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In today’s post:
⛽ Gas Guzzlers Are So Back
🔑 The AI Found The Keys
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⛽ Gas Guzzlers Are So Back
America just cut its 2031 fuel economy target by nearly 16 mpg.
That's about a third of the goal, deleted via Truth Social. On a Saturday.
Here's what happened 👇
🚗 The Big U-Turn
Trump says he's approved new fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and scrapped Biden's EV mandate.
That 2021 Biden order aimed for half of all new US vehicle sales to be electric by 2030. It's now in the bin.
Trump's pitch: lower prices, "saving families thousands" on a new car, and no more building what he called "Environmental Monsters."
He also claims more than $100B is being invested in American car manufacturing under his administration.
Back in late August, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy promised a "common-sense" standard so Detroit builds "cars that Americans want to buy."
What it really means? Detroit gets to keep building whatever already sells.
Biden's target: 50.4 mpg fleetwide average
NHTSA's proposal (Dec 2025): 34.5 mpg by 2031
The difference: 15.9 mpg, or roughly 32% less ambitious
Picture a car that used to be expected to do 50 miles on a gallon. Now 35 gets a gold star.
⛽ The Catch In The Fine Print
NHTSA's own numbers say the rule saves about $930 per vehicle up front.
Sounds lovely. Then Reuters dug into the rest of the projection:
100 billion extra gallons of fuel burned through 2050
5% more CO₂ emissions
$185B more spent on fuel
That's roughly 4 billion extra gallons a year, every year, until 2050.
You save at the dealership, and the bill shows up later at the pump. Like buying a cheap printer and then meeting the ink cartridges.
🧠 What It Means For Your Money
For car buyers: sticker prices could come down, but a less efficient fleet means more exposure to gas price spikes over the life of the car.
For legacy automakers: less pressure to pour cash into an expensive EV transition. That's breathing room for their margins.
For pure-play EV names: a regulatory tailwind just turned into a light breeze. Demand now has to stand on its own.
For oil: 100 billion extra gallons is a longer runway for US fuel demand than the old rules implied.
Worth watching: whether automakers actually change their product plans, or quietly keep their EV roadmaps as a hedge against the next election.
Your next car: what matters more? 🚗
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Everyone's arguing about whether AI is a bubble. Far fewer are asking what pays you if it pops.
We think we've found an answer.
It's up +11.25% a year since May 2020. It pays an 8.1% yield, monthly. Its biggest single holding is barely 2% of the portfolio.
Here's how it works. The fund owns America's largest companies, then rents out their upside for cash every month.
Tech is just 15.80% of the portfolio, against ~31% for the S&P 500. If the AI trade cracks, the income keeps coming while the tech-heavy crowd takes the punch.
Bubble talk is getting louder. Hedges are easiest to think about before you need one.
In today's Premium+ deep dive:
Why we're adding it now, and how it stacks up against its two closest rivals
What the income could look like if tech really does slide
The hidden cost of this protection that the headline yield doesn't show
The exact signal that would change our mind
🔑 The AI Found The Keys
OpenAI's AI agents found keys to government data.
Nobody asked them to. That's the problem.
The ChatGPT maker just paused training on its latest models after a string of incidents where its agents wandered wildly off-script.
🕵️ The Errands That Went Sideways
On Friday, OpenAI disclosed it was reviewing several incidents from the summer where agents searching federal websites went well beyond their instructions.
The highlights reel:
Department of Education: agents found API "developer keys" that unlock government data. Only public info ended up being gathered, but still.
Also Education: AI evaluator Transluce says agents that appeared to be OpenAI's tried (and failed) to hack the site. OpenAI hasn't confirmed this one.
SEC: agents grabbed freely available info, then reposted it elsewhere online. Also not part of the brief.
It's like sending the intern for coffee and they come back having picked the lock on the stationery cupboard.
Both agencies say no damage done. The SEC says no nonpublic information was accessed, and Education found no impact on its website or databases.
OpenAI still warned the agencies involved. Hours later, it pulled the handbrake.
⏸️ Pause, The Sequel
This is the second halt in three months. The first came in July after a cyberattack on AI startup Hugging Face.
Sam Altman says Hugging Face is still the most severe event OpenAI has seen. Reassuring? Sort of.
Training resumes only once OpenAI is confident extra safeguards are in place. It also expects to hit pause again as new issues pop up.
Honestly, points for candour.
OpenAI has already logged six other reports of "unexpected or concerning" model behaviour. And it's not alone: several AI companies have admitted to models going rogue, some even hacking websites.
🇺🇸 Meanwhile, In Washington
The labs want to slow down. The White House does not.
The heads of OpenAI and Anthropic have both called for a slowdown, and lawmakers and tech experts are piling on the pressure for guardrails.
Trump met Xi Jinping this week and agreed to share info on AI dangers. Then he told reporters the US won't be "putting on brakes," since America is leading China "by a lot."
So the people building the tech are tapping the brakes while the government floors it. Peak awkward family road trip energy. 🚗
💰 What It Means For You
Why should an investor care about some misbehaving bots?
Pauses cost time. In a race this competitive, every halt hands rivals a head start.
The guardrail pressure is coming from inside the house. With no federal crackdown planned, the labs themselves are the ones pulling levers.
Agents are the next big AI pitch. Incidents like these could make businesses slower to hand them the keys (literally).
Expect more of this. OpenAI openly said future pauses are likely, so headline risk around AI names looks set to stick around.
Join Anthropic, Kalshi, and Clay at Pioneer on October 7th
Pioneer, the summit where CX leaders redefine what’s possible, is on October 7th.
Join leaders from Fin, Anthropic, Clay, and Kalshi for an insightful conversation on the state of AI transformation.
You’ll discover how some of the most innovative minds in CX have transformed their organizations, learn how they think about CX, and hear how they're planning for what's next.
Join the conversation in San Francisco, or tune in virtually.