• Made-in-US apparel brand American Giant makes two versions of the iconic American flag T-shirt.
• Its top-quality version sells for $65, while one available at Walmart sells for $12.98.
• AG's founder said Walmart's scale and long-term commitment were key to a more affordable product.

Check the tags on much of the American flag-themed apparel being worn this Independence Day weekend, and the country of origin may be somewhere other than the US. Making stuff overseas is typically cheaper, after all.

That doesn't sit well with Bayard Winthrop, the founder of California-based apparel brand American Giant.

"We can think of a lot of other mainstream brands or retailers that certainly don't abide by that for Fourth of July — or for any other thing," he told Business Insider.

Bayard founded American Giant in 2011 with the mission of revitalizing US textile manufacturing, starting with what it dubbed "the greatest hoodie ever made."

In recent years, the company celebrated Independence Day with a version of the iconic American flag T-shirt made entirely in the US.

But Bayard said it was a challenge to achieve the kinds of production efficiencies that can lower costs.

American factories can produce high-quality clothing, but it often comes at a premium price. For example, American Giant's website lists this year's US flag tee for $65.

Bayard said the reasons for this include finer yarns and a more labor-intensive sewing process.

"Those products are premium," he said. "They're optimized for top, top quality."

About two years ago, Walmart approached him with a challenge to produce a made-in-US T-shirt at the retail giant's famously low prices. This was part of what is now a $350 billion commitment to invest in sourcing products that support American jobs until 2030.

At the time, Bayard thought that the lowest possible price for an American-made shirt would have been $20 and that it would be "incredibly difficult" to make.

The companies were able to make a shirt that is now available online and across roughly 1,500 Walmart stores for $12.98 — one-fifth of the price of the top-of-the-line version.

American Giant developed a design that lowered costs by using a slightly thicker yarn and a tubular-knit pattern, rather than the side-sewn style of his main shirts, Bayard said.

"But the vastly more important part of the costing is when you have Walmart and the volumes that they put there — which are huge — and staying committed to the program for an extended period of time," he said.

Bayard stands firmly behind the quality of the less expensive Walmart product.

"We think we're putting great quality stuff into the market, and we're offering these different entry points for customers," he said.

Bayard said the first design for Walmart, released last year, exceeded sales expectations and was expanded to include four styles this year.

The episode highlights one of the major hurdles to bringing back US manufacturing more broadly. The costs of starting (or restarting) industrial production can be both daunting and inefficient. (Look no further than the complicated and expensive process one team had to go through to make a grill scrubber entirely in the US.)

If the effort to revive US manufacturing is going to succeed, Bayard said that small and large companies need to work together with sustained, long-term commitments that help the supply chain develop and become more cost-effective.

"Poking at the problem with your 500-unit volumes" is "admirable," he said. "But if you actually want to make an impact, get serious about it and figure out ways to join forces with somebody like Walmart that's actually trying to do something good."

• Some gig workers say they're drawn to the job for the flexibility it offers.
• Kreskin Torres, a ride-hailing and delivery driver, has driven around the US while doing gig work.
• Torres has visited all 50 US states while working for apps like Lyft and DoorDash.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kreskin Torres, a gig worker who has visited each of the 50 US states while working as a ride-hailing driver for Lyft.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been a rideshare driver for Lyft for about nine years now. I started out in Baltimore.

About a year in, I visited London for a month. I realized on that trip that travel gives you ideas and inspires you to try new things. When I came back, I said, "Now, I want to see my country."

I wanted a flexible job where I could meet different people and plan my own schedule. I also wanted to minimize what I owned and focus on travel.

The first road trip I took was from Baltimore to the West Coast. I left in February 2018. I've been traveling and doing gig work full-time since then. Most months, I make between $2,500 and $3,000 in gross pay.

I've been to all 50 states, and some of them I've visited three or four times. That took about three years to do. I was stuck at 49 for a while because of the pandemic. When I hit my 50th state — Hawaii — I ended up on the local news talking about my travels.

I try to pick a new home base every few months and visit towns nearby to do rideshare and delivery work. At the end of June, I went to Pittsburgh because I wanted to work in West Virginia for a while. I also want to be in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, later this summer. They claim the banana split was invented there, and they have a festival for it every year.

When I get into a new town, the first thing I normally do is stop at Planet Fitness, where I stretch and shower after a long drive. From there, I usually head to an Airbnb for a few days to relax. Sometimes, I sleep in my car.

Ridesharing is my main work. There have been some places where I couldn't drive for Lyft because local laws require drivers to have local licenses. In those places, I delivered through DoorDash.

Driving around the US has taught me how to make money in different areas.

Once, I lived and worked in Phoenix for a year, but I realized that I could make more money in Tucson. It's not as spread out, and it's a college town, so you tend to get more high-paying, short-distance trips. If you go there in the winter, there's even more demand from people who come for the warmer weather.

Some parts of the US are less competitive than others. Many big cities are oversaturated with drivers. In places like Chicago, you'll see hundreds of them waiting at the airport to claim a ride. In Tucson, you may see 10.

Gig work helped me pursue my interest in food

As I started traveling, it struck me how certain regions of the US are known for different foods. I started paying attention to which crops were growing around me and what the places I visited were known for.

I made trying regional foods part of my travels. I created a blog called Rideshare Foodie. I post photos of local cuisines, such as pickles brined in Kool-Aid from Mississippi.

Food is also a great conversation topic with the people I drive for Lyft. They recommend places to eat or foods to try. Sometimes, it's a restaurant, and other times, it's home cooking at a barbecue or a block party.

After I've stayed somewhere long enough, I can also make recommendations. When I was in Rapid City, South Dakota, I picked up a lady from the airport who was from Brooklyn, New York. She asked where she could find some great Italian food. I said, "Ma'am, they're not known for their Italian here," but she should try the beef instead. That area is known for cattle.

One thing I've learned in my work is that many people rarely travel beyond their town or even their neighborhood. And when they do travel, they sometimes eat the same things as they do at home.

My lifestyle lets me try new things and meet lots of new people. The more that I travel, the more that I learn.

Do you have a story to share about gig work? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or 808-854-4501.

• I tried Ina Garten's easy, summery tomato feta pasta salad recipe.
• The dish came together quickly, and I found it more flavorful than other pasta salads I've tried.
• I loved the briny taste, and my leftovers held up for several days.

As a chef, I've always loved Ina Garten's classic, riffable recipes — they're easy to recreate at home, and they're usually a hit with guests.

I've also been looking for a simple side dish to bring to summer cookouts and picnics, so when I found Garten's tomato feta pasta salad, I had to give it a try.

Here's what happened when I tested the dish out for myself. Spoiler alert: I'll be adding it to my recipe rotation.

The ingredients amp up umami more than other pasta salads I've tried.

The recipe calls for short-cut pasta, black olives, feta cheese, and two kinds of tomatoes: fresh and sun-dried. It's key to use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, as they're more tender and flavorful than the dry variety.

As for the pasta shape, Garten recommends fusilli, which has a corkscrew-like shape that soaks up extra dressing. After trying out the recipe, though, I'm confident any short-cut shape will work.

The olives (Garten recommends Kalamata), tomato, and feta all bring major umami to this summertime dish. The salty, briny mix-ins give the salad a distinctly Mediterranean taste that felt a little unusual, but I preferred it to the typical mayonnaise-dressed pasta salad.

The noodles and mix-ins are tossed in a dressing made with more sun-dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, capers, and garlic.

You'll also need some freshly grated Parmesan and parsley to top the salad off.

The preparation is quick and easy.

As is the case with every good pasta-salad recipe (in my opinion, anyway), it's not overly complicated or time-intensive to prep the ingredients.

While I boiled a big pot of salted water for the pasta, I chopped the fresh tomatoes, sliced the olives, and diced the feta and sun-dried tomatoes.

Garten calls for diced whole tomatoes, but I used cherry tomatoes and simply sliced them in half for the same effect.

The dressing calls for a food processor, but it's possible to make it without one.

The best way to make this pasta-salad dressing is with a small food processor. You could also try an immersion blender or pitcher-style blender, but expect to spend some time scraping down the sides.

By whizzing more sun-dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and capers in a food processor, I was able to break down the capers and tomatoes to maximize their flavor output.

I ended up with a fairly smooth, reddish dressing that was thin enough to coat every nook and cranny of the pasta.

If you don't have any blade-loaded countertop appliances, give everything a fine chop and a good stir. The dressing won't be as smooth and creamy as Garten intended, but your pasta will still benefit from the flavor-packed ingredients.

I dressed the pasta while it was still hot from the stove.

My pasta finished cooking in the time it took to prepare the dressing.

Although Garten recommends letting the noodles cool first, my pasta-salad-making experience has taught me that tossing hot noodles in an oily, salty dressing maximizes flavor. Warm pasta readily absorbs flavors better than after it cools.

I tossed the cooked pasta, salty mix-ins, and dressing together in a large bowl. I then let the pasta cool to room temperature before finishing the dish with Garten's recommended chopped fresh parsley and a generous amount of freshly grated Parmesan.

Here, I made sure to add the cheese after the salad cooled so it wouldn't all melt into a gooey mess. Instead, the Parmesan coated the noodles to hint at the creamy, rich dressing many of us associate with pasta salad.

This version, however, is big on savory flavors and pops of briny, chewy sun-dried tomatoes along with juicy, sweet fresh ones. I loved that the dish felt lighter than a mayo-drenched salad but just as satisfying.

The oil-based dressing holds up well, too. I doubled the recipe, and my household of two enjoyed pasta for several days.

I'm glad I found this recipe right before cookout season — I'll be bringing this easy, crowd-pleasing dish to every summer occasion this year.

• Karen Abarca began her professional journey as a costume designer in California.
• Now, she's an engineer who worked on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
• Here's how she changed careers and overcame impostor syndrome.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Karen Abarca, a 33-year-old communications engineer in Los Angeles County. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I am very fortunate to have not just one, but two highly sought-after careers.

My mom is a seamstress, so she taught me how to fix my clothes. Once she taught me how to make dresses in high school, it was game over. That's all I wanted to do.

But as a kid, I loved science. I grew up thinking that I would be a scientist or maybe a doctor. I never really saw that path for me because I didn't know anyone who worked in science.

In my early 20s, my family experienced some financial hardships. Since I had cultivated this skill of making garments, I ended up going to the Fashion Institute of Design Merchandising in Los Angeles and got connections to start working in the film industry.

I ended up interning at Maker Studios, which later got bought out by Disney. They gave me stable work in the entertainment industry, which is kind of rare. I also would do commercials on weekends or just pick up gigs on the side. I did that for about four years.

I decided to pursue a career in science after staring at the stars

December is always a hard time in the costume design industry because everything shuts down, but I still have to pay rent. I remember visiting Death Valley with friends on New Year's Eve and looking at he stars.

I thought, "I sort of stumbled into this industry. It was something that I was good at, and I could help out my family, but I no longer have to do that. Why don't I go back and do the thing that I wanted when I was a kid? I want to explore and discover."

So, I went back to community college and later transferred to California State University, Long Beach, where I got my bachelor's in chemical engineering in 2020.

It was not easy.

I had to learn how to fail and how to study. I got a D in my first Calculus II class, and it's a very humbling experience to be told no and that you have to do it again. It was also challenging being older than everyone around me and giving up a career that I was doing well in.

But I knew that this was my choice. I had already seen a different industry, and it just gave me further motivation to keep going and see myself grow. I ended up becoming a mentor to many of my classmates.

I realized that my gift is to bring people together. I'm really good at working in teams, and little did I know that is what makes great engineers. I interviewed with and later joined Northrop Grumman, an aerospace company.

I had impostor syndrome at my first job. Then, I worked on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

I definitely had a lot of impostor syndrome when I started at Northrop Grumman in 2020. I remember getting hired thinking, "They're going to know that I don't know." I just felt overwhelmed.

At first, I worked with a small team, but it was only a four-month project, so after that, my manager was like, "Where do we put you?"

An opportunity had just opened up to work as a contamination control engineer on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. WEBB is a giant camera, so any contamination will affect the quality of the images. It's a NASA program, so of course I wanted to do it.

Every day, I put on protective gear called a bunny suit and worked on that amazing gold-plated mirror. The cool thing about contamination control is that I got to actually touch WEBB, and not everybody gets to say that.

One day, I was cleaning a black, non-reflective, matte unit delivered from Italy. I had to be very delicate handling it, and I remember thinking, "What's so special about this thing?"

I learned that the unit is how we'll communicate with WEBB when it's a million miles away. It's how it'll be able to send its images.

I thought being able to talk to things in space was amazing, and that's how I found my niche, which is communications engineering. Now, I work on a program called Hydrant. We're looking to build the next-generation space router for interconnectivity in space.

I discovered what I really wanted to do

I'm really grateful to have been a part of that program because WEBB was my teacher. I didn't know much about space when I started, but I got to see different disciplines through WEBB every day. WEBB just gave me an in-person view of what a spacecraft is and how to build one and the different subsystems.

My advice for people who want to change careers is that it's never too late. There are definitely opportunities out there. Sometimes you have to make them, but align yourself with people who may be in those careers and try to find mentors. There's also a benefit to being new to an industry. You bring a new perspective coming from a different background.

And if you don't, you'll always wonder, "What if?"

• The $5.7 trillion hedge fund industry has had an up-and-down year so far.
• Six months into 2025, managers have battled choppy markets and an uncertain geopolitical climate.
• Still, assets and performance are on the rise, and new funds are popping up.

Hedge funds have had an emotionally turbulent ride in 2025, starting the year with soaring interest from big investors and optimism for the incoming Donald Trump administration.

That optimism did not last long, however, as the President's tariff policies disrupted global trade and sent markets into a frenzy.

Big-name managers such as Bill Ackman, Dan Loeb, and Ken Griffin, each of whom voted for Trump, were critical of the tariffs, but the administration used one of the industry's own — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former macro investor who worked for George Soros — to sell the policies at the Milken conference and on TV. Tariff negotiations are still ongoing, but the administration's 90-day pause is set to end Wednesday.

Meanwhile, choppy markets and the rise of artificial intelligence renewed interest in long-short equity managers, as hedge fund backers sought investors who can pick winners and losers in the new world order. The first quarter of this year was one of the sector's best fundraising stretches in a long time.

Markets have since settled down, and June was a strong month for stocks. One hedge fund founder, BoothBay's Ari Glass, told investors after the first quarter that the portfolio managers and firms his fund backs believe "it is beginning to feel like sentiment is similar to the second quarter of 2020 and we know that while history does not repeat itself, it can rhyme."

While the pandemic slammed stocks in March 2020, many hedge funds had a stellar year by betting on a quick and significant recovery.

Still, there's the possibility of more macro tremors shaking global markets. Trump is still pursuing his tariff agenda. He will sign his "Big Beautiful Bill," which contains about $4.5 billion in tax cuts and is estimated to add billions to federal deficits, into legislation on Friday. And the potential for a broader conflict in the Middle East has investors on edge.

According to a recent report from Goldman Sachs' prime brokerage desk, the week the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites was the second-largest net selling of energy stocks by hedge funds in the last 10 years, with many American funds now shorting energy stocks.

Multistrategy giants hitting their peak?

The biggest hedge funds still dominate the conversation as managers like Millennium, Citadel, Point72, and Balyasny continue their long-running war over talent that has sent compensation costs skyrocketing. Many multistrategy funds, even smaller peers without the track record of the so-called big four, can only afford these payouts to coveted personnel thanks to pass-through fees, which leaves limited partners holding the bag for all the costs of running the business.

A Goldman Sachs survey of multi-manager firms running a combined $300 billion from earlier this year found that 61% have changed their terms by adding either pass-through fees or "more onerous" liquidity terms.

End investors have been pushing back for years and finally broke through last year, getting managers as large as Michael Gelband's ExodusPoint to agree to a cash hurdle that requires a fund to outperform Treasury bonds to earn performance fees. Another Goldman report found that close to half of allocators are now looking for managers they back to adopt hurdles.

In other words, after years of explosive asset growth, multi-strategy funds might finally be plateauing. According to Nasdaq's eVestment, the sector had net outflows of $1.2 billion in the first quarter.

Managers with tens of billions in assets like Citadel, Point72, and D.E. Shaw even returned capital to start the year. Other mega-funds, especially Millennium, have focused increasingly on allocating to external managers via separately managed accounts, which has warped the emerging manager space.

SMAs often allow allocators more transparency and customization into a fund's operations and trading, though the independence of these new managers from their behemoth backers is in question. JPMorgan expects 58% of new launches over the next year to be SMAs, despite, as Goldman wrote, the "lines are now more blurred between platform hedge funds vs fund of hedge funds, proprietary vs external."

The shift has meant seed investors feel they can push for even greater transparency into managers' books. According to law firm Seward & Kissel, close to half of those who backed new launches last year required the new funds to provide daily trading reports.

Despite all the ups and downs, the average hedge fund returned 2% through May this year, according to industry data tracker PivotalPath — besting the S&P 500 through the same time period.

• NATO's chief pledged a fivefold increase in air defenses.
• Ground-based air defenses are an area that Western countries scaled back after the Cold War.
• But the way Russia is fighting in Ukraine has proven its need.

NATO pledged to massively increase its air defenses as part of soaring defense spending. The aim is to rebuild a capability that the war in Ukraine has shown to be crucial but has been allowed to wither in the West since the end of the Cold War.

The heads of government for the 32 members of the decades-old security alliance committed last week to investing 5% of their GDP on defense and security by 2035. The increase, based on current GDP size, could be worth more than $1.4 trillion. NATO's secretary general, Mark Rutte, said that one use for the money will be a "five-fold increase in air defence capabilities."

He said the way Russia is fighting proved the need. "We see Russia's deadly terror from the skies over Ukraine every day, and we must be able to defend ourselves from such attacks," he said.

Western countries reduced their ground-based air defense arsenals after the end of the Cold War as they found themselves involved in conflicts with much smaller, less powerful adversaries. This war has shown that Western stocks are insufficient.

Lacking since the Cold War

Western countries have been fighting foes very much unlike Russia. Air superiority has been achieved with ease, enabling ground maneuvers. There hasn't been a pressing need for weapons to shoot down enemy aircraft and ballistic missiles, except in one-off instances.

The US and the rest of NATO scaled back their ground-based defenses "very substantially," Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel who is now a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.

During the Cold War, as tensions skyrocketed between NATO and the Soviet Union, Western countries maintained substantial defenses. But in the aftermath, he said, "it appeared that fighter aircraft could handle any air threat, and the need for ground-based air defenses was much reduced."

During Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s, the US took control of the skies, and aircraft largely had free rein in the later wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the main threat being to low-flying aircraft, helicopters in particular.

Ed Arnold, a European security expert with the Royal United Services Institute, said that Europe depioritized air defense at the end of the Cold War "because the types of missions that the Europeans were doing were, for example, overseas where you only needed a small sort of section of it to be able to protect your forces in the field."

Retired Air Commodore Andrew Curtis, an air warfare expert with a 35-year career in the Royal Air Force, said that there had been "an element of complacency" in recent decades, but also an element of trying to prioritize what was needed when defense budgets shrank as countries felt safer in the post-Cold War era.

Russia's war against Ukraine, which followed earlier acts of aggression, suggests the world has changed. But, Curtis said, the West has to some extent been "asleep at the wheel."

The problem now, Justin Bronk, an air power expert at RUSI, explained, is "that NATO faces a significant shortfall in ground-based air defense systems, both in terms of number of systems, but also particularly ammunition stocks for those systems."

Russia shows they're needed

Rutte warned earlier this month that NATO needs "five times as many systems to defend ourselves," and described the speed Russia was reconsituting its military as "threatening."

Many European countries have warned Russia could attack elsewhere on the continent and are watching closely to see what weaponry and tactics it needs to be ready. The volume and variety of air attacks against Ukraine have thus made air defenses a top takeaway.

Russia can launch hundreds of drones and missiles in a single day, and NATO's air defense networks are not well designed to deal with these kinds of strike threats, like exploding Shahed-136 drones backed by ballistic and cruise missiles.

Western countries need more defenses, as there are just so many air attacks. "Even if only 10% get through, that still does a lot of damage," Cancian said.

Cancian said innovations in this war, like drones being used more than in any other conflict in history, point to evolutions in warfare that make having strong air defenses more necessary than ever before. Nations aren't just facing planes. It's aircraft, missiles, and drones, all able to bring destruction.

And the solutions need to be layered to address threats within their cost range. For instance, high-end Patriot interceptors worth millions of dollars aren't meant for cheap drones worth thousands.

Former Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan, a warfare strategist, said that countries have to find "a balance" between the expensive systems like the Patriot or the THAAD system, both made by Lockheed Martin, and lower-end systems.

Ukraine, for example, uses AI-controlled systems equipped with machine guns to stop some smaller drones, and the US military has been experimenting with air-launched rockets as drone killers.

"It's not just all about the exquisite, expensive, and highly capable systems. You also need some of those lower-end systems," the former general said, adding that the last three years have not only shown how important air defenses are, but also "that the array of threats that air defenses have to deal with has broadened."

Smaller weapons used in missile attacks, weapons like drones, can "saturate and overwhelm an air defense system" — a tactic Russia has employed.

For the West, Europe in particular, the new emphasis on bolstering critical air defenses and the push to spend more aren't optional. "It's not a choice. You absolutely have to do this," Ryan said.

It'd be impossibly expensive to protect everywhere, but the West will need to sort its priorities, balancing front-line demands with the protection of civilians in cities, something Ukraine has grappled with throughout the war.

Arnold said that "the biggest change, now as Ukraine is seeing, is you also need air defense to protect your civilians, all of your critical national infrastructure, and your forces in the field. So it's absolutely critical."

NATO's new defense spending will be huge: No member currently spends that new 5% target, and many spent just over or below 2% in 2024, according to NATO's own estimated figures. But spending doesn't automatically solve the problem.

There is a big production backlog with many systems, and increasing production capacity takes years, industrial revitalization, and workforce expertise, much of which has been diminished with time, leading to a hollowing out of the defense industrial sector.

Bronk said fixing this "is much more a question of building production capacity at every stage in the supply chain as rapidly as possible as part of a crisis response rather than just spending more money." More production capacity is needed for interceptors.

More money and big orders help, though, by giving industry confidence to invest more in facilities and processes, but there has to be sustained investment.

Rutte pledged that NATO's increased spending would also be used on "thousands more tanks and armoured vehicles" and "millions of rounds of artillery ammunition," but that many plans are classified.

• Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said customers know his company "just builds rockets and satellites."
• Rocket Lab is a primary rival of Elon Musk's SpaceX.
• Beck told BI he hadn't seen any "obvious" datapoint on how Musk and Trump's feud is impacting him.

As Elon Musk and President Donald Trump continue to butt heads, the CEO of Rocket Lab said that public and private sector customers alike are drawn to his company's stability.

"It's fair to say that folks, both government and commercial, come to us and they know that they have a very even-keeled public company that just builds rockets and satellites, and executes against that and nothing else," Peter Beck told Business Insider in June when asked whether the feud between the world's richest man and the president benefited his company. "That becomes valuable to people."

Beck added that he hasn't seen any "obvious" data point about the impact of the ongoing disagreement about Trump's spending bill. And, as of mid-June, Beck told BI that Musk hadn't come up more frequently in conversations, either. Representatives for Musk and SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Rocket Lab is headquartered in California, though Beck is based in New Zealand. It's an end-to-end space company, meaning it offers launch services, spacecrafts, satellite parts, and on-orbit management. Despite being much smaller than SpaceX — Rocket Lab has about 2,600 employees, Beck said, compared to around 13,000 at SpaceX, according to Forbes — it has emerged as a key rival. Musk himself once called Beck "impressive."

Rocket Lab's partially reusable two-stage rocket vehicle, Electron, has completed 67 launches and deployed more than 230 satellites as of the end of June, according to the company. Beck told BI that Neutron, its reusable medium-lift rocket, is scheduled to launch later this year. SpaceX's Falcon 9 currently rules the medium-lift space, having completed almost 500 missions by the end of June.

"Right now, there is essentially a pseudo-monopoly on medium lift. I don't think anybody went out intentionally to create that. But nevertheless, that's a status," Beck said. "So we have both government and commercial customers cheering us on very loudly to get Neutron to the pad, because there needs to be some launch site diversification."

At the time of writing, Rocket Lab's stock was rising, and the company's market cap was more than $16.8 billion. While SpaceX is a private company, BI reported it was valued at $350 billion at the end of 2024. It's suffered some recent setbacks with its Starship rockets, a successor to the Falcon model — four consecutive launches have blown up, most recently in June. Musk downplayed the latest explosion as "just a scratch," and said the company learns from data collected during failed launches.

Some of Musk's companies have suffered due to his public, sometimes ugly, on-again-off-again relationship with Trump, especially Tesla. Polling indicates that Musk's favorability is still underwater, even after he left his government role.

• For the last few years, Business Insider has been spotlighting up-and-comers on Wall Street.
• We've asked the rising stars about the books that informed both their careers and personal growth.
• We've compiled their picks for anyone entering the world of finance or kick-starting their career.

Aspiring to build a career on Wall Street? One of the best ways to learn the ropes is by picking up the books that helped industry insiders get to where they are today.

Over the past few years, we've asked up-and-comers across Wall Street to share the titles that shaped their thinking, sharpened their skills, and inspired their career paths.

Their recommendations span everything from billionaire biographies to practical handbooks on leadership, time management, and decision-making.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up, this list of 35 books offers a curated look at what ambitious professionals on Wall Street have read—and why it matters.

"Give and Take" by Adam Grant

"It's about striving to be somebody who gives to others and then expects nothing in return," she said, "and how ironically fruitful that can be for your own life and career."

- Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto, JP Morgan

"It shows that it's not just about you. In the grand scheme of things, it's how you help others along the way. How you can grow the pie for everyone."

- Rachel Murray, Moelis

"How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers" by David Rubenstein

"It's kind of an anthology of various industries. A key takeaway from these stories is the importance of finding your passion. I'm obviously very passionate about finance."

- Will Boeckman, Citadel Securities

"Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis

"I am a little biased because I started my career at Citigroup, which is formerly Salomon Brothers. I also recommend 'Panic!' by Michael Lewis, and I generally like all the 'Market Wizards' series, which are helpful in knowing what fits your trading style and what doesn't."

-Tian Zeng, Nirvana Capital

"Young Money" by Kevin Roose

The book holds insights into "all the wrong reasons why you can go into finance." 

- Daniel Costanza, Yieldstreet

 

"Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker

"This book explores sleep's impact on your body and mind."

"Before the coronavirus pandemic, I was a daily 4:30 A.M. workout warrior and advocate for holistic nutrition, but I certainly was not prioritizing sleep in my health equation. This was an eye-opening and convincing read that has helped me to get significantly more shut-eye."

- Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto, JP Morgan

"I'm a bad sleeper. This book puts in layman's terms why you need to sleep and why it's important for so many reasons."

- Julia Dworkin, Jefferies

"The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer" by Christopher Clarey

"I recently read 'The Master' the biography of Roger Federer, who some would argue is one of the best (tennis) players, if not the best player, of all time. Every time I read one of the tennis biographies, you're reminded that it's a very all-consuming commitment to be one of the greatest. At least in the case of tennis, it's a very lonely existence. You're the only person out there. You in your mind battling it out. The key is making sure you surround yourself with the right team.

"Every player, at least in the major tournaments, has a player's box. You'll have the family, the coach, and some friends in the player's box. 

"The lesson I think is who's in my player's box?  How do they help me keep going? And, similarly, at least in the investing world, am I in the player's box for others? How do I be the best person on the sidelines supporting?"

- Vinay Trivedi, General Atlantic

"Dare to Lead" by Brené Brown

"Leaders are in the arena, and there are lots of people in the stands who are there just to criticize or comment on what you're doing. But being in the arena takes courage. It gives you a lot of advice around, how do you think about having that courage?" 

- Alexis Rosenblum, Capital Group

"The Most Important Thing" by Howard Marks

"It taught me that all decision-making should be driven by the gap between expected value and market price, and expected value is calculated by weighing each outcome by its probability of occurring.

"Second-level thinking is all about finding value that others don't appreciate yet. It's risk/reward times the coefficient of likelihood for being right."

-Mark Stearns, Goldman Sachs

"Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Selecting Superior Returns and Controlling Risk" by Richard Grinold and Ronald Kahn

"It's pretty technical, but a must-read for any quant."

-Robert Lam, Man Group's Man Numeric 

"The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace" by Jeff Hobbs

"It was a really interesting dichotomy. It's about a young African-American man who grew up in a rougher neighborhood in Newark but went to Yale and ended up being really successful in his academic work. But he struggled at times to mesh the two worlds together."

"It shows that the path to equality isn't always as easy and seamless. Going to Yale on a scholarship, it can still be really hard for people. People often don't get that."

-Mir Subjally, Compass Rose Asset Management

"Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World" by Liaquat Ahamed

"It's a great book about monetary policy in the Depression era that has major implications for how monetary policy and currencies have evolved."

- Phil Salinger, former Bridgewater Associates 

 

"Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" by John Carreyrou

"Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was a few years ahead of me at Stanford. It's one of the greatest diligence misses of all time. As you think about that as investor, there are a lot of lessons to be learned."

-Katherine Wood, TPG

"Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World" by Adam Grant

"I spend a lot of time with founder-led companies within the tech world. I like working with them because they're very focused on disrupting the status quo, not just in the businesses they're building but in anything they do, and that includes working with bankers and advisors writ large."

"They really force their advisors to think outside the box and challenge the traditional way of doing things. Part of Adam Grant's book is talking about what makes founders founders, and it's been incredible watching them ask a question that might be perceived as basic, but there's really sort of that double layer of, 'Why is it being done this way, and why can't we do it in a better, more efficient way?'" 

- Lalit Gurnani, Goldman Sachs

 

"The Happiness Equation" by Neil Pasricha

"He wrote this book that really shares some tips about how to have a happier life and ways that you can streamline things in your work; how to find a better work-life balance; and how to think about where you'd like to spend your time and how you're spending your time and the types of things you're investing in." 

"I've picked up so many helpful tips and tricks from there. I feel like it's a must-read for people — financial-related or not, I think it applies to all different industries — on really how to take a step back and identify what is meaningful to you. And are you spending the right amount of time on things that you deeply care about versus things that are just, you know, background noise?"

- Samantha Merwin, BlackRock

 

"Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" by Daniel Pink

"I always thought a lot about what motivates people, how humans work, and what motivates them. I really appreciated his research and his take on that."

- Julia Jaskólska, HarbourVest Capital

"The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker

"It's one of the best management books. I think what's unique about the book is when I first looked at the title, I was a little bit intimidated by it — like, this is just for executive positions.

"But he looks at everyone being an executive in their role, and he provides some extremely practical advice on how to become more effective in anything we do in our everyday life. Some are well-known — such as time management, focusing on strengths.

"Even those obvious things that he brings up, he makes it so simple to apply in your everyday life. For example, on time management, there are just two questions you need to ask yourself on a regular basis: What would happen if I don't do certain things? And can these things be done by somebody else?

"That helps you to eliminate a lot of time-wasters and use time more wisely. Super simple, but at the same time, quite practical."

- Mikhail Krayzler, Allianz Global Investors

"The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph" by Ryan Holiday

"It's a book framed through the teaching of Marcus Aurelius, who was also a Roman emperor, and it covers how to optimize situations and make the best out of everything. The book does a great job of translating philosophy into modern context."  

"As for how that translates to me: Clients expect a trusted advisor to maintain poise and equanimity in situations that are stressful to them. So this has been helpful in taking a teaching that is 2,000-plus years old and transferring it to the 21st century."

 - Christopher Oglesby, Bank of America 

"Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" by Hans Rosling

"What the author is trying to do is to help the reader look at the world and analyze global trends in a more objective way. In a very engaging and comical way, he shows you that human beings tend to think that the world is more dramatic than it really is. So people's brains are systematically misinterpreting the state of the world. 

"Something that really hits on that point is the beginning of the book. He presents the reader with a set of 13 questions. Each question has three multiple-choice answers. The bottom line is that most people actually score lower than the theoretical chimpanzee would have on these questions.

"He tries to walk you through a formula to avoid looking at the world in this overly dramatized way. I think he's not talking specifically about the financial markets, but I think it's so relevant to investing because this is part of the way you can capitalize on opportunities."

- Unoma Okolo,  Artisan Partners

"Mindset" by Carol Dweck

The book emphasizes "how a growth mindset — or the belief that talents can be developed with hard work and good strategies and input from others — can enable much better outcomes than people with a fixed mindset, which is believing that talents are just innate gifts." 

"The reason that a growth mindset matters so much is that it fosters an emphasis on learning and intellectual curiosity instead of trying to seem like the smartest person in the room, and that's something that I often reflect on for my own personal development as well, as a quality to look for as we bring on really amazing management teams." 

- Lexie Bartlett, General Atlantic 

"Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming" edited by Paul Hawken

"For me, it's a game plan of how to actually seek solutions to the biggest existential threat that we actually face as a species and as a planet. Whenever I introduce people to the book, you see people get obsessed with the kinds of things that we can be doing, whether that's regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, or reducing food waste."

- Jay Lipman, Ethic

 

"Beating the Street" by Peter Magellan

"Being a Fidelity person, I had to pick a Peter Lynch book. Beating the Street has been one of my favorites, such a classic. It's about how Peter ran Magellan day-to-day. And so I've just found it to be an excellent guide to investment processes for new fund managers."

- Jennifer Fo Cardillo, Fidelity

 

"Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd

"Much has been said about 'Margin of Safety' over the years, but in my opinion nothing quite compares to the original "Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd. They epitomized the concept through their careful approach, still relevant to this day."

- Paul Kamenski, Man Group's Man Numeric 

"Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight

"I recently read 'Shoe Dog,' which is Phil Knight's autobiography and the story of how he founded Nike. I chose it because our firm is, in some respects, a startup, as we are launching new lines of business and building upon others, and I wanted to learn about an entrepreneur's success story. Nike certainly had some difficult and existential issues in its early years, and the book was a good reminder about the importance of perseverance and believing in the value of one's work."

- Jackie Klaber, Rockefeller Capital Management

"Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians" by Jane Hyun

We read it as part of an Asian-American affinity group at TPG. It's a very tactical book on how Asian Americans can advance in the workplace, and it's written in a style that gives stories of actual people but gives very tangible advice. I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

- Akash Pradhan, TPG

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

"Everything in the investing business is relationship-based, and Henry and George, the KKR founders, often talk about doing business with people you like and trust. This is a book I've read three or four times and is really a staple."

- Evan Kaufman, KKR

"The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as a CEO" by Bob Iger

Bob Iger, a former CEO at Disney, "early on saw the need to create digital channels for his customers and understood the virtuous cycle he could create around the right types of content, which informed his M&A strategy. Some of the M&A moves that he did in the preceding 10 years were really prescient."

- Tyler Parker, EQT Group

"A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Ed Thorp

"Reading the stories of great investors is both fun and informative. What's most interesting is the commonalities you see between the two investors despite radically different approaches and asset classes."

- Philip Dobrin, Bridgewater Associates

"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

"There's a lot of game theory involved, analyzing big data to predict outcomes. The concepts in that book and trilogy are very relevant today."

- Vlad Moshinsky, Miller Buckfire

"Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David Epstein

"Looks at the benefits of late specialization and a diversity of experience, and how knowledge in a variety of arenas can pay off, especially when solving complex problems that require creative solutions." 

- Shaan Tehal, Morgan Stanley

"Contrarian Investment Strategy: The Psychology of Stock Market Success" by David Dreman

"Compared with what has now often become fairly complex and evolved, his works as an early adopter of the approach were simple, intuitive, and persuasive, establishing clear roots for what it means to use a systematic approach." 

- Paul Kamenski, Man Group's Man Numeric 

"Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers" by Geoffrey A. Moore

A "must-read" for any aspiring tech investors.

- John Curtius, Cedar Capital

"The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success" by William Thorndike Jr.

"The book best represents how I think about investing and also articulates the success stories and habits of the best CEOs of the 20th century."

- Sims Lansing, Lansing Management

"Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt" by Michael Lewis

"'Flash Boys' was a prime example of how technological innovation and forward-thinkers can reshape an entire industry. In 'Flash Boys,' novel computer algorithms and communications networks caused both market structure and behavioral changes to the trading industry.

"Similarly, today we're experiencing the confluence of cryptography, blockchain technology, and distributed systems, which are meaningfully challenging preconceived notions of not just the financial industry but what constitutes money."

- Michael Sonnenshein, Securitize

"Fooling Some of the People All of the Time," by David Einhorn

"It is an interesting read, and I enjoy how David Einhorn seems so relentless when he believes in something."

- Tanaka Maswoswe, Carlyle Group

"Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential" by Tiago Forte

"We have all this data and information on our laptops and on our phones, but it's not organized. So is it really serving us, is it really useful for us?

"The book talks about knowledge management systems and how to organize the data in such a way that works for the individual, and ultimately, getting to a point where we can share that with others."

- Richesh Shah, Oaktree