The S&P 500 raced past 7,000 points for the first time today—just nine months after it cleared 6,000 and barely three years after 5,000—underscoring how liquidity-fueled tech euphoria now propels global benchmarks faster than any real‐economy metric. (ft.com)

Yet technology stocks already make roughly half the index’s weight, and Nvidia alone has added $3 trn in market value since 2023. JPMorgan strategists warn that while S&P earnings per share have jumped 350 % since 2000, the “average” U.S. firm’s profits grew only 47 %, mirroring stubborn job-loss headlines and a 12 % slide in new-housing starts this winter. Markets, in short, are trading on chip demand and rate-cut hopes, not wage or shelter realities. (ft.com)

History rhymes: the last time index multiples decoupled this far from household balance sheets was in 1999—just before a 49 % drawdown. As economist Daniela Gabor reminds us, “Liquidity is a promise that vanishes precisely when you most need it.” The clock is ticking. (ft.com)

The Gist AI Editor

UK’s AI Productivity Play

The UK government is advancing a strategy to “turbo-charge” its core industries with artificial intelligence, aiming to boost productivity and ensure that new job creation outpaces automation-driven losses (Bloomberg). Rather than resisting technological disruption, London is betting that embracing AI will generate economic dynamism. This approach seeks to leverage innovation as a market-driven solution to labor market shifts. From our vantage point, the policy rightly focuses on adaptation and growth, though the ultimate success will hinge on creating a regulatory environment that encourages private sector investment and genuine upskilling, not state-led industrial planning.

Germany’s Drone Doubts

Berlin’s planned procurement of advanced combat and kamikaze drones faces mounting scrutiny ahead of a key budget decision. Doubts are intensifying around the Helsing HX-2 drone, a central part of a deal worth approximately €900 million, following an internal report from Ukraine that reportedly questions the system’s hit rate and operational security (Politico.Eu). This development underscores the inherent risks in large-scale public defense spending, where technological promise must be rigorously tested against real-world performance data. A failure to heed such battlefield evidence would represent a significant misallocation of taxpayer funds.

Stay tuned for the next Gist—your edge in a shifting world.

Geopolitical Risk Premium Gives Oil A Further Lift
— Wall Street Journal

How Trump Could Actually Fix Housing Market
— Wall Street Journal

In Money or Health, Measles’s Cost Is Too High
— Wall Street Journal

UK Seeks AI-Driven Productivity Boost to Offset Lost Jobs
— Bloomberg

Europe to Decide How Much Toxin in Baby Formula Is Too Much
— Bloomberg

Mexico to Continue ‘Humanitarian’ Cuba Oil Aid Despite Trump Vow
— Bloomberg

Galactic Ambitions, Terrestrial Valuations

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly contemplating a mid-June initial public offering (IPO) that could value the aerospace firm at a staggering $1.5 trillion. This move would not only create the largest public listing in history, dwarfing Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion flotation in 2019, but also inject massive capital to fuel its Starship development. From a free-market perspective, this is private enterprise at its most audacious—pioneering new frontiers and, if successful, unlocking immense shareholder value. The ripple effects extend beyond finance; a publicly traded SpaceX could accelerate the commercialisation of space, putting pressure on state-run European aerospace ventures to innovate and adapt to a more competitive, market-driven landscape. The ambitious valuation, however, rests heavily on future potential, a high-stakes bet on sustained innovation. (Financial Times, Reuters)

Europe’s Digital Paternalism

France’s lower house of parliament has passed a bill to ban social media access for children under 15, a significant step in a wider European push for stricter online age-gating. While motivated by genuine concerns over mental health, this approach raises red flags for individual liberty and practical enforcement. The core challenge lies in creating a reliable, privacy-preserving age-verification system, a hurdle that currently renders such national bans largely symbolic. The European Commission has indicated that while France can set a “digital age of consent,” enforcement against non-compliant platforms would fall under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). This sets the stage for a broader EU-wide debate, pitting child protection against the principles of minimal government intervention and parental responsibility. (EUObserver, The Guardian)

Catch the next Gist for the continent’s moving pieces.

Unermüdlich im Einsatz gegen das Vergessen
— ZDF

SpaceX mulls $1.5tn IPO timed to ‘align with Musk’s birthday and the planets’
— The Guardian

Listen: Is it realistic to ban kids from social media?
— EUObserver

Aktuelles zum Krieg in der Ukraine
— ZDF

“DHB-Spieler müssen Franzosen nerven”
— ZDF

Il prezzo del gas chiude in lieve rialzo a 38,86 euro
— Ansa