Author: Editor

The granddaddy still absolutely holds up.Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko — a slick-haired, cold-blooded embodiment of Wall Street greed — is an all-time movie villain whose every line is quotable. “Ever wonder why fund managers can’t beat the S&P 500? Cause they’re sheep, and sheep get slaughtered,” is a personal favorite of mine.Young Charlie Sheen is excellent as Bud Fox, the ambitious trader pulled into Gekko’s insider-trading orbit. The plot — Gekko’s plan to raid an airline’s pension fund — can be a little far-fetched, but the mechanics of trading, corporate control, and takeover tactics remain remarkably clear and credible. That…

AI is helping workers get more done, though not necessarily delivering broad benefits for the organizations that employ them, according to a top McKinsey & Company executive.Eric Kutcher, a senior partner and chair of McKinsey North America, told reporters at the company’s media day on Wednesday that outside specific areas such as software development, many of the hoped-for productivity increases have yet to materialize across companies.”You have people that are getting more productive as individuals, but they’re just changing some of the work that they’re doing,” he said.Until companies look at the scope of work across an organization and identify…

Mike Savage has owned both long-term and short-term rentals — and he sees a fundamental difference between the two.With a long-term rental, investors can improve a property and potentially raise the rent, but the market largely determines what a comparable home can earn. A three-bedroom, one-bath house will generally command something close to what similar homes in the area rent for.A short-term rental offers more room to influence revenue, but it also requires more work.”You’re choosing to open a business” when you buy a short-term rental, Savage told Business Insider. Investors need to think beyond the purchase price and location…

The push-and-pull continues for Walmart’s online order picking teams.The retail giant has reversed an earlier policy that reduced the number of bins workers haul on specialized carts, which was first reported by Business Insider in May and intended to improve visibility and safety. Under that guidance, workers were told to push carts unless they could not safely see ahead.The online fulfillment carts are a key piece of equipment that Walmart store employees use to gather the items shoppers order for pickup or delivery.Four Walmart employees in three states recently told Business Insider that their store leaders instructed their teams to…

Banks want to lend against them. Insurers want to protect them. Investors want to trade them.A financial ecosystem is forming around Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), as Wall Street tries to turn the AI chips into a new asset class, like real estate, oil, and agricultural commodities.The AI boom sparked a scramble for Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips — and a financial market has emerged because they’re too expensive to buy outright. But if companies can borrow money against the chips themselves, it could unlock hundreds of billions of dollars for new AI infrastructure — and help realize Nvidia’s vision of abundant…

Alex Aminov, 37, doesn’t know why he’s on his current phone plan, or how much he’s paying for it.Recently, the Brooklyn-based software developer said he tried to cancel the landline included in his Optimum internet package, which cost an extra $25 a month. When he called to try to cancel it — the only way to get through — a representative convinced him that it would be cheaper to transfer the line to a mobile plan, and that he’d be eligible for a slew of discounts.He said that representative told him they’d follow up to ensure that the transfer went…

Emma Camp, a writer for The Wall Street Journal’s famously conservative editorial page, began a recent video on housing costs with a simple question — and an appealingly simple answer.”Can rent control fix the housing crisis? No!” she says.It actually makes the problem worse, Camp argues, by discouraging developers from building new units if they don’t think they can charge enough to recoup their investment. The 75-second video has gotten 4.8 million views on X.Camp, 27, has gained traction with pro-free market ideas by riding the short-form vertical video boom.She’s shot from 25,000 to 125,000 followers on X in recent…

Three former OpenAI researchers released a letter on Thursday saying they were abruptly fired last week and that the move will have a “chilling” effect on company culture.In a letter titled “OpenAI cannot make AI safe on its own,” the trio wrote that OpenAI is “not a normal company” and that working with third parties to address safety risks with the “freedom to do so without fear” is a key component of working there. The letter, which was addressed to OpenAI’s safety committees, was shared on social media by Mikita Balesni, one of the fired employees who worked on AI…

Micro dramas are booming outside the US. They’re beginning to see traction stateside too, with lots of startups trying to convince American consumers to pay a few dollars to watch soapy stories on their phones.But right now, there’s one clear winner in the US micro drama industry: Mark Zuckerberg.Zuckerberg’s Meta is by far the most popular place for micro drama producers to market their stuff, industry players tell us. Some estimate that startups are directing up to 75% of their marketing budgets to Meta’s various properties, in the hopes of getting Facebook or Reels users to come to their sites.”What…

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol speaks during the Starbucks Investor Day event in New York City, U.S., January 29, 2026. Brendan Mcdermid | ReutersStarbucks has reportedly explored buying Chipotle Mexican Grill, but investors are split on whether the megadeal would make sense for both companies. The coffee giant has been working with advisers on a takeover proposal of the fast-casual chain in recent months, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. If Starbucks bought Chipotle, it would combine two of the largest U.S. restaurant chains. With about $31 billion in annual domestic sales, Starbucks is the…