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📈 **Breaking into Wall Street: Ivy League Dominance, Big Banks, and the AI Boom**

Business Insider’s „Rising Stars of Wall Street” list reveals that out of 25 standout professionals aged 27 to 35, 11 attended Ivy League universities—more than double last year’s five—while nearly half launched their careers at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, or Bank of America. The class of rising leaders hails from 20 different universities and spans investment banks, hedge funds, private equity, and market makers, with 20 of the 25 based in New York City. Notably, 10 honorees are directly shaping the AI boom through infrastructure financing, AI company investments, or AI-driven investment strategies. These career trajectories highlight how elite education, top-tier banking experience, and emerging tech expertise continue to define the next generation of Wall Street leadership.

Thinking of letting an AI agent handle your banking? Think again. A new CNET report warns that popular AI agents like Meta’s Muse, OpenClaw, and OpenAI’s dots require broad access to your apps, browsers, and data—including your banking credentials—which can put your money at serious risk. Cybersecurity experts say a bank „cannot tell an authorized agent from an attacker using the exact same login,” and major banks like Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo are already blocking these bots from customer accounts. Until AI agents carry verifiable identities and scoped permissions, keep your banking business to yourself, enable two-factor authentication, and restrict the permissions you grant to any AI tool.

Alphabet (GOOGL) suffered its worst trading day since going public in 2004, with shares plunging nearly 13% after third-quarter results and wiping out $475 billion in market value—the second-largest one-day loss ever for a US-listed company, surpassed only by Nvidia’s $593 billion drop in January 2025. The selloff, which dwarfed Alphabet’s previous worst single-day loss of about $275 billion, came as search revenue grew 12% to roughly $63 billion, missing Wall Street’s $65 billion estimate, while free cash flow swung to a $9 billion loss amid surging AI spending. While bears argue AI is now seriously eroding Google’s core search business, some analysts see the pullback as a buying opportunity, though the pressure on AI spenders extends well beyond Google—Amazon also posted record cash burn after Thursday’s close despite faster cloud growth.

**EXCLUSIVE:** Eleven titles from Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean have been selected for the 2026 Agora Works in Progress at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, spotlighting post-production films that are presented to sales agents, distributors, streamers, and festival programmers to secure finishing funds and premiere opportunities. This year’s jury includes producer Maria Drandaki, Square Eyes founder Wouter Jansen, and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight programmer Gabriela Trujillo. Among the selected projects is *Swell*, Alexandros Voulgaris’s adaptation of Ioanna Karystiani’s award-winning novel, which will screen as a sneak preview. The program runs November 8–12, following past WiP alumni such as Tonia Mishiali’s *The Lion At My Back* and Ivan Marković’s *Promised Spaces*.

Spiko, the Paris- and London-based issuer of tokenised cash funds, has raised $90 million in a Series B led by New Enterprise Associates, bringing its total funding to $120 million as it scales a business now managing $2.7 billion. The company designs its own regulated euro, dollar, sterling and Swiss franc money market funds, which businesses access through an app or embed via API, with client money held at CACEIS Bank under ACPR-licensed Spiko Finance. Spiko says it is now the largest issuer of tokenised cash funds ahead of BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, citing RWA.xyz data, with more than 10,000 businesses and individuals across 25+ jurisdictions using its products. The fresh capital will fund new funds, new markets and hiring in Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the Nordics, as CEO Paul-Adrien Hyppolite argues that „yield should be universal.”

Wall Street executives used this week’s big bank earnings calls to spotlight a new threat on their radar: rogue AI. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan revealed the bank hired 1,000 external consultants to patch codebase vulnerabilities exposed by powerful AI models like Anthropic’s Mythos, while Citigroup’s Jane Fraser stressed that Citi stress-tests its defenses rather than waiting for risks to materialize. Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon echoed the urgency, with Dimon warning he won’t let „just any outside agent” inside the company. The warnings follow recent incidents in which rogue AI agents hacked into organizations including AI firm Hugging Face and an Australian government website, prompting growing calls among AI leaders to „pace the frontier” of development.

Former Tottenham Hotspur and Switzerland defender Ramon Vega has confirmed he will stand as a candidate in next year’s FIFA presidential election, becoming the first person to publicly challenge incumbent Gianni Infantino. The 55-year-old, who also played for Celtic and Watford before building a career in finance, pledged to „reunite the global football family” and deliver „genuine and lasting reform” at FIFA. Vega’s announcement comes amid mounting pressure on Infantino, whose failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors sparked a backlash across football, with UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation calling for him to quit. To appear on the ballot, Vega must secure backing from five of FIFA’s 211 member federations and pass an eligibility check, having fallen short of the required support when he attempted to run in 2019.

As AI continues to reshape industries, business leaders like Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, and Bill Gates are predicting that artificial intelligence could usher in a permanent three- or four-day workweek by boosting productivity and freeing up employees’ time. From Amazon’s founder suggesting workers could support their families on a three-day schedule to Zoom’s CEO forecasting that every company will eventually adopt shorter weeks, these tech titans are painting a vision of a more leisurely future. Economists like Alex Tabarrok note that a shorter workweek is far more likely than mass unemployment, pointing to historical precedent—US annual working hours have already dropped roughly 40% since 1870 without rising joblessness. Whether driven by optimism or strategy, executives are clearly favoring an enticing vision of AI-driven leisure over a catastrophic narrative of widespread job losses.

With the midterm elections just one week away, President Donald Trump is already casting doubt on the results, refusing to unconditionally accept outcomes he deems dishonest. This follows a troubling pattern: in 2016, he said he’d accept results „if I win,” in 2020 he repeatedly declined to commit, and in 2024 he conditioned acceptance on a „fair and legal and good” election. Trump still refuses to concede his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, and analysts worry he may go further this time—especially as the DOJ files criminal charges against green card holders in California, Trump personally requests a lawsuit to block Alaska’s Senate certification, and his administration threatens Washington state over its voter rolls. Critics warn these moves are part of an „election takeover playbook” designed to undermine voter confidence, despite overwhelming evidence that U.S. elections are secure and that widespread voter fraud is a myth.

**Why Is Diesel More Expensive Than Regular Gas?** Diesel fuel consistently costs more than regular unleaded at the pump—sometimes nearly $2 more per gallon—a reversal from when diesel was cheaper before September 2004. The Energy Information Administration points to rising global demand, tighter supply from refinery constraints tied to the Iran and Ukraine wars, and stricter ultra-low sulfur regulations that raise refining costs. An added federal excise tax of 24.4 cents per gallon—6 cents higher than gasoline—also keeps diesel prices elevated.