Friday's Fast Five: Week of 5.2

Inside Home Depot’s $20 Billion Secret Garden (Wall Street Journal): The garden business rakes in about $20 billion a year for Home Depot—more than appliances, lumber or paint. It’s one of the biggest departments of the biggest home-improvement retailer, covering everything from live goods like plants, flowers and shrubs to soils, grills and patio furniture. In fact, it’s so big that Home Depot makes more money from its garden divisions than Hermès does from all of its luxury goods.  

Why Macro Forecasting Is So Hard (Impossible) (Barry Ritholtz): I always try to remember this, especially when I see a pundit telling me what is going to happen next… You have to pull yourself out of the day-to-day noise and remember why you are putting capital at risk in the markets. The daily news flow, upgrades and downgrades, corporate guidance, and back and forth are not the reason. The markets are no easier, trying to incorporate what all of those economic variable economic inputs mean to every single company’s individual revenues and profits. Or as John C. Bogle liked to say, “The stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing.”

Nvidia: The AI chip giant caught between US and China (BBC): The California-based company will require licenses to export its H20 AI chip to China, a move which the US Commerce Department said was designed to safeguard "national and economic security". Nvidia said federal officials had told them the requirement will be in force for the "indefinite future". But why is the company so pivotal in the race for AI supremacy between the US and China?

Chaos is a Ladder (Not Boring by Packy McCormick): There’s that famous Warren Buffett quote, “Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy.”  The economy is chaotic right now. Tariffs, trade wars, and uncertainty rule the day. The word is this: you can’t control chaos, but you can play with it.

They Stole a Quarter-Billion in Crypto and Got Caught Within a Month (New York Times): How luxury cars, $500,000 bar tabs and a mysterious kidnapping attempt helped investigators unravel the heist of a lifetime.