joint custody of their child.

She alleges that she has spent more than $95 million during their relationship on “expensive properties, lifestyle expenses, vacations and more based on Torstensson’s promises to repay her in kind.”

The Net-a-porter founder, who is currently a New York resident, is demanding “a fair, equitable return on the investments she made, value she created and costs she carried.”

Signs of trouble in paradise began to occur in 2024, according to the paper.

Massenet claims Torstensson became “emotionally distant, drank more heavily, disappeared for nights and became physically and emotionally unwell,” and that she found him to have “frequent bouts of bad stomach infections, influenza, panic attacks and hives.”

In the paper, Massenet alleges that in May 2025 she found her partner to be a “‘liar, drug addict, alcoholic and sex addict,’ who had been actively doing drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and oxycodone, hiring and sleeping with prostitutes, and engaging in multiple affairs with younger women during the majority of their 14-year relationship.”

The paper goes on to add that “Massenet found a prescription bottle of Valacyclovir filled by Torstensson in January 2025, which he told her was for the hives. Massenet later learned that Valacyclovir is used to treat herpes infections.”

Massenet claims that Torstensson was using their relationship for “social clout” to rack up investment and equity positions worth “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The filing specifies that when Torstensson launched the label Frame, Massenet supported him by launching its first collection on Net-a-porter.

n the paper, Massenet states that she used her expansive Rolodex to introduce Torstensson to the likes of Vogue U.S. editor in chief Anna Wintour; designer Diane Von Furstenberg; Michael Ovitz, the cofounder of Creative Artists Agency; Jimmy Choo’s cofounder Tamara Mellon; Glossier founder Emily Weiss, and British power couple, David and Victoria Beckham.

The filing features a text message sent to Victoria Beckham by Torstensson asking to “Send me sizes for yourself, David and Brooklyn and I will send you a package of Frame goodies. So glad you like them.”

In Massenet’s and Torstensson’s 14-year relationship, it’s clear that the lines between their professional and personal lives became intertwined and blurred.

The reason for Massenet filing in California is because of its links to her and Torstensson’s life.

She was born in Los Angeles and attended the University of California, as well as building “extensive personal and professional ties to California,” said the paper.

The paper reveals that Torstensson is also a New York resident, but a majority of his business operations are based in California. Torstensson was an early shareholder of Skims and Good American, the shapewear brand founded by Kim Kardashian and the denim-centric brand cofounded by Khloé Kardashian and Emma Grede.

According to the paper, “The equity value of Torstensson’s stake in Skims alone is estimated to be in excess of $300 million.”

The filing details that the couple used a relationship counselor based in Los Angeles and both work with a physician in the city that “routinely provides prescriptions to Torstensson.”

The paper alleges that Torstensson’s drug use and infidelity materialized in California.

Torstensson is yet to file a response to the claims made by Massenet.

Massenet was unavailable to comment. Torstensson could not be reached for comment at time of press.

In 2000, Massenet founded fashion online retailer Net-a-porter. In the year before she stepped down from her role in 2015 following the Yoox Net-a-porter merger, the Net-a-porter Group recorded net revenues of almost $1 billion.


In 2016, she was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions and services to the U.K. economy.

In 2017, Massenet became nonexecutive co-chairman of Farfetch, a role she left in August 2020.

She teamed up with Nick Brown, formerly a partner at the venture capital firm 14W, to set up Imaginary Ventures in 2018, focusing on innovations at the intersection of retail and technology.

The firm closed its first fund of $75 million in 2018, which included investments across the beauty, wellness, food and beverage, lifestyle and fashion sectors.

Its brand investments have ranged from Glossier, Camp, Bread Beauty Supply, Dirty Lemon, Universal Standard and Goodfair to Mejuri and Skims.

Torstensson found his business footing in 2003 with his business partner, Jens Grede. The pair founded their own agency Saturday, which would later be renamed as Saturday Group that rapidly expanded into 12 separate companies spanning advertising, branding, public relations, e-commerce, entertainment and apparel distribution with offices in New York, London, Paris and Milan.

In 2012, Torstensson and Grede launched Frame with one pair of skinny jeans and quickly grew into a lifestyle label for women and men that generated $170 million in sales by 2022.