The writing is on the wall.

💯. I hesitate to generalize but there is something deeply sociopathic about the Russians. Generations of trauma have taken them there. 10’s of millions of deaths in WW2, the Gulags, collectivization, etc.

Quick and painful reminder as Trump seeks to celebrate some sort of victory: Before we choose to start a war that wasn’t necessary for our national security — and that we could not win — the Strait of Hormuz was open, Iran did not have any of its frozen assets released, all the sanctions were in place, and it was not able to charge a fee for GCC countries’ oil tankers to transit the Gulf. The 13 Americans who were killed in this war were still alive, the 400 wounded were in full health, and our 20 basis were fully operational. All that is now over, and according to one version of the terms President Trump has signed, we will have to withdraw from most of the region. Anyway, you want to look at it, this is a profound strategic defeat for America.

Legendary Investor Howard Marks appearing on Bloomberg recently discussing Retail being pushed to invest in Private Credit, Stock Market Cycles and "Cockroaches in the Coal Mine". "It's only during tough economic times that we learn who lent money stupidly!" If you can spare 5 mins today watch this video! Retail always left holding the bag. Like and follow if you enjoy this content - appreciate it!

Another former high multiple compounder creating disappointment. The market finds ways to humiliate most of us! Another great lesson in market history. But good deals now?

THE VIBES IN TORONTO RIGHT NOW 🇨🇦⚽️🇨🇦⚽️

SpaceX is about to raise $75B from people who have not read the filing. The business that actually funds $SPCX is Starlink, its satellite internet service. It generates over $11B a year and is the only part of the company that makes real money. The rockets are the vision. Starlink is the cashflow machine running underneath it. And that cashflow is going into an AI unit that lost $6.4B last year and buried $12.7B in server infrastructure. SpaceX is essentially using satellite internet profits to fund an AI buildout that has no clear return yet. To make the numbers look cleaner before going public, SpaceX signed a deal to lease servers to Anthropic for $1.25B a month. New revenue appearing on the books right before the IPO window, inflating the picture retail investors will see when they decide whether to buy. On top of that, the person running all of this holds 85% of the voting power through special share classes. $75B raised from public markets, with one person controlling every major decision and no mechanism for shareholders to push back. You are buying into a satellite internet business subsidizing an AI bet, dressed up as a space company.

We shall never forget the sacrifices made by men willing to die for the freedoms we cherish today. 🇬🇧🇺🇸🇨🇦 #DDay #neverforget

Milton Friedman's greatest regret. The federal government discovered the perfect crime in 1943: make employers collect taxes before workers ever see their paychecks. You think you earn $60,000 per year, but you actually earn $75,000 and hand over $15,000 to politicians without ever touching it. The psychological difference is enormous. Before payroll withholding, Americans wrote quarterly checks directly to the Treasury. Picture yourself sitting at your kitchen table, writing a $3,750 check to the IRS every three months. The pain was immediate and visceral. Politicians faced constant pressure to justify every dollar because citizens felt the extraction in real time. Withholding transforms this concrete loss into an abstract accounting entry. Your employer becomes an unpaid tax collector, and you never experience the actual cost of government. Worse, most people celebrate their tax refunds as government generosity rather than recognizing them as interest-free loans they provided to politicians. The Treasury collects your money throughout the year, spends it immediately, then returns your own cash and receives gratitude. This system enables the explosion in government spending you witness today. Defense contractors billing $640 for toilet seats, agricultural subsidies for corn syrup, and congressional salaries for 535 people who rarely show up to work. When taxation feels painless, voters stop demanding accountability for how their money gets spent. Milton Friedman helped design withholding as a wartime emergency measure and later called it his greatest regret. Free market economists recognized that the psychological pain of direct taxation creates political pressure for fiscal restraint. The temporary always becomes permanent in government hands, and the emergency justification disappears while the extraction mechanism remains forever.

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the drag-and-drop era of building on shopify is over. meta just launched the manus x shopify builder, and it completely changes how stores are built. you don't pick a template. you don't install plugins. you don't configure payment gateways. you just type a prompt. "create a minimalist online store for a specialty coffee brand, with a blog and customer reviews." in minutes, it generates the entire stack: 🔵 frontend design 🔵 backend database 🔵 stripe integration 🔵 inventory management 🔵 seo-optimized product pages it's a production-ready store from moment one. for years, the barrier to entry for ecommerce was technical setup. you had to string together shopify, five different plugins, and a payment processor. now, the barrier to entry is just having a good product and a clear vision. the machine handles the plumbing. you handle the business. the barrier to entry has never been easier

Paris is clever.

This isn’t your grandpas $BRK.B

Everyone should read what Senior Vice President of Exxon Neil Chapman says about the oil price surge coming in 2-3 weeks The next wave of the energy shock is approaching fast

He should not be normalizing the destruction of Taiwan. It’s irresponsible and the chances that state of the art chips will be made in the US are remote.

Left, Ferrari Luce $645k Right, Nissan Leaf $35k

Prem puts up 19.5% for 40 years and gets left off the list $FFH.TO

The unfolding disaster of the Trump administration in regards to Iran, is a self-inflicted wound on so many levels. It showed that military might alone is not a silver bullet. What went wrong? 1.) Atrocious planning and slow reaction It was known for 47 years that if Iran gets attacked that the Strait of Hormuz will be a target. When Iranian civilians were rising up in January 2026 and then were left alone, it was claimed that the military built up had to be concluded before an military engagement can happen. This cost valuable time. A military intervention so early and in conjunction with uprisings on the ground would have caught much more momentum. Worse, even after that delayed attack, the US strategy still didn't account for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. So it was a double-loss. 2.) No coherent strategy and missed military developments Once the operation started, again, Iran was reacting in a predictive way, launching thousands of drones and missiles which they had refined in the war in Ukraine. It was clear that the low-cost but numerous weapon systems will eventually cause a lot of damage. Ukraine has been experiencing this for 4 years and developed effective countermeasures. The Trump administration, however, repeatedly refused to heed the help and advice from Kyiv, and even belittled it. The US military, on the other hand, and even more the Arab countries in the Gulf quickly learned the hard way that this rebuff was stupid. Eventually, they invited Ukrainian drone experts. The USA lacked any kind of strategy when the Iranian regime refused to collapse and were absolutely ill-prepared for this kind of war. 3.) Lacking support by allies You might argue that Bush's Iraq war was ill-planned and when it comes to long term planning this was certainly the case, but it was far more successful in bringing in allies. More than 30 countries participated as the "coalition of the willing" back in 2003. Trump's Iran war, on the other hand, was widely an "one-man-show". Aside from Israel, the USA were practically alone. This resulted directly from Trump's repeated attacks against allies, including those who supported the USA in Afghanistan and even Iraq. It was clear that after that nobody wanted to risk his or her neck for somebody who repeatedly insulted them and their countries. The fact that Trump didn't bother to consult them beforehand only reaffirmed their stance. 4.) Decline of US soft power thanks to "DOGE" The destruction DOGE left in its wake is immeasurable. Gutting crucial elements of American soft power such as USAID, Voice of America and dozens of other programs destroyed a lot of goodwill the US had in the region and across the globe. The perception of the USA moved from a powerful benefactor to an aggressive and transactional bully. In its relentless obsession to fight "wokeness" - or what was perceived as such - the foundation of soft power, which was built in almost a century, was trampled on in a matter of months. From the carrot-and-stick approach only the stick remained, and that one turned to be flaccid. 5.) Overall downfall of the USA Let's not mince words here. Trump is a wrecking ball for US' democracy. Insider trading, corruption, mass lying, cozying up to dictators and an absolute disdain for the rule of law had a direct impact on America's standing in more than just political or morale questions. No matter how loud you scream in certain parts of the USA, it is fact that the USA under Trump have lost huge respect in the world. The enemies of the USA hate you just as must they hated you before, maybe even more, but your friends are absolutely shocked and aghast about what is happening. Far more devastating, however, is US' unreliability. What was agreed upon before, can change on a whim. "Good relations" are defined by one man and one man alone. This is not how you conduct policy, neither domestic nor foreign. The USA are in full decline and the big bang will certainly come if the trajectory is not immediately corrected. The strategic defeat in Iran is even worse than Vietnam, because Vietnam gave Washington the lesson from which they learned and eventually won the Cold War. What Trump is doing, however, is just doubling down on stupid and denying reality, which didn't work before and won't work even less now.