you cant even run a joke into the ground anymore. because of an unspecified reason

Whoever wins in the current battle between Saba and BlackRock, the closed-end fund activists are in the ascendancy, and the funds themselves are in relentless decline. Even without adjusting for inflation, CEF assets in the US haven't risen in 19 years. economist.com/finance-and-ec…

'Britain’s deep-rooted problems—ailing public services, insufficient housing, stagnant productivity and more—cannot be solved by a Conservative government that has been consumed by factionalism and proved incapable of building things' economist.com/leaders/2024/0…

Wonderfully devastating column.

'The decision to hurl himself at the electorate at short notice is no surprise from a man who has engaged in a 'reset' every six months he has been in office' economist.com/britain/2024/0…

It's darkly comic to see this sort of top-down output target bravado in Hong Kong, in areas where it barely makes any sense. The culture of tractor production plans but for international conferences.

Had a crazy dream that Rishi Sunak announced an election on the same day that the market priced out a BOE rate cut. He came out and got increasingly drenched in the rain, and his speech was drowned out by someone playing 'Things Can Only Get Better'

It's interesting how little impact deepfake misinformation has had so far. It's been easy to make fairly convincing fake videos for a few years now, and I can't recall any significant political scandals involving them

No wonder these things sent pre-modern societies into a tailspin. I would definitely be ready to kill or die for a violent Manichean cult after seeing this without a plausible explanation.

Another interesting piece going into more detail on changes in language here

'Lai appears to be a more committed leader in steering Taiwan away from not just Beijing and the People’s Republic of China, but the whole notion of 'China'.' thinkchina.sg/politics/taiwa…

This is an interesting analysis of the different and less ambiguous approach William Lai seems to be taking in his description of Taiwan's relationship to the PRC. (Look past what I think is a needlessly spicy headline)
ft.com/content/0e0ed5…

You don't hear so about AR/VR headsets these days. Feels like there was a very frenetic moment after the Vision Pro launch and then it tailed off.

Huh. Hope this guy lived a long and happy life and didn't die in exile in suspicious circumstances!

This was a really fun episode, and IMO a really good example of how intangibles can be absolutely crucial, even when a business looks like quite a tangible one.

You don't need to see a chart of tourist arrivals to know Japan is getting three million per month now, you just need to look at the Fuji anti-tourist barrier

No dice on this yet - if anyone does have an older copy please drop me a line!