Insider Today: Biden's denial

In Sunday's edition of Insider Today, we're talking about the fallout from President Joe Biden's terrible debate.

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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, a roundup of our top stories. Ever ask your boss if you can finish work early? A CEO who said he's sick of hearing it from employees has gone viral.

On the agenda today:

• Employees have found a bold new way to cheat their way to the top.
• For some lucky boomers, now is the golden age of retirement.
• The big winners of the AI boom are the most boring companies imaginable.
• Bobby Jain's monster hedge fund is live. Here's everyone Jain Global has hired.

But first: Takeaways from a chaotic 10 days in the US presidential race.

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This week's dispatch

Pressure on Biden builds

US President Joe Biden had a terrible debate. He's done little to turn things around since and appears to be in denial over the damage done to his campaign.

That's the story of a critical 10-day period in the US presidential race, which kicked off with Biden's historically bad debate performance.

Biden's poor performance led to a Democrat freak out and growing calls for Biden to step aside. In a sign of the public mood, BI's list of the Democrats who could replace Biden saw a sudden and dramatic spike in readership shortly after the debate.

In the days since, there have been excuses, new Biden flubs, and fresh calls from donors and House Democrats for Biden to step down. Republican rival Donald Trump has been posting furiously on social media throughout.

Biden remains defiant. In a Friday interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, he dismissed his low approval rating and questioned polling data that shows Trump is growing his lead in the race.

Crucially, Biden said that only God could get him to drop out, and that he'd be OK with losing to Trump "as long as I give it my all."

Neither sentiment is likely to satisfy the many Democrats who have serious concerns about Biden's mental acuity and electability.

The rise of "shadow stand-ins"

It's never been easier to offload your labor. Globalized social networks, ubiquitous software tools, and the pandemic have created a perfect storm — and workers are taking advantage of it.

Across the globe, employees are secretly outsourcing parts or all of their jobs, creating a clandestine world of "shadow stand-ins."

The workers secretly outsourcing their jobs.

Also read:

• It's suddenly a whole lot harder to get a promotion

Golden age of retirement

While many of their peers face a retirement crisis, some boomers are entering their golden years flush with savings.

Three boomers who spoke with Business Insider are a bright spot in an increasingly grim retirement landscape: They're benefiting from now-rare pensions, real estate value increases, and stock-market gains.

How they're winning retirement.

The winners of the AI boom

They're not flashy, but they might be worth your cash. Construction, electric, and utility companies are set to benefit most from the AI boom.

They all benefit from the incredible surge in data center construction. And these under-the-radar stocks are already outperforming.

The boring champs of AI.

Also read:

• AI data centers could add 3 New York Cities of demand to the power grid in 2 years

Meet Jain Global's employees

Jain Global, one of the most anticipated new hedge funds in years, started trading this week. Its founder, Bobby Jain, has spent months building out an impressive roster ahead of its launch.

BI has been keeping tabs on the fund's hires, and has a running list of 135-plus new employees, including names, job titles, and past employers.

See our list of new hires.

Also read:

An key exec at hot new hedge-fund Jain Global explains how it will be different.

This week's quote:

"I didn't want to be a rich kid who used connections to get everything."

— Pete Ballmer, one of the sons of billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

More of this week's top reads:

• "Hawk Tuah Girl" has our attention. Next, she would like our money.
• Google's ambitious plan to replace tracking cookies is crumbling.
• Google is testing facial-recognition security at one of its campuses.
• New data shows YouTube is really good at getting kids to buy stuff.
• Jeff Bezos is once again cashing out billions in Amazon shares.
• Women's sports merchandise is a $4 billion industry. Who's going to step up to the plate?

• The VC that predicted a "mass extinction event for startups" says it's time for a "Great Reawakening."

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  The Insider Today team: Matt Turner, deputy editor-in-chief, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.