Friday's Fast Five: Week of 8.25

The Great and Awful Thing About These Interest Rates (The Irrelevant Investor): The era of low interest rates is over. In the blink of an eye, the Fed went from punishing savers to punishing borrowers. If you’re depending on income to fund your retirement, 5% rates are a blessing. But if you’re in need of credit, current rates are a curse. Higher rates are a blessing or a curse, depending on where you are in life. This is a good reminder that the market pendulum is always swinging from too hot to too cold with little in-between.

How Nvidia Built a Competitive Moat Around A.I. Chips (The New York Times): The most visible winner of the artificial intelligence boom achieved its dominance by becoming a one-stop shop for A.I. development, from chips to software to other services.

A Bright Spot in Commercial Real Estate: Retail Shops (The Wall Street Journal): Retailers are on track to open 1,000 net new stores in the U.S. this year as retail availability hits record lows, in fresh signs of the sector’s resilience despite turmoil in commercial real estate.

Why Tractor Supply Is One of the Most Interesting Retailers On the Planet  (Odd Lots - Podcast): Tractor Supply Co. has grown from a small mail order business set up in the 1930s into the biggest farm and ranch retailer operating in the US. Along the way, its share price has soared from around $1 in the 1990s to well over $200 today. So what accounts for the success of Tractor Supply, such that analysts have referred to it as "one of the most interesting retailers on the planet"? And can it keep up the rapid growth?

X will never be the “Everything App” but Uber might (The Reformed Broker): Locked into cheaper borrowing costs and unable to find a new place that fits their budgets, countless people are opting to remain in their current homes, adding to an acute shortage of available properties.