US Banks' Unrealized Losses Halve to $306 B
Rephrased: US banks are facing unrealized losses of $300B, down from $700B in 2023. For context, those US banks have around $25,000B in assets and $2,600B in equity capital.
UAE Can Preserve Peg via Swap Line, Not Reserve Cuts
A lot of this seems preemptive, given UAE’s large existing FX reserves. Using a swap line for a bit to help maintain the currency peg would be seen as less disruptive than trimming reserves.
Diversify Wealth Globally, Don’t Overinvest in Local Real Estate
It’s a good argument not to put too much wealth into local real estate, and instead to think more global, more mobile.
Pitch a Nuanced Bitcoin Expert for Jon Stewart
Let Jon Stewart know if you want a nuanced bitcoin expert on his show. Like this post, and then comment on your favorite expert.
Bitcoin’s Decentralization Renders Its Creator Irrelevant
Ansel is right. People with this view don’t truly understand the open source aspect or the proof of work aspect fully. A strong point about Bitcoin is that it literally doesn’t matter who created it. It can be assessed on its...
Early Flight Delay Turns Inconvenience Into Relief
That feeling when the only flight available that day is annoyingly at 6am, so you begrudgingly book it anyway, but then the airline emails you like, “we regret to inform you that your flight tomorrow has been delayed by two...
Fed Studies Tariffs' Impact on Goods Inflation
The Fed has been putting out research reports trying to assess how much goods inflation can be attributed to the tariffs. https://t.co/F4ND6acO1f https://t.co/a0LGrXd9pw
Treasury Bill Rollovers & Debt Swaps Overhyped on FinTwit
Two topics that get 100x more airtime than they deserve on fintwit: 1) Trillions in Tbills constantly maturing and getting bought again by the same balance sheets that hold them now. 2) The Treasury issuing some on-the-run debt to buy back some...
Short Prologues Boost Novels, Not Overwhelm Readers
Prologues kind of fell out of favor for a while because people wrote overly long ones, but I think short, concise prologues often add a lot to a novel. The Stolguard Incident starts like this: https://t.co/GFBR8IIKsU
Berkshire's Cash Ratio Spikes to 44%, Double Historic Average
Since Berkshire is an insurer, it needs a lot of cash on hand, and so ratio charts tend to be more informative than nominal charts. Berkshire's cash amount as a share of enterprise value has averaged 24% over 20+ years, whereas...
Fiat Money Can't Fill Oil Supply Gap
Since questions about private credit are so popular today, I had a segment with Danny about the topic:
Cultivate and Polish Your Unique Authorial Voice
The ideal scenario is to find/develop your own authorial voice, and then refine it to make it the cleanest, optimal form of your style that you can.
Engineer Turns Fiction Weakness Into Writing Strength
The truth behind this is that I studied fiction prose quite extensively, since I knew that was my weakness ahead of time (relative to story, characters, etc). I'm an engineer/financier, not an English major. So I focused heavily to turn that...
Blind Support: Everyone Backs Samuel without Understanding Hormuz
The whole world is like “I don’t know what the Strait of Hormuz is, but I’m with Samuel on this.”
Strait of Hormuz Closure Becomes Looming Global Catastrophe
My job is to entertain you most of the time, occasionally quell sensationalist headlines, and so forth. You know, the normal stuff. But each day the Strait of Hormuz remains closed is a growing global catastrophe that people are sleepwalking into. That’s the...