Welcome to the weekend. 

It was a week of disquieting developments in leadership, from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s ouster to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law and the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Hold your democratic ideals close, and your loved ones closer. And while we’re in the business of being alarmed, check out one of this week’s most-read stories: How a Billionaire’s ‘Baby Project’ Ensnared Dozens of Women.

You can enjoy Bloomberg’s Weekend Edition online or in the app, where you can also listen to the stories if that’s your jam. Don’t miss tomorrow’s Forecast email, in which we look at who benefits from a TikTok ban. For unlimited access to Bloomberg.com, including subscriber-only newsletters, please subscribe.

Command and Control

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law was as shocking as it was brief: Within six hours, protestors clashed with security forces, lawmakers voted to overturn the decree, and Yoon lifted it. But there is a lesson in that narrow win, writes Bloomberg Opinion’s Karishma Vaswani: Democracy is not self-sustaining. It depends on the people to ensure that checks and balances work.   

A different crisis of governance is playing out in the corporate world, economists Oliver Hart, Hélène Landemore, and Luigi Zingales write. Most corporate votes are concentrated in the hands of a few, while millions of people with money in the market have no voice. One possible fix? “Investor assemblies,” a concept cribbed from the “citizens’ assemblies” that develop policy recommendations for governments. 

A lot of corporate-governance tension stems from disillusionment with the way modern finance works, and a handful of new Wall Street memoirs provide first-person accounts of that feeling. Gary Sernovitz reviews three of them — Private Equity by Carrie Sun, The Money Trap by Alok Sama, and The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson — and is surprised by the one he liked the most. 

Dispatches

Jiangmen, China
In a cavern deep underground, scientists are putting the final touches on a 600-ton sphere that could solve the biggest mysteries of the universe. Secured by safety harnesses and ropes, dozens of workers dot the surface of the 12-story, steel-plated acrylic ball — the centerpiece of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory. This $300 million facility is designed to detect subatomic particles known as neutrinos, and is a testament to China’s growing scientific prowess.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Valencia, Spain
When the floods came, Jose Andres Menchero barely escaped from his car as rainwater reached the steering wheel. A month later, the waters have receded — but Spain’s recovery is slow-moving. The military is still distributing food, queues are still forming outside government offices, and destroyed vehicles are still piled up in the street. The floods were seen as a harbinger of extreme weather to come, but they have also shown the consequences of underinvestment in critical infrastructure.

Photographer: Reuters/Redux Pictures

Losing Out

Weekend Plans

What we’re side-eyeing: college football. Major US athletic conferences have policies telling students that scholarships can’t be taken away for injury or poor performance, but some of the biggest programs routinely violate those rules. 

What we’re buying: gold… just like everyone in China. Gold prices are setting records every other day as high-net-worth individuals, Shanghai bankers, rural farmers and the country’s central bank all look for a safe place to stash cash.

What we’re reading: Trading at the Speed of Light, by Donald Mackenzie. The sociologist is fascinated by “the mundanity of money-making” (for example, floor traders used to benefit from being taller) and is now digging into the ad market.  

What we’re re-watching: Mission Impossible. That’s also the best way to describe the harrowing economics of electrifying India’s fleet of public buses. At least until Mahua Acharya architected a plan for cities to buy e-buses in bulk. 

What we’re doing: lingering in Starbucks. That’s music to the ears of Brian Niccol, the Chipotle-CEO-turned-Starbucks-CEO who’s hoping to boost sales with speedy morning service and a cozier vibe for customers who want to hang out.

One Last Thing

Enjoying Weekend Edition? Check out these newsletters:

• Breaking News Alerts for the biggest stories from around the world, delivered to your inbox as they happen
• The Pursuits Bundle for our weekly guide to luxury, plus the Watch Club and Top Shelf newsletters.
• Opinion Today for an afternoon roundup of our most vital opinions
• Screentime for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley
• Where To Invest for expert strategies on making smarter investing decisions

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