Friday's Fast Five: Week of 3.17

In the Hunt for Fraud, the RedFlags Start With the Auditor (Institutional Investor): Hindenburg Research’s scorching report on Adani Group alleging pervasive fraud at the Indian conglomerate had some sound advice for safety-minded investors. Check out the auditor. Adani is on a long list of companies in which the choice of auditors and information in their reports could have provided a warning to investors. But audit firm red flags often go unheeded.

Microsoft announces Copilot: the AI-powered future of Office documents (The Verge): Microsoft has announced a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services, designed to assist people with generating documents, emails, presentations, and much more. “It works alongside you, embedded in the apps millions of people use everyday: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more,” said Microsoft 365 head Jared Spataro. “Copilot is a whole new way of working.”

How the Weekend-Long Freakout Over Silicon Valley Bank Ended (Slate): The fall of SVB, the largest bank failure in the U.S. since Washington Mutual in 2008—and the second-largest bank rout in all of U.S. history—held the tech and finance sectors by the throat from Friday morning until Sunday evening, when the feds announced they would fulfill customer obligations on its behalf. How did the worst bank failure since 2008 happened in the first place?

When Suburbs Go to War With Transit (Bloomberg): A battle over building a housing development near a Baltimore light rail station illustrates why it’s so hard to make viable public transportation in the suburbs.

David Tepper: The King of Bouncing Back (Neckar Substack): In late 2008, David Tepper experienced the third sharp drawdown of his career. His Appaloosa fund was down 27 percent as the financial crisis battered markets. He had survived previous crises - the Russian default in 1998 and the implosion of the dotcom and telecom bubbles in 2002. In each case, he had roared back. “We’re consistently inconsistent,” Tepper explained. “It’s one of the cornerstones of our success.”