Today: - NASA's Artemis II flies by the Moon - Adam Tooze and David Harvey discuss Karl Marx - Iran's grand strategy is debated - Some US think tank updates - How memes have taken over US culture - AI opportunities, threats, and investigative reportage www.alexburns.net/p/artemis-ii...

Today: - Two episodes of The Dalek Master Plan (1965) are publicly released - Sovereignty & Security Forum 2026 - A history lecture by Sir Martin Gilbert - Geoengineering is now apparently a thing www.alexburns.net/p/the-dalek-...

Tonight's viewing - Join Or Die (2023) on Netflix - about Robert D. Putnam's Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001) - on social capital. www.youtube.com/@JOINORDIEFILM www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/robe... www.amazon.com.au/Bowling-Alon...

Today: - Arbitrageurs try to profit from the Iran War and oil markets (crisis alpha) - New books on Muskism and DeepMind - Adam Curtis on BlackRock's ALADDIN system - What Exchange Traded Funds are really for - An MIT OCW free course on energy economics www.alexburns.net/p/war-arbitr...

A useful academic / psychiatrist authored book on terrorists and mass shooters that has broader applicability to cults / new religious movements (in their dysfunctional forms and phases), and the critical role of delusional / obsessional beliefs: www.amazon.com.au/Extreme-Over...

The Infinity Machine is out on 31st March - Amazon Kindle and Audible in Australia - highly recommended. Mallaby (Council on Foreign Relations) has written key, very influential books on hedge funds (More Money Than God); venture capital (The Power Law); and Alan Greenspan (The Man Who Knew).

I watched Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (2024) recently on Cold War era jazz driven diplomacy; the Congo and Patrice Lumumba; and the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement. It's on DocPlay and other platforms. Very highly recommended - archival footage + music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RwL...

Today: - Exemplars "talk their book" - Wargaming, (military) strategic studies, and geopolitical risk arbitrageurs / speculators - Iranian jazz and Rush's return - Why Australian universities use external consultants - The SXSW 2026 panel The Knowledge Paradox www.alexburns.net/p/talking-yo...

This week I did the Indigenous Australian training as part of my onboarding at @latrobe.edu.au. Here is LTU's very powerful Welcome to Culture video, delivered as part of this training. Learn about Australia's unique 60,000 year-old culture. youtu.be/NIemftTV5Kg

A new professional bio: www.alexburns.net/about

Today: - A range of perspectives / current issues on the Iran War. - A survey of think tank talks (now a 24 hour cycle). - Niccolo Machiavelli, Leo Strauss, and realpolitik. - James Rickards' market intelligence prescience. www.alexburns.net/p/the-presen...

In (Richard) Wyckoff terms this is a signal that: - We were likely at the US market peak in 2025. - Schwab is in distribution phase. - Gen Z is leaning in to Z0DTE, Crypto, ETFs, & think they are in accumulation phase. - Many of the 46 million new accounts will not last 90 days (the mis-match).

Many central banks prioritise (post-Bernanke) inflation targeting over financial stabilisation. The RBA is a laggard when compared to the Powell Fed, the ECB, the RBNZ, and even the BoJ. The Dutch disease & a highly leveraged housing market restricts its cash rate optionality.

Your premises @beneltham.bsky.social presume that the progressive government is: A. Able to resolve capital flight. B. Has the freedom to operate. C. Is not exposed to geopolitical / war / energy / oil volatility. D. Would prioritise the voters of these posited policy initiatives. Very doubtful.

What is Bayesian theory? how can it uncover truths in black box-like circumstances? www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNSL... Two introductory books: A. The Theory That Would Not Die (2011). www.amazon.com.au/Theory-That-... B. Everything Is Predictable (2024). www.amazon.com.au/Everything-P...

10 Friday AM Reads -AI Isn't Coming for Everyone's Job -The Return-to-the-Office Trend Backfires -Why ATMs Didn't Kill Bank Teller Jobs, but the iPhone Did -The Right Way to Be a Scientific Contrarian -YouTube Just Ate TV. It's Only Getting Started. ritholtz.com/2026/03/10-f...

Two proposals under consideration for the International Studies Association's Virtual Conference, to be held in June 2026. www.alexburns.net/p/isa-virtua...

Today: - War in Iran updates from multiple viewpoints - including on the unfolding oil shock - Talks from Dr Brian King, Jason Louv, Sant Fe Institute, Adam Tooze, Mark Fisher, and Julian Spencer-Churchill - James Baldwin, MLK and Malcolm X interviewed in 1963 www.alexburns.net/p/deepfake-w...

Today: - Updates on Hegseth/DoW & Anthropic (as a US supply chain risk), and Operation Epic Fury - Some current geopolitical risk hotspots - Talks by Eric Kaufmann, Stephen Walt, Yascha Mounk & Francis Fukuyama, and Jeet Heer & Matt Duss. www.alexburns.net/p/geopolitic...

Today: - On Operation Epic Fury - San Francisco's AI subculture - X as disinformation vector - Investment lessons from Stan Druckenmiller & on how to price options - The Oscar Peterson Trio in Tokyo in 1964 www.alexburns.net/p/on-operati...

Today: - The US, China and geopolitical spheres of influence - MIT OCW course Introduction to Psychology (2011) - Free lectures on computational finance and financial engineering - Winners in Trump's America and in predication markets www.alexburns.net/p/psychologi...

Today: - The new film Omaha - A new Goldman Sachs memoir; Trump tariffs; & Black Monday on Wall Street in 1987 - The New Yorker discovers 1990s conspiracy theory subculture - Music by Frank Zappa and King Crimson www.alexburns.net/p/from-black...

Today: - Value at Risk and its variants in financial risk management - Why lithium is very important to geoeconomics & geopolitics - The coming AI created future food wars - Protein Bars are a likely rip-off - The late artist Noah Davis www.alexburns.net/p/green-capi...

Today: - What we can learn from Nazgul the viral wolfdog - New documentaries from PBS (VPN may be needed) - Writing science fiction - Some important examples of the rhetorical skills that underpin pedagogical grammar www.alexburns.net/p/nazgul-can...

Today: - Andrew Leigh MP on innovation - Iran protests and Direct Satellite Broadcasting (PSYOP / Civil Affairs) support - Gifted & Talented programs in New York City are under fire - William McRaven's book Spec Ops (2009) an SOF theory of Direct Action www.alexburns.net/p/iran-again

Today: - Oil disruption and Iran strike scenarios - Taiwan and strategic ambiguity - Nirvana live in 1989; Miles Davis & John Coltrane live in 1960 - High Frequency Trading's shadowy world www.alexburns.net/p/oil-disrup...

Coney Island forever.

Today: - On neo-royalism (thanks Joseph Voros) - Hudson Institute talks - On the New Zealand film producer Grahame McLean - Why I never became a scriptwriter in Australia - Remembering Finnegan Fox (and Mikayla Raines) - Dual Use research and neuroscience www.alexburns.net/p/on-neo-roy...

Business Process Outsourcing can involve both principal-agent and operational risk. There are other ways to arbitrage, exploit, game, hedge or to risk transfer accountability or governance issues. We live in an increasingly Hobbesian world in which the Enlightenment era social contract is a myth.

Today: - Gary Stevenson on Australia's housing market - How teacher education has failed in Australia and the United States - Economic coercion doctrine in the United States - How product-liability lawsuit scams work - Open Access and research www.alexburns.net/p/a-victim-o...

Today: - Updates on the Wagner Group and ISIS families - What the Gaza War can teach us about counterinsurgency - On the National Security Strategy (2025) and restraint - Three infamous documentaries about the Branch Davidians at Waco, TX in 1993 www.alexburns.net/p/were-not-r...

Today: - The new Wuthering Heights film - Uses for frog toxin - Lectures on geopolitical risk and nuclear strategy - Why it's OK to change your phone number - Northern Territory films go global www.alexburns.net/p/the-new-wu...

10 Friday the 13th Reads -Big Money in Today’s Economy Is Going to Capital, Not Labor -Stanford Experiment Pairs 5,000 Singles -Who Is Paying for the 2025 U.S. Tariffs? -How the Merrill Lynch Deal Made Bloomberg -Shadowy World of Abandoned Oil Tankers (BBC) ritholtz.com/2026/02/10-f...

Today: - Rats in New York, and my late Alaskan Malamute dog Tilly - Nick Land, Antono Gramsci, and Dr Strangelove - Why the CSIRO might read Sebastian Mallaby - John Godolphin Bennett Foundation audio - A bunch of lectures that I have been listening to www.alexburns.net/p/rats

A free webinar from @harvardkennedy.bsky.social 's Professor Matthew Bunn on nuclear weapons; their dangers; and international security: pll.harvard.edu/course/darke... www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/matt... Also very good: www.amazon.com.au/Insider-Thre...

Today: - Forecasting the 2026 Defence Strategy - The Martin A. Armstrong documentary The Forecaster - How to escape from a scam compound - My Bloody Valentine live from Tokyo - Henry Rollins on Tom Green Live www.alexburns.net/p/forecastin...

It involves the cultivation of cognitive-emotional-embodied (the three major centres) metacognition; focused attention; and situational awareness. In the clinical hypnosis literature this is the Hidden Observer phenomenon (Ernest Hilgard). A recent update on this: img3.reoveme.com/m/8805068959...

Useful: sociology.stanford.edu/publications... Neil Fligstein's work in the new institutionalism (what I focus on as strategic subcultures) is highly recommended. sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/neil...

10 Weekend Reads -What happens when we admit we don’t know? -Bubbles as a Feature Not a Bug -Interstellar Space Travel Will Never, Ever Happen -Federal Reserve 101 -Computers can’t surprise -NFL & Fox: The $1.6B Deal That Changed Everything ritholtz.com/2026/02/10-w...

My weekly look at the global economy and markets: mohamedelerian.substack.com/p/the-weekly... www.linkedin.com/pulse/weekly... #economy #markets

Today: - Deepfake archival recovery of Classical Hollywood era films. - Civil Affairs / PSYOP and the SOF-Cyber-Space triad. - The film script for Christopher Nolan's Tenet (2020). - Brief analysis of a recent political speech on Arnotts SPV investment. www.alexburns.net/p/hollywood-...

The @cornellupress.bsky.social has published Age of Deception: Cybersecurity as Secret Statecraft by @jonrlindsay.bsky.social on Amazon Kindle. Congratulations! www.amazon.com.au/Age-Deceptio...

Notes on Australian Neo-Nazis and Evading Hate Speech Laws An ABC News article and a brief response from unpublished research. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01... www.alexburns.net/p/notes-on-a...

The flipside of having peak experiences (Abraham Maslow) is experiencing relative deprivation (Ted Robert Gurr). How and why the New Year period can fracture your personal relationships. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Financial Literacy needs to be taught in Australian schools. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01... moneysmart.gov.au ocw.mit.edu/search/?q=pe...

Today part II: - Richard D. James' creativity for recording Aphex Twin albums - Keith Jarrett's bestselling Koln Concert improvised for ECM on 24th January 1975 - The US semi-hidden reading crisis - The promise of AI education www.alexburns.net/p/on-improvi...

Two key BoJ books (the first an analytical study; the second a policymaker memoir of crisis management and implementing monetary policy): www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501... yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... Both are published by excellent US university presses.

10 Friday AM Reads: -5 Reasons Gold Is Surging Toward $5,000 an Ounce -Economic Legacy of DOGE -Real AI Talent War: Plumbers & Electricians -Gen X + Millennials Will Inherit Trillions in Real Estate -Fracking Goes Global -The Real Donald Trump Is a Character on TV ritholtz.com/2026/01/10-f...

Today: - What links Prime Minister Mark Carney; Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel; and the influential philosopher Alain Badiou - Why slow transport in Australia is an historical failure to use systems thinking (such as causal loop diagrams) www.alexburns.net/p/when-the-p...

Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman has a new collection out on 25th May 2026 called On Strategy and Strategists: Collected Essays 2014-2024 (OUP USA, 2026). www.amazon.com.au/Strategists-... www.global.oup.com/academic/pro... www.kcl.ac.uk/people/profe...