The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that many iconic growth companies are facing significant challenges, with sales down in absolute terms, even without a recession. The Globe's guest columnist Tom Bradley writes that this includes brands like Nike, Starbucks, McDonald's, Lululemon, LVMH, Diageo, Tesla and Apple. While these companies may not face extinction like Kodak, tougher years are likely ahead. At the same time, there is a large amount of attention and money going toward assets that have no cash flow and/or are hard to value. Assets where investors' optimism is not constrained by fundamental measures such as year-over-year sales, profit margins and price-to-earnings ratios. Gold and bitcoin are increasingly important in portfolios for diversification, but they do not generate profits or have a clear business purpose. Private equity funds are gaining allocation as they own real businesses, though many need to be divested as they mature. The backlog and a challenging IPO market have led funds to trade amongst themselves at prices out of investors' sight. Financial metrics are not dampening optimism around artificial intelligence, where hope and hype far exceed any real economic evaluation.