It was normal in the 19th century for bank presidents to sign their own dollar notes. Also it's weird anyway that *anyone* in the Treasury signs the notes, which sit on the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve. But also let us consider that jfc I just can't anymore home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...

You need best player in your sport on a team that contends. Ohtani might be Brady on the Patriots. I don’t know! But I’ll buy that the sport is hurting when ratings and attendance start tanking. Both are up. We’ve endured “here’s why baseball is about to die” stories every spring for 100 years.

Incredible scene: Travelers wait on hours-long security line at George Bush International Airport in Houston while Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” blasts through the speakers. (video shared directly with me)

Given the type of poster in the comments section of Polymarket bets, I will be happy to avoid ever going here

Feb Core PPI 3m annualized pace (~7.8%) highest since May-22

A first-time candidate who came onto the scene as a young TikTok’er getting over 25% in a crowded primary against other elected officials seems like an objectively strong electoral performance, whatever your thoughts on the candidate might be. She did something right with voters:

January Core PCE annualized paces... Fresh out the frying pan into the fire

Apparently commodity traders are "imbeciles" because they were worried about what's actually now happening in the Strait of Hormuz

Good morning to all my F1 heads *CHINA'S BYD EXPLORES ENTRY INTO F1, OTHER AUTO RACING SERIES

Spain has been terrible. Also, so many Americans are moving to Madrid that a local park has been dubbed Plaza USA www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

“.. This is simply attempted corporate murder,” Ball wrote. “I could not possibly recommend investing in American AI to any investor; I could not possibly recommend starting an AI company in the United States.” @politico.com #Anthropic www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Reed and Ted just crippled a competitor and will be able to buy some assets cheap later on, #$NFLX

fwiw... February saw: - Fourth-straight month of value outperformance to growth - Third-straight month of global outperformance to US (and accelerating)

This opens up a pretty clear lane in the #$NFLX investment thesis - viewers and writing/production talent leave HBO for Netflix #$PSKY may have won the battle, but far from clear that means they'll be the longer-term winner...

It’s heartening to see a company demonstrate principles — and stick by them in the face of threats. www.anthropic.com/news/stateme...

Love this

He’s essentially suggesting the Fed self-censor its research to avoid topics the White House considers politically sensitive. Does that preserve the independence or undermine it? The White House hasn’t had a problem touting tariff research from other Fed economists when it approves of the findings.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right. Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement. This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

OpenAI round set to close with $100bn raise at $850bn valuation. Not even sure what to say about this honestly.

Now that’s a headline. 🤡 @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/c39d...

Strong paragraph. economist.com/united-state...

Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding: Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere. samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...

In 2004, truck driver Joseph Macken went down to his basement and began building New York City. It took him 21 years to complete the 50-by-30-foot miniature metropolis. Read our weekend column for a giant’s glance at the Upper West Side: www.westsiderag.com/2026/02/14/m...

GS: During the past 3 months, software stocks have plunged by 24%, but 2-year forward earnings estimates for the stocks have risen by 5%. $IGV

Wowsers look at what happened to posts on Twitter/X about London crime after monetisation of posts was introduced… economist.com/britain/2026...

With new estimates the unemployment rate has been 4.3% over the past 6m when hiring was averaging 14k per month--the breakeven rate required to keep unemployment stable is probably negative given restrictive immigration policy + an aging pop--no people, no jobs

Average hourly earnings growth of precisely 0.41% m/m for four of the past six months

This has to become a meme. I need this GIF.

Anthropic and Google now seem to get that the primary value people get out of AI is doing annoying work they don't want to do (coding, basic research, drafting emails, etc), OpenAI/XAI/Meta seem to still think image/video slop and search replacement are the future

HASSETT: SHOULD EXPECT SLIGHTLY LOWER JOBS NUMBERS HASSETT: LOWER JOBS NUMBERS SHOULDN'T TRIGGER PANIC One way to push yields lower...

Also - because the Dow's methodology was unassailably perfect when devised in the 19th century - Caterpillar's gain accounts for around half the Dow's 1,900-point gain year to date.

An equal-weight basket of: #$NVDA, #$META, #$PLTR, #$TSLA, #$ORCL, #$PSKY, #$COIN, #$ASST, #$DJT, #$FRMI, #$RUM, #$ABTC, and #$PEW ...is down 15% WTD, 19% YTD, and 33% over past 3m

It’s obviously a story that has been well understood by markets for a long time. But is the macroeconomic significance of this fully understood? Not sure. The *upward revision* to capex over the last 12m is more than 1% of GDP.

Some solid buying in $IGV since 10 am bottom

I am sincerely 100% here for the French press getting the US for budget paralysis

The entire cities of Amsterdam (red), Paris (blue), and Barcelona (purple) can fit inside Chicago. All borders use the same geographic scale (1:175000). The European cities have been rotated and/or flipped, but not resized.

WaPo reports xAI deliberately loosened Grok's guardrails to boost popularity, sparking internal alarm. Employees had to pledge to work with "profane content." Even more disturbing, employees were listening to lurid audio conversations Tesla drivers had with Grok. Musk prioritized growth over safety.

A Paris apartment listing has a tv playing Lana Del Rey. I feel like this is somehow a very sophisticated attempt to scam me personally.

Gawker was sued out of existence by billionaires who didn't want to be investigated by really good journalists who had the perfect rolodexes to get dirt on a pervert cabal and maybe upend their whole new world order. It isn't a scandal sheet you dope.

Harvard professor Steven Levitsky, who studies democracy backsliding, on Don Lemon's arrest: “This is a new dimension. In democracies, journalists don't get arrested. In authoritarian regimes, journalists get arrested." More in @status.news: www.status.news/p/don-lemon-...

NEW @theathleticfc.bsky.social : Emails reveal Epstein twice arranged meetings in 2011 with Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly - three years after Epstein jailed for sex offenses - to discuss business deals. Boehly, part owner of LA Dodgers and Lakers, declines comment www.nytimes.com/athletic/701...

It's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"

Five classes from college: 1. Cultural Geography with the inimitable Marvin Mikesell 2. Legal Reasoning with Dennis Hutchinson 3. Sports, Society, and Science with Allen Sanderson 4. Changing America: 1900-Present with Michael Conzen 5. Urban Structure and Process with Saskia Sassen

$SOXX (iShares semis) outperformed $IGV (iShares software) by 32 pp this month - the most since both started trading in mid-2001, and it's not even close

It’s gonna take me awhile to get used to writing “Governor Powell” but I should have it down by the September meeting or so…

The characteristics that make a good Fed Chair — honesty, integrity, objectivity, humility, being a sharp reader of the data, collaboration, transparency, thoughtful communication — are all things Trump doesn’t like.

American paramilitary units are on the cover of international newsmagazines. But please, come visit and invest. We’re “open for business.” @economist.com www.economist.com/leaders/2026...

cover of The Economist this week

You know what's funny is I paid lord know how much to go to business school to learn about stuff like corporate governance and valuation modeling... ...and that knowledge is just useful to laugh at who can violate them the most

The obvious solution for Trump’s Fed dilemma is to name Stephanie Kelton as Chair, and when the WSJ op-ed and the FX, TIPS and maybe nominals markets freak out, insist that he told Bessent to appoint Judy Shelton.