Day: September 26, 2025

• Miami tops UBS’ Global Real Estate Bubble Index for the second year in a row.
• The index evaluates home prices, income ratios, mortgage rates, and more to assess bubble risk.
• High-risk cities show price increases decoupled from fundamentals, UBS said.

For the second straight year, Miami is at the top of the list of global cities most at risk of being in a real-estate bubble, according to UBS.

Earlier this week, the bank put out its annual Global Real Estate Bubble Index. It takes into account five categories to produce an overall score: home prices to income ratios; rental prices compared to home prices; local incomes versus national incomes; a city’s median home prices relative to the median of the overall country; mortgage rates; and construction rates.

Cities that end up with an overall score above 1.5 are at “high” risk of being in a bubble, while those with a score of 1 to 1.49 are at “elevated” risk. Markets with a 0.5 to 1 are at “moderate” risk, and 0 to .049 are at “low” risk, according to the bank. Miami has again come in on top with a score of 1.73.

“Cities with elevated or high bubble risk continued to decouple from fundamentals: over the last five years, inflation-adjusted home prices increased nearly 25% on average, while rents rose about 10% and incomes about 5%,” Claudio Saputelli and Matthias Holzhey said in the report.

“By contrast, prices in cities with moderate or low risk fell roughly 5%, while rents and incomes were broadly flat,” they continued. “Historically, worsening affordability and widening gaps between prices and rents have served as forerunners of housing crises.”

Below are the four US markets on the list of 21 global cities, and where they fell on the list, starting with Miami.

• Dana Schoolsky pivoted from investment banking to Big Tech after accepting a role at TikTok in July.
• Schoolsky says investment banking was high-pressure with unpredictable hours, but it wasn’t all bad.
• At TikTok, she experiences a more balanced work-life dynamic and less urgency.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dana Schoolsky, a 24-year-old working in monetization strategy and operations at TikTok in New York City. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

When I worked in investment banking as an analyst, everything felt urgent, as if a fire alarm was going off at all times.

I felt on edge even after leaving the office, never knowing when I might be called to action to do more work, which took a toll on me. I knew it wasn’t the right job for me nearly instantly, but I stayed for two years while I looked for a better opportunity.

Since quitting in July to work at TikTok, my life looks a lot different and I’m still learning to break some of the habits I built in IB.

I prefer working in Big Tech, though there were positive aspects to working in investment banking.

No two days were the same in investment banking

I studied business at the University of Michigan, and it’s very common to go into investment banking, so I decided to go in that direction. I was very interested in the broader scope of what bankers do.

I hit the desk as an investment banking analyst immediately after graduating from college in July 2023. It felt comfortable to land in such a structured environment after graduation, and I feel as though the company really took time to give us the lay of the land and understand our responsibilities.

During periods when I was working on a live deal, my days were busiest, full of back-to-back meetings with clients, coworkers, senior bankers, and more. Days working on non-live work would be spent in PowerPoint and Excel, working on a deck, including its financial modeling and analysis.

There were tight deadlines, and everything felt high-priority,

My mornings as an investment banker were sacred, and my nights were unpredictable

I would wake up every morning at 6:30 a.m. to go to the gym because it was the only time of day I knew I’d be able to commit an hour to myself without checking my phone. That time was sacred for me.

Then I’d head to the office, where I’d stay into the evening, even ordering dinner to eat with coworkers. There were no windows where I sat, so I often lost track of the time of day at work. I’d typically leave the office between 6:30 and 9 p.m., though I could receive more work at any point in the night. It was an unwritten rule that this work should be done before morning.

Some nights, I was so worried about an assignment popping up that I’d set alarms to go off every 90 minutes so that I wouldn’t miss anything. The unpredictability put me on edge and took a toll on my sleep and mental health.

It also made it difficult to commit to plans, even as small as drinks with a friend.

The sense of urgency at TikTok is less than at my investment banking job

I started my role at TikTok in July. I work on the monetization strategy and operations team covering a key global account, which basically means I’m focused on how TikTok generates revenue from the account I’m on. I work from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. three days a week in the office and two days at home, which is a split I’m loving.

Everything in this role is new for me, so I’m having to learn new things and face challenges I’ve never seen before. It’s been difficult, like anything new, but it’s also exciting.

People around me are busy and working hard, just like in investment banking, but the overall sense of urgency feels lower. I notice people might put work down to go to the gym or take a real lunch break. Everyone has work to do, but there seem to be looser expectations on how it gets done.

I feel more trusted to get my work done without heavy monitoring at my Big Tech job

In banking, I was so used to having to tell my boss everything I was doing. Not only did I tell them how I was spending every moment at work, but also how I was spending nights and weekends. It’s been a hard habit to break.

In my new job, I’m not always sure when things are urgent. My boss might send me something at 2 a.m. if that’s when he happens to be working, but that doesn’t mean he expects me to work at that time. It will just take time to understand the workflow and adapt to the work culture.

Making friends was easier at my investment banking job, but I’m enjoying Big Tech more

The only thing I miss about investment banking is the people. Being in a cohort of people around my age made it so easy to build friendships. We all just spent so much time together and bonded over inside jokes about company lore and our shared experience at this demanding job. I still text my core-banking friends nearly every day.

At TikTok, I’ve been so busy trying to learn as much as possible that it’s been harder for me to meet people. I love having work friends, but my work is very independent and doesn’t have a structured way to meet people.

I went to a recent offsite and introduced myself to as many people as possible, so I feel like I’m off to a good start.

I regret not looking into more career options in college

As for now, I’m enjoying working with really smart people and just enjoying my life a bit more. My mental health has significantly improved. I’m not constantly anxious about work and wondering if my plans are going to be canceled as a result of it.

If I could’ve done anything differently, I would’ve exposed myself to more career possibilities while in undergrad to understand what else is out there. I’m thankful for ending up in banking because it taught me about what I want out of work and life, but if you’re a college student on the investment banking path, you are not limited.

There’s always a conversation to be had with somebody in another industry or a different company to learn what’s out there.

Do you have a story to share about pivoting into or out of Big Tech? If so, please reach out to the reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.

The president’s pressure on the Justice Department to charge one of his highest-profile retribution targets could have profound consequences.

• Kim Stolz went from MTV VJ to Wall Street, where she now advises ultrawealthy clients.
• Stolz told Business Insider how she knocked on doors to land her first trading internship.
• Her story shows that unconventional paths to Wall Street are possible.

Kim Stolz is a private client advisor at Bank of America Private Bank, managing the fortunes of ultrawealthy families. She was first introduced to millions on “America’s Next Top Model” and as an MTV host. She pivoted to Wall Street in 2010, working at firms like BTIG and Citi before joining Bank of America in 2014. Business Insider featured Stolz as an industry rising star in 2018.

In a new interview, Stolz, 42, recalled the steps she took to break into finance, including begging for an internship, and how she rose from there. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Moving on from MTV

I was at MTV as a news anchor/VJ, and I spent four wonderful years there. I did some of the most amazing interviews and felt so lucky that I was given that opportunity. As that fourth year got underway, I saw the writing on the wall that MTV was moving away from music, away from presenters, and more toward reality television. Not only did I not really want to be a part of that, but I knew that at some point, my days were going to be numbered.

So I took some time off and thought about what I wanted.

I applied to and got into law school, but I realized that it was not the right choice for me. I talked to a few people who worked on trading desks who suggested trading because I had been an athlete my whole life, and love team-oriented businesses and activities. I was strong at math and followed the markets, so I spent some time shadowing at bulge bracket banks and understanding their structures. The promotion structure at the large banks was so rigid that I knew I’d be five years behind everyone else for a pretty long time, and I’m too impatient for that.

So, I found BTIG, a smaller shop where my friend worked, and I thought, “Well, let me just go check this place out and shadow her.” I walked in, and the energy, camaraderie, and competition really drew me in.

And again, I had no experience. So I asked her who was in charge, and I knocked on the door of cofounder Steven Starker’s office (who remains an amazing mentor and incredible person in my life). He was sitting in there, and I said, “You don’t know me. I’m Kim Stoltz. I am here just shadowing my friend.” And then I said: “Pay me nothing or pay me minimum wage, but make me an intern. Just give me a badge and let me walk in the door for six weeks, and I’ll prove to you I deserve a job here.”

He made me an intern.

Trial by fire and nonstop networking

As an intern, I spent time with all the desks. And after the fifth week, I was offered a role as a trading assistant on the equity derivatives desk. I learned pretty quickly that at a shop like that, you’ve got to network and do business and build it. As soon as I understood the product and I was able to get a little bit more autonomy, I spent the next year or so going to every event I could find and networking 24/7.

It was trial by fire. I made mistakes, and I paid for those mistakes both literally and figuratively. But over time, you learn.

After a few years, one of my clients got a role as global head of trading at PIMCO, which traded a type of business BTIG didn’t handle. He said, “I don’t want to lose you as my coverage. I don’t have anyone covering me at Citi. Would you talk to Citi?” I thought, well, now I can kind of break in.

After one year at BTIG, I was already a VP. I went over to Citi as a VP — I had caught up with everyone. I circumvented the system a little bit, and everything just grew from there.

Broker to private banker

After my time as head of prime brokerage sales at Bank of America, I had a short stint in senior relationship management, a role within the bank that manages relationships with top clients in the markets business. It’s a wonderful role, but it was a step away from production and the action, in my view. It just wasn’t for me. I really wanted to get back to my roots of truly producing and forming client relationships.

I was talking to one of my mentors in the firm, and she said that Katy Knox, president of the private bank, had been looking to grow the private client advisor team and that they had had some great success bringing people over from markets and trading desks. I connected with Katy immediately and thought — and still think — that she is an incredible leader. And after meeting her colleagues, I just really loved the culture.

Of course, it was a risk. I mean, I was used to covering hedge funds and asset managers and kind of finding ways to do business with entities. To shift the focus to doing business with people, their families — it’s very different. Can you trust me to manage your family and your next generation’s wealth?

I bet on myself, took a risk, and made sure I had support.

I joined the private bank during COVID, which didn’t make it easy because you want to meet people face to face. But I spent those first few months just learning everything. I asked to be put with someone who knows this business front to back and has encyclopedic knowledge, which is my private client manager, Bob Cutajar. I’m out there finding clients, and he’s executing. He’s allowed me to be as successful as I have been. When you change roles, you need to know that there’s someone in your corner who will help you navigate your way through and support you when you need it.

In the end, I’ve loved every minute of it. It takes a lot of the qualities that I think made me successful on Wall Street to begin with, and kind of wraps them all up together in a way. It really harnesses the skills I have acquired throughout my life and my career — even before Wall Street.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is confident that in the very near future, AI will surpass human capabilities.
• Altman discussed AI’s rapid progress and potential to make scientific discoveries.
• OpenAI plans to develop a “family of devices” to redefine computer use.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is bullish that not only will general artificial intelligence — AI that surpasses human capability— be achieved in the very near future, but that soon there could be breakthroughs that will only be achievable through the use of AI.

In a wide-ranging and candid interview that covered everything from how Altman thinks his own child will interact with the technology to what he doesn’t use ChatGPT for, Altman was perhaps unsurprisingly optimistic about the ability to align the technology with human values.

He also gave a glimpse into OpenAI’s hardware ambitions, hinting at an eventual “family of devices,” and expressed other musings about an AI future.

WELT Editor-in-Chief Jan Philipp Burgard interviewed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on behalf of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network this week in Berlin, where Altman received this year’s Axel Springer Award.

The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

Welt: Sam, what quality of yours will artificial intelligence never be able to replace?

Sam Altman: I guess we’ll find out. But, something that is really unique is how much people care about other people and what they do, how much people want to interact with other people.

I think these qualities will be increasingly important in the world of AI. We’ll have an incredible tool at our disposal, but we still have to figure out what to do, what other people want, and what other people will find useful.

Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly. When exactly do you think there will be a superintelligence that is smarter than humans in all aspects?

In many ways, GPT5 is already smarter than me, at least, I think a lot of other people too.

GPT5 is capable of doing incredible things that many people find very impressive. But it’s also not able to do a lot of things that humans could do easily.

That will be the case for a while, as humans use these tools and apply their human insight, creativity, and ingenuity in really important ways. I expect, though, the trajectory of AI’s capability progress to remain extremely steep.

In just the three years since ChatGPT launched, the models have become much more capable. And I see no sign of that slowing down. In another couple of years, it will become very plausible for AI to make, for example, scientific discoveries that humans cannot make on their own. To me, that’ll start to feel like something we could properly call superintelligence.

Is there an exact year in which you expect this superintelligence to emerge?

I would certainly say that by the end of this decade, by 2030, if we don’t have extraordinarily capable models that do things that we ourselves cannot do, I’d be very surprised.

Also, if in 2026 we don’t see a similar rate of progress we’ve seen in 2024 and 2025, I’d also be surprised. That means that by the end of 2026, I would expect models that, if we had them today, would be quite surprising.

What percentage of today’s jobs could disappear in the foreseeable future?

Think about the jobs that we did 30 years ago that may not exist at all today, or new jobs that were difficult to imagine 30 years ago that are now commonplace.

I read a statistic that about half the jobs in society change over every 75 years. That’s even without AI. It may happen, and I expect it will happen faster now.

I find it useful to think about tasks, not the percentage of jobs. There will be many jobs where a lot of what it means to do that job changes. Of course, there will be totally new jobs. And many existing jobs will disappear entirely and be replaced by these new jobs.

But the more interesting thing is, of everyone’s jobs, what percentage of the tasks you do every day will be done by AI? I can easily imagine a world where 30 to 40% of the tasks that happen in the economy today get done by AI in the not very distant future.

You became a father this year. What education would you advise your son to pursue so that his job won’t simply be replaced by AI in 30 years?

The meta-skill of learning how to learn, of learning to adapt, learning to be resilient to a lot of change. I mentioned this earlier, but learning how to figure out what people want, how to make useful products and services for them, and how to interact with the world.

I’m confident that people will still be the center of the story for each other. Anything in that world will be great. I’m also confident that human desire for new stuff, desire to be useful to other people, and desire to express our creativity are all limitless.

People rightly wonder, in all these previous technological revolutions, what we are all going to do. In the industrial age, these machines came along. We watched them do the things that we used to do and said, ‘What would be our role?’

Each new generation uses its creativity, new ideas, and all of the tools the previous generation built for them to astonish us. I’m sure my kids will do the same.

You sound very optimistic, but there are also AI critics. For example, researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky says that the relationship between superintelligence and humans is roughly the same as the relationship between humans and ants. Do you fear that AI will eventually view us as ants and simply destroy us?

I’ve heard many people describe many different ways of envisioning the relationship between AI and humanity.

The one that has always been my favorite is my cofounder, Ilya Sutskever, who once said that he hoped that the way that an artificial general intelligence would treat humanity, or all AGIs would treat humanity, is like a loving parent. When we ask that question, we are sort of anthropomorphizing AGI.

I believe that this tool will be enormously capable. Even if it has no intentionality, asking it to do something could have consequences we don’t understand. So, it is very important that we align it with human values. I don’t think it’ll treat humans like ants.

Critics accuse you of transforming OpenAI from a nonprofit institution into a commercial enterprise and of partially disregarding the security risks in the process. Do you agree with this criticism? Or, do you think that sometimes you just have to forge ahead to make progress?

Firstly, we still have a nonprofit entity, and we always will. I hope that we will have the best-resourced and hopefully the most impactful nonprofit of all time. This is very important to our mission.

The governance role of this is also important to our mission, as is ensuring that we stick to our mission and prioritize safety, well-being, and the maximum benefit of humanity.

We’ve obviously made some mistakes, as we understand that with this new technology, we’ll make more in the future. But overall, I’m extremely proud of our team’s track record on figuring out how to make these services safe, broadly beneficial, and widely distributed.

One of our core beliefs is that if we figure out how to build this tool, align it with human values, and then put it out into people’s hands and have them express all of the things they want to do with it, that will be great for the world and is deeply in accordance with our mission.

The world is watching OpenAI’s hardware innovation. You hired an Apple designer for this. We can assume the device will look good, but what will it do?

It will be good-looking.

Two big revolutions in computer use have occurred: the mouse and keyboard, and the idea of the monitor displaying this sort of windowed system. That was a breakthrough, for sure. Then we had the touch devices, which adapted that, taking out the mouse and letting you use your finger, making it a very personal device. This was huge.

Fundamentally, we have never had something as powerful as AI. Computers really can understand what we want, can think, which has let us reimagine what it could mean to use a computer. So we’re still exploring. It’ll take us quite some time. Don’t expect anything very soon.

But over time, I expect we’ll make a small family of devices. They will look good, for sure, but that’s not the main thing. I hope that if we do a really great job, they will change what it means to use a computer, how you do your work, and how you play and live your life. But there’s a lot of work and a lot to explore between here and there.

Can you give me an example of one feature or capability that such a device could have?

Right now, if you want to do a task on a computer, you have to click around and go between a bunch of applications. If it’s a difficult task, it might take you a while. One of the promises of AI is that you can say something complex that needs to happen over the course of a day, a month, or even a year.

You can just trust that the computer will understand it, do it for you, and come back to you when it needs help. But you can imagine asking a computer a very nuanced, complex, but brief question and then just trusting that it’s going to do the right thing and come back to you when it needs help. That would totally change what it feels like to use the computer instead of launching a bunch of apps and having notifications constantly come up. So that’s one thing.

The US tech industry has long had a liberal-democratic tone. Now, many tech leaders are showing their support for Donald Trump. How do you explain this vibe shift?

The tech industry should work with whoever the American president is. But in this specific case, I think there have been some welcome policy changes. The ability to build infrastructure in the US has been quite difficult and quite important to companies like ours. President Trump has done an amazing job of supporting this. A generally more pro-business and pro-tech climate has also been a welcome change.

The US is very polarized, downright divided. What do you think of the idea of simply letting AI govern instead of a US president in the future?

I don’t think people want that anytime soon. What I expect, though, is that presidents and leaders around the world will use AI more and more to help them with complex decisions. But I think we all still want a human, signing off on that.

To finish up, many people are getting relationship advice from ChatGPT. Have you ever asked your own bot for help with relationship issues?

I don’t use it as much for that as other people do. I’ve tried it, but no, that’s not one of my big personal use cases. But it’s clearly something a lot of people use it for.

• President Donald Trump rocked the business world when he announced a $100,000 fee for new H-1B hires.
• It’ll be expensive for smaller companies, though many Big Tech leaders support the move
• One founder said the new H-1B system was preferable to “lottery luck.”

Major Silicon Valley leaders shrugged their shoulders when they were slapped with a new $100,000 fee for new H-1B hires.

While much of the tech world was confused and outraged at President Donald Trump’s late-Friday visa overhaul, Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings said the policy would create “more certainty” for high-value jobs.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC, “I’m glad to see President Trump making the moves he’s making.” And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was similarly optimistic, saying that “streamlining” the process of getting the smartest people into the US and “aligning financial incentives seems good to me.”

American companies hire up to 85,000 international workers on the H-1B visa each year, so why would they welcome a new policy that could cost billions?

Of course, Big Tech companies have big pockets and can take the hit better than smaller companies and industries like healthcare. Some startups are freezing hiring as they brace for more changes. Supporters of the policy also lauded the simplification of a complicated visa system — it’s now more of a simple pay-and-receive transaction. Here’s the case Big Tech leaders and others within the startup landscape are making for the changes.

A ‘straightforward’ system instead of ‘lottery luck’

Trump’s executive order appended a $100,000 fee to new H-1B applications to encourage more domestic hiring and prevent what he called program “abuses.” H-1B visas allow highly skilled foreigners to work in the US, and Silicon Valley has long relied on them to tap top talent.

Marvin von Hagen, the German cofounder of AI agent startup The Interaction Company of California, applauded the new, more transactional visa system.

“Before, the H-1B was just lottery luck,” he told Business Insider — as opposed to being based on skills or values. “I think it’s just the worst possible way to select for.”

A lottery exists because H-1Bs are capped at 85,000 roles every government fiscal year, though the Trump administration has proposed a replacement “weighted selection process” favoring higher-skilled and higher-paid workers.

Von Hagen said fewer people will apply because of the fees, and that a paid system could become more “straightforward” for those who do.

He added that paying a fee for an H-1B may even be preferable to the visa he’s on — an O-1 visa for “extraordinary ability.” Von Hagen said his case to apply for the visa was 600 pages and marked a massive time investment. While it was successful for him on the first try, that’s not always the case — especially for younger founders who don’t have a history of academic excellence to show for.

“Certainty is worth money,” added Ben Nasarin, the founder and general partner of Tenacity Venture Capital.

Nasarin told Business Insider that some pushback around the changes was “massively overblown,” given political polarizations, and said he hasn’t received any inbound from concerned founders amid the changes.

Nasarin agreed that H-1Bs are being overused and said the changes could force founders to consider more US hires. That said, opponents of Trump’s order have argued it could push more jobs out of the country.

Immigration attorneys also see silver linings

Immigration lawyers found some bright spots as they await further guidance.

Immigration attorney Jason Finkelman said that while the changes were largely negative, he acknowledged the fees could discourage IT staffing companies that use H-1Bs to outsource large numbers of workers and force US employers to invest in more training.

Immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn said startups could see silver linings, depending on how the national interest exception is defined — a carveout that would exempt certain applicants who serve national interests from paying the fee.

In addition to potentially making use of these exceptions, Alcorn said the fees could lessen lottery demand and make startups more apt to participate.

“My clients — they’re not sponsoring multiple people. They’re just trying to get one very specific person through,” she said.

If there’s less competition for those lottery spots, they “might feel more comfortable sponsoring top talent for H-1Bs.”