The end of the world as we know it.

Hey, money nerds, it’s Friday. It feels like the end of the world. Even if it is the end of the world, we won’t let you down. We’ve still pulled together some top money stories for you to enjoy while everything goes down in flames.

“End Times are here…and I am at Target.” [The Outline] — “I find myself thinking about doomsday cults fairly often as I wander the aisles inside the Target near the apartment I share with my girlfriend and our dog. This happened most recently during New York’s first heatwave of the year…Every minute spent inside that artificial oasis is another ticked away before our contract with the Earth runs out.”

The economics of bubbles. [Aeon] — “Often the opportunity for a bubble arrives on the back of a new technology. And some technologies make for fantastic stories – indeed, sci-fi is a whole fictional genre based on this premise. Bubbles form whenever a new story is not only told, but can also be sold. However, not every new story leads to a bubble. Sometimes stories can be told, but not sold.”

The fate of the world’s largest ETF is tied to 11 random Millennials. [Bloomberg] — “The fate of the world’s largest exchange-traded fund rests on the health of a group of twenty-somethings. Thanks to a quirk in the legal structure used to set up the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, known as SPY, more than $250 billion rests on the longevity of 11 ordinary kids born between May 1990 and January 1993.”

The market for lemons. [The Quarterly Journal of Economics] — “Most cars traded will be the ‘lemons’, and good cars may not be traded at all. The ‘bad’ cars tend to drive out the good…The bad cars sell at the same price as good cars since it is impossible for a buyer to tell the difference between a good and a bad car; only the seller knows.” This is a journal article from 1970, but it’s still interesting and relevant today.

Lastly, here’s a 16-minute video giving an inside look at a scam call center in Kolkata, India. This is some crazy shit.