Friday's Fast Five: Week of 5.12

Fed’s John Williams says rates could be increased if inflation doesn’t come down (CNBC):  New York Federal Reserve President John Williams on Tuesday cautioned that interest rate increases will take a while to work their way through the economy before inflation returns to an acceptable level. The central bank official gave no forecast for where he sees policy headed but said he doesn’t expect inflation to return to the Fed’s 2% goal until the next two years.

Picking a Stock for the Year 2048 (The Wall Street Journal): Investment funds run by some college students are taking on an extraordinary challenge: Picking stocks for the next 25 years and then never trading them. Meet the stock pickers who pick stocks once and then stop—for a quarter of a century.

Frankenstein’s Monster: US banks and the unintended consequences of the Fed’s monetary experiment (Eye on the Market - JP Morgan): Ten years of negative real policy rates followed by sub-1% 10 year Treasury yields and a doubling of the Fed’s balance sheet from $4.5 trillion to $9 trillion in just two years, the largest monetary experiment in US history, has negative unintended consequences as well. Like the townspeople fleeing Frankenstein’s Monster, some depositors are now wary of banks with substantial underwater loans and securities whose yields the Fed had manipulated.

Inside the Battle for Chips That Will Power Artificial Intelligence  (Odd Lots - Podcast): Nobody knows for sure who is going to make all the money when it comes to artificial intelligence. One thing is clear though — AI requires a lot of computing power and that means demand for semiconductors. On this episode we speak with Bernstein semiconductor analyst Stacy Rasgon about this rapidly growing space and who has a shot to win it.

26 Empire State Buildings Could Fit Into New York’s Empty Office Space. That’s a Sign. (The New York Times): New York is undergoing a metamorphosis from a city dedicated to productivity to one built around pleasure. Many office buildings still feel eerily empty, with occupancy around 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels, harming landlords and the local economy.