The Friday Review

What we are reading:

Five reads to close the week, spanning depleted oil fields, AI rewriting the rules of bank security, and what happens when an organization actually builds around its values.

1) AI is scanning bank systems and finding hundreds to thousands of vulnerabilities that human teams missed entirely. The Fed and Treasury convened bank CEOs. The patch window is measured in months, not years. https://qz.com/anthropic-mythos-ai-banks-patch-vulnerabilities-051226

2) Cuba has fully exhausted its oil reserves, leaving the island in an energy crisis with no clear path out. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/05/14/Cuba-says-oil-reserves-totally-drained/9311778746907/

3) A MSG manufacturer controls 95% of the material insulating AI chips. A toilet company's ceramic plates hold semiconductor wafers in place. Japan's AI winners are hiding in plain sight, built on decades of patience in businesses no one was watching. https://www.economist.com/business/2026/05/14/the-strange-japanese-companies-minting-money-from-ai

4) Producer prices jumped 6% in April. What the wholesale data signals for the inflation outlook and the Fed's next decision. https://www.marketplace.org/story/2026/05/13/producers-prices-jump-6-in-april-mean-more-inflation-pain-to-come

5) A business professor studied how the San Antonio Spurs built a winning culture by leading through values rather than talent acquisition. https://www.scu.edu/news-and-events/feature-stories/2026/stories/a-business-professor-digs-into-how-an-nba-team-led-through-valuesand-won.html