Confidence vs. Reality, Vanguard vs. BlackRock, Senate vs. Trump

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Your two-for-Tuesday morning train reads:

• Vanguard Nips at BlackRock’s Heels for Fund Crown (Financial Times) see also 5 Traits Of Successful Thematic ETFs (ETF.com)
• Dear Investor, That Cocky Voice in Your Head Is Wrong (Wall Street Journal)
• As Sears Withers, Its Former Stores Fuel a New Fortune (New York Times) see also Sears Closing 46 More Stores (Wall Street Journal)
• An Inside Look at CalPERS’s New Direct Private Equity Organization (CIO)
• Life-Threatening Heart Attack Leaves (Fully Insured) Teacher With $108,951 Bill (NPR) see also Unpaid Claims for Those Medical Emergencies Create More Trauma (Business Live)
• Maersk Containership Loads World Record 19,038 TEUs in Malaysia (Climateer Investing)
• Here’s How Facebook Is Trying to Moderate Its Two Billion Users (Vice) but see The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views (New York Times)
• It Would Only Take a Single Senator: With Republicans clinging to a precarious 50–49 majority, every individual GOP senator can serve as a check on Trump’s excesses whenever they choose to act (The Atlantic)
• The Race to Build a Wind Behemoth (Wall Street Journal) see also The Next Major Innovation in Batteries Might Be Here (Quartz)
• For each set of 100,000 people who have one drink a day per year, 918 can expect to experience one of the 23 alcohol-related problems in any year. Of those who drink nothing, 914 can expect to experience a problem (Upshot)

What are you reading?

Nasdaq Hits Record as It Passes 8,000 Mark

Source: Wall Street Journal

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Barry Ritholtz is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He founded Ritholtz Wealth Management and was chief executive and director of equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

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