This is a dynamic page. It will update on an irregularly irregular basis.
Stories that fascinate me right now, as of the date posted.
There are two sections:
- current events; and,
- "black swans"
- for mom-and-pop retail investors;
- for the market in general
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Current Events
February 21, 2026
- NYC's impending implosion;
- mega-billion partnerships
- LDCs; Stargate, Ohio, SoftBank;
- Trump's brilliance: how he "read" Harvard's Achille's heel;
- the union killing the Golden Goose; no sympathy
- chips: how analysts are missing the big story, and harming investors in the process;
- Gaza. Board of Peace and the Pope. Tracked here.
- Trump vs Iran, part 2.
- USAF: the F-15EX. Link here.
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Investing
Black swans:
- Iran: US kinetic response goes poorly;
- AI investing:
- AI: too much debt in the short term spooks investors;
- AI: upsets need for security software companies;
- Microsoft has two problems
- consumers are tired of Microsoft's business model: paying through the nose for subscription software that Apple includes with the hardware/software prouduct; no subscription model for Apple
- consumers may not be happy with Apple's AI (at the moment) but they're even less happy with paying for Microsoft's Copilot
- state deficit: California -- $18 billion short term; $35 billion medium term;
- population: 40 million
- city deficit: NYC -- just coming out now -- "severe fiscal crisis" -- state comptroller; $2.2 billion for current year (2026) ballooning to over $10 billion in FY2027;
- population: 10 million but has no "Silicon Valley" to bail them out;
- rest of state won't support Mamdani;
- wealthy won't be happy with Mamdani's plans to increase taxes on wealthy;
