Restaurant. I mean, I know how to spell it, but something deep inside me wants to discuss it every single time.

The jokes write themselves.

A good read. If you've ever spent time in Mayfair or other louche London locations, you'll recognise some of these characters as Perfect Archetypes. If you haven't, it's no Say Nothing, but still a compelling read.

Not that we need any more evidence of US regime brainrot, but the fact that this scenario is presented in terms of its GDP impact is truly beyond parody.

The real 4D chess is Iran can't even threaten to retaliate by destroying US infrastructure cos successive US administrations have pre-empted them.

A lot going on here.

At these valuations, the US govt should IPO NASA and pay off the national debt.

Not a fan of parsing Trump's nonsense, but this makes sense in that all other alternatives are manifestly unsustainable, so maybe we can glimpse an out here? Trump does a seagull: makes a lot of noise, shits on everything and then flies off, everyone else pays the toll, and the world keeps turning.

As long as the Strait remains closed, you can sell risk. The closure is like a cardiac arrest; the longer it remains untreated, the worse the prognosis. I believe this first order Neanderthal approach handily beats Trump Kremlinology. Any Trump puffery rallies are a God-given gift to lighten.

I have two ears and a mere 24 hours in a day, and casual empiricism suggests most other people are dealing with similar constraints. So I am once again asking: who is listening to all these f***ing podcasts?!

Loads of guys on here saying, oh yeah, OF COURSE you can't take anything Trump says at face value; you have to parse the tea leaves. Meanwhile, the tea leaves: www.ndtv.com/world-news/i...

Funny cos it's true.

Takes two to TACO.

Everyone is Twelve theory remains undefeated.

'War is God's way of teaching Americans geography' has never been more apt than now.

Taken me too long to crystallise the connection, but the reason the whole AI 'you're going to be utterly left behind if you're not Claude Coding 24 / 7' sounds exactly like the Bitcoin 'not going to make it' shtick is bcos it's exactly the same windowless guys who've just pivoted to the next thing.

Dubai?

Buying dips sinks ships.

Since forever, we've all tacitly agreed to attach outsize importance to the NFP report, like the drunk searching for their car keys under the lamppost - cos that's where the light is. But, with the evisceration, demoralisation and politicisation of the BLS, I'm no longer inclined to play this game.

As per usual: our President, your problem. US manufacturing may be in decline, but they still know how to export clusterf***s

Oh, you sweet summer child...

Thinking of this Khatami interview, for reasons.

This is going to become a yuge story, and probably a massive scandal at some point in the not too distant future, via a murky nexus of self-dealing, lightly regulated offshore subsidiaries and Joe Sixpack inadvertently holding the other side of the trade.

A proper private credit crackup would solve one of the conundrums of modern financial markets. Virtually everyone predicted that a sharp hiking cycle after an extended period of exceptionally low rates would cause carnage - and then it never happened and we all just segued to the next talking point

With news that US military commanders are referencing the end times, I guess we're doing this again.

Il Sorpasso 2.0

An interlocutor once asserted to Adam Smith: "If we go on at this rate, the nation must be ruined!" Smith famously replied "Be assured...that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation". Very wise words. But thanks to Trump, we might finally get to answer the question: how much ruin, exactly?

The Middle East - famously a geopolitics-free zone.

'AI will replace all white collar work' Investors: 'YES, YES!!!!' 'AI will solve all outstanding scientific problems and propel us to the stars' Investors: 'Ooooohh, aaaahhh!!' 'AI will disrupt B2B SAAS' Investors: 'Well, this is just fantastical nonsense. Is everyone stupid now?!'

It's what plants crave.

A CEO saying 'we only have green flags' is of course, a glaringly large red flag.

I've just heard Michael Saylor speak for the first time (my first time, not his, presumably), and, geez, I feel like the minimum requirements for stock market charlatans used to be be confident patter and charisma. Tis new age of fraud is, at the very least, extremely weird.

Hard to have to defend Sir Jim, but he has more experience than most of foreigners coming over here, refusing to integrate and living high on the hog.

Sam Altman was right - this unironically is PhD-level intelligence

One baleful effect of the Liz Truss cameo is that the UK is now being run on the back of every bump and jostle in the bond market. The highest virtue is now stasis. Hardly needs saying that this is absolutely no way to run a country.

Sorry, lads; it's now major offences only or GTFO. www.ft.com/content/a38d...

China may well be the global hegemon in waiting, but they've finally met their match: the UK planning system. www.ft.com/content/c5ca...

Absolutely glorious that the Labour leadership are now campaigning on the 'chaos with Ed Milliband' trope.

FT: KPMG pressed its auditor to pass on AI cost savings KPMG negotiating its annual audit fee www.ft.com/content/c891...

Yet another data point for AI = Abhijit in India theory.

The Epstein files are going to bring down Keir Starmer before Donald Trump. Funny old world.

Every Epstein email reads like he's jerking off with the other hand.

Things that make you go 🤔 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Trying to compile a list of countries where ragtag regime militias execute civilians in the street, and, while there may be one or two outside civil war situations, I have to say I'm struggling. American exceptionalism, indeed.

When I started studying Comp Sci many moons ago, tech guys were sat in windowless rooms with problems slid under the door (metaphorically speaking, but not always). This system worked well, but alas the Internet decisively broke this dynamic, and we've been paying for it ever since.

In errr, many years doing this, I've probably spent about five minutes total thinking about gold, and I'm not about to break the habit now.