PISA 2025 Scores

PISA 2025: Students’ reading and mathematics performance declined sharply across the OECD
https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2026/09/pisa-2025-students-reading-and-mathematics-performance-declined-sharply-across-the-oecd.html

U.S. Reading Scores Plummet on Global Exam
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/us/us-reading-test-scores-pisa.html
Students in Singapore and parts of China had the highest scores on the test known as PISA. Scores for American students were near a 25-year low.

PISA 2025 Report
https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2026/09/pisa-2025-results-volume-i_5265bfb1/73451bc5-en.pdf 

Deciphering the Stock Market

Institutional Investors Move Markets. Here’s How to Read Their Signs.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/investors-move-markets-read-signs-b0f2cc95
Tracking a stock’s price range and volume can offer clues on when to buy a stock that’s about to climb or bail on a stock that’s primed to fall. 

The Stock Market’s Breezy Summer Is Over. Investors Beware.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/the-stock-markets-breezy-summer-is-over-investors-beware-fb110133
The Fed and inflation are back in focus as investors face down an often bumpy stretch for markets.
 
Why Stocks Are Defying Gravity and What Could Bring Them Down
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/business/stock-market-interest-rates.html
Investors are focused on strong corporate earnings and A.I., while looking past the war in Iran. But rising interest rates are an increasing risk to the rally.

US Foreign Policy Blunders

Peru Shows the Limits of Washington’s Anti-China Push
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/world/americas/peru-trump-china-economy.html
 
Trump’s Neocolonialism Will Backfire
https://www.newyorker.com/news/global-notes/trumps-neocolonialism-will-backfire  
The President is touting his big Venezuelan oil deal, but his interventions abroad are stirring anger and having unintended consequences. 

China and Medical Research

Patients Are Flying to China for the Latest Cancer Treatment
https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/patients-are-flying-to-china-for-the-latest-cancer-treatment-528659c3
Shanghai is emerging as a favored destination for patients from America and other rich countries who are seeking innovations in biotechnology. 

Rethinking the Value of a College Degree

Americans Without College Degrees Have One of the Best Job Markets in Years
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/americans-without-college-degrees-are-having-one-of-the-best-job-markets-in-years-5f37d00e
Unemployment among younger workers who didn’t go to college has rarely been lower in recent decades. It is the opposite story for college graduates.
 
The university degree is losing its luster
https://www.ft.com/content/54cf40cd-149f-40db-b603-21aecd5f66ec
 
China’s New Graduates, Facing a Dire Job Market, Must Also Contend with A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/world/asia/chinas-new-graduates-ai-challenges.html
A record 12.7 million young people are looking for jobs as the country embraces artificial intelligence — and as the technology begins to upend the work force.  

My take from Jan 2022:
Is the US higher education bubble about to burst?
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/590971-will-the-us-higher-education-bubble-finally-burst

Related:

The College Wage Premium in the Generative AI Era

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7364838

Abstract

After expanding for four decades, the U.S. college wage premium is experiencing a sustained contraction, dropping sharply from 0.626 in 2022 to 0.575 in 2026. Using Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group data through 2026, we show that standard market-clearing supply and demand accounting implies an unprecedented drop in relative demand for college labor-the first sustained negative relative demand growth in a series spanning back to 1914. Linking individual wage data to task-based generative AI exposure, we document that post-2022 wage growth slowed disproportionately in high-exposure occupations, which employ a disproportionate share of college graduates. By 2026, going from zero occupational AI exposure to full exposure had a negative effect on wages of -0.086. Combined with the college-non-college exposure gap, this mechanism accounts for roughly 28 percent of the total drop in the college wage premium from 2022 to 2026. While noncausal, these patterns indicate that task displacement in AI-exposed white-collar occupations plays a quantitatively meaningful role in the recent compression of the aggregate skill premium.

The Ultimate Safe Asset

Why are European countries moving their gold out of North America?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyn8q8gqxo 

AI Agents and Retail Investing

He’s Letting AI Agents Invest His Money. They Even Have Names.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-ai-shift-turning-everyday-investors-into-mini-quant-funds-ebe4d45f
Americans are vibe-coding trading algorithms and handing over their stock portfolios to AI agents. Welcome to the world of the robot retail investor.