The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

The Week: A Market With Mixed Signals, the Price of Surveillance, and a Collective Feeling of Abandonment

October 9, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The S&P 500 hit a record high on Tuesday, its first since August, while the ten-year Treasury yield climbed above 5.3%—the highest since 2002—and oil pushed past $100 a barrel. That combination of high yields, expensive energy, and rising stocks is unusual. On Wednesday's Prof G Markets, NFJ Investment Group CIO John Mowrie told Ed Elson he wouldn't have predicted it. “If you had told me at the start of the year that the ten-year bond yield was going to go to 5.25 or 3%, oil would be at $100 or higher for multiple consecutive days, I think that's kind of textbook you would have expected the market to be lower.” The reason for the resilience, Mowrie said, is forward earnings growth of nearly 38% for the S&P 500. To contextualize that: the only other times earnings growth hit 30% or higher were coming out of recessions—after COVID and after the 2008 financial crisis. “So the earnings have been incredibly resilient,” Mowrie said. “And what's fascinating is actually the market has gotten cheaper, even though it's hitting all-time highs.”

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (02:11) **Market Paradox: Record Highs Amid Rising Yields and Oil** - The S&P 500 closes at a record while the 10-year Treasury yield hits 5.3% and oil tops $100, creating a contradictory signal.
  • 2 (03:37) **AI Spending: Bubble or Boom?** - The conversation shifts to whether AI-driven earnings growth is durable or a speculative bubble.
  • 3 (05:01) **Circular Financing and the Return Question** - Ed Elson raises concerns about circular financing among AI giants and whether demand will justify the spending.
  • 4 (09:20) **The Surveillance Dilemma: Who Decides Your Data?** - Jack Rains opens a discussion on the erosion of consent in data collection as AI wearables and always-on devices become ubiquitous.
  • 5 (10:56) **Flock Safety and the Surveillance Trade-Off** - The debate moves to police use of license plate cameras, weighing crime-solving benefits against privacy and abuse risks.
  • 6 (13:47) **The Feeling of Abandonment: Jordan Neely and Daniel Penny** - Anand Giridharadas discusses his book *Man in the Mirror*, using the Neely-Penny case as a window into America's broken systems.
  • 7 (16:09) **The Rhyme: Filling the Void on Left and Right** - Giridharadas connects the Penny case to the Luigi Mangione case, finding a shared narrative of people feeling abandoned and stepping in to fill a void of order.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Ed Elson Scott Galloway Jessica Tarlov

Show Notes

George Hahn connects the dots across the week's biggest stories: why the S&P, oil, and treasury yields are all hitting record highs, the tradeoffs of giving up privacy for safety, and what happens when Americans stop believing anyone is coming to help.


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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

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